Quantum computing has been a hot topic in the inner sanctum of hard-core geekdom for years, but it rarely rates a mention in the mainstream media. Perhaps that’s because the basic concept is virtually impossible for a layman, or your average journalist, to get their head around.
If you aren’t sure where you sit on the layman-to-geek continuum, I suggest you browse Wikipedia’s explanation of quantum computing and see if you are left any the wiser. (For those of you who are still awake this MIT Explainer article might be a little more accessible.)
The topic overcame its shyness to make a cameo appearance on the main stage recently, kicked out from the behind the curtains by the formidable boot of Google’s PR machine.
The occasion was the publication of research in the respected journal Nature, claiming that Google’s Sycamore processor had achieved the Holy Grail of ‘quantum supremacy’. Sycamore had performed in 200 seconds a benchmarking calculation, albeit one of no practical use, that would supposedly take a state-of-the-art supercomputer around 10,000 years.
Reactions ranged from super-impressed to super-cynical. IBM, a key competitor in the quantum computing race, went so far as to claim that Google had rigged the test, and that the actual time difference was closer to a long weekend than ten millennia.
This O’Reilly article took the middle ground, regarding the achievement as “very big news”, while noting that:
Like the horizon, or maybe nuclear fusion, the tantalizing promise of quantum computing…always seems the same distance away.
Keen to claim Competitive Supremacy in Sage 300, here and now?
The consensus seems to be that, while Google’s achievement was indeed a significant milestone, practical mainstream applications of quantum computing are still decades away.
That might come as a blow to any CFO who has been dreaming of doing their year-end processing in 3 nanoseconds, but all is not lost when it comes to finding significant time savings in your business operations.
Instead of waiting for the quantum leap forward, why not look at some ‘here and now’ options that could buy you some time?
The following are just some of the ways that Sage 300 add-ons from Orchid Systems could help.
Inter-Entity Transactions & Inter-Entity Trade: By generating auto-balancing entries for inter-company loan accounts and trades you’ll not only avoid the drudgery of manually posting duplicate entries, but potentially save days each month reconciling your books.
EFT Processing: Why spend hours printing, folding and posting cheques and remittance advices? An EFT batch can be created for import into your banking software, and remittance advices emailed, in a matter of minutes.
Extender: Fine tune Sage 300 so it hums like a well-oiled machine. Tailor it to meet your unique business needs with custom validations, exception handling, integrations, workflows and more.
Notes & Document Management Link: Improve efficiency by putting information where it’s needed. Context-sensitive notes and links to relevant documents appear on your Sage 300 screens, removing the need to swivel-chair to other applications, or rummage through filing cabinets and manuals.
Process Scheduler & Report Runner: Save time and effort by kicking off critical business processes like backups, integrity checks, day ends and reports automatically according to pre-defined schedules.
Info-Explorer: Improve the speed and quality of decision making. Why wait for reports to be run and distributed when you can slice, dice and drill into data pulled directly from Sage 300?
Bin Tracking: Reduce warehouse turnaround times by accurately tracking and managing the location of your inventory at bin level.
Return Material Authorizations: Streamline the handling of product returns and repairs, with consistent processes and a single source of information, all managed from within Sage 300.
