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Adilas Lite - Value Add-On Core Model
Adilas is a fully operating web application based on a transactional core. The transactional core is a term we use to describe the way application players and pieces of the system interact. The system pieces work together to capture and record the daily operations and subsequent accounting for a business. This core is the foundation of what we offer as our primary service (SaaS - Software as a Service). Every business uses this core to do their daily tasks and operations.
We are proposing that anything beyond the transactional core becomes an upgrade or value add-on piece to the system. Our current model has all the layers and pieces blended together as a single solution. We want to further define the model so that these extras, or upgrade levels, become standalone, value add-on pieces.
We propose these value add-on levels to be:
- Transactional core level - the current Adilas system
- Industry specific skins level
- Custom code level
- Business intelligence level
- Enterprise level
We have been building and working on the core and these layers for over 20+ years. We will keep building and defining these levels. Please check out the other sections to see more plans for each level. The adilas system is already incredibly flexible and robust. We are excited to keep pushing the ball forward and make true business world building a reality.
So, we used to have this joke... People would ask us, what does adilas do? We would respond... Did you pack a lunch?
Here is a quick elevator type pitch of what we do:
"High-end software as a service (SaaS) company. Anything dealing with operations and accounting. We have a standard package that we use and then we customize on top of that."
Very simple, but has a lot of loaded statements.
1. High-end software as a service (SaaS) company - This is the whole package without saying it. Monthly, service package, and full business platform.
2. Anything dealing with operations and accounting - This is another whole package type statement dealing with the range that we try to cover. Most people understand different operations and accounting pieces and even know where they have needs and/or struggles. Easy foot in the door, yet very diverse.
3. We have a standard package that we use and then we customize on top of that - This says that it is somewhat ready right out of the box and with different settings you can configure almost anything... Plus, we do custom coding on top of a standard piece or process. The sky is the limit. You dream it up, we'll help you wire it up!
Here is a quick elevator type pitch of what we do:
"High-end software as a service (SaaS) company. Anything dealing with operations and accounting. We have a standard package that we use and then we customize on top of that."
Very simple, but has a lot of loaded statements.
1. High-end software as a service (SaaS) company - This is the whole package without saying it. Monthly, service package, and full business platform.
2. Anything dealing with operations and accounting - This is another whole package type statement dealing with the range that we try to cover. Most people understand different operations and accounting pieces and even know where they have needs and/or struggles. Easy foot in the door, yet very diverse.
3. We have a standard package that we use and then we customize on top of that - This says that it is somewhat ready right out of the box and with different settings you can configure almost anything... Plus, we do custom coding on top of a standard piece or process. The sky is the limit. You dream it up, we'll help you wire it up!
As part of defining the current adilas core, we thought that it would be helpful to show what is common or somewhat industry standard as far as matching software to needs.
The current approach that most businesses use is to look around and try to find the "best in class" pieces of software. Then they try to marry those software pieces together to get a semi-workable system. This commonly ends up being a solution that includes anywhere from 4-10 (or more) different software packages to run their business. Imagine something like this: Best in class inventory tracking, best in class POS (point of sale), best in class ecommerce package, accounting, payroll, timecards, CRM (customer relationship management), project management, scheduling, etc. You get the idea... Does this sound familiar?
This ends up being what is called a "mashup", or mix, of different software packages all trying to be pulled into one workable solution. The pain comes in as each piece dead ends and doesn't fully fit with the other pieces. You end up in somewhat of a time sink as you have to duplicate data or search for data details in, or from, one software package to the other. Not to mention that you have different accounts, contracts, logins, and are paying for multiple pieces of software.
At the heart of integrating all of the pieces into a single system, we use what we call the adilas transactional core. This is our fancy term for describing how the whole system works and interacts. The word "transactional" means capturing the details, histories, usage, and entries for every action within the system. If you catch every penny in and every penny out, every invoice, every PO, item usage, expenses, deposits, etc., you start getting transactions and data history. This creates multi-relational data stored over time. All of these underlying details and histories become the transactional core. This is the foundation that creates the adilas system and sets up other opportunities to build on top of this core.
Inside of adilas, and as part of the core, we are demonstrating that it is possible to do all of these critical business functions in a single integrated system. This is what we do at adilas. Imagine being able to do full inventory tracking, have a fully configurable POS system, CRM functionality, scheduling, accounting, payroll, ecommerce, full financials, reporting, exports, and having a virtual paperless office (CMS - content management system). This is just the surface of what is available with adilas, one system, all working together in an integrated solution.
There are countless advantages and benefits from having a fully integrated solution. A few of these benefits are things like having everything in one place and it all interconnects (no dead ends). Being able to search and find underlying details of amounts, sums, histories, and counts. Not having to buy all of the other software packages. You are no longer limited to strictly linear processes. You are able to have a virtual three-dimensional (3D) system that allows you to enter data at any level and it will interconnect. Another advantage of getting the whole system is picking and choosing the parts of the system that you want to use. Inside of adilas, use what you want, when you want. It's all there!
If you want more, here are 50 slides covering what we do... have fun... we call this the presentation gallery.
The current approach that most businesses use is to look around and try to find the "best in class" pieces of software. Then they try to marry those software pieces together to get a semi-workable system. This commonly ends up being a solution that includes anywhere from 4-10 (or more) different software packages to run their business. Imagine something like this: Best in class inventory tracking, best in class POS (point of sale), best in class ecommerce package, accounting, payroll, timecards, CRM (customer relationship management), project management, scheduling, etc. You get the idea... Does this sound familiar?
This ends up being what is called a "mashup", or mix, of different software packages all trying to be pulled into one workable solution. The pain comes in as each piece dead ends and doesn't fully fit with the other pieces. You end up in somewhat of a time sink as you have to duplicate data or search for data details in, or from, one software package to the other. Not to mention that you have different accounts, contracts, logins, and are paying for multiple pieces of software.
At the heart of integrating all of the pieces into a single system, we use what we call the adilas transactional core. This is our fancy term for describing how the whole system works and interacts. The word "transactional" means capturing the details, histories, usage, and entries for every action within the system. If you catch every penny in and every penny out, every invoice, every PO, item usage, expenses, deposits, etc., you start getting transactions and data history. This creates multi-relational data stored over time. All of these underlying details and histories become the transactional core. This is the foundation that creates the adilas system and sets up other opportunities to build on top of this core.
Inside of adilas, and as part of the core, we are demonstrating that it is possible to do all of these critical business functions in a single integrated system. This is what we do at adilas. Imagine being able to do full inventory tracking, have a fully configurable POS system, CRM functionality, scheduling, accounting, payroll, ecommerce, full financials, reporting, exports, and having a virtual paperless office (CMS - content management system). This is just the surface of what is available with adilas, one system, all working together in an integrated solution.
There are countless advantages and benefits from having a fully integrated solution. A few of these benefits are things like having everything in one place and it all interconnects (no dead ends). Being able to search and find underlying details of amounts, sums, histories, and counts. Not having to buy all of the other software packages. You are no longer limited to strictly linear processes. You are able to have a virtual three-dimensional (3D) system that allows you to enter data at any level and it will interconnect. Another advantage of getting the whole system is picking and choosing the parts of the system that you want to use. Inside of adilas, use what you want, when you want. It's all there!
If you want more, here are 50 slides covering what we do... have fun... we call this the presentation gallery.
The next, or second, layer above the core is what we call the industry specific skins. Imagine taking the generic adilas business tool, the adilas core, and then building software specifically for a business vertical. The new software package has exactly what they need, looks like what they want, and caters to their specific business practices or processes.
All of the other pieces are hidden and/or behind the scenes. With an industry specific skin, you can toggle on and off almost anything that you want. Change any of the verbiage, language, steps, and even the flow process. It becomes fully custom.
Every business has such diverse needs, wants, and even flow. For example: Say you were a car or trailer dealership. You would be dealing with stock/units (serialized inventory), floorplans, commissions, paperwork, etc. If you were simple retail, you would be dealing with barcodes, touchscreens, tons of different widget inventory, quick counter sales, and different payment options. A service industry may need scheduling, reoccurring billing, and a focus on customer care or support. You get the idea.
Building industry specific skins help us, as a company, cater to the exact needs of those business verticals. This also helps our clients feel like they have industry specific software that was built just for them. The true secret is the powerful underlying core. That's what allows all of this to really take place per business vertical and allow unlimited possibilities.
The white label option deals with a company wanting to brand and sell one or more of these custom industry specific skins. Each white label will, or could, have a completely different brand, feel, or flavor. For example: Say a specific skin for bowling pro shops, ice cream shops, pet grooming, quick retail, health and wellness, hobby shops, etc. Lots of potential there! If you want to learn more about our plans for the white label options, see this page that has some adilas investment opportunities. The white label content is number 4 in the last section, ways to invest in adilas.
All of the other pieces are hidden and/or behind the scenes. With an industry specific skin, you can toggle on and off almost anything that you want. Change any of the verbiage, language, steps, and even the flow process. It becomes fully custom.
Every business has such diverse needs, wants, and even flow. For example: Say you were a car or trailer dealership. You would be dealing with stock/units (serialized inventory), floorplans, commissions, paperwork, etc. If you were simple retail, you would be dealing with barcodes, touchscreens, tons of different widget inventory, quick counter sales, and different payment options. A service industry may need scheduling, reoccurring billing, and a focus on customer care or support. You get the idea.
Building industry specific skins help us, as a company, cater to the exact needs of those business verticals. This also helps our clients feel like they have industry specific software that was built just for them. The true secret is the powerful underlying core. That's what allows all of this to really take place per business vertical and allow unlimited possibilities.
The white label option deals with a company wanting to brand and sell one or more of these custom industry specific skins. Each white label will, or could, have a completely different brand, feel, or flavor. For example: Say a specific skin for bowling pro shops, ice cream shops, pet grooming, quick retail, health and wellness, hobby shops, etc. Lots of potential there! If you want to learn more about our plans for the white label options, see this page that has some adilas investment opportunities. The white label content is number 4 in the last section, ways to invest in adilas.
The third layer is what we call custom code. We have been doing custom code for over 20+ years. We do custom, out of the box, better than some companies do at almost any level. This is a huge part of our model. We have built-in some great ways to work with technology that allow us to play in that custom code world.
Usually for custom code you have two main options. You can either write hardcoded values or you can store settings in the database and then flex the system functionality based on the stored values. This latter version is called data driven custom code. It is able to be switched/changed on the fly based on settings.
Inside of adilas, we are able to harness the dynamic data controlled changes and settings. This is one of our biggest advantages. We can do custom per business, per business vertical (group of similar businesses), per page within the system, and even per user. We do this by using a combination of settings, permissions, and templates. Using these things, we store the changes or settings in the database. This allows us to change usage and functionality dynamically. We have hundreds of settings and permissions that we can mix and blend to achieve great custom results.
If we wanted to, we could even take custom code further. Instead of doing custom code per corporation or business, there are possible white label options that would allow us do custom code for an entire business vertical (industry specific skins). You could still add individual custom code on top of an industry specific skin if needed. There are countless options and opportunities by combining these features. We love saying, "You dream it up, we'll help you wire it up!".
Usually for custom code you have two main options. You can either write hardcoded values or you can store settings in the database and then flex the system functionality based on the stored values. This latter version is called data driven custom code. It is able to be switched/changed on the fly based on settings.
Inside of adilas, we are able to harness the dynamic data controlled changes and settings. This is one of our biggest advantages. We can do custom per business, per business vertical (group of similar businesses), per page within the system, and even per user. We do this by using a combination of settings, permissions, and templates. Using these things, we store the changes or settings in the database. This allows us to change usage and functionality dynamically. We have hundreds of settings and permissions that we can mix and blend to achieve great custom results.
If we wanted to, we could even take custom code further. Instead of doing custom code per corporation or business, there are possible white label options that would allow us do custom code for an entire business vertical (industry specific skins). You could still add individual custom code on top of an industry specific skin if needed. There are countless options and opportunities by combining these features. We love saying, "You dream it up, we'll help you wire it up!".
The fourth layer is the BI or business intelligence level. This is where you start seeing trends, patterns, and even identifying possible problems. Often people tend to think of the BI level like a giant dashboard that shows charts, graphs, quick counts and totals, however business intelligence is far more than graphs and charts. In this section we want to discuss what creates business intelligence and why it is so valuable to companies.
The first thing you have to do to get business intelligence is catch and centralize all of the data. This creates your pool of possible information. We call this pool of information transactional data. These individual transactions hold the details for what is happening in every level of your business operations. Everything starts here at this point. Then, similar to a cook with a pot of stew, you have to start boiling things down. The technical term for this is called aggregated data. This produces things like sums, averages, counts, maxes, mins, etc. These aggregates also become part of the available data pool for quick access and usage later on in your reporting.
Once you have your data pool you can start creating business intelligence through a process called "E.T.L". This ETL process is an acronym for extract, transform, and load. That may sound pretty simple but in real life, it is a pretty involved process. Extract means, let's look at the full data pool, decide what pieces are needed, and at what intervals. Then you pull that desired data out of the system. This usually comes from multiple places within the database. At this point, the data is somewhat raw but ready to be used. Next, we need to transform it.
The transform process takes data, which often has unnecessary pieces with it, and trims it down to just the needed pieces. This process is making the data into what you want and may take multiple steps in the transformation. Along the way, the load process involves taking the new pieces or sub products and putting them into a new holding container. For business data, that may be categorizing things by location, by date, by category or sub category. You label things, you place them in known areas within your database, and you pull certain values for certain reports. This is making business intelligence available for use both now and in the future (looking back).
The whole reason that we do this ETL process, and try to automate it, is because viewing transactional data breaks down when there are too many transactional pieces or when you are trying to span too long of a time interval. Automating your collection of business intelligence becomes a continual background process that we do for you as you continue to run your normal operations.
Without getting super technical, we'd like to introduce the rule of 0's here. This is just to help you see why aggregates and the BI level are needed. If you are looking at one piece of something, say an invoice, it's not a big deal. If you are looking at 10 invoices, it's not a big deal. When you start looking at 100 invoices that starts becoming a little bit more of a chore. You can see as you keep adding zeros it becomes harder and harder. If you went to 1,000 invoices that would become a major chore. What if you went to 10 thousand, 100 thousand, millions of invoices? You can get lost in the details and the time it takes to look at each one. Anyway, you can see how aggregated data or business intelligence becomes essential for seeing the patterns, trends, and summary of what is happening in your business.
One of the end goals of this BI level is called digital storytelling, being able to see and know your company's story as it unfolds over time. Imagine if you could see your entire business, almost flowing as if it were on a video screen or a miniature movie of sorts. You could see things as they go up and down and change. If you have questions, you could stop and you could drill in and see all of the underlying transactional data. That is where we are headed. The business intelligence that you could get from this would be amazing. Whether it is graphs, charts, targets, trends, or details, you could quickly see the business data to help you make decisions in running your business.
There could also be some excellent industry specific options here for 3rd party solutions that work with BI technologies. They may specialize in doing data analytics, predictive models, just in time reporting, trending, or other BI technologies. They could harness the transactional data from the adilas core to produce great BI results. Along those same lines, current AI, artificial intelligence or large language models, are becoming an increasingly valuable tool in working with large data sets. Lots of possible options are rising to the surface as technology continues to improve.
Often, companies pay big money and go to great lengths to get this business intelligence. This BI data adds great value for individuals and companies. They may pay for BI in many ways. Some examples could be: paying for extra people to help gather data from different software packages, business consultants, spreadsheet teams, people who do data analytics, and so on. This manual process of extra people and consultants happens over and over again.
Companies want to know what is going on, how to plan ahead, and what decisions to make right now that will affect and/or help them in the future. Think of the value of having all of those processes automated and right at your fingertips in real time. That is invaluable and becomes a huge business asset to help your company. The adilas BI level will fill these business intelligence needs. As we continue building, more exciting possibilities will become realities.
The first thing you have to do to get business intelligence is catch and centralize all of the data. This creates your pool of possible information. We call this pool of information transactional data. These individual transactions hold the details for what is happening in every level of your business operations. Everything starts here at this point. Then, similar to a cook with a pot of stew, you have to start boiling things down. The technical term for this is called aggregated data. This produces things like sums, averages, counts, maxes, mins, etc. These aggregates also become part of the available data pool for quick access and usage later on in your reporting.
Once you have your data pool you can start creating business intelligence through a process called "E.T.L". This ETL process is an acronym for extract, transform, and load. That may sound pretty simple but in real life, it is a pretty involved process. Extract means, let's look at the full data pool, decide what pieces are needed, and at what intervals. Then you pull that desired data out of the system. This usually comes from multiple places within the database. At this point, the data is somewhat raw but ready to be used. Next, we need to transform it.
The transform process takes data, which often has unnecessary pieces with it, and trims it down to just the needed pieces. This process is making the data into what you want and may take multiple steps in the transformation. Along the way, the load process involves taking the new pieces or sub products and putting them into a new holding container. For business data, that may be categorizing things by location, by date, by category or sub category. You label things, you place them in known areas within your database, and you pull certain values for certain reports. This is making business intelligence available for use both now and in the future (looking back).
The whole reason that we do this ETL process, and try to automate it, is because viewing transactional data breaks down when there are too many transactional pieces or when you are trying to span too long of a time interval. Automating your collection of business intelligence becomes a continual background process that we do for you as you continue to run your normal operations.
Without getting super technical, we'd like to introduce the rule of 0's here. This is just to help you see why aggregates and the BI level are needed. If you are looking at one piece of something, say an invoice, it's not a big deal. If you are looking at 10 invoices, it's not a big deal. When you start looking at 100 invoices that starts becoming a little bit more of a chore. You can see as you keep adding zeros it becomes harder and harder. If you went to 1,000 invoices that would become a major chore. What if you went to 10 thousand, 100 thousand, millions of invoices? You can get lost in the details and the time it takes to look at each one. Anyway, you can see how aggregated data or business intelligence becomes essential for seeing the patterns, trends, and summary of what is happening in your business.
One of the end goals of this BI level is called digital storytelling, being able to see and know your company's story as it unfolds over time. Imagine if you could see your entire business, almost flowing as if it were on a video screen or a miniature movie of sorts. You could see things as they go up and down and change. If you have questions, you could stop and you could drill in and see all of the underlying transactional data. That is where we are headed. The business intelligence that you could get from this would be amazing. Whether it is graphs, charts, targets, trends, or details, you could quickly see the business data to help you make decisions in running your business.
There could also be some excellent industry specific options here for 3rd party solutions that work with BI technologies. They may specialize in doing data analytics, predictive models, just in time reporting, trending, or other BI technologies. They could harness the transactional data from the adilas core to produce great BI results. Along those same lines, current AI, artificial intelligence or large language models, are becoming an increasingly valuable tool in working with large data sets. Lots of possible options are rising to the surface as technology continues to improve.
Often, companies pay big money and go to great lengths to get this business intelligence. This BI data adds great value for individuals and companies. They may pay for BI in many ways. Some examples could be: paying for extra people to help gather data from different software packages, business consultants, spreadsheet teams, people who do data analytics, and so on. This manual process of extra people and consultants happens over and over again.
Companies want to know what is going on, how to plan ahead, and what decisions to make right now that will affect and/or help them in the future. Think of the value of having all of those processes automated and right at your fingertips in real time. That is invaluable and becomes a huge business asset to help your company. The adilas BI level will fill these business intelligence needs. As we continue building, more exciting possibilities will become realities.
Level five of the value add-on core is what we are calling enterprise, or the enterprise level. Not every client or corporation needs this level of interaction and functionality. That is why this level is the top most level of the value add-on core model. For those who do need it, it becomes the unlimited top end and allows for all kinds of functionality between multiple locations or multiple corporations. Enterprise could be a number of different things, but essentially you start getting into a scenario where you have one master corporation that controls smaller entities. Think Sci-Fi (science fiction), top level control or dominance. You always have the aliens with a master ship that controls all of the sub ships and sub armies attacking the planet. Below we will paint a small picture of how this may look. Once again, this is not required but has huge potential for those who want and need it.
Back to the business Sci-Fi levels... In a world building analogy, imagine a universe level. You have multiple planets, solar systems, clusters, all kinds of things that are interacting together. Normally, most of your transactions that happen inside of adilas are on a single world, or on a single planet type level. That is what we would call a corporation or business entity. In the enterprise realm, you are starting to mix and blend worlds and/or corporations. This is great for all kinds of businesses where you have either franchises, mother/daughter type corporations, vendor/distributor, or entities that are somewhat connected and have either shared financials or shared ownership.
Inside of the enterprise level, we have already defined a number of pieces with data flow going both up and down the chain, big to small or small to big. Data flow is really important and helps with communications and reporting. The real value of that communication channel is too broad for this discussion, but it is essential for enterprise level transactions. You could also add any amount of custom code to create rules, automations, functionality, special relationships, or define any other need for the flow of data. Custom code at this enterprise level is how you fine tune your processes and cater the software application to your business needs.
One of the goals of an enterprise level system is normalization, meaning normalizing or standardizing your data. You can have multiple different businesses, all running on adilas, and they can all use the same terminology and the same type of accounts or landing places for your data. This allows data to flow up and down and in between worlds to help with reporting and business intelligence. It then allows you to pull standardized reports so much easier than pulling individual reports and trying to blend them together with spreadsheets or other methods. Depending on the size of the company, some of this normalization can be very cost intensive and even painful. Sometimes there are even teams setup specifically for the purpose of extracting and normalizing data from multiple software systems. The adilas enterprise level has incredible value and helps to overcome some big pain points for traditional companies. Think business intelligence on an enterprise or universe type level.
Here are some other benefits of the enterprise level:
Amazing potential in the enterprise level! This is the top most level of the value add-on core. You get to mix, blend, and use any of these sub pieces to create your perfect dream business, track and record your story, ease your pain, and have the necessary pieces to help your business thrive!
Back to the business Sci-Fi levels... In a world building analogy, imagine a universe level. You have multiple planets, solar systems, clusters, all kinds of things that are interacting together. Normally, most of your transactions that happen inside of adilas are on a single world, or on a single planet type level. That is what we would call a corporation or business entity. In the enterprise realm, you are starting to mix and blend worlds and/or corporations. This is great for all kinds of businesses where you have either franchises, mother/daughter type corporations, vendor/distributor, or entities that are somewhat connected and have either shared financials or shared ownership.
Inside of the enterprise level, we have already defined a number of pieces with data flow going both up and down the chain, big to small or small to big. Data flow is really important and helps with communications and reporting. The real value of that communication channel is too broad for this discussion, but it is essential for enterprise level transactions. You could also add any amount of custom code to create rules, automations, functionality, special relationships, or define any other need for the flow of data. Custom code at this enterprise level is how you fine tune your processes and cater the software application to your business needs.
One of the goals of an enterprise level system is normalization, meaning normalizing or standardizing your data. You can have multiple different businesses, all running on adilas, and they can all use the same terminology and the same type of accounts or landing places for your data. This allows data to flow up and down and in between worlds to help with reporting and business intelligence. It then allows you to pull standardized reports so much easier than pulling individual reports and trying to blend them together with spreadsheets or other methods. Depending on the size of the company, some of this normalization can be very cost intensive and even painful. Sometimes there are even teams setup specifically for the purpose of extracting and normalizing data from multiple software systems. The adilas enterprise level has incredible value and helps to overcome some big pain points for traditional companies. Think business intelligence on an enterprise or universe type level.
Here are some other benefits of the enterprise level:
- Master lists or libraries of data - items, vendors, customers, photo galleries, etc.
- Shared loyalty points and gift cards
- Multi-locational or multi-corporational
- Bulk tools, rules, processes, and scheduled tasks
- Consolidated banking and financials
- Consolidated reporting and business intelligence
- Permission levels and security
- Automated routines and processes
- Options for custom code
Amazing potential in the enterprise level! This is the top most level of the value add-on core. You get to mix, blend, and use any of these sub pieces to create your perfect dream business, track and record your story, ease your pain, and have the necessary pieces to help your business thrive!