The RIC Group

30 Days of barcoding

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 03:59:00 +0000

I have decided that over the next 30 days of April I will write about the general sales enquiries that we receive from customers wanting to implement barcoding into their business. Most potential customers that contact us have no idea where to start, generally they don't have barcodes on their products, but all know that barcoding can help with automating processes and improve business work flows.

The first decision that you the customer will need to make is are you requiring GS-1 barcodes to be on your products such as GTIN - 13, and you would need to contact GS-1 to enquire further about this. Are you supplying major retailers with your products who are demanding the GTIN - 13 (formally EAN-13) barcodes are on your products? If you are not, are the barcodes you going to be putting on these products for internal use only? The main reason to use the GS-1 standard barcodes is to ensure conformity to standards including uniqueness of barcodes across the world of suppliers.

When using GS-1 barcodes there is the ability to have serial number, batch number and expiry dates all within the barcode. By using our scanning applications we can decode the barcode and populate the information into the ERP system such as MYOB EXO, SAP B1 or Ostendo. Are you wanting to capture serial numbers or batch numbers?

Once you have decided whether you will need GS-1 Barcodes or barcodes to use for internal use then you will need to decide whether you are printing these barcodes internally. For over 12 years we have helped customers using a range of ERP systems print barcodes for their products whether it is GS-1 Barcodes or barcodes for internal use. We have also helped customers implement SSCC barcodes for pallet labels, TUN barcodes for carton use and eParcel labels for eParcel integration.

So the first decision is are you going to use the barcodes internally or is it for your customers to use? This will immediately give you the decision of whether you have to register with GS-1 or not. Secondly decide whether you are going to print the barcodes internally, or are you going to use the barcodes already on the products which are printed on by the supplier. Thirdly what are the functions you will be using the barcodes for? Is it for scanning for incoming or outgoing goods, or is it for stocktaking, or is for capturing serial or batch numbers?

When these decisions have been made then you need to contact a partner such as The RIC Group who can then help these barcodes into your business for the applications you want use.

Dymo integration

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 01:17:00 +0000

Great news. The RIC Group now has a Labels4 Premier product which is free when you have a Dymo label printer. Why not visit the website : DYMO Label Software and follow the link to download the Labels4 Premier software to work with your Dymo label printer.

Getting Support over Christmas

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 06:38:00 +0000

The year is speeding to a close, so keep this article for a quick reference on The RIC Group's support hours over the Christmas break.

The RIC Group support will be available as normal up to 5.00pm on 23rd of December, and then during regular working hours (9.00am to 5.30pm) over the Christmas period, apart from the statutory holidays when we will be closed.

We wish you a Happy Christmas and a prosperous New Year and look forward to working with you in 2012.

Best regards,
The RIC Group Team

Stocktake headache?

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 03:53:00 +0000

Did you just have a headache with your last stocktake? Don’t want to do it again? Need a stocktake solution?

The RIC Group has been delivering mobile PDA barcode scanning solutions to MYOB EXO customers for over 6 years. One of the most successful products is EXO4PDA which allows MYOB EXO customers to start stocktaking their stock more accurately and efficiently out of the box.

We all know that accurate value of stock held in your business is one of the most important statistics you and your accountant need to arrive at a fair figure for gross profit. So why wouldn’t you use EXO4PDA to help you staff stocktake more regularly? Introduce barcode scanning in your business to stop the headache of the stocktake taking hours. Use an integrated solution with MYOB EXO to stop the errors of human error.

Contact us at The RIC Group at sales@thericgroup.com for further information.

MYOB EXO Scan Picking with serial numbers

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 04:41:00 +0000

Below is a video of our how Picking4 EXO product works with handling serial numbers and integrated with MYOB EXO. Bought to you by The RIC Group.

Scan Picking for MYOB EXO

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 03:11:00 +0000

Picking4 EXO demonstrating scan picking seamlessly integrated with MYOB EXO.

Why stocktake?

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 06:06:00 +0000

No doubt a lot of you have just gone through a stocktaking nightmare. The question a lot of people ask is why stocktake? I found a great quote from a website today which was: "The accurate value of the stock held in a business is one of the most important statistics your accountant will need in order to arrive at a fair figure for gross profit." Website link click here. The more you can stocktake the better visibility you will have of your stock and have better stock control.

Thanks

The RIC Group

Proof of Delivery for MYOB EXO #2

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 22:59:00 +0000

Second video of Proof of Delivery for MYOB EXO displaying how to scan multiple invoices and send this information back to MYOB EXO.

Proof of Delivery for MYOB EXO

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 04:28:00 +0000

We have completed our Proof of Delivery (POD) software project for MYOB EXO. The benefits now allow every MYOB EXO user who is delivery goods to their customer to capture signatures for proof of delivery and it is completely integrated with MYOB EXO. All information such as the name of the person signing for the goods, the number of cartons being signed for and the delivery docket or invoice numbers that are being signed for is all captured on the PDA. The information is all sent back to MYOB EXO using the 3G network or when the user comes back to the office and using the office WIFI network.

Please call The RIC Group for further information.

Job software for field service

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 05:27:00 +0000

Job software to help all capture the correct parts and labour while in the field. Easy to use and uses the 3G network.

Good news for QuickBooks users

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:10:00 +0000

The good news is we now have our user friendly mobile PDA products integrated with QuickBooks. A video of our scan picking and stocktaking solution can be viewed on our YouTube or Vimeo channels. We will be shortly releasing our Mobile Sales and Inwards Goods solutions later this month.

It is now a great time to start implementing these solutions to incorporate bar-codes into your business and improve on accuracy and efficiency ready for the new financial year.

Update

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 01:25:00 +0000

Yesterday I went to the MYOB Partner Briefing. It was to get an update on how MYOB are progressing with their new product releases for MYOB AccountRight which they have called Huxley and also an update on a couple of their other products such as MYOB Atlas. MYOB will be doing staged releases of their new AccountRight updates. MYOB AccountRight Premier and AccountRight Premier Live is not due for a release till Q1 2012 which isn't great news for the MYOB AccountRight Premier users.

However, the biggest lesson learnt for us is that the new MYOB AccountRight is going to be running SQL Compact Edition. This does pose a few questions. It probably means that multi user speed will not improve especially for an Add On. What happens when a user reaches the 4gig limit of the SQL Compact database? How can are they going to support Add Ons for desktop and cloud versions? Will there be an SDK? Or will there be an API? The answers to these questions are unknown.

It will be interesting to see if MYOB can keep to the project dates they have suggested and see what the reality is with the cloud solution.

Customer Review

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 04:54:00 +0000

Recently we have released a new product called myPOS4. It is a sales front end for MYOB users to handle barcode scanning and process sales efficiently.

There is no doubt the software business is difficult. There are several principles that you are told you have to stick by when developing software, but its not till you have been in it for a decent time till you realise what the most valuable points are to have in your software.

So here is a recent customer review, who was up and going with our myPOS4 software within an hour:

Email 1:

"Hi Paul

It is great. We have had no more problems. And all staff are finding it really easy to use. It takes half the time to do the sale compared to before. We are just unsure on how to fix a sale. If we have committed the sale then realize it was wrong we have been doing a credit then re entering the sale. Not sure if this is correct or not.

Apart from that no problems on my side. If you ever need a recommendation then feel free to give them my details.

Cheers
Melissa"

Then with my reply here is email 2:

Hi Melissa,

Thank you for the glowing review. I really appreciate it. Software is a hard business and often we don't get to hear the good things. You are doing the right in regards to the credit then sale.

Thanks

Paul Ellis"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi Paul

It would be my pleasure to be available as a reference for you. I understand how hard the software business is.

I have found the system easy to use and easy to train the other staff in how to use it. Let alone how quick you all were to set it up for me once I was sorted.

Hope you have a good Christmas and a Happy New Year

Melissa"

This isn't just a customer review on our software but rather our team. The fact that we have completely written a new functional, easy to use product integrated with MYOB and can implement easy speaks volume for The RIC Group. However, the most important value and principle for us is customer satisfaction. Receiving this reference from the customer today will just make going to the Christmas dinner tonight all more enjoyable.

Thanks

Paul Ellis

Inventory Software

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 06:37:00 +0000

One of the most common requests we have from companies is 'Can you help me with my inventory?'

To help with inventory there are two parts. The first is you need inventory software to implement. The second part which shouldn't be overlooked is implementing processes. To implement these two you need one good inventory software and two good human resources who are prepared to follow the processes you put in place.

Inventory software can simply be stocktaking software or can be quite advanced and complex software such as some of the purchasing software we have custom written for a manufacturer for their JIT requirements.

It is often the case that companies are lead to believe they have to implement new ERP software to cope with their inventory requirements. Sometimes this is true, but what can help with the inventory requirements can be custom software developed for specific requirements. In fact this can not only be more cost effective but lead to better results.

Why not contact The RIC Group about your inventory requirements and see whether custom software may suit your inventory requirements?

Insight to The RIC Group

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Wed, 15 Sep 2010 02:09:00 +0000

Do you often wonder what it takes to complete a software project? Have you ever asked why does it take weeks to complete a software project instead of a couple of days?

The biggest reality with a software project is turning the ideas into code which turns into an application which needs to be user friendly. With our projects we like to gather the user requirements first. These can also be known as user stories. Often we are creating a new application or modifying an existing application. In both instances we will always gather the user requirements first.

Above are a couple of pictures where we have documented the user requirements with the user on our whiteboard. Neither of these are large software projects and will take us about two weeks to complete. However, you can start to understand that once the requirements are documented there are always a number of variables which need to be considered. This is where your logic which is your code needs to be quite proficient and skilful.

I consider that one of our main strengths at The RIC Group is our programming team. We have a small programming team at The RIC Group but it can not be underestimated as it has over 35 years of experience. We have been developing packaged software and tailored software for over 10 years as The RIC Group.

Just to let you know, the first picture is the specifications of a project to do with capacity planning software, and the second picture is the specifications of a project to do with assigning pallets of goods to trucks and tracking their delivery.

Thanks

Paul Ellis

MYOB Barcode Software

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 01:05:00 +0000

One of the simplest software modules we ever developed was Labels4. We developed this back in 2002. It was a simple application that read the MYOB database and allowed MYOB users to print barcodes from their MYOB database. This software module is still one of our most popular selling items. Customers can print barcodes for their products Ad hoc, or from Purchase Orders or Sales Orders.

Customers can print out their Item Number as a barcode, and therefore scan the barcode inside MYOB with a scanner. It also allows customers to print EAN barcodes for their products as well if they are selling to the big chains such as David Jones, MYER or Bunnings. The EAN - 13 Barcode is simply entered into one of the Custom Fields of the product.

The Labels4 product works with MYOB EXO and also now Ostendo. For further information please contact the team at The RIC Group.

Extend MYOB

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 01:56:00 +0000

When we are contacted by potential clients they are constantly amazed to hear about our MYOB Add On Solutions and how they can interact with MYOB AccountRight Premier or MYOB AccountRight Premier Enterprise.

Often our enquires will start with I would like to start barcoding my products or my products have barcodes on them already and I would like to use them. The initial thought by the customer might be that they should use MYOB Retail Manager but this is not the right product unless they are a cash and carry retail store. MYOB AccountRight Premier with a simple Add On product or two can normally be more than suffice for most manufacturing and distribution companies.

Our product Labels4 will allow companies using MYOB to print barcode labels for their products. It will also can print EAN barcodes for their products as well. We also offer solutions for Pick and Pack in the warehouse, Stocktaking, Mobile Sales, Field Service and more advanced Inventory Management for capturing serial numbers and batch codes.

If you are looking to Extend MYOB and not change your Accounting Product all together which can often be more trouble than its worth then contact The RIC Group and have a chat about some Add On products. You will be amazed as whats on offer to help with your Inventory Management.

Inventory Management Solutions

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Wed, 07 Apr 2010 06:11:00 +0000

Better Inventory Management is a common need amongst customers in a range of industries. Tracking batch codes, tracking serial numbers, stocktaking, storing stock items in bin locations, better stock control, mobile PDA applications are common enquiries made to our team at The RIC Group.

We have developed a range of Inventory Management Solutions for our customers which can include simply printing barcode labels for stock items or more advanced where customers are wanting to track stock items in multiple bin locations and knowing exatcly which serial numbers have been delivered to which customer.

If you are looking at improving your Inventory Management often you need to revise your current software infrastructure. Sometimes, this can just mean using an Add On Solution for your current accounting software such as MYOB. Or it might mean moving towards a more advanced inventory software such as Ostendo or Datapel when using MYOB. Of course when wanting to improve your General Ledger and inventory management then moving towards MYOB EXO Business is a definite choice.

In the last couple of years we have increased our consulting division as we can leverage years of collective technology consulting experience and have great strength and knowledge in mobile devices and Inventory Management which help deliver solutions that are designed to evolve with your business needs.

Please feel free to visit our website for further information.

3PL

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:13:00 +0000

Are you completing 3PL? 3PL stands for Third-Party Logistics. 3PL is fairly common now, because companies are maximising the space they have in their warehouse. When you are doing 3PL for a company you will need the right software to keep track of their inventory.

At The RIC Group (www.thericgroup.com.au) we can provide end to end 3PL solution with Enterprise Mobility solutions. We have Scan Picking, Scan Packing, Goods Receiving, Stock Tranfers and Stocktake software available on a PDA to integrate with the 3PL system. The software we have been implementing is the Ostendo software to manage the 3PL operation. This allows advanced inventory management, multiple bin locations, CRM, and has ability to handle manufacturing and job requirements.

Why not contact The RIC Group so your business can slowly migrate to 3PL solution to help with your inventory management. Or perhaps The RIC Group have other Add On Solutions which may help you with your MYOB or Quickbooks.

Mobile Strategies for Business: Working with MYOB

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 06:07:00 +0000

I was reading a blog today which talked about advice for mobile strategies for businesses who are using SAP. It is my belief the same strategies and approach to Mobile PDA Solutions that SAP businesses will use are the same strategies and approach that an MYOB business can use.

Saving cost, efficiency, accuracy, time, keeping the workforce agile are the real reasons a business wants to implement Mobile PDA solutions. What ERP or Accounting system the business is using does not make the reasons for wanting Enterprise Mobility any different.

For 10 years The RIC Group (www.thericgroup.com.au) have been implementing mobile solutions for businesses wanting to incorporate barcodes in the supply chain. The reasons for a business wanting to implement Enterprise Mobility Solutions are still the same as they were 10 years ago, but with technology making it much more viable such as devices being faster, cheaper, more powerful, and with the 3G network, companies have now pushed Enterprise Mobility to a high priority to gain a competitive edge.

Businesses will need to ensure they choose a company that has been designing, implementing mobile solutions for a while when going ahead with Enterprise Mobility. From my experience the technology is changing quickly in this field and a company needs to have the expertise and experience behind them to ensure their products stay stable and the customer experiences no down time. At the The RIC Group we pride ourselves on the customer having no down time with their Mobile Solution.

The post I read was:
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/2010/01/advice-to-mobile-start-ups-working-with.html

www.thericgroup.com.au

Barriers to Entry

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Sun, 27 Dec 2009 02:26:00 +0000

One of the industries that has competed quite well and grown in statue in the GFC (Global Financial Crisis) is the Enterprise Mobility Market. Companies have invested in mobility technology such as PDA's and while their work force may of been decreasing they have been increasing the mobility of each worker by putting a PDA in their hands.

Of course with the right software and the right PDA it can be a powerful tool to have. The user does not need to go back to the PC for any information as they can simply use the PDA for price enquiries in retail, or receive and pick goods in the warehouse, or use the PDA to record mobile sales. There are a number of applications the mobile PDA can be used for and this is what is called Enterprise Mobility Solutions.

With the increase of companies investing in Enterprise Mobility Solutions I have seen an increase of software development companies offering PDA solutions. One of the main reasons this can happen is because of the very low barrier to entry in the software development industry. What the consumer needs to take careful note about is it is quite cheap to do a 'Release 1.0.0' of a product but where software development companies spend their money is the continual maintenance of the product which leads to the next releases. The software product will constantly receive modifications for updates and therefore will need increased testing. The environment will change whether its Windows updating to a new operating system or whether it is the accounting package your are integrating with receives updating.

About 10 years ago we saw the increase in software companies putting their hands up in website development but slowly they removed themselves from that space. Enterprise Mobility and Website Development are niche, and require specialists. My opinion is just like the website developers soon will we see the decrease in software companies offering Enterpise Mobility solutions.

Choices

noreply@blogger.com (The RIC Group) — Sun, 13 Dec 2009 08:59:00 +0000

How easy is it for a small to medium business enter the mobility world of today? With Motorola and Intermec chasing the business of the big enterprises what is left for small to medium business?

Recently I visited Godfrey's at my local shopping centre. The storeperson greeting you at the front door and had a PDA in her hand ready to enter sales or help customers with pricing by scanning barcodes. This is where I realised that every business is wanting their workers to become more mobile, whether it is field service workers, mobile sales people, factory workers or even a storeperson in a retail shop. Without mobility workers are forced to come back to PC's which are storing the information which can be slow, unreliable and most importantly wasting time. This process is simply not efficient in today's environment.

How easy is getting a PDA into your workers hands to keep them mobile? It is actually quite easy and quite affordable. You don't have to be a large corporate like the retail chain of Godfrey's or a large logisitic company like Toll or Star Track, The RIC Group have been implementing cost affordable solutions to all industries and customers have simply been using MYOB as their accounting system.

So why not visit www.thericgroup.com and seek some further information.