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Home | Why Your Distribution Software Should be in the Cloud

The markets are changing, and these changes require instant access to accurate, up-to-date data to power new types of procurement, inventory management, asset tracking and accounting processes.

Business have a choice here. They can continue using their legacy processes and inform them with new processes that meet the enhanced expectations of their clients around reporting and tracking guidelines and basic interactions. These companies will continue to store their data in local stacks and off-site servers.

The alternative choice is bidding farewell to off-site data storage and integrate a cloud-based distribution software solution, and to work with the right consultant to help them choose the right solution to meet their unique business challenges.

The way companies view their processes around procurement, inventory management and supply chain control have also changed. Our new business environment requires all of these processes to be completely transparent.
Take a look at your company’s legacy distribution management solutions. Chances are, if you’re not yet on the Cloud, the software that you’re using is slow, cumbersome and incommunicative. It must serve its purpose, or you wouldn’t be using it — in all likelihood, these legacy tools are effective in terms of data collection and basic analytics, but when paired with more up-to-date solutions, a fragmented system arises that impedes effective communication and timely access to data.

When you move your entire distribution system to the cloud, you no longer have to worry about local servers and software. Once you’ve settled on a provider with a reputation of expertise and reliability, you’ll be able to use these systems to expand your distribution while increasing your data-analysis capabilities.

There are three main benefits to moving your distribution processes to the cloud:
1. With the massive increase in digitization of our everyday lives, B2B clients are accessing B2C tech flows every day, and they are now expecting the processes they use in business to be as simple and user-friendly as the tools they’re using in their everyday online activities. This is possible with cloud-based systems, but not with the legacy systems many businesses are still using. Cloud-based systems are designed to adhere to customer demands while delivering comprehensive data access and analysis ability.

2. Cloud-based systems streamline your inventory management abilities, giving you insight into exactly what is going on with your company’s stock and inventory, giving you the ability to send out overstock or order in supplies to face current shortages. This information is available to business owners in real-time.

If you’re ready to discuss making the shift to a cloud-based distribution system but don’t know where to start, we can help. Reach out today to speak with an expert.

Home | Managing a Remote Team

As a business owner, you’ve undoubtedly faced a great deal of challenges since March 2020. At that time, many businesses made a sudden and drastic shift away from the traditional, office-based work environment to a work from home model. While this introduced many efficiencies and came with a great deal of perks for both business owners and their employees, it also brought on a new set of challenges, including how to manage a team of employees that are working remotely.

Here are three tips to help managers and business owners manage remote teams in a way that maximizes their output and efficiency while allowing and encouraging them to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Don’t skip the small talk

We’re all busy, and sometimes small talk can seem frivolous. However, when we manage teams that are working from home, small talk is important in building rapport with your team and making sure they are satisfied in their role and their environment. Take the time to find out what your employees did this weekend or ask about the painting on the wall in the frame behind them. This may not seem important in the moment, but it really helps employees stay connected to their teams, and experience some of the social interaction that is so abundant in the office environment.

Turn on your camera

We’re all using video chats more than ever, and it can be tempting sometimes to turn off your camera during these meetings. Resist the temptation and keep your camera on at all times. Tone of voice is important for meaningful communication, but so is body language and facial expressions, and these are lost without physically seeing the person you are conversing with.

Ask a lot of questions

Unhappy employees are unproductive employees. Take the time to have one-on-one video chats with each of your team members regularly. This ties back to building rapport. Ask specific questions about their level of satisfaction with their work environment, find out how they are feeling emotionally, if there are isolation issues, internet connectivity issues, ergonomic equipment issues etc. If there are issues, fix whatever is possible to fix. Keeping your team happy is key to a successful remote work environment.

Managing a remote workforce is tricky and there’s a lot more to it than these three tips. However, if you commit to these and incorporate them into your day-to-day management strategy, you will build a solid foundation of open communication with your team that will help give you better insight into their satisfaction and performance.

Home | Getting the Executive Buy-in Needed for a Successful ERP Implementation

We’ve heard from many professionals who have taken the time to research, select and purchase and ERP systems that they feel will help them monitor and grow their business, only to hit significant roadblocks when the time comes to implement the system.

Implementing an ERP system can be complicated, and to make it a smooth transition, it’s important to have the buy-in of the company’s executive team. Because ERP implementation will require changes to the business’ operations and processes, the use of human power is necessary to get these changes off the ground, and this can be time consuming and resource intensive. Having a champion at the executive table that is committed to prioritizing the success of the new ERP program is paramount to ensuring that the implementation team receives the resources required to implement the new systems.

Attaining this leadership support should be easy, but often it’s not. After all, the leadership team approved the financial investment required to purchase the software but making sure that your executives are constantly reminded of the importance of a modern cloud-based ERP solution is key. Throughout the implementation process, keep your executives up to date on which element of the system is being worked on, and how the various stakeholders from every department across the company is being trained to use the systems to improve efficiency. Clearly communicating how each step will contribute to company success will remind the company decision-makers of the importance of this implementation and help reduce hesitation to allocate the resources needed to complete the process.

Another important thing to keep your leadership team up to date on is the ROI you can and will receive from a proper ERP implementation. Every company leader will be on board with common ERP benefits like the reduction in operating expenses, faster response times, more satisfied customers, better access to higher-quality data which helps inform decision making and maximizing employee efficiency through the creation of more detailed workflows. Remind them of these benefits regularly and keep them apprised of where things stand in term of implementation and realizing these benefits, and maintain the leadership buy-in needed for a smooth, successful ERP implementation across your company.

Home | Post-COVID ERP Strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted nearly every element of life, from the way we shop, to the way we consume media, to the way we do business.

The needs of companies have shifted seemingly overnight, and their reliance on technology to provide business insights and facilitate basic communication has exploded. In the pre-COVID world, companies were slowly becoming more digitized and recognizing the need for advanced enterprise resource planning. Post-COVID, this technology has gone from a want to a need – company’s remote work environments and increased reliance on e-commerce has made the flexibility and speed that ERP systems facilitate an absolute necessity.

As companies investigate upgrading their ERP systems, it’s important for them to look at their most urgent challenges and be trained and prepared for their ERP transition. As ERP systems have evolved and become more customizable, their deployment speeds have slowed, and it’s become more difficult to extract business data and new acquisitions. But switching ERP systems takes time and resources, so the aforementioned challenges have largely been glossed over as companies have avoided investing the resources required to make a change.

Recent changes in business practices means that it’s more important than ever to make this shift, and to make it quickly in order to maximize effectiveness in managing supply chains, digitize finance and human resources functions and respond to consumer trends.

New ERP platforms can help companies address these areas by providing transparency into their sales performance, inventory status, production glitches and financial accountability. But most importantly, in an era where businesses are struggling to adapt, new ERP systems can provide decision-makers with instant business analysis driven by real-time data and better engage online employees and customers.

Talk to an expert for guidance on choosing the ERP solution that will help drive your business forward. Reach out today for a consultation.

Home | ERP and the New Wave of Accountants

Accountants and other financial services professionals have slowly integrated new technologies that increase accuracy and efficiency into their daily processes. In March of 2020 this steady integration was catapulted decades ahead as the traditional office-style workplace was instantly cast aside and accountants, along with their clients, shifted to a remote work environment.

For accounting firms that had lagged behind technologically, this meant an immediate shift in priority towards investing in new tech solutions and cloud-based data storage, and firms that had kept up-to-date on innovative trends had a tremendous advantage as their seamless transition allowed them to remain focus on providing clients with strategic financial advice.

Accountants that were already comfortable using cloud-based technologies were ready and waiting to maximize their value by providing timely, accurate strategic business advice to their clients, and the level of access their clients were able to provide to their external partners was largely dependent on their use and knowledge of cloud-based ERP technology. The advantages seen by more technologically advanced accounting firms have also been enjoyed by their more technologically advanced clients.

The need for technologies that include machine learning, predictive analytics and enterprise resource planning became the norm almost overnight, as suddenly accountants were able to access these systems remotely to provide clients with full financial analysis in the time it used to take to do a small review of data that the client had on-hand. This allowed financial advisors to provide more timely advice with greater accuracy as the company’s historical data, its current performance and projected outputs were now at their fingertips, regardless of their location.

The integration of advanced, cloud-based enterprise resource planning software is one more tool that your financial advisor can use to understand the complete picture of what is going on behind the scenes at your business, helping them to provide more detailed and thoughtful advice based on real-time data.

Integrating cloud-based ERP solutions helps your accounting team help you by giving instant access to estimated capital requirements and cash management, budgetary shifts, allocation of supply costs and the management of payments, all of which are needed to plan for the future of your business in a time where everything is constantly shifting.

Not only do these systems increase the access of data, but they automate your systems, giving you the flexibility to focus on your core business and the agility to pivot when market conditions change. As government regulations adapt to the changing global situation, proper ERP implementation can help ensure that your accounting data remains in-line with industry standards and reduces the margin of error in calculations or predictions.

If you want to speak with an ERP-accounting expert, we’re got you covered. Click here to learn more.

Home | How to Avoid These Common ERP Mistakes

The right enterprise resource planning solution can be the difference between your company acting proactively or reactively in a crisis. When internal IT professionals control the selection, purchasing, implementation and maintenance of a company’s ERP systems, a few common mistakes are made.

Here they are, and here’s how to avoid them:

Embracing the Status Quo
Deciding which ERP system is right for your business is a great opportunity to re-evaluate how your current systems and processes are working and redesign your business processes to be more efficient and effective. Often, company executives will select ERP solutions that simply automate their current processes without evaluating whether those processes are actually working.

Deciding in a Vacuum
The selection and implementation of your ERP solution should include insight from every stakeholder in your business, especially the end-users – the people actually using the new system on a day-to-day basis. Including team members from finance, manufacturing, operations, distribution, and every department within your company not only brings important business nuances that you otherwise may not have considered into the conversation, but it develops buy-in across your organization.

Underestimating the Expense
Purchasing, implementing and maintaining an ERP software solution is expensive and requires IT professionals. This team is critical, not only to get the project running, but to fix any implementation errors and keep the system running smoothly over time. Budgeting for this in advance will make the process easier down the road.

Choosing a Generic Solution
There are many ERP solutions developed specifically for a range of industries, and chances are, yours is one of them. When selecting your ERP solution, work with someone who knows the ins and outs of ERP that can help you select the one that has the features required by leaders in your specific industry.

Losing Your Patience
Implementing an ERP system takes time, and it rarely happens all at once. Companies often take a waterfall approach to ERP implementation – this includes implementing the system and training users simultaneously, going live immediately and expecting everything to work perfectly right from the start. Companies that take an agile approach are usually more successful with their ERP launches, implementing and training in stages that involve the users and addressing problems as they get closer to launch.

There are many approaches to take in the selection and implementation of your ERP software solution. We are here to help guide you through the process and ensure that your company avoids these common errors.

Home | The Future of Food

The COVID-19 pandemic has taught valuable lessons about resource planning to leaders in every industry, but there has been no industry that has emerged as more crucial during a global crisis than food and beverage.

The strength of our supply chain was questioned very early on in the pandemic, when stockpiling of non-perishables and frozen foods hit an all-time high.

The right enterprise resource planning solution puts businesses in a position not only to withstand a global crisis, but with proper insight, planning and execution, ERP could help that business excel above its competitors and establish itself as an industry leader.

This is how:

Supply chain visibility
A good ERP program will provide advanced visibility into the entire supply chain, giving you the information needed to react quickly to shifts in market demands. Our team of experts can help you select an ERP platform that streamlines your distribution, reduces paperwork, and cuts costs.

Demand planning
Depending on your ERP needs, your consultant will help you select a platform with the right modules for your business, including options that offer forecasting to ensure your products reach your customers when they’re needed.

Manufacturing support
Food and beverage manufacturers usually leverage more ERP modules than the average business, and you’ll need to select a platform that can handle a variety of production environments, and provides the flexibility to switch modes to meet any shifts in demand.

Increased safety
There has never been a time in history when food safety has been more of a focus. Consumers are demanding an increased level of hygiene and safe packaging and handling. ERP platforms can provide insight into your company’s processes, and if contamination ever occurs, the right program will make it easy for you to trace the problem back to the specific shipment and limit future issues.

In short, ERP software is essential to move the food and beverage industry forward. Contact us today and we’ll introduce you to an ERP expert in your industry that can help you select and implement the right program for your business.

Home | Why It’s Time to Embrace Remote Selling

As industries change gears to succeed in their rapidly changing business-environments, one thing has become clear. Remote selling is here for the long-term, and to succeed is to adapt.

Remote selling means exactly what it sounds like – buyers and sellers make a deal without meeting in person. For some sales teams, this often means attracting and initiating contact with prospective customers remotely before closing a deal, while for others this means remote relationship nurturing and staying on top of their customer’s needs to ensure those needs are met remotely in a timely manner.

The success of remote selling relies heavily on technology – like inside sales, remote selling usually involves making contact via phone or internet rather than sitting in a board room or a golf cart.

While remote selling can have its challenges, it also brings great benefits. These include:

Reduced costs

Think about your business’ overhead expenses, from office space to equipment, salespeople’s travel expenses and more. When your sales team is working remotely, these costs are drastically reduced.

Increased efficiency

Remote selling means less time spent traveling, which allows more time for qualifying leads, making new connections and refining your sales strategies and processes.

Farther reach

When your team is selling remotely, all they need is a mobile device or computer and a reliable internet connection and they can connect with new partners and customers all over the world.

Happier team

When your sales team is empowered to choose their work environment and no they longer have to deal with the stress and pressures on their personal lives of work-traveling, they are happier. Happier employees are more engaged and motivated. A study out of Stanford University reported that remote workers are 13% more productive.

The year 2020 has taught the business community important lessons about agility, innovation, and flexibility, and the success potential of remote selling is one of the clearest examples of these lessons.

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Home | Pricing Strategies Based on Data

Using relevant, accurate information to inform your business’ pricing strategy is key to its success. Proper data analytics as the foundation of your strategy allows a company to see how pricing fits into the bigger picture and helps you determine which factors influence your pricing and when it’s time to make a change.

There are three common pricing strategies:

Cost plus pricing

This simple pricing strategy sets prices as a percentage above costs. A company adds up all the costs associated with providing that product or service, adds the profit margin that they’re looking for, and they have a pricing strategy. Not much data analysis goes into this strategy.

This strategy is challenging to manage as a company grows, because costs rarely remain static. If the cost of one supply that’s necessary for business to continue increases, the profit margin decreases. Adding a solution that includes data analytics would help with this as it would alert the business owner as soon as profit margins drop below a pre-set level.

Competitor based pricing

This involves setting a pricing strategy based on the pricing of competing products/services. This strategy can use data analytics for modelling to help determine the volume of product/services they need to produce in order to receive the preferred rate.

The problem with this strategy is that is ignores the unique needs and benefits of your company. Creating your own strategy independent of your competitors’ helps you focus on improving your offering and adding value for your customers.

Value based pricing

This strategy involves looking at customers rather than competitors and setting prices based on how much they are willing to pay. It involves a deep understanding of your customers’ wants and needs and offering top value and a low price. Gaining this understanding is largely based on data analytics.

This strategy helps companies increase their prices as they innovate their products, because they already know what their customers are willing to pay for added features/improvements, but it also takes a lot of time and research to gain intimate knowledge of your customer-base.

Using data to decide

Data analytics helps companies increase their profits by setting ideal pricing strategies that help them bring in more business and provide unique value. Using analytics to set a pricing strategy helps empowers leaders to use data to learn and analyze every factor that impacts a company’s profits, whether those factors are internal or external.

ERP Advisers can help your company leverage data analytics to set a pricing strategy and increase profits. Click here to set up a call.

Home | Why You Need ERP To Move Your Post-COVID Business Forward

As we all know, disruption is a great instigator of change, and the world has never seen a disruption to business quite as significant as the current coronavirus crisis. As businesses resume operations, going back to a new normal will not be enough.

To learn from the current situation, businesses must now operate in a way that ensures they can respond immediately and seamlessly to the next crisis that seems to be inevitable. As a whole, our economy was not prepared for this, but we must be prepared for the next one.

A large part of this preparation will be the new policies and processes that business-owners will need to adopt to scale their business in a post-COVID economy, and ensure they are alert and aware of each element of their business operations.

Traditional post-crisis recovery models allocate few resources to things like information-sharing and expansion, but in this situation, they definitely should. To be successful in a post-COVID economy, businesses will need to scale operations to focus on shifting consumer demands, and a cloud-based ERP application is the most effective and efficient driver.

ERP, or Enterprise Resource Planning systems integrate a business’s inventory management, ordering system, accounting, personnel files and resource allotment into a single source of truth – one place that stakeholders can go to access all the information they need about what’s happening in their company, where there challenges may lie and any pending resource shortages.

Cloud-based ERP solutions provide complete transparency into how a company is performing, what is going on behind the scenes, identify new opportunities and risks, and provides notifications of resources that are needed. This happens automatically, all day, every day.  Businesses with cloud-based ERP also enjoy data and insights that help them learn from any mistakes that may have happened, manage their recovery and plan for the future.

Imagine if you were a sanitizer business with at the beginning of this coronavirus outbreak. Imagine if you had systems in place to notify you as soon as supplies got low. Imagine how things could have been different. The right ERP solution could be exactly what was missing.

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