Test FAQs

Sage X3 has a little-known feature that is particularly relevant to our discrete manufacturing clients. Drawing references can be recorded against production Bill of Materials (BOM) component records. When you add drawing references to a component line, there is no limit to the number of drawing references you can add. An information message will warn you when line references are not equal to the component quantity. For example, a design engineer includes a circuit board as a component of a production BOM. The circuit board needs 10 LED lights to be attached. The design engineer uses the drawing references column to cross reference to CAD, manual drawings, or a file name. In addition to drawing references, take a look at the other useful functions and “jump to” features available in the BOM components action menu: For more information about any of the features available in the BOM components action menu, or for any other Sage X3 questions, please contact us.

New study by Sage reveals advances in technology and innovation (72%) as the biggest driver of Circular Economy (CE) strategies in manufacturing and distribution. A new study by Sage, the leader in accounting, financial, HR and payroll technology for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), reveals the significant hurdles faced by manufacturers and distributors shifting to a sustainable Circular Economy business strategy, despite widespread acknowledgement of the many benefits it will deliver. “The State of the Circular Economy” report shows the industry is paying greater attention to the need for, and benefits of, the Circular Economy (CE). It comes in response to the growing importance of sustainable business practices to over 60% of employees, customers, shareholders, and supply chain partners alike. CE is based on the principles of designing out waste and pollution, keeping products and materials in use, regenerating natural systems, and supporting environmental sustainability. 84% of senior leaders say building and implementing a CE strategy is now part of their role, with 32% stating it is central to their duties. Rob Sinfield, Head of Business Unit, Sage X3 and Sage Intacct Manufacturing, said:
“Sustainability is increasingly becoming a non-negotiable for modern manufacturers and distributors. While business goals remain front of mind, the industry equally recognizes the importance of environmental drivers, with energy-efficiency and helping the environment as key motivations for pursuing a sustainability strategy. “As a result, 43% of North American organizations and 32% of organizations worldwide adopting circular economy strategies are already reaping the rewards – from greater profitability and productivity to improved resource usage and an enhanced brand reputation. Better yet, a further 32% of organizations globally believe they will achieve benefits within the next three years.” Manufacturers and distributors see new technology and innovations (72%) as a key enabler to adopting CE and sustainability strategies, and concerns arising from inaction such as damaged brand perceptions (46%) and reduced long-term profitability (46%) are consolidating the need for investment. The promise of technology and innovation Digital transformation is fundamental to delivering a CE strategy. The research found manufacturers and distributors ranked cloud applications (74%), data analytics (68%), and automation (67%) as the most important technologies for running a business more sustainably. Cloud applications and infrastructure is impacting nearly every aspect of modern manufacturing already. The cloud enables manufacturers to develop products more effectively and support sustainable practices such as 3D printing. Data analytics for predictive intelligence is helping businesses to refine their product development, optimize supply chains, and monitor equipment to increase resource efficiency. Automation boosts productivity by speeding up workflows and reducing human error. It also provides valuable data-driven insights that can be analyzed to improve production performance and sustainability. However, the industry has more to do when it comes to technology adoption. Despite 61% citing cloud apps as helpful in collecting, analyzing, and reporting on their CE capabilities, public cloud usage is far from universal among manufacturers and distributors. In fact, only a minority of respondents say they use public cloud for core apps such as supply chain (39%), CRM (38%), business intelligence (35%), human resources management (34%), ERP (32%) and payroll (29%). Overcoming the barriers to sustainable transformation
Organizations want to take advantage of the opportunities presented by becoming more sustainable, such as improved reputation (50%), increased energy efficiency (47%), increased business resiliency (46%) and a reduced impact on the environment (46%). But despite recognizing the many advantages, global manufacturers and distributors are struggling to realize the full benefits. Navigating a turbulent external market, with its own immediate challenges of rising costs (72%), supply chain disruptions (71%) and changing customer demands (68%), is taking up valuable resources that leaders could otherwise invest in future-proofing their business. Furthermore, two-thirds (67%) of manufacturers and distributors still need to transform their business operations in order to shift to CE. 64% of those companies say transformation is a significant barrier and is hindering their pursuit of greater sustainability. Finding people with the right expertise (71%) is the biggest challenge, along with cost and budget limitations (68%) and updating technology integrations and processes (68%). Tech expert Isaac Sacolick, President and Founder of StarCIO, said:
“Organizations can overcome these barriers with innovative thinking. Recruiting from a wider talent pool to bring data and analytics skillsets into the fold will help manufacturers and distributors see the bigger picture – what can I solve today, how can I become more sustainable tomorrow, and where do I want to be in 10 years. “With greater data insights at their fingertips, organizations will be able to identify the most suited use cases for automation and transformative technologies to enhance their cost efficiency and free up time to focus on the pressing need for a circular economy and sustainability strategy.” Download the full report here. For more information about the technologies behind the circular economy, please contact us. Note: Content for the blog post was originally posted on Sage’s website on August 8, 2022.

On December 9, a critical vulnerability was revealed in Apache’s Log4J, a popular Java open source logging system by developers of web and server applications. The vulnerability affects a broad range of services and applications on servers, making it extremely dangerous—and the need to update those server applications urgent. Impact The vulnerability allows unauthenticated remote code execution (RCE) on any Java application running a vulnerable version of Apache’s Log4j. Recommendations Net at Work customers subscribed to our NOC services with proactive maintenance plans will get updated as we receive security patches and workarounds from your appropriate hardware and software vendors. We recommend that customers check with their business application software providers to determine if any applications are impacted by the Log4J vulnerability and work with them to update those applications as soon as possible. If patching is not immediately possible there are a couple workarounds: You can set the JVM parameter “log4j2.formatMsgNoLookups;” to True Put a WAF or Proxy in front of the vulnerable Java app and block access to connections with the User Agent header string “jndi:ldap” and “jndi:dns” Additional Resources For more information about the Log4j vulnerability, please refer to the following resources: Apache Log4j Vulnerability Guidance published by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) A list of known impacted applications here. If you have questions about the Log4j vulnerability and how it may impact you, please contact us, our experts are here to help.