Please join us at the next Los Angeles Macola Users' Group meeting at CBS Studio Center on Thursday, July 24th from 2:30 to 4:30.

This is the perfect time to network with other users of Macola Progression and ES. Please pass this on to anyone you think may be interested in attending. The more people that attend, the greater benefit it will be to each of us.

What: LA Macola Users Group Meeting

When: Thursday, July 24, 2008

Time: 2:30 - 4:30 P.M.

Where: CBS Studio Center
4024 Radford Ave.
Studio City, CA 91604

Room #: TBD

RSVP to: Karen Haskins
Karen.haskins@ezag.com
(661) 309-2040

It is important to RSVP so that we can make sure that the guards allow you onto the premises.

Agenda

• Introduction of attending VARs
• Introduction of attendees
• EBA presentation
• Questions and Answers
• Close

Presenter

Robert Klein, our Exact representative will be presenting on EBA. Robert has worked for Exact for 1.5 years working as a presales consultant providing demonstrations of Exact Software solutions including Exact Synergy, Exact Event Manager, Exact Business Analytics and Macola ES. Robert has experience with non-Exact Software solutions including Crystal Enterprise 9 and 10. He has worked with other ERP, CRM and Web-based solutions since 1995. He has been involved in both consulting and presentations over the years, mostly on the sales side and is familiar with our competition since he sold MAS 90, MAS 500, Syspro, Accpac Pro Series (SBT), SalesLogix, and GoldMine to name a few!


•See following pages for more information regarding the power of EBA

EBA
If you attended the Engage Conference, you are probably aware that EBA was an area of focus this year. Exact has purchased EBA from Vanguard and has started incorporating it directly into Macola rather than EBA remaining as a separate product.

Per the Exact website at http://www.exactamerica.com/businessanalytics/index.html, "Exact Business Analytics is designed to put power and functionality into the hands of business managers. It offers the power to quickly and easily build information views while dynamically combining and comparing data from multiple sources or different business functions. In addition to ad-hoc analyses, users can create personalized information views, graphs and reports that can be automatically distributed to users on a pre-defined schedule or accessed via the web!

Exact Business Analytics are:

1) POWERFUL
a) Integrated query, reporting, and analytical tools, enable users to access vital business information, perform in-depth analysis, and share the results throughout the organization-all from a single, comprehensive user interface
b) With one mouse click, EBA delivers management views and reports incorporating business metrics and key performance indicators whether you're connected to the network or totally detached (while traveling on an airplane or impromptu ad-hoc analysis offsite)

2) PRACTICAL
a) Put information and control in the hands of business users-not just the IT department. Exact Business Analytics offers easy-to-use tools and viewing options that meet the needs of all types of users
b) EBA accesses data in place. Exact does not require users to move data or create a data warehouse or data mart, thus saving significant dollars in initial and ongoing cost for hardware and technical services

3) INTEGRATED
a) Exact offers pre-built ERP integration to both Macola ES and Progression
b) EBA also integrates and displays data from any ODBC-compliant data source
c) EBA's Analytical Model includes pre-defined information views and report templates for both Sales & Inventory as well as Manufacturing - available "day one"

An upcoming webinar, "Beyond Express User - Comparing the various Exact Business Analytics (EBA) User Interfaces on Jun 11 at 1 P.M. central time. This session will help understand the business value, as well as feature-function differences and strengths of each one of the EBA User interfaces and how each one can be the best choice for a specific problem or analysis.
EBA Express User Interface (UI)
EBA Express UI is a simplified user front-end that can be used either connected to the server or offline. It is designed to provide a low-cost, minimal-training option by removing the multi-dimensional features for basic "fixed view only" type users who do not require the full analytical capabilities, while retaining these critical features:

1) Secure User-controlled on-demand refresh (with dynamic consolidation across multiple databases)
2) Content filtering prior to view refresh
3) Cube filtering/locking after view refresh
4) Full access to pre-defined cube layouts and cube filters
5) Ability to export reports as Adobe® .PDF or to Excel
6) Ability to export filtered (or non-filtered) cube data to Excel
7) Ability to save refreshed views and then manipulate them offline (for example: on an airplane)
8) Seamless user skill migration to next level UIs (Business User Plus or Power UI)

Financial Reporting and Consolidation
EBA has built-in report writer that facilitates report writing for all business reports including financial statements. The EBA Financial reporting hierarchy enables addition to or extension of the ERP chart of accounts by providing an easy means of defining financial reporting categories or lines that do not exist in the original chart of accounts. This provides a flexible and powerful way to create comprehensive financial reporting and analysis.
This hierarchy also enables Consolidated Financial Reporting across any number of non-integrated financial databases.
The previous releases of EBA provided the supporting tables for the financial hierarchy and maintenance required but the maintenance of the hierarchy required consulting services. The new module significantly enhances and simplifies the ability to maintain the hierarchy across the enterprise as follows:

1) Separate licensed-controlled application within System Administration
2) Secure User access to this new application, by individual Environment
3) Ability to identify any Site (database) as containing Financial Reporting Hierarchy tables
4) Minimize maintenance using "mass copy" of standard Financial Categories / Structures / GL Account Cross-references to any number of databases
5) Starting point set of Financial Categories / Structures
6) Foundation for Consolidated Financial views and Reports

Major Ease of use Features (all user clients) include:
1) Improved ease of export to Excel and Adobe (.PDF) formats (directly from toolbar)
2) Improvements in Cube Filter Locking functionality
3) Toolbar improvements/standardization to streamline new user interactions
4) Many additional incremental improvements to improve usability

Major Dashboard-related Features Include:
1) Automatically update all cube layouts when a cube definition changes (makes enhancing dashboards less labor-intensive)
2) Removal of dashboard loader dataset size limitations (now constrained only by Excel version capabilities)