by Sonia Zarino - Marketing & Communication Manager

Certain activities within a company are seen as a given and are not considered much in terms of efficiency and “profitability”. In particular, stock is often only seen from the perspective of their economic and financial burden, without any detailed analysis of the way space, operational logistics and stores personnel are organised. The efficiency and “productivity” of a company are achieved at times in large part by its correct structuring and organisation.

Optimising stock management means in particular:

• Minimising stock, at the same time maximising customer satisfaction, reducing to a minimum the time between an order for a product and delivery and implementing the just-in-time principle in distribution.

• Taking into account how the various market contexts influence stock management of industrial companies, wholesale enterprises, retail traders and service providers, and identifying the advantageous solutions in each individual case.

• Determining the necessary stock levels so as to achieve the most advantageous purchasing/production conditions, reducing stock to a minimum and being in a position to face any eventuality.

• Implementing a storage system for materials, components and finished products which minimises the costs of moving the goods and facilitates the physical management of the stock.

Mago.net is capable of fully satisfying these and other inventory management needs thanks to its multiple functionalities in the logistical area: Inventory, Lots and Serials, Inventory Locations. In particular, the Inventory Module offers all the tools required for an efficient movement of goods and related operations. The graphic navigation allows you to view all the key data concerning an item, speeding up analyses of quantities available, even in various stores, price lists, outstanding orders and so forth.

The module offers in-depth reports, which can be fully customised to meet individual needs, allows a constant monitoring of the stores and, therefore, of the active and passive cycles of the company. This aspect is particularly important because having up-to-date information is a prerequisite for making correct decisions within limited timeframes and thus achieving a real competitive advantage in the market.

For more information on managing this Mago.net programme visit our site at www.microarea.it under the Products area where you will find complete information on the functionalities available. Those who are already using the modules in the logistics area can also take advantage of online courses which are free for current MLU subscribers and use quick and easy methods to provide you with detailed knowledge of the programme, allowing you to achieve maximum productivity for your company.

by Sonia Zarino –  Marketing & Communication Manager

Active for almost two months, Microarea Community is proving to be a virtual rendezvous, popular with users and partners where they can exchange information and suggestions of any kind which, as in the case below, translate into product improvements and actively contribute to their technical and commercial development.

It all started with an observation by a final user who pointed out that in the electronics sector, the suppliers, not wishing to tie up goods (and therefore capital) in storage with the possible risk of not selling the products, often purchase materials only after having received an order from a customer.

Frequently electronic items must be imported and have delivery times of various lengths. Our user noted that in most cases each individual item has a different delivery date to the other items, although these are all part of the same order.

The proposal put forward by our sharp user was that it should be possible to insert the date of delivery of each single item in the “Supplier Quotation” screen. The idea being that when a quotation is received, it would be possible to save the delivery date of each item, generating a “self-updating” Excel spreadsheet thanks to Magic Documents, where all the information on the delivery dates proposed could be merged.

Microarea saw value in our user’s suggestion and launched a process known as Product Improvement to implement this new functionality, which will be released in a future version.

The topic proposed in this posting gave rise to various comments and another user, having observed that the problem experienced in the electronic field is also common in the mechanical sector, has suggested including the further possibility of linking the quoted price with the delivery date.

The collaborative process of shared analysis and development of our product is already bearing fruit and we are certain that the Community will be a valuable tool in this sense, continuously contributing new points of view to the future designs of our product, improving performance and accessibility on the basis of the real needs of the users.
 

by Sonia Zarino -  Marketing & Communication Manager

We know that energy is a fundamental aspect of the economy and has noticeable impact on the financial situation of companies and families. Many commercial organisations, therefore, do business in this sector and our partners have developed several interesting solutions aimed at these companies.

S.I.C. SRL - Servizi Integrati e Consulenze, Microarea Platinum Partner, have been active for almost twenty years in the petrochemical sector and has developed for Mago.net the two applications described in this issue.

1) OilGas.Net
This Mago.net application is designed for the management of methane gas and GPL suppliers. It makes it possible to run any aspect of this type of company, from the management of contracts and meters, to meter reading and tank truck delivery invoicing.

Data management with OilGas.Net is particularly comprehensive. The application offers many functions, such as:

• Calculation of fixed daily rate for the days of actual consumption
• Management of calendar and thermal years for price calculation
• Calculation of price in MC based on a gigajoule table
• Management of customised meter discounts
• Management of tiered VAT
• Modular structure and customising of thermal years by user
• Calculation of interest on arrears
• Management of adjustments
• Management of additional costs
• Management of reminder costs
• Estimated readings
• Export of meters to be read in various formats
• Import of readings from hand-held devices and files
• Statistics on average supply prices for natural gas
• Declaration of natural gas consumption for the Customs Agency

Technical characteristics:
Oilgas.Net has been developed for Mago.net Professional Edition and designed with Task Builder Standard. Supported databases: MSDE, SQL Server and Oracle.

The earliest release of Mago.net with which Oilgas.Net is compatible is 2.12 and compatibility with subsequent versions is planned.

The minimum configuration of Mago.net necessary for the programme to function consists of Server, General Accounting, Inventory and Sales modules. A paper copy of the manual is available.

2) Oilsys.Net
This Mago.net application offers a comprehensive solution to SMEs in the petrochemical sector who require a programme capable of an integrated managing function for all fiscal, commercial and accounting aspects linked to the management of inventory and marketing of petrochemical and chemical products (liquid and packaged).

The structure of the programme and the management of data allow it to be integrated with other specialised packages such as those for management of distributor stations, heat management or management of electronic weighing systems and meter readings.

The multiple functions of Olisys.Net include:
• Telematisation of excise duties and creation of flat files
• Multi-inventory and multi-customer management
• Management of drivers, means of transport and transporters
• ADR check, booklet dates and revision
• Motor vehicle capacity check
• Commercial products with definition of fiscal items and intended use
• Management of product wording for each type of accompanying document
• Density conversions by means of pre-loaded ASTM tables
• Unit of measure tables configured as desired
• DAS, DAS “not accompanying goods”, DAS, XABD and XAB lists, meter tag
• Multiple deliveries with collective DAS and collective DAS list

Various optional forms are also available:
• Transport management
• Management control
• Management of confirmation reports
• Management of fiscal and/or coastal deposits

The software can also import data from service stations for customer invoicing and connect to electronic weighing machines to access data automatically.

The application is completely integrated with Mago.net and shares its interface in order to offer the user an even more convenient and simple working environment thanks to the operative uniformity of the various functional modules.