When the news of the horsemeat scandal in Europe broke, it caught like wildfire – and the impact it has had on the food manufacturing industry has been widespread. With this increased media attention on food safety, it is becoming increasingly clear why scientists volunteer their time to advise the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA).

Working with ten panels of 21 scientists each, the EFSA provides guidelines on all food safety issues, from additives andmeat inspectionto food container materials. These scientists volunteer their time in what can sometimes prove to be a high-pressure role, but there is more to it than another boost on their CV.  Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: EFSA, food and beverage software guide, food industry software, Food safety

If your customers have decided to get you to bear the weight of inventory and also require fast lead-times and flexibility, then a more agile type of procurement and production planning is needed. This is only achievable by combining the right business processes and systems to support them.

Whether you are a wholesaler, a manufacturer, or both, optimising inventory is key to achieving and sustaining profitable business growth. To that extent supply chain management professionals need to ensure that their stock control and planning software is working for them – and not the other way around. Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: DRP, MRP, procurement and inventory planning, stock control, supply chain, supply chain management, supply chain management software, wholesale distribution software

Managing the supply chain efficiently can be a complex and time-consuming task for any production, inventory or procurement professional. With differing forecasts supplied by sales, customers or production and in varying formats, the strain on the operations professional to manage inventory manually is huge. Moving from offline spreadsheets and processes to MRP software can help streamline your process – here’s how: Read the rest of this entry »

Technorati Tags: distribution software, DRP, inventory planning, MRP software, MRP software guide, stock control, supply chain professional

With a massive take up of iPad users, it makes a brilliant and more intuitive device for Enterprise Resource planning to be a success. That’s why we took our own ERP solution mobile (LV ERP for iPad).

Developing Enterprise Resource Planning for iPad makes good business sense when so many executives are using them to drive better sales, presentations or manage real time reporting. Whilst Lakeview ERP already boasts a web app and mobile version for desktop and mobile use, LV ERP for the iPad comes with unique features that take enterprise resource planning into a more intuitive environment as it is easy to use, more comfortable than a smart phone and not as bulky as a laptop.

According to Forrester’s Global Tech Market Outlook, Apple is expected to sell $10 billion worth of iPads to business customers in 2012, representing a 68% increase over 2011.

Source: Forrester Research

In the demo below you will see Lakeview’s ‘LV ERP’ app for the iPad in use. Watch and see how easy it is to navigate and manage your day to day business processes from within the app.

Related links
Download: LV ERP for iPad [iTunes download]
Book a demo : To see LV ERP in action

Author: Angela Kennedy

Technorati Tags: erp for ipad, LV ERP, mobile ERP

Ether NDE chose Lakeview’s Cloud based ERP product ‘LV’ to bring all their business data into the one place and produce management reports easily and in real-time.  By opting for the Lakeview SAAS model it has allowed Ether NDE to have a fully integrated system at a fixed monthly cost without the need for investment in new hardware.

Ether NDE were experiencing difficulties with business data being held in spreadsheets. The implementation of Lakeview’s LV will bring all their business data together, and provide management reporting tools in real-time, which will promote better decision making.  By having a fully integrated system with financials it has also reduced the external costs associated with bookkeepers and accountants.

About Ether NDE
Ether NDE design and repair electrical probes and meters at its factory and office premises based in Harpenden, Hertfordshire with an international client base. Ether NDE in addition to their own products also represents selected international manufacturers of electromagnetic test equipment and accessories.

VISIT: www.ethernde.com

Author: Angela Kennedy, Marketing

Technorati Tags: cloud erp, ether NDE, new business win, saas

For our customers and prospects alike we promote and support a ‘Bespoke as standard’ ethos. This is our guarantee that all modifications to the software are included into the core product ‘as standard’.

How do we do this?

This is managed by having a single set of source code, by designing solutions as generic as possible and by switching features on by means of control flags.

The ‘Bespoke as standard’ commitment enables easy upgrades to the latest version of your Lakeview (LV or LM) software and to take advantage of new features as they are released.

Author: Angela Kennedy, Marketing, Lakeview

Technorati Tags: lakeview erp

Power Travellers is the latest new business win for Lakeview, boasting a unique market presence within the travel goods industry with products that allow you to charge mobile devices using solar energy.

About Power Travellers

Powertraveller Ltd is dedicated to designing, developing and manufacturing award-winning portable chargers for all your mobile devices.

Because we’re passionate about the products we sell, here at Powertraveller™ we design, develop and test to destruction our products to ensure that you get the best deal on the market and for the right price.

Visit: https://powertraveller.com

Author: Angela Kennedy, Marketing

Technorati Tags: LV ERP, new business win

We believe our business proposition is absolutely unique amongst suppliers of ERP software.

We are one of a few independent software authors directly supplying ERP systems to UK based SME businesses.

Lakeview has been providing business software solutions to UK SME’s for over 25 years, and understands the needs of both customers and the demands of trading from within the UK.

Our passion is to deliver excellent business software with an outstanding level of service. When customers contact us with a ‘how do I do this?’ or ‘what am I doing wrong?’ question, we don’t turn them away, or suggest spending on training or consulting. We take the time to find a solution and our customers constantly comment favourably on our service and often recommend us to others.

Introducing LV: Lakeview’s latest ERP product

Built using the latest, proven Microsoft technologies LV is proving to be the feature rich business software solution that Lakeview is renowned for.

LV ERP can be deployed

• On premise
• In The Cloud
• Or on any mobile device or tablet

LV also boasts

1. An App that allows you to create and update transactions as well as enquire across the system.
2. A full set of API’s for business and database interfaces enabling web shops and third party products to be easily integrated in real time.

In summary

Lakeview provide end-to-end software solutions to UK SME’s: Delivering solutions that are second to none in terms of features, support and technology and offered with an unwavering level of service.

Our largest source of customer acquisition comes from existing customer recommendations, together with previous Lakeview users moving company and introducing us. This speaks volumes…

Visit and download

More about LV: www.lakeview.co.uk/lv

Download LV to your mobile: iTunes App Store

LV on YouTube: http://youtu.be/daVj_SLYdtM

Author: Mark Greatrex, CEO, Lakeview

Technorati Tags: ERP on your mobile, LV ERP, mobile ERP

You maybe aware that Sage has announced termination of support for Sage Line 100 on September 30th 2012. This means no further development of the product beyond that date, no new releases and no changes for any taxation or legal requirements. This effectively renders the product unusable the next time there is a legal or fiscal change.

We have heard instances of Sage resellers not informing their customers and other resellers claiming they can support and develop Line 100 past this date (they can’t.)

Here at Lakeview our approach to product life cycles is very different to Sage and just about every other ERP author. Put simply we do not end life products and we do not force customers into buying an upgrade. Line 200 is sold as a natural evolution from Line 100 but in fact is a new piece of software. This is the opportunity for you to consider alternates.

Our Lakeview LM product has been providing customer with accounting and ERP functionality for over 25 years (longer than Line 100 has been in existence!) LM is still supported and developed with many of our customers still happily running their business very effectively on LM.

Two years ago we launched our LV product range which offers the rich functionality within LM plus all the latest Microsoft, Internet, Apple and mobile technologies. An increasing number of LM customers have taken the smooth upgrade path to LV based on their own decision and business benefits. Equally many Sage customers have migrated to Lakeview as the cost and disruption of moving to us is comparable or indeed less than moving to Line 200 but with much more benefits.

Lakeview LV also offers a fully functional mobile version that can work on any smart phone, tablet, iPad, iPhone, netbook, in fact any device that can connect to the Internet! This enables remote sales teams, executives and remote employees to access the system anytime anywhere.

As a UK author we also offer a completely unique proposition known as ‘Bespoke As Standard’. This means that we will modify the software to meet any needs that are specific to your business and we will guarantee that it will be included in the standard product. This enables a very smooth and painless upgrade to future releases – to our knowledge; nobody else in the UK offers this!

To find out more

Visit our website, download our LV App from iTunes or our LV brochure here.

Author: Mark Greatrex, CEO of Lakeview Computers Ltd

Technorati Tags: alternative to sage, good alternative to sage, sage erp, sage line 100, sage line 100 end, sage replacement

“You want me to do what? What do I know about IT?”

Does this sound familiar to you?

In today’s busy SME environment when keeping costs and overheads to minimum jobs such as managing IT fall upon those who certainly are not experts when it comes to hardware or networks let alone the time in the day for such a large burden of responsibility.

Managing your IT needs to be built on the solid foundation of these four pillars:

• Delivering your current IT needs to ensure that it enables the business.
• Understanding and budgeting for your future needs, e.g. Mobile solutions, Cloud computing.
• Managing the IT resource whether they are internal or external.
• Risk management (security, compliance, business continuity)

Lakeview offers a full turnkey solution not only do we author, deliver and support our own ERP software but we also have our own dedicated team of engineers to build servers and desktop machines to requirement and fully manage the security and stable operation of your network.

So if the above responsibility falls to you in your role then why not pass that burden to Lakeview as a single source of supply and support for all your IT and business software needs. We have many MD’s and FD’s that will testify to the benefit and outstanding service of having Lakeview as your trusted IT partner.

Find out more

Technorati Tags: business continuity, compliance, erp, FD, Financial director, hardware, IT directors, IT software, mobile ERP, risk management, security