This E-Guide features two articles from our editorial team on advice for implementing lean manufacturing templates, and how to prepare your current enterprise resource planning (ERP) system for a more efficient and less wasteful environment. 

Faced with limited budgets and even leaner staff resources, small companies realize that making the most of in-house talent is critical to executing on strategic goals. Read this paper to learn how automating performance appraisal and measuring every employee against clear, objective goals can improve execution of a small company's strategy. 

This report from Deloitte argues businesses are again investing in IT to provide the differentiation and innovation critical from their competitors despite the downturn. 

This paper illustrates how IFS Applications support lean principles, particularly in the many manufacturing environments that require both rate-based and order-based shop floor execution. This hybrid approach lets you go lean step by step, as you are able, not because an inflexible system forces you to do so. 

Business intelligence is a hot topic in 2010, especially with the upcoming release of Microsoft's SQL Server 2008 R2 being dubbed as the "BI release." In this e-zine, one SQL Server expert breaks down exactly what goes into self-service BI, where it works and where it falls short. 

Nissen Chemitec America has utilized several different systems to manage enterprise operations but these systems weren’t designed to meet the specific needs of automotive injection molding suppliers. Nissen selected EnterpriseIQ because it meets manufacturing-specific functionality and automotive industry requirements in a single-database system. 

Read this paper for a comprehensive look into inventory inside the manufacturing plant - everything from inventory, to receipt of material, to finished products. Learn how to  take control of your inventory and supply chain to achieve lean manufacturing and increased efficiency and profitability. 

Lean software development and deployment should figure prominently in every organization’s IT strategy. The growing pervasiveness of virtual and cloud environments makes the need even more urgent.  Read this paper to learn why your peers are replacing JEE containers with lean, lightweight application servers - and what you can gain from the move. 

<p>Read this expert article to discover exactly what your managers needs to know about software testing. Find tips on how to make processes run more smoothly and ways to make sense of large quantities of data to make the most informed decisions possible.</p> 

Query performance three times faster is just one item in this top-10 list from the analysts at Enterprise Management Associates (EMA). Download this article to read the full top 10 and learn why Cognos 10 holds "strong value for upgrading customers and prospects." 

IT considerations are not given adequate attention or rigour in the due diligence prior to mergers and acquisitions, this report from Ernst & Young reveals. 

Virtual server backup is a known pain point among backup administrators. In our tutorial, learn all about VMware backup with this collection of articles on VMware backup and restore, VMware Consolidated Backup, Virtual Desktop Infrastructure and more. 

This article covers the top 10 tools available to help make virtualization management easier.