It's been a year of growth and change here at The RIC Group and we would like to thank you for being part of the journey. We look forward to working with you next year and making 2022 a success.

The RIC Group's offices will be closed from 2pm on Friday 24th of December 2021 with services resuming to normal 9am on Monday 10th of January 2022. We will be running a skeleton crew during the shutdown period and operating at reduced availability. Please ensure phone calls are made to our support desk on +61 478 113 932.

Price change for consulting services
The RIC Group is announcing a modest rise in the price of its consulting services from 1st of January 2022. Enquire with our sales team about a service level agreement to avoid paying the non-contract rate.

Our consulting rate will rise to $250.00 ex GST per hour. Any statement of work signed off prior to 24th of December, 2021 will be honoured at the current rates.

I know that price increases are unwelcome and we don't do them lightly. However, due to the unprecedented challenges with the pandemic this helps cover inflation and maintain ongoing training. We thank you for your business and assure you of our continued best efforts.

Please contact us at sales@thericgroup.com if you have any questions.

Please view our latest case study as well. Link is below.

Visit here to see our latest email issue.

​There has been a fantastic enhancement with SAP Business One V10.0 with having a web client. This has been based on SAP Fiori and with the web client allows users to use the browser to use SAP Business One. This is great news for clients who prefer a cloud deployment.

​The maintenance period has ended for SAP Business One release 9.0/9.1/9.2/9.3 and this is a great time for clients to really think about cloud deployment of SAP Business One release 10.0 More information on SAP Business One maintenance and release strategy here.

With SAP Business One V10.0 there is also the fantastic news for SSP Partners such as The RIC Group, that the Service Layer supports HANA and SQL databases. We use a loosely coupled architecture with our Warehouse Management Solution which supports the Service Layer for integration.

When you are upgrading to SAP Business One V10 as a customer there are important questions to ask about the Add ons you are using or will be using. Does the Add On support the Web Client? Does the Add On use the Service Layer for integration?

In my opinion a key here with SAP Business One V10 is to look for Add Ons that support the Web Client and use the Service Layer for Integration. This will ensure you have future security and return on investment with your add on.

With this new world it is more important than ever to ensure your systems support cloud deployments and the add ons that you use with your ERP support cloud deployments.

SAP Business One has been serving small and midsize businesses for more than two decades. Chosen by >70,000 customers with ~ million users across >170 countries, it is SAP’s best-selling ERP solution by number of customers.
Available on premise and on the cloud with advanced extensibility and customization capabilities, SAP Business One is a great solution for the SMB market and with it’s Web Client it becomes even greater.

Bringing you the best of all worlds – it is based on SAP Fiori design principles and encapsulating SAP Business One core processes and business logic.

More information on the SAP Blog :
https://blogs.sap.com/2021/05/11/discover-the-web-client-for-sap-business-one/

​

One of the latest features we have put in our Warehouse Management Solution is Command barcodes. When the user scans this 2D barcode it performs an action. What is great about this feature is our WMS allows you to create the command barcode for all the actions.

For example there is command barcodes in the Picking screen to complete, print SSCC or generate SSCC labels. There is even command barcodes in the print label screen to select all or to print or to print all.

The next feature we added is the ability to print Employee Login Barcodes from the User Profile screen. It is now just so easy for the admin user to print employee barcodes, which the employee can use for logging onto the WMS. This is extremely useful for so many distribution businesses at the moment, who have casual or temporary staff coming in to fulfil warehouse jobs. Add the new user, print barcode and employee can login with scanning the 2D barcode.

The next part to note is when printing the barcode, the password is encrypted in the barcode. Therefore another user can not scan the barcode, and see anyone's password. Our WMS is scalable and flexible.
​
Example of employee login barcode is below.

​Please contact us at sales@thericgroup.com for further information.

Media contact:
Paul Ellis
paul@thericgroup.com
+61 3 9545 0404
 
The RIC Group’s WMS Application Certified By Acumatica

The RIC Group application is recognized as an “Acumatica-Certified Application” by the cloud ERP company
 
Melbourne, Victoria, 13/08/21 -- The RIC Group, The Intelligent WMS, today announced that its software has been recognized as an Acumatica-Certified Application (ACA). Acumatica, the world’s fastest-growing cloud ERP company, was recently recognized as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide SaaS and Cloud-Enabled Medium-Sized/Midmarket Business ERP Applications 2020 Vendor Assessment.
 
Acumatica is a comprehensive, browser-based Cloud ERP solution optimized for ease of use, adaptability, mobility, speed and security. The ACA title highlights outstanding development partners whose applications have met the highest standards set for Acumatica integration and functionality.
 
“Customers who want to stay competitive need flexible, responsive technology to execute their long-term business strategies,” said Christian Lindberg, vice president of partner solutions at Acumatica. “Our ACA label is built to help customers find applications capable of delivering that. We’re proud to recognize The RIC Group’s WMS as an Acumatica-Certified Application. It masterfully utilizes the Acumatica platform to meet customers’ evolving business demands.”
 
To become an Acumatica-Certified Application, The RIC Group has demonstrated commitment to quality by passing the Acumatica software test and aligning to future Acumatica roadmap releases.
 
“We’re honored to receive this kind of recognition from the Acumatica developers themselves,” said Paul Ellis, Director. “This is a testament to the strength of our application and the depth of our integration with the Acumatica platform. With our suite of enhancements and Acumatica’s solid foundation, I believe the sky’s the limit for us.”
 
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About The RIC Group
The RIC Group, based in Melbourne, is solving supply chain problems across the globe with a tailored approach to allow for an agile deployment of our WMS. Our WMS is built on cloud and mobile technology. Learn more by visiting https://www.thericgroup.com.au/

It is really important to stay informed about the Supported (security fixes) from Google for Android. Currently Android 8.1 and above are supported for security fixes. Android 8.1 was originally end of support by April 30, 2021, but postponed due to Covid-19 pandemic.

When you implement Android RF scanners or Android tablets into your business you need to ensure that you understand the supported versions by Google and when the release dates were. It is also important that you ask the consultant advising you on the hardware you are purchasing about the supported Android versions and supported security fixes.

To see the Android version history see here.

Android typically supports an OS version for 3 years and being on the latest security reduces your risk. The importance of Cyber-security is more relevant than ever with digital transformation.

For enterprise customers, such as customers implementing a Warehouse Management Solution on Android RF scanners managing Android OS upgrades has to be made easy. Honeywell scanners have a great platform called Mobility Edge. More information here.

Cipherlab also allows you to upgrade to Android version as well.

Please feel free to contact us on sales@thericgroup.com for further information.

Productivity in both Australia and New Zealand is low, and it looks like the trajectory isn’t likely to improve in the next five years.
This economic measure of income growth seeks to quantify how efficiently resources, such as capital and labour are used to produce output – such as the goods and services we consume every day.
While productivity appears to be impacted by the pandemic in Australia, there are also systemic issues in New Zealand, if recent modelling is anything to go by. Either way, at the end of the day, it’s causing a big headache for organisations in both regions.
Productivity in Australia and New Zealand

• Australia has a long way to go in the race to bolster productivity
• New Zealand highlights innovation as crucial to improving productivity
• Both nations face higher costs of living and stagnating wages
• Adoption of digital tech is seen as a way forward

More information on the MYOB BLOG here.

With SAP Business One there are 4 BOM (Bill of Material) types. These are Production Bill of Material, Sales Bill Material, Assembly Bill of Material and Template Bill of Material.

​When customers are using Assembly BOM and they release the picks through the SAP Business One Pick Pack Manager they will note that SAP creates two separate pick lists when other items are on the sales order.

For the example above two picks lists are created. #2051 and #2051 as there is one pick list for the Assembly BOM and one for the standard product on the sales order.

Our Warehouse Management Solution for SAP Business One has retrieves the pick list directly from SAP. The architecture our WMS has always used is loosely coupled. More information here.

With two separate pick lists retrieved on the WMS it will mean they are picked separately. Normally this would mean they create two separate Delivery Documents in SAP Business One, even though they are shipped together on the same consignment.

This is where our Warehouse Management Solution for SAP Business One is the Intelligent WMS.

When the pick has an Assembly BOM in the Sales Order with other products the work flow of our WMS will drive this into a Pick and Pack Phase. In the pack screen the user will select the two picks and the WMS will join this into one Pack. As you can see above the pack has the one document number 2643, but has the two pick id's # 2052 and # 2051.

When the pack is completed the WMS will then create one delivery document in SAP Business One as pictured above. If there is integrated freight such as with Direct Freight, OneFlo, Smart Freight, Australia POST, Border Express, TNT, Toll, Star Track Or Kings Freight, then after the pack the WMS will drive into the integrated freight function. The consignment details, packaging information of lxwxh and volume of each carton and pallet will be populated into the packaging document of SAP Business One as well.

Our Intelligent WMS gives our SAP Business One clients an end to end supply chain solution which helps them improve performance, reduce costs and increase profitability.