ALERE is a Complete ERP System

The traits you are looking for in an accounting system 

RELIABILTY – ALERE has been on the market for twenty years; TIW Technology, Inc. is approaching forty years since its inception. We have a reputation for maintaining the utmost in quality, ease of use, functionality, and integrity.


ONE VENDOR – The advantages of ERP software entirely designed and developed by one company are overwhelming. It begins with a common user interface that reduces implementation challenges and extends to out-of-box integration for all aspects of managing a company’s software requirements!


COMPLETE OFFERING - ALERE is a complete ERP package in every sense of the word by consisting of an incredible full range of accounting functions, the most extensive and innovative manufacturing package on the market, and a service solution to handle field service and scheduling with mobility support. ALERE even takes the next several steps by including unexpected solutions, such as CRM, Multi-Currency, Commissions, Analytics, Data Acquisition, and Document Management.


SCALEABLE – A small company can start with a couple of users and grow to a billion dollar plus enterprise, all with ALERE. ALERE is modular, which means that a couple of startup core modules can be expanded to add capabilities as you expand. Is the challenge a growing client and supplier base? Add the InTouch CRM module. Is there a need to do business in other currencies? Add the Multi-Currency module. Need to make sense of the huge amounts of data? Activate the Analytics module.


CUSTOMIZABLE – ALERE can be changed to suit the requirements of the user. ALRE is software that works for you instead of you working for the software. Every company has special requirements; modifications can mold ALERE to your needs. Most importantly, those modifications do not need to trap you on a specific version of the software. TIW provides a customization environment whereby changes can be brought forward to new ALERE versions with little or no effort. This provides a way to take advantage of new technology and features!


ROBUST DEVELOPMENT – One measure of the viability and future of a software product is the ongoing development behind it. Approximately once a year a new version of ALERE becomes available that expands its capabilities to meet and exceed the evolving technical environment in which it operates. Review the past several years of progress on the ALERE History page.


AFFORDABLE – The cost to own ALERE is surprisingly modest. TIW is, perhaps, unique in the industry in the manner in which it makes software maintenance available. First, it is based on the number of modules you have, NOT the number of users. Second, it is optional. The result is a tremendous advantage in the year-to-year operating costs. Contact us for a quote; you will be amazed what it could mean to your company!


Truly integrated financial software will always produce better results, for less cost, than tying together unrelated applications.

BUILD YOUR ERP SYSTEM MODULE BY MODULE

Each module serves a purpose and fulfills a function in your company

MANAGER

ERP software is, by its nature, a large and complex program with many moving parts. In ALERE the Manager module provides a locus for information and services that are used throughout the product. Here, companies and the relationships your company has with them are defined. With one simple mouse click the key financial numbers of your company can be viewed. The many and pervasive global codes, such as units of measure and product classes, can all be found and maintained in one convenient location. Email and order approval rules are established here for use throughout the system. Payment terms, tax tables and units of measure conversions are created in the Manager module. Banking activity is effortlessly controlled and monitored, including bank reconciliations. Time and labor posting from manufacturing are audited and approved. And, a never ending supply of labels can be printed.

INTOUCH

InTouch is ALERE’s integrated CRM solution which brings a whole range of advantages not available when this type of software is used stand-alone. Prospects, customers, suppliers and their respective contacts are seamlessly blended together where the critical information necessary to manage relationships is available. Since sharing information is central to the function of a good CRM package, InTouch has two-way links with Microsoft® Outlook which provides connectivity for appointments, tasks, and emails sent or recorded by either product.

Companies and prospects are maintained in separate files. Doing it in this manner makes it easier to manage email and direct mail marketing campaigns. Prospects may have any number of quotes developed for them, and both the prospects and quotes are easily converted to company status when there is a purchase.

Recording notes, scheduling appointments or adding tasks are never more than one click away. Logs keep a record of all contacts with that company, including every contact recorded from within ALERE as well as any emails sent from within Outlook.

SALES

All aspects of selling are included in the Sales module. Here a quote can be initiated, turned into a sales order, released as an invoice, and payment received and posted. Each sales document contains a complete history of its life accompanied by all the associated general ledger postings that were generated. One uncommon feature of an ALERE sales document is the ability to save it in a “pending” state for later release. This saves uncounted hours of reentry time and makes the entire sales process much more efficient and flexible. Other unique facets of the sales process are its ability to handle the securing of an order, accepting returned items, and providing credit all within one document.

Accompanied by mass processing functions for releasing, picking, invoicing orders, providing customer statements and automatic emailing notifications and orders, the Sales module delivers tremendous efficiency. 

SOC

Improve the performance of sales order entry with a sales order configurator. This will ensure the accuracy of orders by verifying the correct features and options are offered and the correct finished good part numbers are used. Dependency, where one decisions leads to subsequent choices, can be multiple levels deep. This assures that even the most complex products are supported completely. The result is a faster, cleaner order entry with improved customer satisfaction. Not having to rely on highly trained staff to enter the orders is a beneficial byproduct.

The Sales Order Configurator is powered by modular and variable BOM information so that it is always accurate, up-to-date, and requires no additional effort to create or maintain. 

PURCHASES

All facets of purchasing are included in the Purchases module. In it, a requisition can be submitted, turned into a purchase order, released as a payable when received, and finally, paid. Each purchases document contains a complete history of its life accompanied by all the associated general ledger postings that were generated. Similar to the Sales module, an uncommon feature of an ALERE purchases document is the ability to save it in a “pending” state. This saves uncounted hours of reentry time and makes the entire purchasing process much more efficient and flexible. And, each line on a purchase order can also handle the placing of an order; controlling the return of items, and recording credit all within one document.

Adding to the Purchases module’s capabilities are recurring orders, batch accepting of orders, mass payments, automatic emailing notifications and orders. This module will increase the efficiency of the purchasing staff. 

INVENTORY

Inventory is at the heart of many companies and managing it is a strong-point of ALERE. Everything to do with creating inventory items, mass shipping orders, mass receiving orders, transferring inventory, physical inventory, and adjustments to inventory occurs in this module. Inventory can be store at location, store and bin with extensive lot, serial, and trait traceability as needed for the items. Customer and supplier part numbers may be used interchangeably which smooths the order and purchasing processes. A real-time log reveals all the ins and outs of inventory movement and the impact of outstanding sales orders, purchase orders, and work orders are clearly shown as part of the future activity. Drop shipments are controlled seamlessly from customer orders through vendor shipments.

GENERAL LEDGER

It is an almost universal truth that troubled companies with a poorly constructed Chart of Accounts have problems with good financial management. In ALERE, the chart of accounts is not only graphically constructed on one screen using ALERE’s trademarked Treevision technology, but it incorporates document management that allows, for example, a bill to be found by simply drilling down. Creating a superb chart of accounts is effortless!

The burden and costs placed on a company by period closings are eliminated since ALERE operates in real-time, making closings automatic. Many other capabilities accrue from this approach, such as simplifying and speeding up year-end closings.

The journal entries are very flexible and may include notes for detailed documentation. Extensive reporting includes “As of” reports and a custom financial report generator, providing the ultimate in managerial control. Budgeting is available native to the chart of accounts or through an unlimited number of spreadsheets for comparative and "what-if” analysis. Since ALERE can support a large number of companies, ad hoc company consolidations are supported.  

ANALYTICS

Researching past business performance to gain insight and drive business planning is the purpose of the Analytics Module. It is designed to provide management with a tool to explore their company data. The term “big data” describes the large volume of information collected by an ERP system on a day-to-day basis. ALERE manages this data through archiving, which is a fundamentally different process than backing up data. It provides a dynamic environment where data, not required for the daily operation of a company, is removed and added to a historical copy of the company.

The Analytics module then examines five key areas of big data: customers, suppliers, inventory, general ledger, and lot/serial traceability. Multiple levels of user-defined filters may be used to refine the data. The results may be displayed in colorful 3-D charts and may be exported to Microsoft Excel, Word, HTML, or even sent to the clipboard for use. 

COMMISSIONS

The ruleset creation and combination capabilities of the Commissions module are extensive and approached in a sales representative centric manner. There is support for a multi-tier split commission structure which permits manager commissions to be based on the sales of subordinates. Fixed commissions can be generated based on the achievement of sales goal such as revenue, margin, or quantity of items sold. This is combined with setting baseline amounts, goals, and cap amounts. Individual rules may be crafted while still allowing for manual adjustments to the commission amount, bonuses and advances. The commission periods may be defined per sales representative. Commission activity has drill-down capabilities all the way to the document source.

MOBILITY

The Mobility module manages the ALERE interface to mobile devices through the Cloud. It supports your web development by controlling which ALERE data is uploaded for your HTML program use and keeps it synchronized.

Nowadays, almost every company has a web presence in the Cloud. It may consist of a web site, catalogs, and perhaps an online store. Web developers can capitalize on the Mobility module by using its facilities to both publish and keep updated ALERE data in the Cloud. Specifying data to publish to the Cloud is as easy as setting the location to transfer the data to and then selecting the tables and fields that contain the information.

MULTICURRENCY

The Multi-Currency module allows companies that do business outside their country a way to take and place orders in currencies other than their own. Any numbers of currencies are easily defined and all transactions are then done in relationship to the base chosen. Each company location can be assigned a default currency to use. The documents that can be processed using a foreign currency include sales orders, invoices, purchase orders, and payables. Aged receivables and aged payables statements are available in a company's base currency or in the currency in which they were created. Payments can be accepted or made in either the foreign currency or the base currency. Rates can be updated as often as once per day and are continuously tracked by date. Separate rates for selling and buying are supported to provide flexibility for your buying and selling functions. A history screen provides an overview of how currency “buy and sell” rates change over time.

Mobile Sales Order Entry

Use Single Purpose Apps on mobile tablets or laptops to enter orders from anywhere by anyone! Instead of your dealers or customers sending in purchase orders that have to be entered into sales or calling or emailing orders, allow them to enter a sales order directly in your company. Save time and increase accuracy! The orders appear immediately in ALERE as pending orders where they can be reviewed and accepted. Reduce the burden on your sales staff and keep them focused on quickly processing orders with Single Purpose Sales Apps.

ALERE Accounting may be paired with ALERE Manufactuing and ALERE Service resulting in a flexible, robust transactionally-driven ERP solution