Bellwether Software ePMX - The Next Generation Software for Purchase Management

ePMX – The Next Generation Software for Purchase Management

Since 1985 Bellwether Software ( www.bellwethercorp.com ) has developed software that provides enterprise purchasing and e-procurement solutions for all types of businesses. The latest generation of our software, ePMX (www.epmxonline.com), is e-procurement software offered using an ASP model sometimes called On-demand software or Software as a Service (SaaS). This software is also offered via the traditional software model at your data center or a hosted data center of your choice.

ePMX software helps companies reduce expenses and increase profits by improving the efficiency of the purchasing function. With ePMX, companies can achieve:

reduction in purchase cycle time,
cost reduction in labor and administrative costs and
better accountability throughout the buying cycle.

Ease of Deployment and Maintenance

In the traditional software model, the responsibility of implementing and enhancing the software and maintaining the infrastructure falls on the internal IT department – thus increasing the burden of an already overworked staff. This is true whether you license the software from a vendor or you buy Commercial off-the-shelf software (COTS) and install it on your servers and run it. Maintenance can be internal or provided by the vendor.

The benefit of this model is that intellectual property and data are protected as they are within your network and risks from vendor viability are minimal. However, COTS software tends to be poorly deployed and inadequately managed in most companies. Thus, a great deal of COTS software in today’s companies provides far less value for the business than it promises.

Small to medium sized businesses will like using ePMX because of the increasing costs of purchasing and maintaining specialized software. ePMX eliminates the complexities of owning and distributing e-procurement software to end-users and reduces the total cost of ownership.

ePMX is hosted at a level 4 data center (active multiple distribution paths & fault tolerant, infrastructure cabling with redundant backbone and less than 0.4 hours of downtime per year) with firewall protection for data security and maintained by Bellwether Corporation with up-to-date services, 24 x 7 technical support, physical and electronic security and in-built support for business continuity and flexible working and it also complies with Sarbanes-Oxley regulations.

Distribution Options & Implementation Times

ePMX allows you as customer a variety of choices in running the software:

Traditional Model: Fully own and operate ePMX on your own datacenter.
Traditional Model-Hosted: Installed at the hosting center of your choice.
SaaS/ASP Model: Let Bellwether manage the software and hardware while it makes the software available to you via the Internet or a "thin client"

1. Traditional Model : A Bellwether technician will come to your facility and work with your IT for installation and integration with your database and other applications. This model uses the traditional fee structure of purchasing the software upfront and then paying a yearly maintenance fee. This approach takes time and usually will be installed in two to three weeks. ePMX will install on a Windows or a Linux server. It will even work with your existing databases like MS SQL, Oracle and Sybase. It comes with MySQL database.

2. Your Host : A Bellwether technician will install the software on a hosted server of your choice of vendor and integrate it with your database and other applications. This model uses the traditional fee structure of purchasing the software upfront and then paying a yearly maintenance fee. You also pay for the hosting cost. This approach, again, takes time - about three to four weeks to implement.

3. SaaS/ASP model : In this model, you call up Bellwether, and we will have your software ready to use within hours. Integration with your application will take time, depending on the level of complexity of the integration.

The advantages of approach include instant deployment and lower cost of ownership.
The cost for the application is based on number of users on an annual fee basis.
This is a “pay as you go” approach and lets you simplify your internal IT costs that are so unpredictable, to a predictable monthly/yearly fee.
Bellwether can leverage years of application experience and provide you with economies of scale and handle administration, maintenance and IT headaches - providing you with a single, accountable entity.
Key software systems are kept up to date, available and managed for performance by experts.
There is no software or hardware to buy, so your initial capital is limited to just the setup fee.

This model also provides you with improved reliability, availability, scalability, security and a service level agreement that guarantees a certain level of service anywhere there is a working Internet connection. This model also provides automated data backup and integration with most accounting software.

By adopting the Saas model you can redeploy your IT staff and tools to focus on strategic technology projects that impact your bottom line. You have complete leverage and just buy what is needed; this reduces your Total Cost of Ownership and also provides Sustainability.

ePMX Architecture

The ePMX architecture makes use of a well-defined, industry standard three-tier architecture. The application architecture adheres to Open Source standards and is component based (object oriented). The application also provides ‘gateways' such that the application implements XML schemas. This enables the application to communicate with other such ‘standardized' applications and makes integration easy.

The architecture and development of ePMX solution provides the following benefits, in line with Bellwether's technology strategy:

Aligning IT implementation of ePMX business functions along true open architecture framework standards
An easy way to connect to other open source web base applications from other vendors, given Bellwether's selection of open technologies as their preferred solution medium
Reduced maintenance, deployment costs when deployed at client locations

ePMX is a truly object oriented system, when implemented as a component based solution achieves the following objectives:

Ability to split duplicate business components, as part of customization
Ability to add new functionality later, easily
Portability to Application Services Model
Capability to handle multiple users with better performance and usability

Salient (technical) features of the system are listed below:

The application can be accessed from any operating system, Windows, Mac, Linux, etc
A high speed internet connection is needed.
It has a full function global dictionary for customization
The application uses a thin client- Internet Explorer, Firefox or Safari browsers
The client functions and business processing is performed out of HTML pages (incorporating JavaScript).
Data and database transaction processing is performed out of stored procedures residing within the MySQL database and external queries (invoked from PHP).
Information features like Help, Contact Us are out of static HTML pages

UI - User Interface
BL - Business Layer
DAL - Data Access Layer
DB – Database

ePMX takes procurement management software to the next level:
Reduces total cost of operation
Improves business processes
Improves performance
Improves usability

PMX is a perfect solution for all kinds of businesses: small, medium, large, international and multinational. Bellwether Software has been helping purchasing departments automate their processes, increase their value to internal customers and deliver measurable contributions to company profits for more than 2 decades.

Call us at 502-426-5463