Orax SDI Cloud Reference

Introduction

Welcome to Orax SDI (Service Delivery Infrastructure). Orax SDI is a comprehensive business management tool for large companies. Although we have tried to keep things simple on Orax, there are bound to be areas where you may feel stuck.

Please feel free to use this page to answer those “how do I?” or “where do I find?” questions. If you can’t find what you are looking for, or still don’t understand how a process may work, please feel free to contact us.

Minimum Requirements
Orax SDI is certified to run on the latest versions of the following browsers and operating systems. Please ensure that you do not use outdated software to minimise security risks to yourself and your company.

Google Chrome
Firefox
Microsoft Edge
Safari
Apple iOS & iPad OS
Android


A NOTE TO BUSINESS MANAGERS AND OWNERS:

Systems for Business
It is important to understand that a business system serves the longterm goals of a business. It is therefore critically important that management and owners buy into the implementation and correct management of the system. The following important points should be carefully understood, discussed and implemented by the owners and managers of the company to enable success.


Implementation
A system that is not implemented properly may provide years of pain, frustration and even failure. Please ensure that Orax Solutions and an additional external Project Management service is involved to ensure that the planning and implementation of your Orax SDI system is carefully planned and executed.


Systems Policy:
A systems policy is needed in your company to ensure that people use the system correctly. If you don't use the system correctly it can never work for the business.
This most important aspect is to ensure that data is captured. Once data is in the system, you can act on it, but data that does not enter the system is unknown and will compromise the system value.


Training, Incentives & Discipline:
It is important to keep in mind that you cannot get human beings to use the system of your company without either incentivising them or disciplining them. We are all human and we need to understand the why's and the how's clearly. You have to build this into the company strategy. Part of the approach is training. You need to train people on how to use the system as well as why they need to use the system and how important it is to keep the company healthy so they can remain employed. The day you stop incentivising and disciplining people they will start developing other ways to do their work. This requires a deep commitment from the owners as well as endurance because we are all human.


Quality Control, Risk & Exception management:
Because it is impossible to manage everything perfectly the only chance of improving the processes in a business comes from quality control and risk management strategies. The owners and managers need to think how they can implement quality checks or reviews in critical processes to ensure that unnecessary mistakes are not made. This is challenging because every day is crazy. It is a good idea to ensure the quality checks are of a high standard by assigning responsible people to these tasks.

Start with only one check in a typical sales or production process at a critical point. You can also consider routine tasks/checks like, review the current pending sales orders. We can get the system to send you a notification that requires you to review certain important aspects of a job or when there are exceptions. The most important part of this is to ensure that the data is in the system. Start slowly with one check and build on this over time as you learn the system and processes better.


Ordering, Fulfilment & Manufacturing details:
The entire fulfilment process should be designed in such a way that all order details which includes quantities and types are contained in a sales order. Part of the detail should be options on design and customisation if applicable. The client should be able to sign off a sales order as a valid order document. For all manufacturing and design, production orders need to be used. This means that customers will have to sign off production orders for design instead of a separate spec sheet. The production order should be the only spec sheet.


Self-help & efficient processes:
Where possible it is a good idea to streamline processes by allowing customers to help themselves (eg. with ordering). This can save a lot of time and increase sales efficiency. Think through all your processes and try to identify areas and steps that the system can provide self-help efficiency. Sometimes you'll need to have custom features developed to solve a specific issue. At Orax we spend most of our effort providing Business Process Management systems for large customers - so we are ready and able to help.


Journey and investment:
The journey to get the system to effectively enhance your business is an investment that you need to consider carefully. That is the reason that you need to strategise around the above points first. If you do not consider the above points, your investment may not deliver profitable returns. Even a great system can be abandoned in the course of time because of lacking focus and policy. If we understand how to maximise the value of the system it will be worth the effort to enhance it. See your Orax SDI system as a competitive edge and an investment that can be used to differentiate your company from the competition. Think investments and returns.


Important key features:
During the first 3 years you need to identify important key features that are currently missing and that we need to add to the process. Each feature should be weighed against the value to the company. This value could be either in money saved, money earned, risks limited, competitive advantage or any other value. Some features seem important until you evaluate them thoroughly. It is important to understand the value to the company so that you can assess whether the investment to build a new feature is worth it. It is perfectly fine to leave features for a future date. Nobody starts with a perfect system. And remember: simple is always better than complex!

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