Paper, Packaging and Office Supplies Distribution Software

IBS provides complete business system solutions, including software, hardware, implementation, financing, training and service. With over 30 years of development, the company's world-leading products have a solid history of supporting supply chain management, business routines and financial control.

ENTERPRISE from IBS is a world-leading business software suite for distribution and supply chain management. It is designed to fulfil the requirements of worldwide business-to-business trading. According to recent studies conducted by AMR Research and Frost & Sullivan, IBS is a consistent top market leader and supplier for supply chain execution and management software.

Software that aims for business value

The ENTERPRISE software suite provides a comprehensive, modular business solution that can be customized to your needs. IBS' intelligent supply chain software automates and optimizes routines and is complete scalable to grow along with your business. The IBS solution helps to streamline processes through automation and real-time control of information.

Advanced products, such as IBS Business Intelligence, IBS VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE and IBS INTEGRATOR, make it possible for your company to measure business performance and integrate data, system tools and other resources across company and business partner boundaries.

IBS offers software that pays for itself, helping to reduce operating costs and capital outlay without cutting service. You can allocate more resources to setting and fulfilling goals for products, sales and customers. The IBS solution fits any size of enterprise, including global multi distribution systems with full language, currency and regulatory support.

IBS also provides top-level hardware and after-the-sale support, including Project Management and implementation through the proven IBS Implementation Control Process. IBS consultants work on-site with your company to ensure a smooth transition to an integrated solution. Your business processes drive the system, and we work with you to implement best practices for your industry.

Tailored for paper, packaging and office supplies IBS' integrated business software solution can help companies that produce, convert or distribute paper, packaging and office supplies to realise immense benefits throughout their operations, including those within:

• Business intelligence
• CRM and sales order management
• Distribution and logistics
• Financials
• Planning and forecasting
• Procurement
• Service management
• Warehousing

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Warehousing

• AUTOMATIC NOTIFICATION AND WARNING

  IBS ALERT MANAGEMENT monitors inventory and alerts you to actual or potential warehouse problems. Parameters such as minimum stock quantity can be set up to trigger notification to authorized staff. The system can also send messages that suggest actions for solving problems

• BAR CODE AND RADIO FREQUENCY (RF) SUPPORT

  Fully integrated support for bar coding and RF handling allows quick tracking and communication of serial and lot numbers or batch codes. Labelling accuracy is improved through the reduction of human error and paperwork

• INVENTORY SEGMENTATION

  Stock items can be classified based on volume value classification, helping to plan products more effectively. This feature can help identify products that are, for example, high turnover, low-margin, high-value and slow-moving. This can enable a more efficiently managed inventory, with positive effects on such KPIs as inventory days supply and cash-to-cash cycle time

• ITEM CROSS-REFERENCE

  Automated cross-referencing helps you define replacement products and customer or supplier item codes

• SKU MANAGEMENT

  The IBS solution helps you manage thousands of SKU numbers, helping to reduce overhead costs

• STOCK OPTIMIZATION

  Dynamic demand forecasting for different item segments, automated replenishment suggestions, inventory analysis and simulations all help to ensure that the right components are available in stock at optimum levels

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Distribution and logistics

• AUTOMATED SHIPPING OPTIMIZATION

  Including automatic disposal check of stock, capacity, components and transportation. Other automated shipping capabilities include picking and dispatching based on shipment plans, delivery advice and route plan creation and notification at order entry, alternative delivery address for freight documents, complete shipping documentation and loading area instructions

• BACK-TO-BACK DELIVERY

  The IBS solution gives you the ability to coordinate direct deliveries from suppliers to customers, helping to eliminate costs associated with receiving and picking sold goods

• NON-CONFORMING GOODS

  Goods that used for demonstrations or that have packaging defects must be handled. ENTERPRISE software can automatically define unusable goods and provides follow-up capability
• Individual items can be tracked via serial number from stock receipt through to customer invoicing. Lot and batch tracking is also supported

• WAREHOUSE DIVERSION

  The system can automatically divert or block shipments from a warehouse location or change shipments for a specified line in case of a warehouse emergency, helping to ensure uninterrupted delivery and customer satisfaction

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CRM and sales order management

• BACK-TO-BACK ORDER FUNCTIONALITY

  With back-to-back ordering you can cut costs and time in fulfilling orders, connecting your sales order deliveries directly to your suppliers

• CAMPAIGN PLANNING AND MARKETING EVENTS

  Sales and Marketing Support provides tools for effective campaigns and sales drives, with selection features based on customer criteria, as well as campaign follow-up and analysis. Marketing can be focused on customers and prospects according to products or other factors, with extensive feedback functionality

• CUSTOMER DELIVERY SCHEDULING

  Automated forecasting, based on safety stock levels and other information from customers, helps to predict safe stock levels for forthcoming periods. Your business can benefit through more efficient Inventory Control as well as greater customer satisfaction

• CUSTOMER SELF-SERVICE

  Web-enabled customers can use NetStore capabilities to place orders and track product. This helps to reduce your administrative and staff costs while providing 24/7 one-stop-shop service to your customers

• PRODUCT CONFIGURATION

  PRODUCT CONFIGURATOR helps to ensure component accuracy and integrity for creating made-to-order BOMs that fit customer specifications, such as a one-off order for a packaging product. This can lead directly to better customer satisfaction and product quality

• SALES COMMISSIONS

  Commissions for paper, packaging and office supplies sales can be determined by the system, based on the period and allocated salesperson, and calculated on a range or batch of invoices, with further calculations for different commission levels for different periods, items, item groups or customers

• SOURCING FOR RUSH AND SPECIAL ORDERS

  Automatic product sourcing capability is ready-made for rush orders, back-to-back orders or alternative and replacement items. Constant status monitoring helps identify orders that need stock allocation priority. MULTI DISTRIBUTION CENTER enhances the ability to find and allocate stock in a multi-site environment. Enhanced product visibility can help to produce shorter order fulfilment lead-times and reduce safety stock

• TAX HANDLING AND CONTROL

  Country-specific VAT rules provide automatic calculation and accounting of ingoing and outgoing VAT for international business. The system also gathers information for full Intrastat reporting and Tax declarations. This helps reduce overhead costs related to VAT obligations in the form of administrative costs. The system also handles North American taxation and other GST (general sales tax) orders

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Procurement

• AUTOMATED PURCHASE SIMULATION AND SUGGESTION REVIEW

  Simulations let you anticipate real procurement costs through current system information. Purchase suggestion reviews take into account inventory levels, helping to maintain safety stock and pinpoint items to purchase

• ADVANCED RFQ CAPABILITIES

  Requests for quotations can be generated automatically and sent to suppliers through EDI, XML, web-service communications, fax or email. This quick creation and transmission can result in lower administrative costs, better prices and the ability to negotiate more favorable terms and conditions

• AUTOMATED PURCHASE ORDER CREATION

  Purchase orders can be created automatically, based on system suggestions when user-defined criteria are satisfied. The system can also check order points instead of performing this manually. The automated routine helps to reduce labour costs and errors

• DISTRIBUTION ANALYSIS

  Helps you to determine real procurement costs based on current information from throughout the system, with the capability for direct automatic replenishment based on the analysis results

• LANDED COST

  The IBS solution automates the calculation of landed cost, which can be spread over several purchase order lines in a reception. This helps to lower overhead through the reduction of administrative costs and manual errors

• PULL, PRIORITY AND SHORTAGE EVALUATION

  This automated analysis provides automatic monitoring of urgent stocks, plus the capability for automatic order generation

• PURCHASE SUGGESTION MANAGEMENT

  The IBS solution provides suggestion management capabilities with automatic review codes for product lines, helping to ensure accuracy, maximum line value, stock levels and optimized values. Additional functions include special buy evaluation, interactive line buying and graphical planning tools that give a complete overview of procurement information

• SUPPLIER AGREEMENT AND PRICE NEGOTIATION

  Supplier Marketing Support gives you an automated method to take advantage of supplier discount programs. The software handles complex supplier rebate rules and can be an invaluable tool for negotiating the best supplier agreements and prices

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Service management

Transparency, scalability and easy-to-use features let your company integrate its service operations with the entire system. The IBS service solution includes agreement and warranty handling, extensive CRM functionality, graphical tools for resource planning, office-field entry and information updating, service kits handling, resource planning, flexible pricing and charging methods, advanced follow-up capability, time reporting and communications with EDI, XML, web services and other methods.

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Planning and forecasting

Comprehensive planning capabilities from IBS are based on proven ideas that give practical, profitable results. Demand-driven forecasting, controlled by rules and methods, can help your business to respond quickly to dynamic markets. If your company depends instead on planned forecasting, or manual forecasting controlled by the market and capacity, the IBS solution can also handle this need.

Integrated planning with the IBS system helps you make the best use of inventory and resources to satisfy market demands with efficient planning. These practices help you to fulfil orders and reduce lead-times, while at the same time maintaining cost-effective stock levels.

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Financial management

• ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE

  FINANCIALS helps to reduce bad debt and improve accounts receivable and payment statistics. You can monitor and administer customer account balances through automatic statements of account, reminders for overdue invoices and collection handling. This help to decrease A/R days outstanding and your cash-to-cash cycle time

• ACTIVITY-BASED COSTING REPORTING

  Measure and improve the efficiency of your CRM and SCM processes. The IBS solution calculates net profitability from an Activity Based Costing (ABC) approach. The equations used can include any type of balance, whether these are pre-defined in the system, quickly and easily defined by users, calculated or redistributed

• ASSET MANAGEMENT

  ASSET MANAGEMENT helps obtain maximum value from assets – including physical property, warranties and service contracts

• AUTOMATIC TRANSACTION CREATION AND TRANSFER

  Each event in the operational system has user-defined accounting rules for automatic transfer to the General Ledger and sub-ledgers

• CASH FLOW MANAGEMENT

  Provides a complete picture of your company's cash flow, including views of all types of incoming and outgoing payments on a daily level, cash flow forecasts and balance files

• CONSIGNED INVENTORY ACCOUNTING

  Buffer stock from a supplier can be set up as a separate warehouse for accounting purposes, as can your VMI or consignment stock in a customer's warehouse

• CROSS-COMPANY REPORTING

  Lets you choose a range of your system companies to include in financial or other reports. Assets analysis, profit and loss per division, and figures vital to a multi-company environment can be reported for any period

• INTERNATIONAL CURRENCY AND LANGUAGE CAPABILITY

  The system handles any currency and provides support for currency optimization, helping to protect you from losses associated with currency exchange rates. Extensive language support lets you communicate with customers all over the world in their language with, for example, multilingual transaction documentation

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Business intelligence

Pre-loaded client applications with OLAP (On-Line Analytical Processing) tools for data marts are included. The IBS solution uses the SCOR (Supply Chain Operations Reference) model to help measure business performance.

Contact IBS for more information on Paper distribution software. »