MISys Manufacturing, a major third-party add-on providing comprehensive manufacturing and inventory functionality for QuickBooks Desktop version, is offering a new cloud-hosting option for deployment with Microsoft Azure.
MISys is not only offering basic manufacturing features that exceed those found in QuickBooks Enterprise (w Advanced Inventory) but also:
- Advanced Production
- Advanced Purchasing
- Material Requirement Planning (MRP)
- Bar Coding
- Shop Floor Control
- Serial/Lot Tracking
- Bin Tracking
- Labor Tracking
- Mobile Alerts, and
- Mobile functionality through MISys EXT
Charlie Kimbell, Director of Sales and Marketing, says it is a significant milestone for MISys. “Our development team found a way, well several different ways, to make it so all of the functionality of the robust MISys Manufacturing app can perform well with a local client and a server on Microsoft Azure. We retained all of the functionality of MISys and actually improved its performance.”
Its most recent release versions are designed to better support installer-assisted deployment on Azure and ensure the level of performance MISys users have come to expect when MISys was running on a local server.
VP of Technical Services Mike Kaelin says it considered different ways to bring MISys to the cloud, including a complete rewrite of the code. "But we knew it would take a very long time to recreate the functionality of our application that has been developed and honed over 20+ years. Rehosting, or the classic ‘lift and shift’ of the application to a third party host, was another option but it is already being done by many of our customers with established third party hosts, so it wouldn’t be a meaningful improvement.”
In order to expedite Microsoft Azure deployments, the MISys manual updater has been reconfigured to not only handle on-premises installations, but also Azure deployments.
A part of this support is focusing on the verification and maintenance of security updates for MISys code and related third-party tools incorporated into the product. MISys users can expect more frequent updates in the future to help ensure security in an ever changing threat-landscape.
When optioning for the MISys server running on Microsoft Azure, MISys client installations remain the same on the users' local computers.
If a client chooses to use an on-premise install of accounting applications like QuickBooks Enterprise, Sage 50 or Sage 300, MISys on Azure will work fine, but so will MISys installed on-premise.
That means users working with QuickBooks Desktop (QBD) still will use a QBD client installed on the same computer as a MISys client in order to integrate the Company file, regardless of the location of the QBD server hosting the QB Company file.
But MISys on Azure also works seamlessly with cloud accounting applications like QuickBooks Online and Sage Intacct.
Of course, MISys still offers an option for clients hosting an on-premise accounting application in the cloud with a third party provider (Right Networks, Summit Hosting, etc…). In those cases MISys will work when installed on that same host.
Whether running on Microsoft Azure or a local server, MISys users should see performance improvements in opening master file records, viewing lists, initializing schedules, shortage resolutions, MRP creation, posting of most batches and others after incorporating the most recent Service Pack 7.
Kevin Brown, VP of Software Development at MISys says existing customers will see significant improvements in performance as well as security. "[They are] things that we needed to do when bringing it to the cloud but not required for on-premise installs.”
For information purposes only, MISys estimates the monthly cost of deployment of the MISys server and database on Microsoft Azure would be about $100 based on typical usage. That cost will vary by several factors based on what the user chooses in the way of Microsoft Azure related services.
For more information about MISys Manufacturing, its v.6.4.7 service pack release or deployment of MISys on Microsoft Azure, "CLICK HERE."
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