Toronto— April 25, 2013 — Illumiti today announced it is a 2013 SAP® Pinnacle award finalist in the SME VAR/Reseller of the Year category.

 

SAP Pinnacle awards are presented annually to leading SAP partners that have excelled in developing and growing their partnership with SAP (NYSE: SAP) and driving customer success.  Finalists and winners in 19 categories were based on field recommendations, customer feedback and performance indicators in the following four categories: co-innovation, market expansion, service delivery and sustainability.

 

Nir Orbach, CEO of Illumiti commented: “We are very proud to have been named a finalist in the SME VAR/Reseller category.  Our firm has a long track record of working closely with small and midsized enterprises (SMEs) across North America and around the world to help them leverage SAP technology to strengthen their operations.”

 

The SAP Pinnacle awards recognize leading SAP partners that have excelled in their partnership with SAP. They showcase SAP’s commitment to its partner ecosystem strategy, which delivers unmatched value to customers and enables SAP to reach its business goals.

 

Being an SAP Pinnacle award finalist is just the latest in a series of achievements for Illumiti, one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in North America.  Illumiti was recently named the 2013 SAP Canada Top Partner: SAP Business All-in-One Partner – for the third year in a row.  In addition, Illumiti recently received the SAP North America Partner Excellence Award 2013 as the Top Channel Partner – Marketing Best Practices.

 

“Illumiti has undergone tremendous growth and received strong recognition in the past few years, and we owe much of our success to the great partnership we have with SAP,” added Orbach.  “We collaborate with the SAP team on a regular basis to build new and innovative solutions.  We look forward to many more years working together to deliver outstanding value to our customers and help them succeed.”

 

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally.  Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives.  Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has received the award from SAP Canada as the top partner for SAP Business All-in-One the past three years in a row.  Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit www.illumiti.com.

# # #

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information:

Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

 

 

“Prior to the Illumiti implementation of SAP what used to take days to process can now be done in a matter of minutes, remotely from the site.”

Mark Johnson,
Hislop Project Manager SAS

Toronto— April 23, 2013 - Illumiti, a leading systems integration and management consulting company, today announced it has climbed 26 spots into the 71st position on the Branham 300 list of top Canadian technology companies.

 

The Branham 300 is the most comprehensive listing of the top publicly traded and privately held organizations operating in the Canadian Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry, as ranked by gross revenue.

 

"We are proud to be recognized as one of the leading ICT companies in Canada.  We owe our success to the commitment of our great team of consultants and their dedication to helping our clients strengthen their operations,” said Illumiti CEO Nir Orbach.

 

This is the seventh time that Illumiti has been named to the Branham 300 list, having first appeared on the list in the 2007 edition. Over the past year Illumiti's ranking has gone from 97^th to 71^st.. This year, Branham also ranked Illumiti as the 23^rd largest ICT professional services firm in Canada.

 

Illumiti’s position in the Branham rankings is the most recent in a series of milestones for the firm.  Earlier this year, Illumiti was also recognized as an SAP® Pinnacle awards finalist and was named the 2013 SAP Canada Top Partner: SAP Business All-in-One – for the third year in a row.  In addition, Illumiti recently received the SAP North America Partner Excellence Award 2013 as the Top Channel Partner – Marketing Best Practices.

 

"This has been a banner year for Illumiti and we truly feel that our firm is just getting started,” said Dror Orbach, Illumiti’s COO. “Our great team of seasoned consultants along with our loyal customers have helped us earn a reputation as one of the leading SAP channel partner firms in North America.  We look forward to continuing to build our firm and provide the outstanding service our customers have come to know.”

 

Illumiti has over 350 seasoned consultants working across Canada, the United States and Europe and is widely recognized as one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partner firms in North America.

 

Further details on the 2013 edition of the Branham300 can be found online at www.branham300.com and in the April/May edition of Backbone magazine, which is distributed nationally with the Globe and Mail.

 

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally.  Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives.  Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has received the award from SAP Canada as the top partner for SAP Business All-in-One the past three years in a row.  Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit www.illumiti.com.

# # #

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information:

Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

 

 

“Illumiti was more than helpful in merging us over to full blown SAP. We had a very tight timeline that they kept us to. They helped us whenever possible to make it a seamless transition.”

Sue Dombey
CFO
GlassCell Isofab Inc.

 

“Working with Illumiti has been great.  Illumiti has a deep pool of resources and when we need an expert (on anything from accounting to data conversion) they have one available.”

Dan Kane
IT Manager
ASD Solutions Ltd.

Toronto, March 14, 2013 - Illumiti announced today the “go live” implementation of SAP® solutions for Stewardship Ontario.

 

Stewardship Ontario is a private, not-for-profit organization that develops, funds and operates Ontario’s highly successful recycling programs for printed paper and packaging (Blue Box curbside collection program) and household hazardous or special waste (Orange Drop Program) on behalf of industry stewards.

 

The solutions implemented by Illumiti include SAP BusinessObjects™ solutions, specifically the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform and reporting tools, as well as SAP NetWeaver® Business Warehouse (SAP NetWeaver BW). The capabilities provided by these solutions will enable Stewardship Ontario to better manage, track and analyze key performance indicators associated with its recycling operations.

 

“The portfolio of SAP BusinessObjects solutions will provide us with the reporting and metrics we need much faster than before and with greater traceability,” said Alex Chan, Director, Business Intelligence & Architecture for Stewardship Ontario. “It will give us the real-time, actionable intelligence we need to better support the needs of our stakeholders.”

 

The new solutions will enable Stewardship Ontario to more easily track key performance indicators such as the number of tonnes of materials recycled for each of the various municipalities and regions across the province. The solutions will also provide enhanced cost metrics per tonne of recycled material.

 

Illumiti completed the implementation project during a four-month period, with minimal disruption to Stewardship Ontario’s day-to-day operations. The implementation went live on time and on budget.

 

“The implementation went very well,” added Alex Chan. “At the outset of the project, we came up with a strong design and blueprint for the solution that captured our comprehensive business requirements. There was good interaction with the Illumiti team and our business objectives were met.”

 

SAP BusinessObjects solutions and SAP NetWeaver BW provide employees with self-service access to the data and insights they need to make better decisions.

 

To read complete Press Release please click here

About Illumiti
Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally. Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives. Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has received the SAP Business All-in-One Partner of the Year, Canada award the past three years in a row. Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit http://www.illumiti.com.

# # #

SAP, SAP NetWeaver and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries.

Business Objects, BusinessObjects and the Business Objects logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects in the United States and/or other countries. Business Objects is an SAP company.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information:
Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

By Dror Orbach

 

Can you remember a time when you didn’t rely on your mobile device to help you with your work? Many people can’t, even though this evolution is still fairly new. The fact is, a significant number of us now use mobile devices not only to communicate, but also to interpret data, interact with business applications and share a variety of information through wireless media. A report called “Key Considerations for Successful Adoption of a Mobile Platform?” by Jorge García, analyst with TEC Research, explores this new generation of employees and consumers and discusses their impact on traditional business models.

 

In the report (http://goo.gl/w5MEK) García says that organizations all over the world have come to rely on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks and laptops to conduct their daily business activities. He quotes findings from a recent survey of business decision makers conducted by the Yankee Group:

• 23% manage a workforce of which 10% uses mobile devices extensively

• 20% manage a workforce of which 18% uses mobile extensively, and

• 30% manage a workforce of which 30% uses mobile extensively

 

García is the first to point out that these figures may not seem impressive at first glance. However, what is significant is how quickly the reliance on mobile devices is increasing in the workplace, for everything from answering email to accessing VPNs and CRM systems.

 

In fact, just last month Gartner produced a report that predicted by 2017, 25 percent of enterprises will have an enterprise app store for managing corporate-sanctioned apps on PCs and mobile devices.  (http://goo.gl/FCeU6)

 

With this increased usage and complexity, users are demanding that their employers look beyond providing “baseline” mobile applications, and many are currently falling short of realizing the potential of mobile applications have, and their ability to transform a business.

 

While he admits there’s no silver bullet for creating mobile applications, he says at the very least that most organizations should start developing tools to facilitate heterogeneity across devices, platforms, technology, standards and data sources.

 

Does your organization have a comprehensive mobile strategy in place?

 

 

Toronto, March 07, 2013 - Illumiti, a leading systems integration and management consulting company, is pleased to announce it has been authorized to resell SAP® mobile solutions.

 

SAP AG (NYSE: SAP) offers a wide-range of mobile solutions that enable clients to handle critical tasks and make informed decisions in real time – no matter where they are. Customers can choose from hundreds of applications available at the SAP Store and can also work with Illumiti to design their own customized mobile apps.

 

“We have built a team of professionals that will focus their efforts on helping our customers leverage the power of mobility in their business,” said Nir Orbach, CEO of Illumiti. “We feel that having a focused team will enable us to stay on top of the latest trends in this fast-growing market. As part of our mobility offering, we will also help our clients implement their mobile strategy quickly through the deployment of the SAP Mobile Apps and Infrastructure rapid-deployment solution.”

 

SAP offers proven, highly rated mobile solutions that help unwire employees, customers and partners. SAP provides complete, end-to-end software solutions that mobilize entire organizations. They are best of breed and smartly integrated – allowing customers to start with what they need now, and scale up as their business grows.

 

Illumiti is very excited to be on the leading edge of this fast-growing trend and looks forward to helping companies drive results by going mobile.

 

To read complete Press Release please click here:

http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/3/prweb10496778.htm

 

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally. Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives. Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has received the SAP Business All-in-One Partner of the Year, Canada award – three years running. Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit http://www.illumiti.com.

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information:
Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

By Dror Orbach

In a recent blog post, I discussed the many benefits self-service models can have within your ERP systems – including faster response times and reduced infrastructure needs.  But why are so many companies still not taking advantage of this opportunity? Perhaps they just don’t know where to begin.

 

Where to start? There are many different considerations. First, take a look at your business and its different functions. Where are the bottlenecks? Would self service help address and resolve them? Indentify your top priorities, and focus on one or two of them to start with. What are the pain points that are preventing you from doing a better job?

 

If you are ready to try implementing a self-service model to use with your ERP system, your mobile and remote staff may be the best place to start. For one thing, there is a growing employee appetite for self-service applications that are accessible through a smart phone or other mobile device.  (Check out my recent blog for more info on this: http://goo.gl/NAugG)  And for another thing, this style of working is becoming exponentially more popular, and hence the management of such an environment will keep growing in complexity and scale.

 

Before you begin, you will need to identify what type of information or transactions you would like to offer to employees in this way. Consider starting with just one function, but one that features a lot of shared components in the architecture that could later be reused across more applications. This way, it will not need to be re-architected later if you decide to expand the platform to include more tasks. If you have some view of how that overall picture will look in the long run, you are better positioned to choose the right solution architecture while focusing on only the key functions you decided on as priority in the short run.

 

The first application you choose could be something as simple as a purchase order for supplies, or something more complex and project based, such as time-coding. You then need to investigate ways in which you would actually get that information or series of transactions through to users. Would it be through a form? How will it look on a mobile device? Will the employee need to type in data, or make selections from a given set of choices? And finally how will you maintain the security, now that this information is accessible through all these mobile devices? Would employees need to login using a password, or go to a specialized hosted environment?

 

Once your mobile workers are set up and using self-service applications successfully, the next area you may want to consider is your extended enterprise. This means going beyond your employees, to your customers and suppliers. If done correctly and strategically, a self-service model in this capacity can be a real time saver. There is often a great deal of manual activity maintaining those relationships – suppliers need a lot of ongoing communication so they can plan what is needed, and it can be a demanding task to keep that information flowing back and forth.

 

A self-service system could allow them to login and see for themselves what the demand forecast is for the things that are coming from your company and when they are likely to be required and approved. This could result in better planned processes, client satisfaction and cost savings – and you will both save time by reducing the need for as many update calls and meetings.

 

Service level agreements (SLAs) are often a good place to implement self-service applications. Typically service manager hold regular meeting go over reports. But what if the customer were able to go into service level online and see the SLAs? That would save a lot of work for the service manager, the customer would have a better feel for where the project stands, and you are giving them better service just by having this information available to them at any time, increasing their confidence in the success of the project.

 

Finally, no matter what route you choose to go with self service, it’s important to remember that is not a one-size-fits-all solution. Different users (employees, clients, suppliers) will have different characteristics, environments and needs. In order for a self-service solution to work seamlessly, it has to be able to support a variety of people in all the different ways in which they need to interact with you.

 

Toronto – January 28, 2013— Illumiti today announced it has been named the 2013 SAP Top Partner: SAP® Business All-in-One.  Awards were presented by SAP Canada (NYSE: SAP) during the SAP North America Field Kick-Off Meeting (FKOM) 2013, held Jan. 22-24 in Las Vegas, to the top-performing SAP channel partners in Canada for outstanding contributions that impact overall SAP sales and pipeline-generation goals.

 

“It’s a great honour to be recognized for the third year in a row as SAP’s top partner for SAP Business All-in-One in Canada. This award highlights our success in selling, delivering and supporting high value SAP solutions,” said Illumiti CEO Nir Orbach.   “I am also very excited about SAP’s increasing focus on the growth of its channel-driven business, and look forward to continuing to build Illumiti into one of the strongest SAP channel partners in North America.”

 

Selected from SAP’s wide-ranging Canadian partner base, nominations for the SAP Canada Top Partner Awards were based on internal SAP sales data. A steering committee composed of regional SAP representatives determined winning partners in each category according to numerous criteria such as sales achievement and performance. Winners will receive strong recognition from the SAP field for their accomplishments.

 

Illumiti received the award during the SAP North America FKOM 2013, an annual gathering of SAP executives, SAP field employees and partners.  FKOM is SAP’s largest yearly sales meeting, intended to drive success during the upcoming year. Colleagues across the region gather to gain and exchange updated information on SAP’s strategy, sales methodology, best practices, business growth opportunities and product innovations. This year’s North America FKOM hosted more than 5,000 attendees from the U.S. and Canada.

 

“A thriving partner ecosystem is central to SAP Canada’s success, and partners like Illumiti are key drivers for our customers’ success and for SAP’s market reach,” said Michael Cardiff, national vice president, General Business Group, SAP Canada. “As the 2013 SAP Canada Top Partner: SAP Business All-in-One, we recognize Illumiti’s commitment and efforts in developing and growing its partnership with SAP, which has led to game-changing co-innovation and market expansion.”

 

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally.  Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives.  Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has been awarded the SAP Business All-in-One Partner of the Year, Canada award for both 2010 and 2011.   Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit www.illumiti.com.

# # #

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

SAP Forward-looking Statement

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

 

For more information:

Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

 

Award Presented at SAP North America Field Kick-Off Meeting 2013

Toronto — January 24, 2013 — Illumiti today announced it is the recipient of a SAP® North America Partner Excellence Award 2013 in the category “Top Channel Partner – Marketing Best Practices.” Awards were presented by SAP Americas (NYSE: SAP) during the SAP North America Field Kick-Off Meeting (FKOM) 2013, held Jan. 22-24 in Las Vegas, to the top-performing SAP channel partners and SAP services partners in North America.

 

Dror Orbach, Illumiti’s COO, said: “During the last few years Illumiti has invested significantly in increasing the presence and impact of our brand to highlight how we help our customers realize their vision through our focus on a range of SAP products and deeper industry specialization.  We are honored and proud to be recognized by SAP for our marketing activities, which have helped us achieve another year of fantastic business growth!”

 

As the recipient of the award for Marketing Best Practices, Illumiti has been honored for its marketing creativity, innovation, return-on-marketing investment and overall marketing impact.  Winners receive strong recognition from the SAP field for their accomplishments.

 

Illumiti received the award during the SAP North America FKOM 2013, an annual gathering of SAP executives, SAP field employees and partners.  FKOM is SAP’s largest yearly sales meeting, intended to drive success during the upcoming year. Colleagues across the region gather to gain and exchange updated information on SAP’s strategy, sales methodology, best practices, business growth opportunities and product innovations.

 

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally.  Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives.  Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has been awarded the SAP Business All-in-One Partner of the Year, Canada award for both 2010 and 2011.   Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit www.illumiti.com.

# # #

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information:

Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

By Dror Orbach

 

Does it seem like people are busier than they used to be? Though the concept of “business hours” still applies, it’s quickly becoming obsolete. Real-time business communication across all times zones is the new normal, thanks to the interconnectedness that ubiquitous mobile technology and social media adoption has brought. Communications no longer stop when the traditional workday ends.

 

A recent whitepaper, “Real Time Business,” produced by Oxford Economics, (http://goo.gl/GnXrr)

explores this new interconnectedness of global markets and cultures, how it has created an explosion of accessible information, and how this dramatic increase in the pace of our lives is likely to affect our businesses, our customer service models and our work-life balance.

 

The whitepaper points out how this new communications model is even changing the way news is reported and shared, highlighting how news stories are often now “broken” by average people on Twitter before any media has had the chance to report on it. For example, when a plane made an emergency landing on New York’s Hudson River, it only took three minutes for a passenger to tweet about it to the rest of the world.

 

The adoption of these communication models has also dramatically increased the pace of business and client/customer expectations. People expect and demand to have their issues responded to and dealt with right away. Your company will have to keep up and be able to deliver with fast action and rapid decisions. Is your company prepared? In the whitepaper, Oxford Economics surveyed executives of different business verticals, and found that their answers were mixed.

 

While nearly all respondents agree that 24/7 communications are critical, only one-third of businesses have already implemented real-time business applications in some way (though 65% of those who have not yet implemented real-time systems expect to do so within five years).

 

Is your company ahead of the curve in adopting real-time operations?

 

“For me, the most valuable resource I have is my time and what SAP ByDesign does is it saves me time and allows me to reallocate my time where it provides me with the maximum return on investment.” “We have a very special relationship with Illumiti. It was astounding to me that we could come in under budget and on-time. “

Leslie Huszti
CEO
WeFunk

Click here to view WeFunk case study video.

Illumiti was proud to host the last ASUG Ontario Chapter meeting of 2012 at our Head Office in Richmond Hill, Ontario. The whole day event which took place on November 22^nd was a huge success with in excess of 70 attendees and speakers ranging from RIM to Ronald A. Chisholm Ltd. The focus of topics was Business Intelligence however Illumiti, with the assistance of SAP Canada, also presented a live session on Mobility where a mobile app was built in under 10 minutes!

 

There are 37 ASUG Chapters spread throughout the United States and Canada, and each is a community of SAP professionals ready to share knowledge and lessons learned. While offering community benefits year-round, Chapter meetings span a full day and feature presentations and conversations driven and developed by local members.

 

Illumiti looks forward to hosting another ASUG Ontario Chapter Meeting in 2013. Illumiti ASUG presentations are available on the ASUG website.

By Dror Orbach

You have probably heard the term “self-service” used when exploring different ways of making your business run more efficiently.   A self-service solution enables your stakeholders to easily find information, receive instructions or perform activities on their own.    Self-service solutions have some tremendous benefits – ranging from reduced time to information,  reduced error rates for data entry, faster process turn-around times and more effective back-office operations.  Yet, despite of the obvious advantages, most mid-sized companies have yet to consider how their ERP system can help them build a self-service model.

 

Self-service is not a new concept – it has been the reality in the consumer world for many years. Think about things we now take for granted, even things as simple as buying a theatre ticket online rather than at the theatre. Through self-service you can buy your tickets then and there, right when you want them.  And in many cases, you can even select your own seats, rather than settling for whatever is given to you.  Best of all is the fact that you no longer have to leave your house to stand in line. So it takes less time, it is more convenient and the end product is more tailored to your needs.

 

The same basic advantages hold true for many businesses.  Self-service offers a company a new way of interacting with stakeholders to make their lives easier.  Self-service also reduces related administrative costs of the company, by enabling the back office to focus on exceptions rather than run-of-the-mill requests.

 

For example, one of our ERP implementations is in a global relocation management firm that helps the employees of its client companies relocate to different locations around the world.    Their extensive self-service capability supports not only the HR departments of their client companies who relocate people, but also the actual employees who are being relocated.  While relocation managers within the HR departments can initiate new relocation projects and view information about the status of current relocations in process for their company, relocating employees are able to submit documentation and expenses, receive destination information and get help from realtors and other professionals.  Through online queries, submissions and approvals performed directly by all relevant stakeholders, the system enables many tasks that are part of the overall relocation process to be performed quickly and efficiently with minimal support or intervention from central expert teams.  The result is an exceptionally high level of customer satisfaction.

 

Companies across very different industry verticals such as field services, manufacturing, warehousing & distribution and others can similarly benefit both in internal and customer-facing or supplier-facing operations.  I will provide some more examples in my upcoming blog posts.

 

When considering how to best leverage self-service capabilities, it is also important to think about some of the related implementation challenges.    One of the key factors of success for any self-service capability is that self-service is available at the time and place that users require.

 

With this in mind, a self-service environment to support a particular process might need to include several different user interaction channels and device types.  Again, to use a familiar example from the consumer world, self-service banking may include support via phone, kiosk (ATM) and web browser – all of which need to be synchronized via a common back-end system in order to reflect the most up-to-date information.  A similar challenge exists when purchase requests can be made and approved via forms; corporate ERP desktop application or mobile device.  This adds some complexity to the overall solution and may require an investment in new technologies.

 

In my upcoming blog posts, we will look at ways that self-service models can be used to improve workflows between employers and employees, between businesses and clients, and within the extended enterprise.  We will also explore the impact of mobile environments on self-service; what things to consider before moving to a self-service model; and approaches on how to get started.

Richmond Hill, Ontario (PRWEB) November 01, 2012

 

Illumiti, a leading systems integration and management consulting company, today announced that they have signed a 3-year agreement with Softtek to assist with the delivery of application maintenance, enhancement and support (AMES) services. Softtek is a global provider of process-driven IT solutions with over 30 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia.

Under the terms of the agreement, Softtek complements Illumiti’s internal resource pool with consultants experienced in SAP® solutions. These resources address customer support requests (tickets) assigned to them as an integral part of the Illumiti support team, helping ensure Illumiti’s SLAs with its customers are met as expected.

“We are very pleased to be working with Softtek. It’s critical for our team to be able to provide top notch service, not just in North America, but every country in which our clients operate,” said Illumiti COO Dror Orbach. “Softtek’s 24/7 on-call support and large presence in Mexico and several other countries, will further strengthen our ability to serve our customers internationally, wherever they are, whenever they need help.”

Primary support for Illumiti’s operations will be provided by Softtek’s Delivery Center in Aguascalientes, Mexico, which employs nearly 2,000 associates, including 300 consultants and 150 application maintenance and support specialists who are knowledgeable in SAP solutions.

"We are looking forward to bringing value to Illumiti's clients through our mature nearshore capabilities in Mexico and Latin America as well as our presence in other countries globally,” said Sanjoy Gupta Softtek’s VP-Canada. “The partnership will also help Softtek leverage Illumiti’s deep expertise with SAP solutions in the mining industry."

“We are excited about the additional support Softtek will bring to our team,” added Nir Orbach, Illumiti’s CEO. “They have some very strong consultants with proven knowledge of SAP solutions as well as technical and client service skills. We look forward to working together and making this partnership a great one, for Illumiti, Softtek and most of all for our clients.”

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally. Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives. Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has been awarded the SAP Business All-in-One Partner of the Year, Canada award for both 2010 and 2011. Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit http://www.illumiti.com.

About Softtek

Founded in 1982, Softtek is a global provider of process-driven IT services with more than 30 offices in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia. With nine Global Delivery Centers in Mexico, China, Brazil, Argentina and Spain, Softtek helps improve time-to-business-solution, lower costs of existing applications, deliver better engineered and tested applications, and produce predictable outcomes for top-tier corporations in over 20 countries. Through on-site, on-shore and its trademarked Global Nearshore™ service delivery models, Softtek teams with CIOs to constantly increase the business value of IT. Softtek is the creator and leader of the nearshore industry. Visit http://www.softtek.com, follow @Softtek, connect with Softtek on LinkedIn and read Softtek's blog.

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SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information, contact:

Illumiti
Dror Orbach, COO, T: 905-737-1066, E: dorbach@illumiti.com

Softtek
Karen Schupp, Marketing Communication Manager, T: 763-291-1464, E: karen.schupp (at) softtek (dot) com

 

By Dror Orbach

 

Can you remember a time when you didn’t rely on your mobile device to help you with your work? Many people can’t, even though this evolution is still fairly new. The fact is, a significant number of us now use mobile devices not only to communicate, but also to interpret data, interact with business applications and share a variety of information through wireless media. A new report called “Key Considerations for Successful Adoption of a Mobile Platform” (http://goo.gl/uBjp2) by Jorge García, analyst with TEC Research, explores this new generation of employees and consumers and discusses their impact on traditional business models.

 

In the report, García says that organizations all over the world have come to rely on mobile devices such as smartphones, tablets, netbooks and laptops to conduct their daily business activities. He quotes findings from a recent survey of business decision makers conducted by the Yankee Group:

• 23% manage a workforce of which 10% uses mobile devices extensively

• 20% manage a workforce of which 18% uses mobile extensively, and

• 30% manage a workforce of which 30% uses mobile extensively

 

García is the first to point out that these figures may not seem impressive at first glance. However, what is significant is how quickly the reliance on mobile devices is increasing in the workplace, for everything from answering email to accessing VPNs and CRM systems.

 

With this increased usage and complexity, users are demanding that their employers look beyond providing “baseline” mobile applications, and many are currently falling short of realizing the potential of mobile applications have, and their ability to transform a business.

 

While he admits there’s no silver bullet for creating mobile applications, he says at the very least that most organizations should start developing tools to facilitate heterogeneity across devices, platforms, technology, standards and data sources.

 

Does your organization have a comprehensive mobile strategy in place?

TORONTO, September 27, 2012 – Illumiti, announced today the “go live” implementation of the SAP® Investigative Case Management for Public Sector package for the Office of the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth (the “Advocate’s Office”).

The Advocate’s Office reports directly to the Legislature of Ontario and provides an independent voice for children and youth, including children with special needs and First Nations children.  The advocates receive and respond to concerns from children, youth and families who are seeking or receiving services under the Child and Family Services Act and the Education Act (Provincial and Demonstration Schools).

Illumiti completed the implementation project during a five-month period, with minimal disruption to the  Advocate Office’s day-to-day operations.  The new solution will further enable the Office to manage, track and analyze case information in real time.

“We are pleased  with our new software and the benefits it will bring to the Office in terms of collecting data and reporting,” said Laura Arndt, director of Strategic Development, the Advocate’s Office.

The new solution will provide the Advocate’s Office with expanded functionality, including real-time availability of cases and ongoing project status, as well as integrated views of interactions with Children and Youth and Government Ministries.

The implementation went live on time and on budget.

“Illumiti did a great job of working with our project team throughout the process,” said Liviu Georgescu, Manager of IT Services, the Advocate’s Office. “Their collaborative approach was instrumental in keeping the project on budget and the implementation on time.”

SAP Investigative Case Management for Public Sector enables organizations to consolidate and manage diverse information in a central repository, and to track and analyze this information. Case management allows managers to open, edit and close cases, as well as enable follow-up items, case history and sub-case hierarchy.

 

About Illumiti

Illumiti is a systems integration and management consulting company with offices in Canada, the U.S. and Switzerland, serving customers globally.  Its team enables customers to realize their vision by leveraging technology, people and leading business practices. Illumiti helps its clients achieve optimized operations in the key areas at the core of their business, by implementing custom-fit solutions from SAP and other vendors faster, at a lower cost, and at a lower risk than other alternatives.  Illumiti is an SAP gold channel partner and has been awarded the SAP Business All-in-One Partner of the Year, Canada award for both 2010 and 2011.   Illumiti is also one of the fastest-growing SAP channel partners in the U.S. For more information about Illumiti, please visit www.illumiti.com.

# # #

SAP and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

For more information:

Dror Orbach, info@illumiti.com

When making any major shift in technology it’s important to know the answer to “Why” first

By Larry Perlov, Illumiti

Why is it that despite the millions of dollars invested each year in ERP projects, so few companies can show direct causality between this investment and material financial results? In almost 18 years of ERP experience, both as a customer and a consultant in dozens of companies, I have seen but a few who have set ambitious and specific improvement targets upfront, and proceeded to ensure that the implementation of ERP (and associated organizational change) directly helped achieve those ambitious targets. I'm not suggesting that most companies do not attain any value from their ERP investments.  Most companies do see inherent value of ERP based on automation, integration and efficiency gained.  What I am suggesting, is that notwithstanding the inherent benefits, few companies come close to actually realizing the true potential of this powerful technology.

Answering ‘why change’
According to Dr Eli Goldratt’s Theory of Constraints, there are 3 key questions that need to be answered before embarking on any significant transformation projects, including technology improvement endeavors:

1. Why change?
2. What to change?
   
3. How to cause the change?

Each of these questions is important, but the first one is the most important:  "Why change?" It seems like a simple enough question, but the reality is that most companies don’t have a good answer.

Given the preponderance of companies that have undertaken ERP implementations, replacements, upgrades and improvements, it can safely be assumed that many corporate executives have determined that what to change is the “Tool” – i.e. the ERP.  How to cause the change also appears to be fairly well answered – there are a finite number of options.  There are thousands of system integration consulting firms who each have a unique spin on implementation methodology – but the crux of how is fairly straightforward – Design, Build, Test, Train, Cutover and Support (this is the essence of SAP’s ASAP methodology but is very similar across ERP platforms).

With so much attention to what and how - most companies nonetheless do not have a good answer to “Why Change”?

Why this is such an important question?

Setting your ‘true north’

In addition to aligning all impacted stakeholders around a unified view of why they are doing something, “Why Change” is also important because it provides the organization a ‘true north’ to help navigate the inevitable turbulence inherent in change and ensures that when facing dilemmas along the way, the best decisions¹ are taken.  In order to be a good “true north”, the answer to “why change” needs to be SMART = Specific, Measurable, Ambitious yet Realistic and with a Timeframe. Many stakeholders will say that a new technology implementation is necessary because their current software is old and outdated and needs to be replaced.  In other words, the answer to “Why Change” is directly linked to “What to change” –  its anchored in system replacement. Another common response that departs slightly from system replacement is one of my personal favorites:  “Improved visibility”.

What’s wrong with these answers?   These are not SMART and therefore not a good true north. They are almost impossible to measure and almost impossible to guide organizations through common dilemmas.  One of the most common dilemmas during ERP projects is rooted in scope creep.  This is a big topic that I will cover in a separate paper – but suffice to say focus is critical when implementing an ERP and less, often is, more.  When faced with the “scope creep” dilemma without a true north, the only real constraint on determining additional scope during a project is resource availability (time, budget, people) and it inevitably forces a compromise.  Unfortunately in many cases adding too many unnecessary, nice-to-have items to scope, serves to defocus the implementation and the results are further diluted.

How do we get from typical responses to SMART goals?  By using a variation the “Toyota 5-Why’s²”

Here is an example:
Q: Why do we need to implement ERP?

A: Because our current system is too old.

Q: Why is that an issue / so what?

A: Because we don’t have good visibility to actionable information.

Q: Why is that an issue / so what?

A: We don’t know which of our products and services are most and least profitable in which customer segments and under which conditions.
[Now we are getting somewhere]

Q: Why is this a priority now?

A: We need to increase sales by 17% next year and we need to have better actionable information to enable that!

Bingo! It only took four Why’s, and we got to the root of the matter – we need to change in order to allow us to have better actionable information to facilitate an increase in sales of 17% next year (specific, measurable, ambitious yet realistic with a stated timeframe).  The viability of this is not the thesis of this paper – but my point is  that getting to the root, enables us to have a true north.  In this example, if a stakeholder requests to increase scope to include a fancy new procurement process, we need to ask:

Q: Why are we doing this project?
A: Ahhh – to help increase sales.  
Q: Does adding a fancy new procurement process help achieve more goal units in less time…. A: No?  
Q: Are there any major risks or negative ramifications of deferring this?  
A: No?  Great! Propose we defer this to phase 2.

Although this may appear as a simple dilemma, there are many dilemmas that having a clear and meaningful goal helps to cut through. There are many companies investing significant time and money in new technology projects these days – many without a clear, business oriented goal in mind. It’s a well-known fact that ERP implementations are particularly time consuming, costly and complex, but it is possible to stay ahead of the game and have a real competitive advantage by ensuring one always has a focused answer to the “why change?” question.

Whatever answer you come up with should be clearly aligned to your company’s overall strategy and goals prior to embarking on a new ERP implementation. If your answer to “why change?” is not founded in a strong business case, then in our humble opinion, it is not a good enough answer. A good rule of thumb is that the reasons for change should always be things that help remove barriers to accomplishing key strategic goals for the company. The scope of the ERP project, therefore, needs to be set by determining its direct linkage to achieving or removing the barriers to achieving these strategic and measurable goals. Remember, if you don’t know “why” you are trying to accomplish a difficult endeavor, you will have great difficulty accomplishing it.  It is easy to get distracted and start going down the wrong path when one sees all the impressive things an ERP system can do, but having a clear focus will keep the costs down and allow a project to stay on course by addressing the company’s most important issues first. A poor answer to “why change?” usually results in a failed start and “scope creep” later on, but a good answer can help keep you on track throughout the process. When you have a problem during the project and you’re not sure which way to turn, you can always guide and test your decision by going back to your answer to “why change”?  For example, if you become tempted to add a new function that was not part of the original plan, simply ask yourself, “How is this going to help us accomplish our stated goal?” If you can’t answer that question honestly, you probably should not do it.

In summary, 5 key steps to keep in mind:

1.  Include your overall objectives and “why change?” statement in a clear and concise way in your project charter
2.  Clearly communicate to the implementation and business team why you are planning the change
3.  Re-visit the project charter on a regular basis to remind the team of what you are trying to accomplish as you go through the implementation
4.  Test proposed scope additions  throughout the project to ensure all suggested changes and additions link closely to achieving overall project and business objectives
5.  Report on your attainment of outcomes against your overall goals

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¹What makes a “best decision” better than other possible options?  The simple answer is: it will get the organization to yield more goal units faster with the least risk and other negative ramifications.
²The 5 Why’s is a question-asking technique, developed by Sakichi Toyoda, and is used to explore the cause-and-effect relationships underlying a particular problem

By Dror Orbach

 

Has your company fully embraced mobile computing yet? Don’t feel too bad if you are not sure exactly what that even means. Hopefully, this is the year it will all start to make more sense.

In fact, many feel that 2012 will be remembered as the year companies reached a tipping point in the adoption of mobility as a critical tool for the enterprise. But so far, most of us are only on the cusp of understanding the vast extent to which enterprises will use mobility.

Mobility presents businesses with opportunities to completely rethink their existing processes and create new business models, and SAP is just one company delivering the tools that customers will need to make the most of these burgeoning opportunities, according to Usman Sheikh in this recent SAP Insider article. (http://goo.gl/VOvec)

According to the article, early indicators suggest that the scope of enterprise mobility will be widespread and create incremental value, leading up to an unprecedented business impact. And that it is no longer a choice.

Three key trends converging to drive the adoption of mobility in the business world:

• Widespread availability of broadband networks and mobile devices
• Growth of, and easy access to, rich media content
• Emergence of a new breed of mobile apps that serves business content in an easy-to-use, consumer-app-like experience

Sheikh points out that these trends are already having an impact on how we work. He even mentions how it changed how he was writing the article, while riding a train between two major cities, using Wi-Fi network offered by the train, and Skype to video conference with colleagues across the pond.

How has mobility had an impact on your business? How will you use it in the near future?