Our BPCS Experience

BPCS Education - We literally wrote the book on BPCS. When BPCS was young and needed a product education program, we developed the education program. We wrote the Concepts & Applications basic course and set up the entire education program. SSA kept the basic framework that we set up; it has worked well for them and their clients. We have taught the spectrum of courses that SSA offers and more. (We have taught APICS certification classes for our local APICS chapter, for the Chicago chapters, and for clients. We have also taught the Ollie Wight and David Buker classes.) We have taught BPCS classes to BPCS clients, large and small, in the USA and worldwide. We even taught the Nashville office of Arthur Andersen when they quickly needed to go into a BPCS client of theirs and know BPCS inside-out. We have taught courses well over a hundred times since we developed education for SSA.

Ollie Wight Certification – We presented their product for certification. When SSA wanted to receive their certification of compliance with the ERP software standards of the Ollie Wight organization, they had us present their package to Chris Gray and show how the package met the standards. We were able to show their product at its functional best to the really tough critics. We answered the tough questions quickly and directly and SSA’s BPCS was certified.

Product Development - We were part of key development of the BPCS product. We designed the Multi-Currency and Value Added Tax modifications to BPCS when these features did not exist. We had to re-design the General Ledger, Order Entry, Billing, Purchasing, Accounts Payable, and Accounts Receivable. We managed the project, the coding, the implementation, and the beta site testing of the M-C and VAT modifications. And, we developed the documentation. We also helped design the forecasting module and contributed key re-design plans for the manufacturing and costing modules.

Client Modifications – We have designed and implemented many cost effective modifications at client sites. Our modifications have sped up MRP/MPS/CAP planning by 50-80%. We have modified BPCS to perform concurrent material and capacity planning. We have modified MPS and MRP at clients to concurrently plan nine items at a time (not just one as BPCS and every other package does). We implemented modifications to plan material and capacity for group technology. We have re-written BPCS to be Y2k compliant. We have re-written older editions of BPCS to be multi-plant/multi-facility. At one client, we even made modification designs to increase the item number to be more than 15 characters with out expanding the item number field. We have brought many BPCS batch functions and current manufacturing requirements to be on-line/real-time (ex: online real-time dispatch lists). We implemented mass release AND automatically FAXing of P/O’s at clients. These are a few examples; we have touched most every part of BPCS on all IBM platforms: S/34, S/36, S/38, AS/400, and client server.

Integration with Third Party Software – SURE, We did that, too. We have integrated BPCS to Telink’s EDI package, FAX packages, Demand Solutions’ Focus Forecasting package. We have added bar-coding to BPCS. We have integrated to payroll and personnel packages. We aided one client to replace the entire BPCS financials with the financials, HR, and payroll of S2k. We have integrated BPCS to modules on IBM mainframes. And when we integrate we do not build cumbersome bridges, we re-design the job stream so that the data and functions flow.

Class A Implementations – We had the first BPCS Class A site and we have had more successes since. Seymour Manufacturing was SSA’s second client and their first Class A client. We were there with Seymour through their implementation; and when they were awarded their Class A certification, they gave us one of the certificates because we were that much a part the achievement. Since then, Seymour Manufacturing has been a client of ours for over sixteen years.

A Diverse BPCS Client List – Our clients range from the Union Carbide to the Roman Catholic Church. Check our client list, we have service organizations, automotive parts suppliers, plastics manufacturing plants, food processing plants, chemical firms, discrete manufacturers, repetitive manufacturers, flow manufacturers, US firms, international firms. We have quite a list.

While SSA and the software industry keep undergoing unexpected change and turmoil, we are still here… serving our clients and theirs into the new millennium.