SYSPRO has made SYSPRO 8 2023 generally available. The new, major release contains a mix of new and updated functionality and platform enhancements, including security, integrations, and intelligence. Surprisingly perhaps, one area not included is generative AI, which most other vendors seem to be adding in 2023.
Nevertheless, this is an impressive and rich update that customers should review carefully to see how they can enhance their operations. At a high level, SYSPO 8 offers the following benefits.
- Improves control of internal operations
- Enhances efficiencies across the supply chain
- Improves organisational controls
- Delivers actionable insights through information and intelligence
- Expands an enterprise with a digital business platform
Paulo de Matos, Chief Product Officer SYSPRO, said, “In recent years, rapid advancements in society, economics, and technology have ushered in a profound transformation in manufacturing priorities. Simultaneously, shifting consumer behaviors have placed an unwavering emphasis on both quality and instant gratification.
“These emerging challenges have necessitated an unrelenting commitment to elevating systems and processes to new heights of efficiency, quality, and automation. With the launch of SYSPRO 8 2023, we are dedicated to equipping mid-market manufacturers and distributors with the tools and capabilities required to navigate these turbulent waters effectively.”
The new features and capabilities of SYSPRO 8 2023 include the following.
SYSPRO Quality Management
As part of the improved control of internal operations, SYSPRO has launched SYSPRO Quality Management. The new solution is fully integrated with SYSPRO ERP. It aims to help mid-market manufacturers self-manage their QMS within the flow of work rather than managing quality using external spreadsheets or a third-party solution. The QMS aims to improve quality performance by reducing variability and costs and ultimately improving customer satisfaction.
Manufacturers can set their standards across the manufacturing lifecycle, checking and ensuring that quality standards are met from goods through production to shipping. Quality Managers have visibility of quality through the lifecycle and can track issues back through the cycle to do root cause analysis.
Functionality includes customer complaints, recall management, and configurable inspection capabilities. These tools will help manufacturers manage the incoming quality from suppliers, the outgoing quality from production, the efficient management of recalls and the timely management of complaints.
The configuration options are extensive, with the ability to support sampling and different test factors for quality management.
AP Invoice Automation
With SYSPRO 8 comes a new feature that expands the digital business platform. AP Invoice Automation enables organisations to process supplier invoices faster and with fewer errors. SYSPRO extracts information from invoices using OCR technology and matches it against existing information, thus reducing manual work and the number of errors.
Users can upload or use a drag-and-drop option to bring supplier invoices into the accounts payable posting programs. The file can be in a PDF format or even an image of a hand-written form. The intelligent document processing tool extracts and validates the information against the correct supplier in SYSPRO. The data is extracted and entered into SYSPRO when the normal AP process begins to validate the invoice. The system extracts the PO number to complete the three-way matching, including quantities and pricing. If discrepancies exist, these are highlighted in a grid to allow the user to work on them, making their work more efficient.
Pricing Engine: Product Catalog
SYSPRO already supported Pricing Groups and Price Lists. Support for Product Catalogues is a new feature within SYSPRO 8 2023. Users can extract a PRODUCT CATALOGUE to upload to an eCommerce site or use it as the base data to create a printed catalogue, either a full product catalogue or one for a flash sale. Each catalogue includes pricing, with volume break discounts or any trade promotions.
As part of the pricing engines in Sales Orders, users can specify the catalogue’s duration, currency and other factors. The lifecycle of the catalogue is supported, with it being in draft, review or live. Users can assign the catalogue for specific customers, branches or regions. In creating the catalogue, users can see the best available pricing for items. The users can match a price list for the catalogue.
The product catalogues enhance the ability of manufacturers to create new pricing for sales, backing marketing promotions for different regions and countries. The catalogue includes images and descriptions for the final catalogue. Catalogues will also have a duration, minimising the risk of the wrong pricing being available after costs rise.
Single Sign On (SSO)
With SYSPRO 8 2023, Single Sign On is supported. SYSPRO will support existing Microsoft, Google, or LinkedIn accounts to allow access to the solution without having a separate login account and password for SYSPRO. It means that customers can take advantage of any multi-factor authentication systems that these third parties support. This also removes some of the burden from administration for lost passwords, etc. It also means that administrators only need to support the central password management platform, though LinkedIn seems an odd choice.
Warehouse Management System (WMS) Marshaling
Within the WMS, SYSPRO 8 adds a new marshalling feature. The new feature introduces pick > pack > ship into warehouse operations, enabling multiple orders to be packed and shipped easily from within a designated marshalling area of the warehouse. It also allows the consolidation of multiple orders and the ability to print appropriate manifest documents and shipping labels. Overall, this improves order fulfilment, accuracy and increases customer satisfaction.
Embedded Analytics
There are several enhancements to SYSPRO analytics. The most welcome feature in this release extends the platform from a system of record to a system of insight. With SYSPRO 8, users can draw data from new third-party data platforms using a new data gateway. Users typically connect to SYSPRO business activity queries, drawing data from the analytics platform to analyse. SYSPRO data analytics already includes connectors for Microsoft SQL Server and PostgreSQL, with the following data connectors now available for users to add:
- Amazon Redshift
- Amazon S3
- BigQuery
- Cloudera
- Couchbase
- Hive
- MongoDB
- Presto
- Spark SQL
This enables organisations to use the SYSPRO analytics package as their main package, reducing reliance on third-party solutions and potentially reducing costs. Manufacturers can draw in data from other platforms, including IoT data, to give complete visibility of all data held by the organisation, ensuring that data insights are possible across the entire lifecycle of products.
Enterprise Times: What does it mean?
This is a major release from SYSPRO with additional features that should allow organisations to reduce spending on 3rd party solutions that fulfil similar functions; these include analytics, AP automation, and QMS. Adding these as part of the platform functionality means that organisations can be assured they will integrate seamlessly compared to other solutions and can drive further efficiencies into the tech stack.
Other platform improvements will help sister customers improve their productivity and efficiency. The supporting documentation from SYSPRO is extensive and worth reading to understand the differences from the SYSPRO 2022 release. The above is just a small snapshot of what this release includes, though it contains the major new features.
