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Protean ERP Expertise and Protean-Related Products

 

Protean ERP is a huge Enterprise Resource Planning package from the same category as SAP and JDEdwards. It provides an interface to all the business processes inside an enterprise. Is is used in very large manufacturing environments (food processing, pharmaceutical, chemistry, etc.) in Australia and around the world, in the USA, UK, Germany, France, rest of Europe, South Africa, etc.

In 1999 Adelaide Brighton Cement have started the implementation of the Protean package throughout all their manufacturing facilities (Adelaide, Perth, Geelong, etc.)

Mark One IT Consulting was the main company engaged in the implementation, mainly on the business side, while Better Software Pty Ltd were engaged to provide all the necessary programming for interfacing existing processes to the Protean set of applications.

We have developed significant expertise in the Protean ERP package and have written several tens of applications over the years. We have extensive knowledge of the Customer Order Management, Inventory / Production and Financials modules and about the Oracle/SQL Server database that sits behind this package.

Applications were developed in Visual Basic, Visual Basic.net and Crystal Reports with extensive use of the Protean ERP Object Model and exposed interfaces.

The following paragraphs of some of the components and applications that we developed, give an idea of the extent of our expertise with Protean ERP.

Custom Action Servers

Development of customised 'actions' (programs) for such purposes as the production of Despatch documentation and Invoices, and the integration of these tools into the Protean Order Automation process used within the Customer Order Management module and the Delayed Event Processor. These tools are then also integrated with the Protean Forms service in order to direct printed output to the required printer across a multi-site implementation without user intervention.

Enquiry Tools

A variety of 'generic' enquiry tools have been developed that give a more 'user-friendly' presentation of information that is resident in the Protean database. Some of the enquiry tools we have developed are:

  • Debtor Enquiry - allowing the selection of a Trading Partner and the viewing of all open items for the Trading Partner. Optionally can display historical 'closed' transactions. Enquiry will also give 'open aged balances'. User can select to only view items from certain 'aged periods'.
  • Receipt Enquiry - allowing the display of all receipts for a Trading Partner, optionally within date range, and the viewing of the invoices to which receipts have been allocated
  • Debtor Aged Balance Enquiry - enabling the viewing of all Trading Partner Aged Balances on one display. Display can be sorted by value. Display will show open items making up the open balance of the Trading Partner highlighted. A numerical and graphical history of period-end balances is also available as well as comprehensive reporting and history screens.
  • Price Enquiry - enabling the entry of normal customer order criteria, such as Trading Partner and Resource, in order to verify the 'Pricing' setup. This facility simulates the Protean Market Profile defaulting and Pricing process that is performed in Order Entry. The enquiry will give a breakdown of the 'base' price, retrieved from the Price Sheets, the discounts applicable, retrieved from Discount Sheets, and the applicable Conditions and Charges.

System Administration Aids

A variety of 'generic' tools to assist with system administration and maintenance have been developed. These include:

  • Selection Lists by Trading Partner Enquiry - enabling easy identification of which Selection Lists a specified Trading Partner is part of.
  • Selection Lists by Resource Enquiry - enabling easy identification of which Selection Lists a specified Resource is part of.
  • Market Profile/Discount Sheet/Price Sheet By Selection List Enquiry - enabling easy identification of where a specified Selection List is 'assigned' (used).
  • Market Profile/Discount Sheet/Price Sheet By Trading Partner Enquiry - enabling easy identification of where a specified Trading Partner is 'assigned' (used).
  • Market Profile/Discount Sheet/Price Sheet By Resource Enquiry - enabling easy identification of where a specified Resource is 'assigned' (used).
  • Market Profiles By Condition Enquiry - enabling easy identification of which Market Profiles a specified Condition is used on.
  • A series of 'exception' reports have also been developed in order to identify potential 'set up' errors or omissions

Peripheral Developments

A variety of 'peripheral' tools have been developed that also improve the functionality and capabilities available to the Protean User. For example:

  • Debtor Text facility - enabling the recording of multiple text items against Trading Partners for historical records, such as telephone conversations, letters sent etc.
  • Despatch Note/Invoice Print - enabling the reprint of Despatch or Invoice documentation.
  • Debtor Statement Facility - enabling the production of Debtor Statements, either for specific Trading Partners or for a variable range of Trading partners.
  • Sales Analysis Extract - automatic population of a Sales Analysis extract table, performed after the Resource Accounting process, which is then accessible by a full range of sales Analysis Reports developed in Seagate Crystal Reports.

 

We don't write our software, we craft it!

 

   
 


Sophisticated and yet friendly Protean ERP extensions have been developed that integrate into the environment by implementing specific interfaces


The Debtor Enquiry Protean ERP Extension was designed to enable the operator to quickly find the financial transactions of interest among millions of other smilar transactions.


The Price Enquiry extension uses an extremely complex algorithm to almost replicate the Protean ERP price calculations.

 

   
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