We’ve been around long enough to see the advent of computerized (PC-based) accounting go from “nobody wants it (but everybody needs it)” to “everybody has it” in a span of 20 years. Then we saw the Internet rise seemingly out of nowhere, and next thing you know, a little dorm room operator begets Facebook’s 2 billion users, and in the span of a decade Amazon grows from an online bookseller into a $3 billion revenue behemoth – and last year, nearly $200 billion.
So when it comes to revolutionary change, exploded business models and unforeseen surprises, don’t say it can’t happen. This thing called Blockchain could, maybe… be next, and it’s worth your paying attention to.
Blockchain is the term used to describe an online, decentralized, distributed-ledger of recent invention (i.e., ten years ago) that is known for its security and simultaneous openness to all its members. Blockchain has enormous cost-cutting potential in business because it cuts costs by “eliminating the middleman” like say, a bank. Records cannot be altered retroactively without the alteration of all subsequent ‘blocks,’ thus creating a sense of trust among all parties. Blockchain has found its way into testing across a variety of applications from supply chain to healthcare, from banking to insurance and a host of others. Major companies like IBM, JP Morgan, Citi and many others are investing heavily in it.
The encryption possibilities of blockchain make it appear ideal in the realm of financial documentation and transactions – an easy concept to introduce, given that records are hard to change, making it well-suited for security and potentially very useful.
In supply chains, the back office potential to reduce paperwork, costs, transaction time and administration hold enormous potential, as companies talk directly (digitally) to one another via a shared database that all can use and which, in theory, requires very little regulation or administration.
Clearly, the potential is there, and the appeal is evident to business. Still, large IT projects always take more time and resources than people usually project – it’s just human nature – and blockchain requires cooperation across multiple firms, so these projects will take even longer. Backers and participants will need patience.
But then, twenty years ago, how many folks thought the internet would rule so much of commerce today – and still be growing – or that ‘the cloud’ would ultimately become the data repository for so much of the world’s knowledge and the planet’s operations and finance?
Have You Thought About Using a Product Configurator?
One of our key software partners in a recent post reminds us of the long-standing value of a “product configurator.” Because we work so much with manufacturers and distributors (almost exclusively actually) we see the value in these products every day, and find our own manufacturing software solutions well-equipped, either intrinsically or via third-party add-ons, for them.
A Product Configurator significantly simplifies the creation of production Bills of Material (BOMs) and Routings, or assembly BOMs, to make quote and order generation more efficient.
Easily Configurable Rules: Set combination rules for specific products. For example, when building a bicycle, if a specific style of handlebars is selected then a specific lamp will be included while the bell will be excluded.
Apply Multipliers: When it comes to bulk material usage, multipliers can be used to ensure automatically generated BOMs include waste and trim material. For example, a window frame may require an additional 10% of frame material for production purposes which will be cut and trimmed for the final product.
Build Sophisticated Rules: For anyone who may require more sophisticated rules not supported by the user interface, Product Configurator includes an API… so that rules can be done without a developer license, allowing end-users to create “scripts” for rules.
It all adds up to the ability configure a bill of materials so that end products can be built according to the rules that you specify.
These are ideal for companies that make to order or who build assemblies. They typically support thousands of functions. Whereas early configurators of the 1980s and ‘90s in large scale systems once ran in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, today’s solutions are a tiny fraction of the cost, with far-ranging capabilities available on PC-based systems.
Using pre-configured items saves lots of time… eliminates countless data entry and keyboarding mistakes… greatly simplifies order-taking for the sales team… and ensures product accuracy by ensuring that build-rules are always followed.
If you build to assemblies or make to order, you owe it to yourself to look into the world of product configurators. They frequently pay for themselves quickly, and many times over, while increasing your competitive edge in terms of improved order accuracy, reduced order and build times, and greatly simplified order taking.
We’ve written here before about the powerful capabilities of the emerging science of quantum computing – the idea that computers using the properties of sub-atomic particles can perform calculations many orders of magnitude faster than the speed of today’s computers. This opens entire new worlds of computing power, and of course, potentially failsafe encryption.
Today, we’ll look very briefly at the latest developments and opinions.
According to The New York Times, China is moving forward at a rapid pace, working on building the first actual quantum computer while focusing on “encryption that relies on the same concepts from the world of physics.” That raw power could break current digital encryption, putting at risk everything from billions of dollars in e-commerce to national secrets in government databases. Thus, the race is on for quantum encryption to protect data too. Quantum encryption would make it evident if a message had been intercepted.
Others think the fears are overblown, since there are currently no functioning quantum computers. Indeed, there are “gargantuan technical challenges” to be overcome and researchers have been saying we are 20 years away for 20 years now, according to Mikhail Dyakonov in IEEE Spectrum.
Just what the world needs to worry about now.
Merry Christmas From Everyone at PSSI!
We appreciate all our families, friends, customers and partners on this day and throughout the year.
We thank you, and wish you the very merriest of Christmases, the happiest of Holidays, and the warmest regards for you and your family!