SSRS reports nobody wants to change
The reporting works, until you need something slightly different. Then it is a report project, and report projects get scheduled behind everything else.
Small questions get a big queue
For discrete manufacturers running Made2Manage
Custom apps, AI, and live dashboards for Made2Manage
Made2Manage sits on SQL Server and ships a Web API, which means your data is more reachable than most people in the building realize. We build the layer that puts it in front of the people who need it.
- Made2Manage Web API
- SQL Server
- SSRS
- Scheduled data exchange
We do not replace Made2Manage. We build on it, and everything runs in your accounts.
The gap
Made2Manage knows the answer. Your people are still asking around.
Three things we hear on nearly every Made2Manage call.
The system knows more than the shop floor sees
Order status, material availability, and job costs are in there. On the floor, people still ask a supervisor, who checks a screen and walks back out.
Answers travel at walking speed
Everything around it is a spreadsheet
Scheduling, quoting, capacity planning. The parts that decide whether a job makes money live in files beside the ERP, then get keyed back in.
One job, several systems, no single view
What we do
What we build on Made2Manage
Six things, in whatever order helps you most. Most manufacturers start with two.
An MCP server for Made2Manage
MCP is the standard that lets AI assistants talk to real systems. We build one against your Made2Manage install so Claude, ChatGPT, or Copilot answer from live data.
In practice
Someone asks "what is holding up this order, and is the material here." The assistant reads Made2Manage through the MCP server and answers with real records. Read only by default. Any write is scoped and logged.
Custom apps on top of Made2Manage
Shop floor tablets, scanning, quoting tools, and customer portals, connected through the Web API rather than another seat in the client.
In practice
An operator reports production from a tablet at the machine. It posts through the Web API, so the transaction lands in Made2Manage the way it should, and the schedule reflects it immediately.
AI chatbots that know your business
A chatbot grounded in your Made2Manage data and your own documents. Routings, work instructions, spec sheets, customer history.
In practice
Customer service asks about an order: where it is, what is left, what it shipped at last time. One answer, in seconds, with links back to the records behind it.
Live Made2Manage dashboards
Backlog, throughput, on-time delivery, and margin by job, live on a wall screen and a phone. Not an SSRS report somebody runs on request.
In practice
We read from SQL Server views and publish one dashboard everyone shares. Nobody waits on a report request to find out how the week is going.
Made2Manage integrations that hold
Made2Manage connected to CRM, EDI, shipping, and accounting. Data entered once, showing up everywhere it should.
In practice
An EDI order becomes a Made2Manage sales order through the Web API, the shipment and ASN post back, and nobody keyed anything twice.
Automations that kill the re-keying
Anywhere someone moves a number into or out of Made2Manage by hand, we automate it. Orders, POs, confirmations, invoices.
In practice
Vendor confirmations arriving as PDFs get read, matched to the PO, and posted. Anything that does not match cleanly goes to a person with the reason attached.
Not sure which of these matters most for your company? That is what the first call is for.
Under the hood
How we actually connect to Made2Manage
A .NET application on SQL Server with a documented Web API. That is a good starting position.
- Made2Manage Web API
- Aptean's supported route for sharing data outside the standard interface. This is where writes belong.
- SQL Server views
- Read only views for reporting and cross module analysis, kept off the live transaction path so big queries never slow down the floor.
- SSRS
- Made2Manage moved to SQL Server Reporting Services from 7.5 onward. We keep the SSRS reports that earn their place and replace the ones people stopped running.
- Scheduled exchange
- Files and EDI for trading partners and older systems that will only hand you a batch.
What we will not do
- We do not write directly into Made2Manage tables. Writes go through the Web API so application rules and the audit trail still run.
- We do not put reporting load on your live transaction database.
- We do not rip out SSRS. We replace the reports people gave up on and leave the ones that work.
- We do not hold your data. Everything is deployed to your infrastructure and your accounts.
2 to 4 weeks
from first call to something live in your business
20 to 40+ hrs
of monthly re-keying removed in a typical engagement
0
direct table writes, everything goes through the Web API
Questions
Made2Manage questions we get asked
No. Made2Manage stays your system of record. We build the layer on top: dashboards, custom apps, AI, and the connections to everything else you run. Most ERP replacement projects overrun and a majority miss their goals. This is deliberately not that.
Through the Made2Manage Web API for writes and real time reads, and read only SQL Server views for heavy reporting. Made2Manage runs on .NET and SQL Server, which means both routes are well understood and neither requires anything exotic.
The ones that work keep working. Made2Manage moved to SQL Server Reporting Services from version 7.5, and SSRS is genuinely good at printed documents and scheduled distribution. What we replace is the reporting people stopped requesting because the turnaround was too slow.
MCP is the open standard for letting an AI assistant use a real system safely. An MCP server for Made2Manage means your team asks questions in plain English and gets answers from live data, with every request scoped and logged. It is the difference between an AI that guesses about your business and one that reads your actual order book.
Usually not. Version affects which route we use more than whether we can help. If the Web API is not available to us, SQL reads plus scheduled exchange still cover most of what people want first, which is seeing their own numbers without asking anyone.
Two to four weeks for the first working piece. We work from your live data rather than months of interviews. The worst re-keying is usually gone inside the first two weeks.
Let's talk
Tell us which report you stopped asking for.
Thirty minutes. You show us how Made2Manage is set up and where the spreadsheets took over. We tell you straight what we would build first, and what it would take.
No commitment and no pressure
We will tell you straight if we cannot help
The invite lands in your calendar right away
From first call to live in 2 to 4 weeks
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Global Shop Solutions
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abas ERP
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All ERP work