K-Rise Systems VSS Portal is built with EASYProcess which means that any of its features can be easily updated, changed or restricted by your staff or very reasonably done so by ours. Because you get EASYProcess with the portal you are now able to use it to tackle other business problems as well. No longer does a solution only fit one problem.
Reward your Accounts Payable Staff! Let them approve invoice payments instead of manually entering them. Reduce the tedious task of keeping your vendors informed about day to day activities.
VSSPortal sends notification emails to supplier with:
Orders ready to acknowledge
Orders revised by planners and ready to acknowledge
Orders cancelled and waiting to be acknowledged
These emails contain encrypted links which can directly log the supplier in to the portal in 1-Click with an appropriate lease time.
PO Print and PDF
A PDF can be generated real-time for a PO in a predefined format to match any look and feel. Additional information such as line level comments, supplier item number can be added to the PDF. Terms and Conditions (T&C) can be appended to the generated PDF based on order types or other rules
Approval
Supplier changes can be routed for approval inside your organization before being submitted to JDE.
Approval happens within VSS portal with approvers logging on and approving requests in queue. Approval hierarchy can be setup in EASYProcess/VSSPortal or any external hierarchy such as Active directory, HR tables can also be used.
Once all approvals are done, BSFN are called automatically to process updates in JDE.
If any supplier updates are rejected, supplier is notified.
Inquiry
Order Header Inquiry records are brought from F4301 and F4311 based on status. Vendors can filter based on actionable status such as 'Inquire', 'Ready to Acknowledge', 'Revise', 'Invoice' etc. Additional filters are avaialble based on PO number, item number, dates etc.
New order lines and modified order lines, both can be acknowledged by Vendor. Remember that if your company needs other reports or inquiries they can all be implemented in your portal.
Acknowledgement
Suppliers are notified that orders are ready to acknowledge through email notification. Both new and orders revised by the planner can be acknowledged. Order acknowledgement moves the status of the PO based on order activity rule 'real time' using BSFN calls. Supplier can edit price (if authorized) , quantity, promised delivery dates etc on PO.
Acknowledge Cancelled Lines
Allow supplier to acknowledge cancelled lines and avoid mistaken shipments.
Notification emails can keep sending 'cancelled lines' until acknowledged by supplier. All notification frequencies can be maintained by the vendor through their web account.
Line Split
Line split allows supplier to acknowledge what they have available to ship.
The split line can be cancelled or acknowledged for a later delivery date.
Lines can be split with new line numbering as 1.001, 1.002 or next available line number.
Revision
Supplier can go back and revise the order any time before they ship it.
Various fields such as quantity, price, dates etc can be made available for edit. Approval can be set so that every revision will be approved by internal users before being sent to JDE.
All edits are done real time using BSFN calls
PO Based
PO based invoices will be approved based on requested by.
Requested by user (PHORBY) will get the email/request to approve the invoice. Receipt Based
Receipt based invoice needs no approval and will be directly forwarded to Accounts payable for matching Non PO Based
Non PO based invoices will be directed to the assigned users for approval.
Users will have to assign proper business unit and G/L account for the amount. They can also split the line if more than one BU and G/L is involved in cost.
Once BU and GL are assigned the invoice can go through further approval based on your organizational setup.
VSS Portal can utilize your HR system for finding approval hierarchy.
Delegation
If an invoice is pending for a certain predetermined number of days, it can be delegated to the person higher up in the hierarchy or to any delegates that the user assigns to for the concerned period.
History
After supplier submits the invoice for approval and payment, its current status and history will be available for them to review.
History will show the full list of approvers and their current status (approved or rejected) along with dates and comments
All invoices, once approved by users end up at AP bucket.
AP users can login and submit for JDE Interfacing.
Based on invoice type, VSSPortal will call
2 Way matching
3 Way matching or
Voucher transaction in JDE
Additional security can be applied so that the AP user can only see the invoices they are suppose to see based on business unit, company or other criteria.
AP users can specify further details to the invoices such as payee company etc. before submitting the invoice for matching.
Once processed in JDE, VSSPortal will add document number, batch number from JDE to the history of the invoice and mark it completed
Most K-Rise customers, in considering any EASYProcess application like EASYBuyer, have taken quite a while to reach the conclusion that they really will get an implementation that takes into account their very unique business needs. Mid-size, large and Fortune 500 companies alike have many data sources, many types of users, hierarchies and approval processes complex beyond belief and many more needs that can often bench an enterprise development project in the first stakeholder meeting. Such is not the case with EASYProcess. Take a look at the depth of our customer list and realize that these companies have exactly the application they needed. Investigate through our documentation and demos on line and finally request a customized demo that can give you and your team a good taste of what your app can be like.
Data Sources
The larger your company is, or gets, the more data is needed for stakeholders to make decisions. Whether it is customer information in the cloud, e.g., SalesForce.com, files on an image server to obscure legacy sources, EASYProcess gives you the connectivity your application needs. Many K-Rise Systems customer view EASYProcess as their middleware of choice, the last connector they will ever need. It communicates with all these systems, and of course JD Edwards, bringing the data into one useful page with all the data the user needs.
If you need to put together an ROI case let K-Rise Systems help you. From a price perspective, if you haven't asked for a ball park quote, please do so. Because all our pre-built modules are built using EASYProcess, K-Rise Systems is able to keep the pricing for portals and the rates for implementation surprisingly affordable. Often the quote alone is all you will need to show ROI. But don't let our good pricing fool you on the quality of the application. We have customers that have replaced industry standard software with our portals, which are soon to be industry standards as well.
Training
One goal of implementing your an EASYProcess portal is to create a user experience as close to 'no training needed' as possible. Our portals are very e-rgonomic. Easy to use. Intuitive. Often a few word documents and tool tips, easily accessed, can do the trick. Imagine a portal that turns a task taking 9 screen flips in JDE into a single click after assessing the data on one page. EASY Peazy.
Vanilla JDE
Many of our customers are leveraging their collection of EASYProcess applications to return them to a nearly vanilla JD Edwards implementation. Some have that long term goal knowing that an upgrade is in the offing a few years down the road. This savings alone can pay many times over the cost of EASYProcess module.
Challenge: Amway needed to give their vendors access to real-time data from JD Edwards as well as other systems including their JDA Transportation module. Interaction between JDE and JDA was minimal making the lives of internal users complicated as well. Self management of on-line accounts would also be crucial in reducing needs for Amway support.
Solution: K-Rise Systems implemented their VSS Portal offering with a focus on the interaction of users and vendors with Purchase orders allowing PO acknowledgement and revisions to be based on different order types. Implementation also involved integration with systems such as View Star JDA and EDI.
Result: Amway went live in 5 months with a first roll out of their VSS portal with all necessary systems integrated using real-time data. The portal allows vendors to revise a Purchase Order, split lines, acknowledge the order and even acknowledge when a single line has been canceled. There are two very distinct types of vendors and they can manage their own users by creating them and assigning them one of 6 different types of user roles.
JD Edwards E1: Business Function (BSFN) Integration
EASYProcess calls the JD Edwards Business Functions (BSFN) using XML Interoperability. All transactions are done using only BSFNs available on your enterprise server ensuring that your business logic is enforced the way they are currently implemented.
Master Files Integration
EASYProcess has the ability to connect directly to a JDE database using ODBC, MSSQL or OleDB protocols. This allows EASYProcess to bring any data from JD Edwards or insert / update any data back into it. With EASYProcess it's possible to connect to both the JDE Data Library and the JDE Control library making UDC Codes available.
EASYProcess can also use the JDE ODA driver to enforce JDE row and column level security if needed.
JD Edwards Versions
EASYProcess can be implemented for all versions of JD Edwards from the latest E1 build back to World 7.33. EASYProcess allows all of our products to call all the business functions in your system the way they are currently used.
World customers, don't worry, EASYProcess makes use of emulators in the background doing things the same way your users would do them. Direct table look ups for inquiries can also be done combining results with data from other sources as well. Reporting across data sources is a major feature of any EASYProcess application.
JD Edwards World Integration
EASYProcess uses ISeries/AS400 screen emulators to give you access to JD Edwards world transactions.
These emulators run as a server and host multiple sessions of ISeries as necessary.
EASYProcess service allows you to write and read from these ISeries sessions/screens from the process orchestration.
This service uses standards ISeries emulator commands to do transaction in JDE World.
In order for EASYProcess to take advantage of the XML Interop connectivity to call the business functions, user authentication is needed. This is usually accomplished in two ways
The first scenario and the most common one is where the main purpose of the product is to extend the accessibility of JDE to new users. Such users are not authenticated or do not exist in JDE.
To solve this problem, EASYProcess connects to JDE through one dedicated JDE User.
All JDE Transactions will be called by the dedicated JDE User.
Non JDE User data can be stored in other columns of the table such as 'OrderedBy'.
Another scenario is where the Users of the product are already a set of users in JDE.
In this scenario EASYProcess, using JD Edwards authentication, allows users to login with the JDE UserId and Password.
All JDE Transactions will be called by users own JDE Credentials.
Database Access Security
Row Level Security
EASYProcess can make use of the JDE ODA/JDBC driver to enforce JDE Row and Column level security.
Column Level Security
EASYProcess can mirror this security on its webparts where the fields will display accordingly, i.e. disabled, read only.
Supplier login is tied to the address book number and allows the supplier to see only their POs, Invoices, Payments etc.
Additionaly, address book hierarchies can be used to give supplier access to multiple address book numbers i.e. across sub web accounts.
Account Access Level
VSSPortal supports various access levels for its users.
Supplier Administrator
Customer Service
Account Receivable
Transportaion
Other custom levels as needed based on your business rules.
Supplier administrator can setup lower level access users in their own facility.
JDE Security
BSFN Call Security
BSFN calls to JDE are made through a predetermined JDE user id. This user id is used for every BSFN call to JDE regardless of which supplier is invoking it. Filtering is done based on data in the web user account to restrict data access.
File Level Security
VSSPortal also accesses the JDE Master data files. Access to that file is done using a predetermined database user id. This user id is used for each file access to JDE but is restricted by the data in the web user profile i.e. address book number
Account Change
A supplier can request an address change.
Address changes route to 'Accounts Payable' for approval.
Upon approval, changes are applied to JDE by calling the proper BSFN.
Windows server will host EASYProcess application servers, web applications and batch jobs.
Hardware:
Processor Architecture: 32/64bit
OS:Windows 2003 / 2008 server 32/64 bit
4 GB RAM, 80 GB HD (30 OS, 50 App)
Processor: 1 or 2 Intel Dual/Quad Core 2.5 GHz.
Software
.NET Framework 2.0
Database Drivers (To be explained below)
IIS 6.0/7.0
SQL Server
Hardware:
Processor Architecture: 32/64bit
OS:Windows 2003 / 2008 server 32/64 bit
4 GB RAM, 80 GB HD (30 OS, 50 App)
Processor: 1 or 2 Intel Dual/Quad Core 2.5 GHz.
Software
SQL Server 2000/2005/2008 any version.
Development/QA/CRP Environments:
Windows Server
Windows server will host EASYProcess application servers, web applications and batch jobs.
Hardware:
Processor Architecture: 32/64bit
OS:Windows 2003 / 2008 server 32/64 bit
1-2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD (30 OS, 50 App)
Processor: 1 Intel Dual/Quad Core 2.5 GHz.
Software
.NET Framework 2.0
Database Drivers (To be explained below)
IIS 6.0/7.0
SQL Server
Hardware:
Processor Architecture: 32/64bit
OS:Windows 2003 / 2008 server 32/64 bit
1-2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD (30 OS, 50 App)
Processor: 1 Intel Dual/Quad Core 2.5 GHz.
Developer Workstation:
XP Pro, Windows 7
Hardware:
1-2 GB RAM, 20 GB HD
2 GB RAM
Software
.NET Framework 2.0
Database Drivers (To be explained below)
IIS 6.0/7.0
SQL Server 2005/2008 Express, MSDE
Database Drivers:
MSSQL Database Server: .NET Native SQL Driver, part of .NET Framework.
Oracle Database Server: Oracle Database Client with OleDb and Oracle Providers for .NET drivers
IBM ISeries Database: Client Access Express Full Install
HW/SW Architecture Diagram
Network Architecture Diagram
Because all K-Rise Systems enterprise applications are built using EASYProcess, gaining an understanding of this development platform will give important insight into the specific product you are exploring.
