Tensoft customer Amalfi Semiconductor pioneered high-performance radio frequency (RF) semiconductors for the cellular handset market based on standard, low-cost complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) technology. Experiencing rapid growth from its success, the company needed more financial and manufacturing management capabilities than Intuit QuickBooks and a "point-in-time" WIP tracking solution could provide. Working with Tensoft, the company implemented Tensoft Fabless Semiconductor Management (FSM) and Microsoft Dynamics. The company has already saved US $75,000 in duplicate vendor invoicing and realized significant efficiencies. With the business management software in place, Amalfi has a solution that takes advantage of purchasing controls to support regulatory compliance. In addition, executives, operations employees, and finance managers now have the insight and control they need to help the company reach its growth goals.

For the complete case study, go to http://bit.ly/yiWV3g.

 Gartner analyst Jim Sheperd recently published a commentary called "Multienterprise Commerce May Be What Comes After ERP," which discusses the need for a replacement for ERP.  Here's a partial explanation of why he's suggesting this:

"Many companies in the retail, distribution and manufacturing industries are struggling to manage complex and dynamic global supply chains with ERP systems that were intended to support the internal operations of a vertically integrated enterprise. The 'enterprise' in ERP was definitely singular!  The problems that I dealt with as a material planner in the 1970s, or that I designed ERP and supply chain applications for in the 1980s and 1990s, are largely irrelevant today. I needed systems that could help me plan materials with six- to nine-month vendor lead times, where everyone's warehouses and distribution channels were stuffed with inventory....  The real business problem that today's manufacturers and distributors are struggling to manage takes place between companies, not within them. Planning, sourcing, production, costing, tracking and fulfillment must take place in an environment that can be accessed and updated by all the players in the value chain. "

Tensoft's customers operate in exactly this environment, which has informed our product design from inception.  Cloud delivery has been a more recent development, but I couldn't agree more that it is the right way to go to meet today's collaboration challenges.  

What do you think? 

It's been almost a month since Momentum 2010, the 5th Annual User Conference for Tensoft Fabless Semiconductor Management (FSM) customers.  Internally, we've had time now to process and begin work on all the great enhancement suggestions and feedback that came out of this year's fabless ERP brainstorming, and we've also had time to go through the conference surveys. 

The consensus seems to be that this was the best conference ever, despite the fact that we deliberately took a very low-key approach to keep the conference affordable.  Who knew?  Well, one conclusion that you could draw from this is that our very wise and grounded customers tend to choose substance over flash - a smart choice and one that we support!

For a little something different this year, I wandered around during the breaks and solicited feedback on the conference from customers, as a supplement to the usual feedback surveys.  I used a Flip HD camcorder, one of the mini videorecorders that are only about the size of a cell phone.  The result was a little "Blair Witch Project" as far as video quality goes, but our customers were good sports, so I was able to record some great feedback.  This was fun and helpful for our team internally, so I asked some  of the conference attendees if they'd be willing to let me share a few clips here.   A couple of them graciously agreed. 

The first clips are of Ted Tresch, a seasoned semiconductor ERP and supply chain planning software user, who became a Tensoft FSM expert at Open-Silicon.  Here, he's commenting on Tensoft's new product introductions.  Ted was also a strong proponent for this year's more casual conference venue, as you can see in this clip.  Thanks Ted!

Deshen Yu, VP of Information Technology at Amlogic, was attending the conference for the second year in a row.  Deshen has many years of experience managing ERP solutions from a variety of ERP vendors, so his positive feedback was especially appreciated. This is a clip of Deshen commenting on his experience at Momentum 2010.

I hope these clips give you a feel for what the Tensoft FSM User Conference is all about, and hope you can join us next year.

  Maybe it’s force of habit, since I’m so used to starting every implementation project with a “kick-off meeting” where we set expectations and discuss logistics, but it seems important to do something similar here.   So, I’ll share a little about what you can expect to find here and who’ll be involved.

Starting with who’ll be involved, we plan to include a variety of perspectives from Tensoft ‘s team, including myself and Tensoft’s other co-founder, William White, as well as others.  In addition, we plan to include entries from occasional guest bloggers.

As a company, what we do is business systems for tech companies.  Within that specialization, we focus on execution.  Our focus isn’t on helping our customers build a better product or on building a market. Our focus is on how well our customers do as a company and how well we can enable them to track, manage, bill, and get information to make timely, decisive action possible. 

Our perspective for this blog comes from our experience working with hundreds of tech companies.  What works and what doesn’t?  What are best practices for our customers?  What are the challenges they face?  What are the areas of tech execution – like revenue management, supply chain integration, multi-national operations at an early stage, and the nature of the workforce,  for example – that are important as tech companies grow and re-structure?    

It also comes from our experience and evolution as a tech vendor ourselves – starting as a systems integrator and Value Added Re-seller, transitioning to a software product company, and then adding  hosted ERP to our core offerings.   What industry trends influence us, and how do we stay ahead of them?  How do we innovate and continue to improve on our fabless semiconductor software, our revenue management software, and our ERP solutions?

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to comment on the posts here – we want to hear from you.  And while we’d prefer to have open discussions on the topics here, please contact us directly by clicking on our name at the end of the article, if you’d prefer to send a private email.

-          Bob Scarborough, CEO and Co-founder, Tensoft