Obtaining accreditation from the South African National Accreditation System (SANAS) is no easy feat. Your laboratory should be able to perform tests according to methods stipulated by SANAS. Your laboratory's processes and procedures are also scrutinised to determine the efficiency of your Quality Management System (QMS). Read more...

South African Steel Fabricator and heavy machining company, Genrec, passed the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) standards covering Operations, Safety, Health and Environment. The company's ISO9001 accreditation follows the installation of QBCon computerised maintenance management system- Q-CMMS. Read more...

Business intelligence (BI) software ranked eighth in the Gartner list of top ten strategic business technologies for 2009. Read more...

EasyAsk is Breaking New Ground in Business Intelligence - November

In an ideal world, all businesses would make proactive business decisions based on accurate, up-to-date information. Until recently, this was merely an idealistic theory, but EasyAsk is breaking new ground in business intelligence.  Read more...

Corporate governance with QBCon Enterprise and EasyAsk - November

Corporate governance and GAAP compliance can be as painless as doing a Google search with QBCon Enterprise and EasyAsk.

What is corporate governance?

Corporate governance refers to the day-to-day running of your company. A large and difficult part of corporate governance includes the ethical and efficient management of the financial department. Read more...

EasyAsk Integrated With Laboratory Information Management System - October

Having a business intelligence (BI) tool that provides updated and complete information at the touch of a button is a reality for many a business thanks to EasyAsk. Read more...

Lab-i Integrates With Business Intelligence Tool, EasyAsk - October

QBCon has reached a new phase in Business Intelligence (BI) and Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) implementation. Customers can now receive advanced technological solutions that deal with the evolving need for data management in any industry. Read more...

Are you ready for an ERP? - October

Nobody buys an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system because they want to. They buy it because they have to, or because they understand the value of an ERP system. The trick in both cases is to get the timing right. If you buy because you have to, chances are your business is not performing as well as it should.

This could be because your business process becomes to complex for a manual or outdated system. It could also be attributed to the fact that your manual or outdated system requires that your business uses more resources than it needs to produce saleable goods.

Either way, by the time you realise this you have lost money. Timing the purchase of your system when you do understand the value of an ERP is just as difficult. You need to balance affordability with future capacity. Read more...

QBScan Gives Vericon Access to Information - October

With QBScan, Vericon Outsourcing has access to the information they need to deliver superior customer service to all their clients. QBScan offers Vericon full real-time visibility on their clients’ orders. Knowing what was shipped and in which container will allow Vericon to answer customer queries immediately. Read more...

Lab-i Reduces Usage Time for Bioindustrial Services - September

In the typical analytical laboratory there is a large amount of data that needs to be tracked and analysed. Hundreds, if not thousands of samples are processed each week. Tracking and sorting these samples can become a time-consuming process. Read more...

QBCon Assist Europ Assistance’s Clients in Emergency Situations - September

Europ Assistance South Africa merged with Care Assist in 2001 and became a force to be reckoned with. Today, the company’s wide range of services includes healthcare assistance and advice, travel insurance, emergency assistance, and roadside assistance. Read more...

Easy Access to Info Reduces Phone Time for Call Centres - September

Call centres function according to a simple principle: the amount of time an operator spends on one call affects the amount of calls an operator can take in a day. The amount of calls taken by a single operator has a direct effect on the operator’s productivity and the call centre’s profit. Read more...

QBCon Excited About the New Version of EasyAsk® - August

QBCon is pleased to announce that we now sell and implement the latest version of Progress EasyAsk® Operational Business Intelligence (BI), namely version 11.0. The upgraded version of EasyAsk® sports a unique querying and analytical system, allowing the user to type a question in natural language to receive immediate results. Read more...

New Age BI Tools Address Contact Centre Gripes and Wish Lists -

Regardless of whether you think the future of Contact Centres lies in self-service, interaction management or agent productivity, there is a common solution: to improve access to information.  Most Contact Centre operators already know this.  A recent Deloitte and Touche survey shows that Contact Centre operators list Management Information Systems (MIS) and reporting as two of their top five technology gripes. Read more...

QBCon Contracted by Central Analytical Laboratories for URS

Another leading South African laboratory has signed up QBCon, a business solution provider, to complete a User Requirement Specification (URS). Central Analytical Laboratories (CAL) selected QBCon from competing industry heavyweights as the preferred Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) developer. Read more...

Upgrade Your ERP System Trouble-Free - August

An efficient Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is the key to ensuring the effective flow of information within a company. When evaluating a company’s ERP system, one has to consider whether the current system supports or inhibits the company’s ability to carry out business strategies that ensure effective management. Read more...

Easy Access to Info Reduces Phone Time for Call Centres - September

The more calls a call centre operator can handle, the greater the operator’s productivity and consequently the greater the call centre’s profit. The irony for outsourced call centres is that they would like their operators to spend less time on the phone.    The shorter the amount of time an operator spends on the line with one client, the more calls he or she can take in a day. Read more...

Chocolate Factory Gives Willy Wonka Golden Ticket of Reliability - July

The only thing that is sweeter than the chocolate in Springer Chocolate’s Windhoek factory is the reliability of their chocolate production. By investing in a Q-CMMS (Computerised Maintenance Management System), Springer Chocolate provides their clients, such as Cadbury and Woolworths, with top class confectionery as well as the greatest benefit in any retail environment…predictability. Read more...

Laboratory Clients Receive Credible Data Because of Lab-i

Lab managers will agree that to improve the profit of a laboratory it is important to maximise efficiency, whether it is in the manufacturing or processing industry. Efficiency can only be achieved by having accurate data as this reflects business activities. Data accuracy is the foundation for data quality and produces the reliable service provider customers expect. Companies seek new ways to improve productivity, reduce cost and time, and meet customer expectations. Read more...

Ask Me Anything - Brainstorm June 2008

Local companies Matrix Vehicle Tracking and Europ Assistance have rolled out EasyAsk, a Business Intelligence (BI) tool that allows users to query almost any database in plain English. Read more...

Cosmetics Giant SMS Its Way To Profitability

The Short Message Service (SMS) is saving one cosmetics giant thousands of rands. SMSs were not developed with the commercial market in mind, but businesses are starting to realise that teenagers shouldn’t be the only ones who communicate cheaply. Avroy Shlain Cosmetics recently upgraded their ordering system to allow consumers to place orders via SMS rather than phoning the call centre.  This approach achieved three goals: Read more...

Lab-i: Your Laboratory Assistant

Today’s scientists are constantly seeking for ways to keep track of everything, from experimental details and results to data graphs. What scientists really need is a personal assistant, someone who can document everything that was done in the lab – how was what done and when? Visualise yourself walking up to this assistant, which you know is available every minute of the day, and asking for every detail of information on an experiment you did the week before. Read more...

Your ERP is Only as Good as Your URS

The implementation of a new Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application is usually more painful than expected.  Changes during the development process, resistance from users, disruption of normal workflow and unplanned integration issues with existing systems cause delays, bugs and re-writes. These in turn cost money. Read more...

Bespoke ERP Solutions for Industry Specific Problems

The traditional ERP software approach that one size fits all, has been adapted by ERP vendors with industry specific experience. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) vendors are offering industry specific customisations to gain a competitive advantage in the maturing ERP market. Read more...

New Generation BI - June

The concept of Business Intelligence (BI) has changed. Once referred to as a “tech-savvy only” access tool, it has now evolved into an accessible natural language data processor. The new generation BI tool answers English language questions, in real time and without having to rely on the IT department to configure systems for reports. Read more...

QBCon Identify Factors when Deciding to Implement an ERP

Horror stories of companies implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems unsuccessfully are found everywhere. These stories are tainting the world of technology and business solution companies. Companies are starting lawsuits against ERP implementers and vendors because these companies spent more money than they anticipated and still do not get what they paid for. Read more...

EasyAsk Empowers Frontline Staff

Business Intelligence (BI) is perhaps the most talked about technology topic at the moment. Businesses are getting a greater return on BI investments and new generation BI no longer only focuses on the decision-making needs of senior management. Read more...

Getting Information Systems Departments to love Business Intelligence - May

Business Intelligence (BI) is often more expensive than it first appears, and the Information Systems (IS) department often has to foot the bill.  But it is only when you analyse the process that creates the reports that the reason for the cost burden of BI on IS departments becomes apparent. The main costs are due to the IS resources required to produce the reports that BI requires. Read more...

QBCon Ads Web Front-end to SAP Business One®

QBCon has designed a web interface for SAP Business One® that will allow users to remotely access the small business Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The development is part of a SAP Business One® implementation by SMB Solutions. The QBCon interface makes it possible for management to track  project status and staff activity in real time, for projects that take place off-site.�Read more...

QBCon Implements EasyAsk at Europ Assistance - April

We all know time is money, but for Europ Assistance time is often life. The company handles two million calls per month with queries from eight million consumers on issues such as health, travel, emergency services, professional consultations and cover, labour, education, and recovery. Each of these calls requires the operator to not only have access to the caller’s details, but also to be able to answer all the caller’s questions. This is a tall order when you consider that they have to scan through more than eight million records that come from various imported databases and that are written in various languages.�Read more...

Real Cost Versus the Ticket Price

Off-the-shelf, open source and rent to own are all variations on the same theme.  The idea is to get the client interested at a low price and to make money off them in some other way.  This is similar to buying an inkjet printer for R500 and then having to pay R600 every time you change the ink.  When you run a professional lab your LIMS is the heart of your business.  It is the key to your efficiency and regulatory accreditation.�Read more...

The Business Intelligence Irony - March

One of the ironies of business intelligence is that those who need information the most have the least access to it.  In practical terms, this means that the CEO, sales director or CFO need an IT person to design a report before they can make sense of the company database.  In effect, the IT department regulates decision-making and access to data for everyone from customers to management.  The downside of this is the cost involved and the time taken to get a result. Reports take between 24 hours and three weeks to produce.  By the time the report is finished, the requested report could well be useless. Read more...

Progress Software award for QBCon - March

Quality Business Consultants (QCBon) is the winner of the Progress Software New Technology Adoption/Innovation Award. The award was presented by Rick Parry, MD of Progress Software SA and Peter Jansen from the Progress UK office. QBCon’s Gustav Piater accepted the award.  Progress Software presents the award annually to the Progress business partner it recognises as the fastest to adapt new technology. Read more...

ERP systems not only for the big boys

It is a given that large retailers use enterprise resource programmes (ERP) to manage stock movements, payments and debt collecting. These systems make sense because they make it possible to run the operational and financial side of a retail business more efficiently while providing the type of business intelligence management needs to make strategic decisions. ERP systems reduce operating costs and make it possible to lower consumer prices. All this comes at a price. The barrier to entry is the huge cost associated with running and implementing these types of ERP systems. Read more...

Midvaal Water Asks QBCon to write URS

Midvaal Water Company has signed up the Lab-i developer and vendor, QBCon, to complete a Business analysis and User Requirement Specification (URS). Lab-i is a Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS), which is developed by the business solution provider QBCon. Read more...

QBCon cuts Business Intelligence costs

Even very sizeable businesses can now install a business intelligence tool in under three weeks – without having to make any significant changes to their current database systems.  QBCon, the business solution provider who makes this possible, has already accomplished the feat five times in the past two months.  Europ Assistance, Nedbank, IHD, and Matrix vehicle tracking have all benefitted from EasyAsk® installations by QBCon.�Read more...

QBCon lubricate the wheels at Brent Oil - February

If billing and costing is at the heart of any operation’s profit then the oil and fuel reseller, Brent Oil, has made the perfect choice. QBCon, a business solution provider, is one of the few companies able to design the custom billing and costing ERP that can accommodate Brent Oil’s unique trading environment. Read more…

Bioindustrial tests new LIMS

Bioindustrial Services has a new laboratory information management system (LIMS).  LIMS was traditionally installed to improve the flow and tracking of samples in laboratories.  In recent years the focus has shifted as laboratories within large organisations that have evolved from cost centres to profit centres.  The added efficiency and business intelligence advantages that LIMS provide have become a competitive advantage. Read more...