Editor Comments

Will the developing power of Ai, eventually mean robots ‘on the street’ that replace humans in future job roles?

Nobody knows the answer to exactly how Ai and deep learning will affect the way we work, but perhaps in the meantime we should adopt a more reflective approach, before the ‘I Robot’ film becomes a potential reality!!

OpenAi, leader in NLP, stated originally that their business model:

“combines cutting-edge Ai research with commercial applications of Ai technology. The company’s business model is designed to advance the field of artificial intelligence safely and make the technology available to various businesses at affordable prices.”

However, the world’s newsfeeds and social media in general have made much recently of the potential dangers of LLM’s and it’s associated Ai technologies. Some believe that programs such as Open Ai GPT4, could in the future, as a self-learning technology, have an issue with working with humans that are slower to adapt and perform.

As the past has shown us, technologies have a way of simply increasing their speed of adaptability, but hopefully the world, led by governments, will get to grips with any potential (future) risks that the technology may present, before any ‘nightmare’ scenario comes to pass.

Sam Altman (CEO OpenAi) also forecast on the future:

"In 10 years, I think we will have chatbots that work as an expert in any domain you’d like. So you will be able to ask an expert doctor, an expert teacher, an expert lawyer whatever you need and have those systems go accomplish things for you."

There are already over 2,000 plug in’s that have been launched using ChatBot4, covering an ever expanding range of applications , which demonstrates that Ai is here to stay.

In the meantime - One of the primary benefits of Open Ai Service for businesses is its ability to help streamline operations and improve efficiency. By using the suite of advanced artificial intelligence (Ai) capabilities, companies can automate repetitive tasks or routine tasks, optimise many other processes, and make future business decisions more effectively using new more comprehensive data based sets of information.

This will allow the workforce to focus on more important things and finish pending tasks in less time.

GPT4 has also improved it’s abilities to write suggestive code that will help organisations speed up the process of core code writing for systems.

Here at Cloud B2B we will only continue to safely embrace the relevant efficiency / predictive modules that Ai can provide, that we will deploy to make the most of the solutions that we offer our clients.

We look forward to working with you, for many years to come...

Case History - Bimson Haulage

Bimson, a major player in the Construction Haulage business, had already purchased a POPIA system from CloudB2B, when they asked if the company could look into the development of some bespoke software solutions, in their drive to create an efficient and scalable IT environment.

At almost the same time, due to winning an important expanded contract with UK’s largest construction materials manufacturer in their field, it became clear that a brand new software system was needed to act as the focal point between clients’s systems – JD Edwards and Oracle Cloud- and also with Stirling, Bimson’s own in Transport Management System. So effectively a 4 way tied system, with custom API interfaces, which was required in a very short timescale.

Dan Page – Director of System Development at Cloud B2B commented:

“This represented a major and complex software development project, built from the ground up. Whilst within our overall skill set, with 4 parties being involved, it did present us with some significant challenges. In order to get to the launch date in good order, we included weekend working and many meetings between the parties. However, we got there, with many lessons learnt along the way in resourcing and managing such complex high level projects.”

Harry Leighton – Bimson’s Finance Director and project leader for Bimson, said:

“From the work that cloud B2B did on our POPIA System, I felt that they had the capabilities to achieve the outcome required for the OMS solution. Once we had agreed a modus operandi which meant us purchasing a significant block of key development resource, the process has produced a highly effective solution, that has saved us and our client significant time in processing volume orders. Dan who led- and did most of the development on the project at Cloud B2B- was outstanding in terms of getting the core system to cope with changing requirements . I have to say that despite the difficulties such a complex project presented, we have arrived at the system launch point in time, working successfully, and all parties very pleased with the result! As Cloud B2B know, we will be looking to involve them in an ongoing range of key system developments, over the next 2 years.”

Can Cloud B2B build me a fully custom based system?

The answer is yes. With the underlying platform that we use to build Purchasing and HR solutions, a highly custom version of a client requirement can be built. Having recently completed a fully bespoke system for Bimson (see article above) we have the skill sets and understanding of how to manage and cost complex projects.

Case History - Mamas & Papas

Nursery specialist, Mamas & Papas, has been supporting families on their parenting journey for over 40 years. Offering award-winning pushchairs, quality furniture & equipment and curated collections of interiors & baby clothing, Mamas & Papas deliver their products alongside expert advice and services. Their purpose, Passion for Parenting, runs through every element of the brand which results in Mamas & Papas being the go-to destination for baby.

The company was originally created by two parents, David & Luisa, in 1981 who believed they could create products for the nursery market unrivalled by other brands at the time. From their Head Office in Huddersfield, they designed their product portfolio using their experience as parents themselves, to add those helpful little details. Today, Mamas & Papas have over 50 retail and concession stores across the UK, as well as an online ordering web site https://www.mamasandpapas.com.

In 2016, M & P contacted cloud B2B regarding the creation of a customised Purchase Order system which would allow Departmental and Project based Purchase Orders to be raised across 4 Departments. One of these Departments was the Hong Kong office, which relies on the use of multiple currencies. Strict Departmental budget controls were required, along with limiting Users to be able to view and raise Purchase Orders and reports purely for their own Departments. The creation of multiple reports designed for ease of use across the business was also a pre-requisite. The system worked on the basis of concurrent Users in order to reduce the costs.

In 2021, Deborah Johnson (Project and Legal Administration Manager) who was responsible for the system, approached Cloud B2B to discuss widening the scope of the System, increasing the number of Department Users to include Buying, Marketing and IT. In addition, the Supplier Invoice model was required. Cloud B2B were able to upgrade the whole platform to the latest generation whilst taking into account the requested additional requirements. This necessitated a number of additional developments:

Suppliers being separated by Department.
Workflow approval for PO’s becoming multi-level within each Department, including an optional point-to-point facility which Users could invoke on a case-by-case basis.
A designated Department Administrator who would manage the creation/addition of new Suppliers, budgets, Users, and Tasks on a Departmental basis.
Supplier invoices being sent to individual email addresses for processing by the relevant Department.

Despite all the changes, and the increase in the number of Users, the system still works well with the original 6 concurrent licence specification.

Deborah commented:

“The widening of the use of the system, which also meant a full upgrade to the new transactional platform was not without its challenges! This was largely based around ensuring that the specific needs of each Department, both existing and new, could be accommodated. The support that Dan and his team at Cloud B2B gave us throughout the whole process was excellent, regularly collaborating with me to work through and even enhance the requested changes beyond my original request. The system has been in full use across all Departments since the ‘go live’ date last year. This change has made a significant impact on improving efficiencies and consistencies for procurement within the business. In addition, we now have the added bonus of learning how we can on board new Departments as and when necessary. The new system also gives us options for future-proofing further enhancements should these be required.”

Dan Page (Service Delivery Director) said:

“As a long-term customer, we were delighted that Mamas & Papas could see the benefits of our system, and that they have had the confidence to increase its reach within the organisation. We look forward to supporting Deborah and her team well into the future, in the knowledge that we can carry out further development, as and when our technology develops.”