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Pretec is modernizing its operations with RamBase Cloud ERP
Pretec, a leading supplier of steel products to the construction industry, has chosen RamBase Cloud ERP as its new digital platform. The company wanted to modernize its systems and move away from on-premise solutions to a flexible, cloud-based platform that can support its growth and future IT needs. Limitations with on-premise Pretec has grown from a small business in Sarpsborg, Norway, to an international player with 300 employees and operations in seven countries. Before implementing RamBase Cloud ERP, they used Visma Business and SuperOffice – both on-premise solutions that no longer satisfied the need for flexibility and integration. A comprehensive IT analysis conducted in 2023 revealed that the company required enhanced system support for several of its core processes. Additionally, the desire to provide customers with better digital documentation for products, quality, and environmental standards played a key role in the decision to switch systems. The choice fell on RamBase Cloud ERP Pretec considered several ERP solutions before choosing RamBase, including alternatives such as Jeeves, Microsoft Dynamics 365, Visma Business NXT and NetSuite. What really appealed to Pretec about RamBase Cloud ERP was the holistic user interface for all users and main processes. A decisive factor was also the ability to follow documentation and status at line level throughout the process in the system. Block Quote This, combined with the fact that RamBase was a cost-effective choice, fitted perfectly with Pretec’s needs for both future growth and modern IT solutions. Goals for the future Pretec is in the process of implementing the system and has already held its first workshop with the RamBase team. The aim of the implementation is to give Pretec’s employees a more efficient and streamlined working day. RamBase will support the most important business processes and provide employees with an efficient and modern solution for handling daily tasks. Through good collaboration, Pretec will be well prepared to meet future requirements in an increasingly digitized world.
RamBase
Salesforce Launches AgentExchange: the Trusted Marketplace for Agentforce
AgentExchange empowers partners, developers, and the Agentblazer community to build and monetize agentic AI components, fueling the next generation of businesses in the $6 trillion digital labor market AgentExchange includes more than 200 partners, including Google Cloud, Docusign, and Box, building trusted Agentforce solutions that businesses can use to rapidly build AI agents Developers can discover, try, and buy hundreds of prebuilt partner actions, topics, and templates on the marketplace or surfaced directly within Salesforce’s agent building tools SAN FRANCISCO – March 4, 2025 – Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), the #1 AI CRM, today launched AgentExchange, the trusted marketplace and community for Agentforce that is built into Salesforce, opening up new opportunities for partners, developers, and Agentblazers to participate in the rapidly expanding $6 trillion digital labor market. Building on the success of Salesforce AppExchange — the first and world’s largest enterprise cloud marketplace, which has grown to more than 13 million app installs — AgentExchange expands the capabilities and ecosystem of Agentforce, Salesforce’s digital labor platform. AgentExchange launches with more than 200 initial partners and hundreds of ready-made actions, topics, and templates that have passed rigorous security and customer reviews. Combined, these solutions will help organizations quickly create and deploy AI agents to improve productivity, efficiency, and innovation in any profession or industry. “Accelerating our speed of execution is critical to Goodyear’s ability to deliver for our customers and maximize our end-to-end value proposition. We’re excited about the potential of the ready-to-use solutions from AgentExchange to enhance our speed, efficiency, and customer experience,” shared Goodyear CEO and President Mark Stewart. Block Quote Partners are already building Agentforce components for AgentExchange. For example: Google Cloud: Build Agentforce agents, grounded in Google Search via Vertex AI and with the ability to reference up-to-the-minute data, news, and current events. Box: Enable Agentforce agents to extract insights from unstructured data and power actions with that information, using natural language to interact with content in Box. Docusign: Generate agreements, route for signatures, track status, and gain key insights — automating workflows and boosting efficiency. Workday: Streamline critical employee self-service workflows such as onboarding, benefits management, and career development, freeing up HR teams and significantly enhancing the employee experience. “When we launched AppExchange in 2005, it helped our customers get even more value from our platform with prebuilt apps, workflows, and integrations. It also gave our partners an opportunity to participate in the emerging cloud economy and build thriving businesses,” said Brian Landsman, EVP & GM, Global Business Development & Partnerships at Salesforce. “With AgentExchange, we’re doing much the same — opening up Agentforce for partners, startups, and Agentblazers to participate in the digital labor market and build agentic AI on Salesforce.” “AgentExchange empowers customers to seamlessly integrate trusted AI solutions within their workflow,” said Alice Steinglass, EVP & GM of Platform, Integration and Automation at Salesforce. “Now our developer community can directly tap the expertise of our partner ecosystem to get the right industry-specific solutions so they can build and implement AI agents, and be the pioneers turning their businesses into Agentforce companies.” New AgentExchange and Agentforce features include: New partner-built components: Partners and Agentblazers can now offer four types of agentic components: Actions: Expand the jobs agents built with Agentforce can do by adding new integrations — ranging from Apex, flows, APIs, and prompts — to tailor industry-specific components. Prompt templates: Use pre-written, reusable prompts that ensure consistent interactions and help agents gather information, assist users, and achieve specific goals. Topics: Focus and refine agent behavior by grouping actions and instructions around a single task or job. This helps to ensure agents deliver consistent results and stay within guardrails. Agent templates: Deliver comprehensive AI solutions by combining multiple topics and using the powerful actions partners have created, complete with metadata and global instructions that span across topics. Easily discover, try, and buy AI solutions: AgentExchange simplifies the process of finding and deploying the right trusted AI solutions. Customers can explore AgentExchange solutions directly on the marketplace or within Salesforce’s Agent Builder tool to identify the right solutions for their use case, product, or industry. Use standard and Slack actions: Partners and Agentblazers can now offer out-of-the-box Agentforce actions, including Slack, in packaged Agentforce topics and templates on the AgentExchange. These actions empower partner-delivered agents with built-in CRM and Slack capabilities, such as creating a case, canceling an order, updating a Slack canvas, searching Slack, or sending direct messages. Access trusted, industry-specific agent solutions: AgentExchange connects businesses with Salesforce partners who have deep expertise in specific industries. Businesses can implement pre-built, customizable solutions that address unique challenges, accelerating AI adoption and maximizing its impact. Rigorous security reviews and customer feedback ensure trust in every solution listed on AgentExchange. Collaborate and innovate with Agentblazers: AgentExchange fosters a collaborative ecosystem where businesses, partners, and individual Agentblazers can connect, share best practices, and innovate together, accelerating the adoption of agentic AI. Block Quote AgentExchange solutions Partners who have AgentExchange listings or are actively developing Agentforce components include: Sales & service Appiphony: Offers document generation fully integrated with Agentforce. Bucher + Suter: Enables seamless escalation from agent to human within Agentforce, preserving context for smooth transitions. Docusign: Generates documents, routes for signature, and tracks doc and signature status. Highspot: Provides Agentforce users with curated sales content and AI-powered analytics to increase buyer engagement and close more deals. Neuron 7: Directs enterprise service teams through optimal resolution paths for swift, accurate problem-solving. SalesWings: Integrates customer intent data to enhance prospect engagement and sales performance. Seismic: Delivers AI-powered personalized content at scale from Salesforce, ensuring the right content for every opportunity stage and accelerating sales. TechSee: Empowers sales, service, and field service teams with AI-driven visual intelligence to enhance remote assistance and customer support. Finance, operations, and talent Asymbl: Offers AI-powered recruiting solutions to streamline talent workflows. Bullhorn: Recruitment Cloud Agents leverage over 90 actions to accelerate the entire recruiting lifecycle, improving key processes such as candidate matching, talent engagement, and hiring recommendations. Certinia: Enables managers to monitor a client’s health score, diagnose potential issues, and recommend remedies to customer issues. FinDock: Integrates payment and CRM data, empowering payment agents. InvestorFlow: Simplifies prospect targeting and opportunity aggregation for financial deals. OpenText: Automates document management, reducing storage costs and errors, for better efficiency and management.
Salesforce
5 factors that might be preventing you from tapping into the reshoring trend
The reshoring trend, primarily driven by large manufacturers, has been gaining momentum in recent years. It represents a major opportunity for businesses to re-establish their industrial processes closer to home – but you might be nervous about winning new business because of the daily challenges you face. It’s important to remember that these challenges are shared by most of your industry peers, at least to some extent. That doesn’t mean that you can’t benefit from the reshoring trend – in fact, it’s a chance to grow and future-proof your business. We’re seeing more firms making strategic investments in skills and technology, which puts them firmly in control of their operations, and is already helping them to attract new domestic customers and gain a competitive advantage. Here, we look at some of the factors that could be standing in your way of trying to win new contracts – and how you can overcome them. Worker shortages Ongoing labour shortages are impacting nearly everyone in the industry, exacerbated by an ageing workforce, Brexit, and the lasting impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Earlier this year, the House of Commons reported details of a survey conducted by the ONS in November 2022. It revealed that 13.3% of businesses in the UK reported experiencing a shortage of workers. This isn’t just a UK issue. By November 2022, more than 30% of EU building contractors could not complete all their work because of personnel shortages. Additionally, a quarter of the 25 million SMEs in Europe say hiring good quality managers and staff is their biggest concern. Last year, the vacancy rate in the EU was 2.8% – which is now higher than pre-pandemic levels in most member states. Reshoring is the perfect opportunity to develop the skills of your current and future workforce, creating high-quality well-remunerated jobs. There may be opportunities to work with OEMs to build skills via their training academies, giving people access to cutting-edge technologies. Look for ways to attract the next generation of talent via partnerships with schools and colleges, and see if you can secure funding for in-house training initiatives. Inefficiencies Inefficiencies in industrial processes can lead to increased costs, impacting the competitiveness of reshoring initiatives. These often result from outdated equipment, inefficient factory layouts, and overly complex supply chain structures. Supply chain technology offers the visibility needed to streamline long-standing inefficiencies. With relevant business insights available in a central location, staff immediately save time because they are not keying data into different systems – and with better visibility of your operations you can see where resources are being over or under-utilised. Addressing these helps you to reduce overheads, and either pass the lower costs onto your customers or improve profit margins. Low productivity This remains a significant hurdle for businesses looking to reshore their operations or win new contracts. A government report released in 2022 suggested that the UK suffered from comparatively lower productivity levels than some of its global counterparts. In fact, compared to other G7 countries, the contribution of capital deepening to labour productivity growth in the UK has been weak. At the same time, labour productivity per hour worked in the EU grew by 0.7% in 2022, maintaining a growth trend even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Once again, supply chain technology offers a solution to this – without inefficiencies holding them back, teams can get more done and increase output. What’s more, using the latest industry systems is a powerful motivator for people, especially younger employees who are likely to be frustrated and demotivated by time-consuming and old-fashioned manual processes. Scalability SMEs may struggle to scale their production quickly in response to fluctuating demand, potentially leading to missed opportunities and customer dissatisfaction. However, with good planning, you can be both agile and efficient when orders come in. Supply chain technology can support you in both of these areas, helping you to adapt production to changing demand patterns with ease. By integrating operations with your ERP, you can optimise resource allocation and respond effectively to market fluctuations. Sustainability While bringing supply chains closer to home reduces mileage, manufacturing processes can still have significant environmental footprints. Waste is one of the biggest issues – and is often caused by poor planning and processes that result in overproduction or defects. The sustainability requirements of OEMs might also feel like a barrier to smaller firms, who generally don’t have the resources for consultants or on-site renewable energy sources. But improving sustainability doesn’t have to be costly or time-consuming, and could bring wider benefits to the business. Eliminating waste, consolidating orders to reduce mileage, and optimising production are all good practices that save energy and resources. Discover how Forterro’s ERP products could help you overcome the most common barriers to reshoring.
MarekMac
All Aboard the Omnibus: proposed changes and what it means for our customers
In the ever-evolving landscape of sustainability regulations, the European Commission’s recent “Omnibus” package introduces significant amendments to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), EU Taxonomy and Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). These changes aim to streamline reporting requirements, reduce administrative burdens, and enhance the competitiveness of EU companies. Let’s explore these changes and their potential impact on your business. Why the changes? The European Commission’s motivation behind the omnibus legislation is clear: to foster a favorable business environment while ensuring companies are not overwhelmed by excessive regulatory demands. This recalibration is designed to support the EU’s ambitious Green Deal objectives while boosting economic growth and job creation. What’s next? The proposal has been adopted by the EU Commission but still requires approval from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU, so it’s likely we will see further changes. Companies preparing for CSRD reporting, especially where it has been transposed into national law, should continue as planned. Investments made to align to CSRD, such as double materiality, data automation and upskilling, lay the foundation for improved sustainability and reporting practices. With sustainability regulation increasing across the globe, those companies who have already taken these steps are better equipped for the rise in demand for transparency on this topic. Key changes to the CSRD Reduction in scope: The new amendments significantly reduce the number of companies required to report under the CSRD. Only large undertakings with more than 1,000 employees and either a turnover above EUR 50 million or a balance sheet total above EUR 25 million will be in scope. This change is expected to reduce the number of companies in scope by about 80%. Voluntary reporting for smaller companies: Companies with up to 1,000 employees will no longer be required to report under the CSRD. However, they can choose to report voluntarily using a simplified standard developed by EFRAG. Simplified reporting standards: The European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) will be revised to reduce the number of data points, clarify provisions, and improve consistency with other legislation. This simplification aims to make reporting more manageable and less burdensome. Postponement of reporting requirements: The application of reporting requirements for large companies that have not yet started implementing the CSRD and for listed SMEs will be postponed by two years. This gives companies more time to prepare and adapt to the new framework. Impact on our customers For our customers, these changes bring both opportunities and challenges. Here’s what you need to know: Reduced administrative burden: The reduction in scope means that many of our smaller customers will no longer be required to comply with the CSRD. Voluntary reporting: For those who choose to report voluntarily, the simplified standards will make the process more straightforward. This can enhance your company’s transparency and sustainability credentials without the heavy administrative load. Extended deadlines: The postponement of reporting requirements provides additional time to align your processes and systems with the new standards. This extension is particularly beneficial for companies that are still in the early stages of implementing sustainability reporting. Enhanced competitiveness: By reducing the regulatory burden, the amendments aim to boost the competitiveness of EU companies. This creates a more favorable business environment, encouraging growth and investment. Tracking and managing your sustainability data is not just about meeting regulatory requirements; it also provides significant business benefits. Effective sustainability reporting can lead to improved operational efficiency, enhanced brand reputation, and increased investor confidence. By demonstrating your commitment to sustainability, you can attract new customers, retain existing ones, and differentiate your business in a competitive market. At IFS, we understand the importance of managing sustainability data effectively. Accurate and efficient reporting is crucial for demonstrating your commitment to sustainability and meeting regulatory requirements. Our solutions are here to support you in this journey, ensuring that you can focus on what matters most, driving your business forward while contributing to a sustainable future.
IFS
Production – Planning and scheduling
As you know proper planning and scheduling is of key importance for production companies. Dynamics 365 supports this process by optimization through the preparation of plans and schedules in the area of materials. The preparation of demand forecasts and the building of a flowchart on them is essential to ensure smooth production. Whole process depends on warehouse, logistics and shipment management. Efficient planning enables the calculation of delivery times and the creation of a realistic schedule. Production scheduling is based on the allocation of specific material resources, meeting specific guidelines, to carry out selected production orders, taking into account the specified time and in accordance with the adopted planning rules. The effect of scheduling is to define the dates of commencement and completion of production works. The goal of scheduling is, in the simplest terms, to efficiently use the available resources in specific time intervals. Main thing is to realize what is production planning and scheduling? The basics of production planning is to: determine the size of the production volume that should be performed in a specific time period. By controlling and managing production process in terms of capacity, it is possible to ensure the best possible use of the production capacity at company. We can minimize production downtimes and maintain optimal stock levels. However, it should be borne in mind that the production plan should be a process integrated with the complex strategy of activities of the entire company. Capabilities of Microsoft Dynamics 365 The functionality of Dynamics 365 enables the prediction of various demand resources and takes into account data on the said demand and its coverage. The most important thing is to remember about the need to balance both of these areas. In the Microsoft Dynamics 365 software, you can plan production and the system allows you to make whole or certain parts of operations or tasks. The basic elements of operation planning include planning direction, resource capacity, and material optimization. By using the option of planning operations in the Microsoft Dynamics 365 system, it is possible to define a planning method and optimize the use of materials. The Microsoft Dynamics 365 program enables: creating schedules for materials and semi-finished products scheduling machines, tools defining the planning direction, creating schedules forward or backward from a specific date preparation and modification of schedules delivery time definition using Availability to Promise (ATP) or Captable to Promise (CTP) method. Integration with Overall Production Management It is worth to remember that the planning of operations and tasks in Microsoft Dynamics 365 affects the master planning and the calculation of material requirements, taking into account such aspects as resources required for production, inventory, sub production and deliveries, as well as products that are already scheduled, released or started. Right now, as we know ale companies at the world have problem with planning their production because of broken supply chain processes, market demand is higher than production capabilities because of subcontractors have not got parts. In addition, the system is prepared to work with limited materials – in this case, planning is even more important in managing the entire production and guaranteeing its smoothness. It is worth to remember that the planning of operations and tasks in Microsoft Dynamics 365 affects the master planning and the calculation of material requirements, taking into account such aspects as resources required for production, inventory, subproduction and deliveries, as well as products that are already scheduled, released or started The entire production management process using the ERP system is completed – in the case of Microsoft Dynamics 365 – with other modules, such as resource management, production routes, tracking and reporting of production processes. Microsoft Dynamics 365 enables a comprehensive approach to production control, which ultimately enables smooth operation of the entire production plant without the risk of problems with.
7F
Sandvold & Velde Supply strengthens processes with RamBase QMS
Sandvold & Velde Supply (SVS) has built a reputation on solving their customers’ toughest challenges, but their internal systems weren’t keeping pace with their growth. As a supplier of critical components to shipping companies and industrial businesses worldwide, SVS understands the importance of quality. Their decision to adopt RamBase Quality Management System (QMS) was driven by a need to enhance their internal processes and meet growing demands from customers. General Manager Håkon Sandvold and Executive Chairman Per Sigurd Velde are actively engaged in their company’s operations. At the RamBase offices they are receiving dedicated training and expert guidance from Pia Heia, Customer Success Manager at RamBase. They also set some time aside to discuss why they chose the RamBase Quality Management System. From SVS, Per Sigurd Velde and Håkon Sandvold, and from RamBase, Pia Heia. From complexity to clarity SVS has long been a trusted supplier of specialized parts and solutions, working with thousands of suppliers worldwide to deliver essential components such as pipes, electronics, valves, and more. Their motto, “The easy way, to the hard-to-find” reflects their unique ability to go beyond their extensive product catalogue. What truly sets them apart is their expertise in helping customers locate those rare, hard-to-find parts that others cannot provide. However, their impressive growth has also brought operational challenges. As Per Sigurd Velde explained: Block Quote Wide selection: SVS goes the extra mile to find what the customer needs. Recognizing these challenges, SVS evaluated several systems, ultimately selecting RamBase QMS for its comprehensive approach to quality management. Velde highlighted the decisive factor: Block Quote Another key factor in their decision was RamBase QMS’s use of visual tools. Block Quote Supporting ISO standards As SVS continues to expand, meeting rigorous ISO standards has become a strategic priority. The company is working towards compliance with ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 14001 for environmental management, and ISO 45001 for occupational health and safety. General Manager Håkon Sandvold elaborated: Block Quote This structured approach will enable SVS to not only meet customer expectations but also enhance internal processes and ensure that their quality management system scales with their growth. A perfect fit for SVS Customer Success Manager Pia Heia emphasized how well SVS and RamBase QMS align. Block Quote
RamBase
Salesforce Joins Technology and Academic Leaders to Unveil AI Energy Score Measuring AI Model Efficiency
Salesforce, in collaboration with Hugging Face, Cohere, and Carnegie Mellon University, today announced the release of the AI Energy Score, a first-of-its-kind benchmarking tool that enables AI developers and users to evaluate, identify, and compare the energy consumption of AI models. Salesforce also announced it will be the first AI model developer to disclose the energy efficiency data of its proprietary models under the new framework. Why it matters: The AI Energy Score aims to address the lack of transparency about the environmental impact of AI models. Similar to how ENERGY STAR transformed energy efficiency standards for appliances and electronics, this initiative establishes a clear, trusted benchmark for AI model sustainability. Go deeper: The AI Energy Score will debut at the AI Action Summit, where leaders from over 100 countries, the private sector, and civil society will convene to harness AI for good. By enhancing transparency, the score can drive market preference for efficient models and incentivize sustainable AI development. Recognized by the French Government and the Paris Peace Forum for its transformative potential, the AI Energy Score features: Standardized Energy Ratings: A standardized framework for measuring and comparing AI model energy efficiency. Public Leaderboard: A comprehensive leaderboard that features scores for 10 common AI tasks — such as text generation, image generation, and summarization — performed by 166 models, including Salesforce’s SFR-Embedding, xLAM, and SF-TextBase. Benchmarking Portal: A platform where AI developers can submit their open or proprietary AI models to be evaluated and added to the leaderboard. Open models can be automatically tested, while closed models can be evaluated through a secured testing sandbox. Recognizable Energy Use Label: A new 1- to 5-star label that rates AI model energy use, with five stars indicating the highest efficiency. This helps developers and users easily identify and choose more sustainable models. Once rated, AI developers can generate standardized labels to share their models’ energy score, with built-in guidance on the proper label display for visibility and impact. Block Quote How Salesforce addresses sustainability through Agentforce: Last fall, the company introduced Agentforce, the agentic layer of the Salesforce Platform for deploying autonomous AI agents across any business function. Agentforce offers tools to build and customize agents, as well as a library of ready-to-use skills for sales, service, marketing, commerce, Tableau, Slack, and more. Agentforce is built with sustainability at its core, delivering high performance while minimizing environmental impact. Unlike DIY AI approaches that require energy-intensive model training for each customer, Agentforce is optimized out-of-the-box, eliminating the need for costly, or carbon-heavy training. Its agentic architecture goes beyond reliance on a single large language model (LLM), instead leveraging efficient small language models combined with agentic reasoning and other advanced AI tools, significantly reducing energy consumption. For example, Salesforce’s SFR-RAG is a small language model optimized for accurate, reliable tasks. It cites sources, extracts precise facts, and handles complex questions, delivering trustworthy answers with greater efficiency and lower energy use. Additionally, Agentforce leverages tailored data and metadata from Salesforce Data Cloud and the Salesforce Platform, enabling high accuracy and responsiveness while minimizing wasted computational resources.
Salesforce
Norwegian Offshore Rental strengthening quality with RamBase QMS
Since its founding in 2005, Norwegian Offshore Rental (NOR) has been dedicated to supporting the offshore, subsea, and renewable industries. Initially focused on ship management and personnel supply for the shipbuilding industry, the company shifted its focus in 2011 to specialize in equipment rental. Today, NOR is a key provider of rental equipment in the North Sea region and other major oil and gas markets. In line with its mission to prioritize safety, quality, and sustainability, NOR has integrated the RamBase Quality Management System into its operations. Norwegian Offshore Rental envisions a world where the offshore, sub-sea, and renewable sectors share a common pool of cutting-edge equipment to create a more efficient, cost-effective, and sustainable future. This vision aligns perfectly with NOR’s operational focus—investing in top-tier equipment, providing excellent customer service, and building long-lasting customer relationships. By implementing RamBase Quality Management System (QMS), NOR is taking a proactive step to ensure they continue meeting their customers’ stringent safety and quality requirements. Tore Gautesen, CEO at Norwegian Offshore Rental, shares his perspective on the implementation: Block Quote Why RamBase QMS? NOR’s operations require meticulous oversight of equipment, personnel, and processes to ensure safety and compliance in a demanding industry. With a growing rental pool of specialized equipment—ranging from lifting gear and ROV tools to buoyancy aids and subsea video inspection tools—the company needed a quality management solution that would simplify documentation, standardize procedures, and ensure compliance with industry regulations. Ingunn Nordbø, HSEQ Manager at Norwegian Offshore Rental, highlights the reasoning behind their choice: Block Quote Øivind Aasland Håkonsen, Sales Manager at RamBase, also emphasizes the perfect match between the two companies Block Quote A Partnership for growth and quality We are proud to welcome Norwegian Offshore Rental as a new RamBase customer. Their dedication to safety, quality, and sustainability is well supported by what RamBase delivers: tools for streamlining processes, enhance compliance, and building a culture for continuous improvements. If your company is looking for help to meet the highest standards of safety and quality, contact us today to learn how RamBase QMS can make a difference.
RamBase
MarekMac
MarekMac
RamBase
