CLOUD NINE Cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) will ensure efficiency, reliability, cost benefits and security in automated manufacturing
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Owing to rapidly advancing manufacturing innovations and technologies bringing about disruptions in the software and technology currently used in manufacturing, family-owned enterprise resource planning (ERP) software company Global Shop Solutions’ cloud ERP has many benefits, notably the ability to customise, as well as the guarantee of consistent quality.
Manufacturing process changes, such as indicators, increasing efficiency, increasing automation through customisation and cloud ERP are beginning to revolutionise the traditional manufacturing processes.
Therefore, the software offered by the company hopes to increase speed, safety and security, while also being cost effective. It makes on-premises solutions more accessible, such as, inventory, sales, planning and scheduling software, shop floor data collection, preventive maintenance software and websites for manufacturers, amongst others.
Global Shop Solutions’ cloud ERP has a guaranteed uptime of 99%, and uses Amazon Web Services to ensure that a company’s environment is secure and accessible. In the event of an outage, Global Shop Solutions restores the cloud ERP platform through its geographically diverse backup and restore architecture.
Safety and Security
Updates on ERP software conducted by Global Shop Solutions are carried out twice a year, as is routine maintenance, ensuring that software remains up to date with the latest features and enhancements.
Global Shop Solutions has prioritised security using modern layered security methods, as well as adhering to the security principle of ‘least privilege’.
Access to ERP software is enabled through Microsoft RemoteApp technology, which removes the need for a locally installed client on a desktop or mobile device. After logging into a Web portal, users interact with published Global Shop Solutions ERP applications with ease. Application communication occurs through a single secure port opened within the cloud platform.
Remote access can be further restricted by using Internet Protocol (IP) white-listing techniques, or the process of identifying entities that are denied, unrecognised or ostracised. Benefits of such a technique include combating software protection against unauthorised downloads and combating viruses and malware.
Another security measure implemented by Global Shop Solutions is its automatic backup of cloud ERP environments during periods of low system use. This ensures that, as manufacturing companies rely more on automated manufacturing processes, using software such as cloud ERP, their data is safe and secure.
A cross-region backup also occurs every second night, across multiple geographically diverse regions in the US, for disaster recovery purposes. This ensures business continuity in the event of catastrophic disasters that affect a large region. The retention policy for environment backups is 30 days. In addition, granular ERP data snapshots are taken during the day to provide granular file recovery, should a specific file need to be restored without restoring the entire environment.
The software’s efficiency involves speed, which has seen customers that have moved from on-premises solutions to cloud ERP solutions claim to have observed exponential gains in speed. This is related to how quickly programmes pull up, as well as how quickly a company’s data can be accessed, sorted, navigated and analysed.
Moreover, Global Shop Solutions states that the cloud ERP solution provides an opportunity for a business to budget to a single number. “A company wishing to move its ERP needs to the cloud [just about] eliminates unknown costs that show up when a server or other technology underperforms.”