Enterprise software developer B&L Information Systems reports that a number of its long-term clients have converted their operations to the ‘cloud’ version of the Odyssey ERP, B&L’s platform developed for metalcasting organizations.
Odyssey is an enterprise software designed to give everyone in a metalcasting operation, automatically, the necessary information to complete jobs on time and on budget. The platform has modules that meet the specific needs of metalcasting's five major roles — management, accounting, sales, production and quality, so information can be shared and received by everyone, with no extra effort.
Among the recent adoptees of Odyssey reported by B&L are Acme Alliance LLC, a Northbrook, IL, aluminum diecaster; Carteret Die Casting, Somerset, NJ; and Polich Tallix, an art foundry in Rock Tavern, NY.
Odyssey is now in its sixth release, and B&L recently made Odyssey 4.6 MR5 available for clients who host the program on their own servers, and for its software-as-a-service clients.
Odyssey 4.6 MR5 includes several new transaction functions in its Production Interface, and offers users a choice to use the MS Windows on-screen keyboard or the Odyssey keyboard. Additionally, it users now have the ability to display work instructions (via the Quality Viewer) automatically from the Shop Floor Manager during a Job-On sequence (web UI, only.)
While Odyssey was developed as an enterprise program to be hosted on servers maintained by foundries and diecasters, the SaaS version was introduced in 2009. The program is hosted in ‘the cloud’ and subscribers’ programs are maintained and updated by B&L. It’s an arrangement that many operations find more efficient in terms of personnel, hardware, and production time needed to maintain the enterprise program at their site (or sites.)
Among the metalcasting subscribers that B&L Information Systems has ‘converted’ to the cloud version are Rowe Foundry Inc., Martinsville, IL; One Source Casting Corporation (Federal Bronze Casting Industries Inc., Fox Hills Industries Inc., Fox Hills Machining Inc., and Machined Parts Inc.), Newark, NJ; Mid-City Foundry Company, Grafton, Wis.; Littlestown Foundry Inc., Littlestown, PA; and, Galesburg Castings Inc., Galesburg, IL.
“B&L’s Odyssey software was the first and remains the only cloud-based metalcasting ERP solution,” according to B&L Information Systems CEO Philip Laney. “We see customers moving to Odyssey SaaS because the B&L Cloud allows customers to focus on their core competencies, which include making the finest castings in the world.”