Made2Manage ERP: Technology Strategy

We believe in the practical application of technology. Our technology strategy is guided by our customer’s requirements for a mainstream technology platform (Microsoft) with a flexible and scalable system architecture that protects their long-term IT investments. To learn more about the development tools we utilize and our over-arching technology strategy, review the following sections.

A strong partnership with Microsoft

The technology infrastructure of the Made2Manage ERP solution has been built at every level using Microsoft technology. Microsoft's products, platforms and technologies have become the common language of information technology. Our relationship with Microsoft gives you a competitive advantage in the marketplace.

• Consistent and full integration across all applications.
• Flexibility to meet your specific business requirements.
• Scalable, reliable platform that grows with you over the lifetime of your system.
• Designed to take advantage of the latest and greatest emerging technologies.
• Open architecture ensures easy access to critical business data.

Microsoft SQL Server

The Made2Manage ERP solution runs on a Microsoft SQL Server database. The Microsoft SQL server delivers real value and rich capabilities to its users:

• Easy back-up and recovery process.
• Improved database management and lower maintenance costs.
• Access to advanced functionality.
• Supports all Made2Manage ERP applications.

Tailor your system to your unique requirements

Made2Manage offers core development tools, including Microsoft Visual Studio and Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), which enable you to extend the Made2Manage ERP solution to fit your unique manufacturing requirements.

Phasing In a Services Oriented Architecture (SOA)

Made2Manage ERP is following the Microsoft development roadmap to execute an SOA initiative. We take advantage of state-of-the-art tools, such as Visual Studio 2005, to develop our SOA architecture. Since the Made2Manage solution is already built on the Microsoft technology platform, there is no need to re-architect the product to meet the new standard. Made2Manage ERP continues to make evolutionary (transparent) SOA changes to the software while minimizing business disruption for our customers.

What is SOA?

Traditional software elements contain a user interface (UI) with business logic and data inside one very large executable. By contrast, a services-oriented architecture uses Web services (standard protocols and languages) to extract these smaller pieces from the UI. These freestanding, self-describing units of functional code possess a published interface that:

• Does not require knowledge of the programming language used to develop and deploy it.
• Can communicate with other services about specific activities within a business process or IT landscape.

The SOA architecture maps these capabilities and interfaces, similar to a network, so that they can be orchestrated into processes. As a result, information and business logic from diverse and redundant systems can be consolidated into a single interface that enables greater systems connectivity within your organization and throughout your supply chain.

The Benefits of SOA

The Made2Manage ERP SOA product strategy has many practical applications for small manufacturers, including:

• Secure IT Investments: Customers will not have to switch platforms, re-implement software, and/or incur additional hardware and training costs to receive expanded capabilities.
• Connectivity: SOA provides the flexibility to connect to different systems and view application programming interfaces (APIs) for augmenting existing functionality.
• Enhanced Product Quality: SOA reduces the number of areas within the Made2Manage ERP product where code must be manipulated in order to deliver new functionality. Therefore, gains in product quality are consolidated as the software is enhanced.
• Accelerated Development: The SOA architecture greatly reduces the amount of time required to perform quality assurance (QA) – a significant factor in product development. With less time needed for QA, Made2Manage ERP will be able to accelerate development cycles for expanding the functional depth and breadth of the product.
• Simplified Upgrades: As new versions of the Made2Manage ERP product are released, customers will not have to deploy an entire executable. Instead, they will receive only those modules that have been impacted by changes made in the latest release.
• Remote Access: Remote employees can easily access data without having to VPN or use terminal server.

Practical Experience with SOA

Made2Manage ERP has been recognized by Microsoft as an early adopter of SOA technologies. We have been utilizing Web Services, which form the foundation of SOA, to build our software applications since 2000. However, despite early adoption, we have elected to take a more practical approach to embracing SOA technology—opting to avoid committing our customers to the full SOA path until its recent emergence as a more widely adopted standard for developing software. Our existing SOA applications and our entire Business Collaboration suite, are currently deployed within our customer base.