Technology in Practice

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.

A year-end ERP checklist can assist you in preparing your systems for the coming year. This checklist not only provides a straightforward plan for ending the year on a happy note, but it also assures that all of the hard work you’ve put into your ERP system over the year won’t be for naught. Year-end is right around the corner, use the steps below to prepare now: This year-end ERP checklist was created to ensure your ERP system is ready for the new year. If you require additional assistance, please contacts us, our experts are here to help. Limited Time OfferSave 50% When You Add Sage Data & Analytics for Sage X3 Email Us to Learn How  

Manufacturers and distributors find themselves amidst a new set of post-pandemic challenges. Demand is sky-high, costs are volatile, labor is scarce, and over-stressed supply chains struggle to get back up to speed. In fact, with so much disruption to global supply chains, a new term – supply pain management — is entering the vernacular. CFOs have a strategic role to play in a post-pandemic economy. In fact, a strategic CFO may have a more significant impact on the business than any other executive. Here are five ways a strategic CFO can improve supply chain management and reduce the pain. 1. Choosing agile cloud technology CFOs play a major role in determining the direction their organizations take regarding a technology platform. Strategic CFOs recognize the limitations of outdated platforms and move to equip their employees with the digital tools they need to keep operations running. Modern cloud-based ERP offers robust supply chain management functionality, and the agility they provided to remote workers during the pandemic has cemented their value. Protiviti annual Finance Trends Survey revealed that 72% of CFOs ranked cloud-based applications as a top priority to address over the next 12 months. 2. Gaining real-time insight into costs By acquiring and integrating more information, CFOs can help the business develop a more responsive and reliable supply chain. Costs are changing more rapidly than ever. As a result, it is no longer helpful to evaluate future profitability by looking at historical data. To be effective, strategic CFOs need real-time visibility into production costs, raw material pricing, and landed costs (shipping and transport fees) — along with insight and information surrounding their suppliers’ activities. The effective use of data and the application of technology tools are essential for gaining this visibility. eBook Download: The Role Cloud ERP Technology Plays in Supply Chain Automation   3. Increase supply chain visibility Always important, supply chain visibility rose to critical status during the pandemic and into the recovery as volatility continues. A company can’t realistically grow its business when it tracks its supply chain through emails and spreadsheets. The more channels, regions, and partners, the more room there is for error. It is critical to migrate business processes to a dedicated application supporting efficient manufacturing, production, distribution, quality control, cost visibility, tracking, and reporting. As drivers of their company’s technology initiatives, strategic CFOs play a significant role in selecting software applications that bring the supply chain to light. 4. Upgrading metrics The pandemic has only increased CFO’s requests from the business for real-time data, including frequent, detailed and dynamic financial analyses and forecasts. Modern, cloud-based ERP applications collect a tremendous amount of data, but a strategic CFOs needs to cut through to the critical information to better understand their business operations, share this insight cross-functionally, and use it to drive strategic decision making. The targeted use of dashboards, KPIs, and other business metrics provides CFOs and their colleagues throughout the organization with visual windows into the data that matters to them. Continual monitoring of these metrics provides the organization with a way to measure performance over time and can help identify trends and opportunities. 5. An integrated technology platform Bringing data and people together across the organization results in faster, better decision making. When a business holds data in multiple disconnected applications, it can be a struggle to quickly access and assemble it in meaningful ways. The strategic CFO can lead the initiative to adopt a technology suite that supports every aspect of the business operation — including supply chain management — eliminating the silos that slow data sharing and analysis. Adopting new integrated technology streamlines data management and provides CFOs with the information and confidence to make informed decisions — making this a key element in any recovery plan. Strategic CFOs are masters of complexity CFOs in manufacturing and wholesale distribution companies are masters of handling complexity. They provide guidance in every area of the business – from technology to operations to the customer experience. This skill and expertise makes them ideally suited for addressing post-pandemic supply chain challenges. As a strategic CFO, you play a critical role in optimizing your organization’s supply chain. By providing the right technology infrastructure, your organization can grow while adding fewer employees — keeping them focused on high-value tasks and on client facing opportunities. It adds up to an environment where time saved is capacity earned.

Inventory management is more than knowing how much of something you have on the shelf; it is the tracking and organizing of goods from supplier, through the manufacturing process and into customers’ hands. Inadequate inventory management directly affects the customer experience. Without a real-time understanding of inventory on-hand, and its status, businesses are unable to effectively plan and execute on customer orders. According to one report, 43% of small businesses either track inventory manually or don’t track it at all. By relying on manual, paper-based inventory practices, businesses suffer from: Inaccurate, time consuming inventory reporting Inefficient inventory management, resulting in excess products in one location while out of stock in another Inaccurate planning, resulting in increased discounting and write-offs of excess, slow-moving and obsolete inventory Unnecessary handling that increases the cost of goods sold (COGS) Stockouts that lead to lost sales from customers going to a competitor Inability to track and trace the product from supplier to customer order Managing Inventory Automatically with Software Automating manual processes associated with managing inventory and having the insight to better forecast and utilize inventory improves inventory management across these four areas: Multi-location If you stock, sell and fulfill items in more than one location, it is essential to have visibility into stock levels across all locations to optimize inventory usage and get products to customers in the quickest and most profitable way. Inventory management software allows you to set pre-defined parameters such as whole order inventory availability and location, which sends orders to the location that has all items available, which eliminates multiple shipments for a single order and increased shipping charges. Inventory management software can also help maximize inventory sell through and minimize out of stocks. In fact, with NetSuite Inventory Management, stores can be set up as a location, providing a true enterprise-wide view of inventory. With visibility into inventory across all locations, you can proactively monitor stock levels and sell through, transferring inventory between locations as necessary to ensure inventory availability and minimize obsolete inventory. Sales associates are empowered to save the sale in stockout situations with access to enterprise-wide inventory availability, enabling them to transfer, hold or ship items directly to the customer. Businesses can also minimize the amount of inventory required to be on hand by executing a cross-channel fulfillment strategy, easily fulfilling online orders from store. With NetSuite, multi-location inventory management also allows you to analyze and understand seasonal and location specific trends. Replenishment Customer satisfaction and profitability require maintaining the right amount of inventory to fulfill anticipated orders while keeping excess stock to a minimum. Businesses must account for fluctuations in demand, seasonality, supply chain logistics and a product’s natural lifecycle to ensure sufficient stock on hand. NetSuite inventory management provides demand-based replenishment by using historical and seasonal-based sales, average lead time and number of days’ supply to stock data to dynamically manage item reorder points and maintain preferred stock levels. It generates tasks, alerts automatically and sends the tasks to the purchase manager for execution. Cycle Counting Regular cycle counting is an important means of establishing checks and balances, ensuring items accounted for in the inventory system are physically on the shelf. Integrating cycle counting as an ongoing periodic task reduces required safety stock, lowers overhead costs, makes physical counts less painful and is an important anti-theft tactic. NetSuite inventory management allows you to categorize inventory based on the volume of transactions and/or value. You can then schedule regular periodic counts of on-hand item quantities and auto assign count tasks to floor staff to help maintain inventory accuracy. By implementing periodic cycle counts for select SKUs instead of performing a full cycle count, the count can be integrated into everyday tasks, minimizing the disruption of warehouse operations. If items are stored in multiple locations, using bins in the warehouse greatly eases the counting process and accuracy as you know exactly which bins to go to perform the counts, instead of walking around looking for the items. Traceability Companies need the ability to trace products through their entire lifecycle. By using lot and serial tracing, businesses are able to both backward trace (linking finished goods to raw materials and suppliers) and forward trace (linking finished goods to purchase order and customer records). Lot numbers give you the ability to track the quantity of items and the specific cost for each group of products based on when they were produced. On the lot number record, you can identify an expiration date and enter notes about the lot. Serial tracking lets you choose a specific serial numbered item to fulfill or receive an order. Together, lot and serial numbers allow you to define fulfillment strategies (such as FEFO – first expiring, first out) to minimize waste and ensure inventory is used in the most efficient way. Bin management and defining your merchandise hierarchy also help with traceability. Using matrix items enables you to track items by options such as size and color. An item matrix consists of a parent item and subitems. Updates made to the parent item can be automatically applied to the subitems – greatly simplifying SKU management. With an item matrix, each subitem is tracked separately. Learn more about how to pick the right inventory management system for your business. This post was originally published on NetSuite.com By Abby Jenkins, Product Marketing Manager for Inventory, Warehouse, Order and Supply Chain Management

Let’s face it, 2020 has been HARD. This time last year, no one was planning for a global pandemic or the havoc it would wreak on our lives—both personally and professionally. And while the pandemic is far from over, we have one big advantage over last year—we know it is here. Which means we can better plan for the ongoing uncertainty. Part of that planning includes assessing the solutions and software you use to manage your business—to ensure you maximize efficiency and improve productivity. For Sage X3 users, this translates into planning an upgrade to the latest version of Sage X3 and moving to the cloud. Last week, Net at Work and held a live webinar with Sage, to review the Sage X3 product roadmap. The webinar provided an update on the future direction of the product, what features have been released in 2020, and the exciting new features that are planned for 2021. If you missed the presentation, you can view the recorded webcast here. We know from the attendance and questions asked, that our clients found many reasons to plan for an upgrade next year! Exciting New Features Coming to Sage X3 New updated ADC screens for the handheld devices New Product Introduction module with revision comparisons, prototype management, and release workflow Web scheduling enhancements including Available to Promise/Capable to Promise Revenue recognition, progress, milestone, and recurring billing, time sheet enhancements New cash management features including improved bank reconciliation automation Bad debts and AR write-offs Functionality to support IFRS16 Leases New reports and functionality for simplified VAT and currency management Use Our Cloud for FREE While You Upgrade There are undeniable benefits to hosting your Sage X3 in the cloud. Our Cloud at Work hosting for Sage X3 provides enterprise-level hosting technology delivered a SaaS experience—its flexible, scalable and secure. For a limited time, we’ll let you use our cloud for FREE while you upgrade! Benefits of Cloud at Work Hosting for Sage X3: Best in Class: Sage Applications + Cloud Technology Designed and Managed by the Most Experienced Sage Team in North America Best-in class application support. Cloud at Work works seamlessly with your solution to fit your specific needs and business processes. Say goodbye to finger pointing between your application & cloud vendors. A Sage-focused Cloud Solution Patches, Fixes, Support & Training Included When you add the Sage X3 Xperience Service, all patches and fixes are included so you can be assured that your Sage X3 is always up-to-date. Plans include health checks, training, ongoing mentoring, and upgrades to keep your users plugged in to all new features and functionality. Enterprise Level Technology A SaaS Experience, Tailored to Fit Your Organization There is no “window within a window” using Cloud at Work. It looks, feels, and works in a SaaS fashion. Built to fit your needs, there are no limited on integrations or customizations, and with OnDemand licensing you can upgrade your SQL, OS, and MS Office at any time—at no cost. Peace of Mind Industry-standard Uptime, Monitoring and Ongoing Support With Cloud at Work, we host your entire production environment in a stable and secure environment with 24x7x365 monitoring and unlimited support tickets through our Cloud at Work support and Sage X3 application Xperience plans. For more information about upgrading Sage X3 or moving to Cloud at Work and taking advantage of our special offer, please contact us.

The FBI, the DHS’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has issued a joint alert to warn hospitals and healthcare providers of imminent ransomware attacks from Russia. This security advisory describes the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) associated with cyber criminals that could target organizations in the Healthcare and Public Health Sector (HPH) to infect systems with Ryuk ransomware. The government agencies receive information about imminent attacks, threat actors are using the TrickBot botnet to deliver the infamous ransomware to the infected systems. “CISA, FBI, and HHS have credible information of an increased and imminent cybercrime threat to U.S. hospitals and healthcare providers. CISA, FBI, and HHS are sharing this information to provide warning to healthcare providers to ensure that they take timely and reasonable precautions to protect their networks from these threats.” reads the alert. TrickBot is a popular banking Trojan that has been around since October 2016, its authors have continuously upgraded it by implementing new features. In early 2019, researchers spotted a new TrickBot backdoor framework dubbed Anchor that was using the anchor_dns tool for abusing the DNS protocol for C2 communications. Several groups of experts linked both TrickBot and Ryuk threats to cybercrime gangs operating out of Russia. Ryuk first appeared in the threat landscape in August 2018 as a derivative of the Hermes 2.1 ransomware, that was first spotted in late 2017 and was available for sale on the open market as of August 2018 Unlike other ransomware gangs, Ryuk ransomware operators did not announce to avoid targeting healthcare organizations during the COVID-19 A few weeks ago, Universal Health Services (UHS), one of the largest hospital and healthcare services providers, has shut down systems at healthcare facilities in the United States after they were infected with the Ryuk ransomware. A few days ago, Microsoft’s Defender team, FS-ISAC, ESET, Lumen’s Black Lotus Labs, NTT, and Broadcom’s cyber-security division Symantec joined the forces and announced a coordinated effort to take down the command and control infrastructure of the infamous TrickBot botnet. Microsoft has taken down 120 of the 128 servers that were composing the Trickbot infrastructure. Microsoft announced to have taken down 62 of the original 69 TrickBot C&C servers, seven servers that could not be brought down last week were Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Original post

Sage Software has announced changes to their policies for Sage Fixed Assets (Sage FAS) Pre-Sales assistance for Sage partners effective October 20th, 2020. If you have been utilizing Sage’s inside team to conduct demos, review technical requirements, or qualify calls for ERP integrations to name a few, you no longer have a contact within Sage to assist.  Sage Fixed Assets Partners are required to purchase and complete certifications for sales and implementations. Net at Work is prepared to assist your team with any Sage Fixed Assets pre-sales needs.  We understand that you may only sell a handful of Fixed Assets clients a year, so getting certified may not be a great use of your time or money, but it is a very feature rich  product that adds to your recurring revenue each year.  We have a vast array of experience in every vertical, providing in depth Fixed Assets Analysis, Database Management Policies, and Assets Tracking Procedures.  I invite you to join the 50+ Sage partners already in our Partner Alliance community who all continue to experience success as Alliance members. Our Sage Advocate partners recently gave us a 100% on a partner satisfaction survey (85% satisfaction across all 200 Alliance partners). Suzanne Pedone, Fixed Assets Practice Director, SME has over 24 years of experience with Sage Fixed Assets Depreciation, Tracking and CIP Project Planning.  Suzanne is a strong believer in the philosophy that the customer is the priority, and we do whatever it takes to provide answers, solutions, and knowledge, just as you would help a friend in need. Here is some of the pre-sale Sage FAS support we can offer: Sage FAS Product Demos Sage FAS Technical Review Sage FAS Product Overview Client Calls Sage FAS in the Cloud Options To better serve you, we have a dedicated a Sage Fixed Assets line: 1-877-208-1175, as well compiled a FAQ listed below. FAQ Where can I receive a link to more Alliance partner information? Visit the Net at Work Partner Alliance Program website for more information. How long is the turnaround time to provide a demo? Net at Work can typically schedule a demo within 24 hours. Do you provide all the pricing and budget analysis? Yes, Net at Work can provide all the pricing. Is there a cost to participate? No, there is no cost to participate. Who do I contact to set up a call with a client? Please contact Suzanne Pedone, Fixed Assets Practice Director, SME at Net at Work.

Starting in Acumatica 2020 R2, users can now limit access to customer accounts to employees of the specific company or branch.  These capabilities are now available if the new Customer Visibility Restriction feature has been enabled on the Enable/Disable Features (CS100000) form within Acumatica. On the Customers (AR303000) form, the Restrict Visibility To box has been added to the Financial. Settings section on the Financial tab, as shown in the screenshot below. In this box, users can select a company or a branch that will work with the customer exclusively. Contact Us if you have any questions or would like more information about Acumatica features and enhancements.

We are pleased to share that Sage has announced their Third-Party Applications Virtual Conference for users of Sage 100, Sage 300 and Sage 500. The virtual half day (4 hour) online event will take place on July 22nd, 2020 at 12 PM Eastern and is aimed at providing real business value through information-packed virtual sessions from Sage and ISV add-on solutions for Sage ERP products. Why Attend Conference sessions with valuable business advice on key topics, presented by Sage and third-party experts. Session topics include: automating accounts payable, inventory optimization, leveraging automation to drive your business, business intelligence and many more. Opportunities to interact with the presenters, product experts, attendees and have your questions answered. A virtual exhibit hall where you can get information and interact with providers of third-party add-ons for your Sage software. The  vConference Presenters and exhibits include our valued partners including: Sage, Altec, Avalara, Draycir, Edisoft,  ProcessWeaver, Scanco, SPS Commerce, and TrueSky. The full agenda (PDF) can be found below. Register Here