The manufacturing industry is currently undergoing a significant transformation, driven by technological advances that redefine efficiency and productivity. This change involves integrating various technologies that enable smoother processes, increased output and more sustainable practices across sectors. As manufacturers work to meet the demands of a rapidly changing market that requires higher productivity and cost reduction, leveraging advanced technologies will become increasingly crucial.
Leading this technology advancement is Sage Distribution and Manufacturing (SDMO), a cloud-native ERP solution designed specifically for small to mid-sized manufacturers and distributors. It integrates seamlessly with Sage Intacct, Sage’s robust financial management platform, to provide a unified system that connects financials with operational processes.
Because of SDMO’s end-to-end integration, organizations can connect processes that involve accounting, inventory, procurement, production and order fulfillment. It also enables remote access, scalability and reduced IT overhead. Additionally important, especially for growing organizations, the module handles operations across multiple locations, currencies and languages.
Why Is Integrating SDMO With Sage Intacct Transformative?
This powerful combination brings together financial and operational workflows into a unified, cloud-native platform that’s purpose-built for modern manufacturers. Benefits of this integration include the following.
End-to-End Automation
SDMO connects Sage Intacct’s financial management capabilities with core manufacturing and distribution operations, such as inventory tracking, production scheduling, procurement and order management. This integration enables real-time visibility across departments, streamlined workflows, and reduced manual data entry and errors.
Advanced Reporting and Analytics
SDMO combined with Sage Intacct offers robust dimensional accounting and customizable dashboards that allow manufacturers to analyze performance across products, locations and teams. This enables faster data-driven decisions and enhanced visualization of operations.
AI-powered Financial Management
The platform includes AI-driven features for managing your general ledger, automated bookkeeping and time tracking, and smart cash flow and reconciliation tools.
Tailored for Manufacturing Needs
SDMO is optimized for make-to-stock environments, advanced kitting and discrete manufacturing.
Inventory and Procurement Precision
With SDMO, manufacturers can improve inventory accuracy with real-time tracking, streamline procurement and supplier coordination, and ensure on-time delivery through better resource scheduling.
Digging Deeper: How SDMO Can Help Manufacturers
Consider the following scenario that illustrates how SDMO can help a manufacturing company streamline operations and improve performance.
Let’s say you’re a mid-sized manufacturer of custom electronic components for the automotive industry. Your organization operates across three facilities and manages hundreds of SKUs, suppliers and customer orders monthly.
You face multiple challenges, including:
- Fragmented Systems: Finance, inventory, and production are being managed in separate systems, causing delays and data inconsistencies.
- Manual Processes: Procurement and order fulfillment rely heavily on spreadsheets and email approvals.
- Limited Visibility: Leadership lacks real-time insights into production costs, inventory levels and supplier performance.
Because of this, you decide that you need to combine the power of SDMO and Sage Intacct, ultimately resulting in:
- Unified Platform: SDMO integrated with Sage Intacct to unify financials, inventory, procurement and production into one cloud-based system. This eliminated data silos and improved cross-departmental collaboration.
- Automated Procurement: Using SDMO’s automated workflows, purchase orders were generated based on real-time inventory thresholds. Approval routing was digitized, reducing turnaround time from days to hours.
- Real-time Inventory Tracking: Warehouse managers used SDMO’s mobile interface to update stock levels instantly. The system provided alerts for low stock and tracked lot numbers for compliance.
- Production Planning Optimization: SDMO’s scheduling tools helped the operations team allocate resources more efficiently. They could now forecast demand and adjust production runs accordingly, reducing waste and overtime.
- Improved Financial Insights: With Sage Intacct’s dimensional reporting, the chief financial officer (CFO) could analyze profitability by product line, location and customer segment. This led to smarter pricing strategies and better margin control.
Six months later, your organization experiences a reduction in inventory carrying costs, faster order fulfillment, real-time visibility into production KPIs, improved supplier performance through automated scorecards and a streamlined month-end close process.
Is Sage Intacct + SDMO the Future?
The combination of Sage Intacct and SDMO is widely regarded as the future of manufacturing operations management because it addresses the evolving needs of manufacturers with a modern, cloud-native approach. As manufacturing becomes more complex, driven by global supply chains, demand for customization, and the need for real-time decision-making, traditional ERP systems often fall short. Sage Intacct with SDMO fills this gap by offering a unified platform that connects financials with operations, enabling manufacturers to run leaner, smarter and more agile businesses.
Together, SDMO and Sage Intacct empower manufacturers to:
Operate Leaner and Smarter
This is essential for manufacturers today because it directly impacts their ability to stay competitive, profitable and resilient in a rapidly changing global market.
Respond Faster to Market Changes
In today’s dynamic environment, customer preferences shift rapidly, supply chains face frequent disruptions and new technologies emerge constantly. Manufacturers that can adapt to these changes quickly are better positioned to seize opportunities.
Scale Without Complexity
As companies expand into new markets, add product lines or open additional facilities, the systems supporting them must be flexible, intuitive and efficient. If scaling introduces layers of manual processes, disconnected systems or data silos, it can lead to delays, errors and increased costs that ultimately hinder growth.
Make Data-driven Decisions With Confidence
It’s critically important for manufacturers to make data-driven decisions with confidence, as the stakes in production, supply chain and customer satisfaction are high, and the margin for error is small. Data-driven decision-making ensures that choices are backed by real-time insights, historical trends and predictive analytics, allowing manufacturers to act with clarity and precision.
Your Guide Through Seamless Integration
As a top five Sage Partner, Cherry Bekaert is dedicated to guiding you through this change, enabling you to unlock the full potential of these innovative technologies for lasting success in manufacturing. Cherry Bekaert serves as a trusted advisor in this process, applying extensive experience in manufacturing and technology integration.
At Cherry Bekaert, our technologists guide you in selecting the right Sage product tailored to your organization’s needs, delivering a seamless implementation across your enterprise. Our goal is that your deployment of SDMO within the Sage Intacct framework is seamless, strategic and highly effective.
