Made2Manage Offers New Functionality And A VIP Treatment

On January 14, Made2Manage Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: MTMS), a provider of broad enterprise business systems for small and mid-market manufacturers, announced the release of the latest version of its Enterprise Business System suite running on the Microsoft SQL Server. The release tagged M2M ERP 5.0 SQL extends the capabilities of the company's flagship ERP product primarily through key new features that include support for multi-site manufacturing and enhanced financial capabilities.

Version 5.0 still provides the necessary support for quotes, sales, inventory management, purchasing, production, shipping and receiving. However, the new version integrates this functionality across multiple manufacturing sites/facilities. It also provides flexible reports, and the easy to use, M2M Reporter with "Drag and Drop" report writing functionality, that address

The above release was preceded by a number of specific product enhancements. To that end, on October 29, Made2Manage announced that it has signed an agreement with one of its leading value-added resellers (VAR), Concord Business Systems, which allows Made2Manage and other VARs to sell a new business intelligence (BI) application. The new Events and Actions (EA) tool is a product that extends the Made2Manage Notifier functionality to provide several distinct capabilities.

The EA tool can handle criteria other than status changes (e.g., percentage profitability is unacceptable), multiple events, (e.g., the purchase order is over $5,000 and the order is late), and time-based events, (e.g., a quote is within 5 days of being due). In addition to the popup, e-mail or fax actions, the action may be an executable program (e.g., automatically putting a quote, sales order, purchase order, etc. on hold).

A library of events and actions are included with the EA tool to reduce setup time, while wizards easily create custom events and actions utilizing "drag and drop" technology. In addition, the notifications can now be managed through a control panel named "Alert Central", which utilizes a "stop light" metaphor to prioritize and alert users to events.