Operational truth is about the reality of what is going on in your business. What is the status of your orders? Which departments are on track? Which are behind? Is work being completed according to the specified processes and timelines? Are you outperforming or under-performing based on your standard labor or project plans?

Without OpsStream^®it is difficult ot answer these questions without a lot of manual effort and research. OpsStream^® provides these answers and more in real-time: with a click of a mouse or a glance at a fixed overhead display you and your staff can see exactly what is going on without ambiguity or excuses.

Businesses constantly change as they respond to new requirements, new innovations, and new opportunities. This is why inflexible computer systems are such a problem: even a good system that met needs at one time can become a limitation if it can't easily accommodate ongoing changes.

OpsStream^® is completely configurable from a browser, with no programming or IT involvement. You can add or modify proceses, add fields, and create new tables and menu options anytime, in real-time, with no downtime or programming.

Besides preparing for the future, this flexibility opens up new ways of innovating and improving. Have an idea for a new way of doing something? Make the change to the process definition in the system and run for a few days. (Little training of workers is needed, because they will automatically see the changes reflected on their dashboards.) If the change proves to be beneficial, then great: you have made an improvement. If not, simply change the configuration back with little effort or hassle.

Doing things is different than tracking the financial results of doing things.

OpsStream^® is about doing. ERP and accounting software is primarily about transactions and debits and credits.

But doing is often related to financial results. For example, once work has completed an invoice may need to be generated. Or perhaps work can't start until a part has been received into inventory. Or perhaps there is work to be done with receiving, inspecting and storing materials prior to the materials being officially recorded as inventory on your balance sheet.

While OpsStream^® is not an ERP system, OpsStream knows how to integrate to and interact with ERP systems and other external systems. An OpsStream process can at just the right point in time pick up data or push data to an external system. Or, OpsStream can monitor an ERP system for data (such as a released order) and then automatically import the needed data and launch an OpsStream process to fulfill the order.

Custom software can be good, but it has a number of challenges and potential problems. OpsStream^® provides flexibility and a tailored-fit solution without needing to take on the challenges and risks of custom software development.

What's more, OpsStream^® has a tremendous feature set, a solid security model, and a proven track record--all of which makes OpsStream the fastest, most feature-rich, most secure, lowest risk, and least expensive way to automate your business operations.

OpsStream^® provides custom-fit automation without custom software development. You can enjoy the benefits of a system that exactly meets your needs without the risk and investment of time and money that custom software requires.

Data security is crucial, and this fact is being underscored daily.

Part of data security is keeping the bad guys out. But part of it is making sure that you maintain appropriate internal security to guard against accidental or inappropriate modification or even access of sensitive data.

OpsStream^® is built with security in mind, and has a security model that offers granular control over who can see, edit, and do what. But OpsStream^® takes this a step further by extending this same security model to the database layer: OpsStream^® secures data for even database administrators and external applications.

OpsStream^® also offers encrypted protection of "data at rest"--meaning that the risk of accidental (or intentional) disclosure of data is mitigated.

In a manufacturing setting, "shop floor control", or the management of manufacturing work on the shop floor is important. Surprisingly, most "manufacturing" software doesn't provide native support for paperless work orders moving through work cells on the shop floor, for touch screens, overhead status displays, barcode and printers, or a comprehensive real-time view of the status of all work orders and all exceptions.

OpsStream^® provides all of this and more: unlimited number of work cells, support for even complex conditional branching logic in multiple manufacturing lines, native support for custom-designed touch screens and overhead displays, native support for both barcode printing and barcode scanning are all included.

Additionally, OpsStreamsup; can directly interact with computer-controlled machinery in a process-centric fashion. For example, computer-controlled saws can automatically be fed with the correct dimensional information for each item being made, and box-making machines can automatically be told exactly which box to make for each order.

One of the key benefits that OpsStream® provides in a manufacturing setting is the seamless passing of the baton from one work cell to another, even when exceptions occur. Especially in a make-to-order environment this is a tremendous benefit, as it reduces confusion, error, and the management required to keep each order on track.

Other key benefit of OpsStream® include the flexibility of managing the manufacturing process and quantifying operational information. Actual labor and takt time can be evaluated in real-time and on a historical analytical basis. Quality inspections and component-level serial numbers can be permanently recorded, along with photos and supporting documentation if desired.

The flexibility that OpsStream^® provides makes it possible to rapidly configure the key data and processes you need to have managed and to immediately begin using the system for these things, while providing support for continual refinement of the configuration, additional of custom screens, and integration with external systems and equipment.

In other words, you don't need to eat the elephant in one bite.

If you have some order information in spreadsheets or in an ERP or some other system, this data can be imported into OpsStream^® and you can see and begin benefiting from the system in less than a day--with out sacrificing your ability to refine and polish in the future.

Web-based software is more than just a feature: it is a different and better way of doing things. Instead of being bound to specific computer hardware with specific software installed, you can use any device with a browser to access OpsStream: desktop, laptop, mobile device, industrial touch screen, kiosk, Apple / Windows / Linux...it doesn't matter.

Similarly, geography doesn't matter: you can access the system from the factory, from the office, from home, from a remote location, from a vendor or even on the go.

"Software as a Service" (SaaS) means that instead of making a large up-front capital expenditure to purchase software, you can pay for what you use as you go. This reduces the financial barrier to entry, and helps you align expense with benefit.

OpsStream offers day-zero ROI: you begin receiving a return on investment from the day you import existing data into the system--even before it is fully used in production.

Most SaaS offerings are available only "in the cloud". OpsStream⊃ offers cloud-based hosting, but also offers you the ability to run the software on your own servers in your own data center environment--under the same SaaS pricing model. This gives you the freedom to manage your IT infrastructure in the way that you see fit.

Controlling computer-controlled equipment is something that even today is somewhat difficult to accomplish with most systems. Equipment vendors often provide only rudimentary support for importing job data, and force operators to use proprietary software for each order to get the machine to do what you need it to do.

It is not uncommon to have six or seven operator steps involved to extract order information from the ERP system, format it, and get it imported into the machine control system!

OpsStream^® makes it simple to seamlessly control equipment from the processes you define. Regardless of the data elements or format needed for a particular machine, OpsStream^® can reduce operator time and complexit by directly feeding the required data to the machine at just the right time.

In terms of both capacity and complexity there is no way to outgrow OpsStream⊃: even major changes in your business can be accommodated with simple configuration changes of OpsStream^®.

Even the underlying technology used by OpsStream is future-proof: Microsoft SQL Server is at the heart of both data storage and functionality, and data, business logic, and functionality are all encapsulated within SQL. This means that the technology footprint of OpsStream^® will always be right in the mainstream, and that technology resources for maintenance, support, customization and integration will always be readily available.

One of the hardest things to communicate to people about OpsStream^® is what it "is". Understandably people want to know if OpsStream^® is an ERP system, a CRM system, a manufacturing, CRM, MRP or project management package or the like.

Actually, OpsStream^® represents an emerging category of business management software known as "business process execution" or simply "business execution" software. This is related to, but is not the same thing as, BPM (business process management).

OpsStream^® is about the actual doing of work, and the data and processes involved.

OpsStream^® can integrate with any of the above types of systems, and in some cases OpsStream^®can be used in lieu of specific modules in these systems. But OpsStream^® is really in a different category of software altogether.

Process-centric communication is a big deal, and something that OpsStream^® does natively.

Want to send an order confirmation to the customer? A text message when the product ships? Allow the customer to inquire about the status of an order via a phone call? Send a Tweet when a new product is released? OpsStream^® can do all of this automatically.

OpsStream^® can improve communication with better consistency and control, while reducing the effort involved. And OpsStream^® can make it possible for you to communicate with your customer and vendors through the channels they prefer.

OpsStream^® isn't just for manufacturing environments.

For example, OpsStream^® can do an outstanding job of orchestrating the full lifecycle of marketing campaigns from inception, through production, promotion, and results.

Content management, sign-offs, insertion orders, social media posts, click-throughs, social media posts, blog posts and views, landing pages, serialized coupons, SMS text messages: all of these and more can be centrally orchestrated and managed through OpsStream^®.

Best of all, OpsStream^® gives you a way to store and analyze results in one place, giving you the ability to manage the progress and effectiveness of campaigns in real-time, and to make adjustments as you go.