Are Your Passwords Strong Enough?

Are Your Passwords Strong Enough? Adam Levine, Inc. The use of passwords to protect online accounts isn’t going anywhere soon.  According to a study last year by SplashData, however, of the 5 million passwords that were compromised by hacks last year, many of those hacks occurred because the user created “weak” passwords, such as ‘password’, ‘sunshine’, or the ever-popular ‘12345’.  Read more about why strong passwords are so important, and learn six simple rules in selecting passwords to protect information.   read more

Inventory Balances

If you are in the food industry you already know that one of the primary challenges is your inventory level.  You need enough supplies to satisfy customer demand, but not too much due to obvious reasons of expiration dates and potential spoilage. 

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions are designed to streamline operations and provide a central repository of information to effectively manage inventory processing.

A case study - VAI S2K Food: Hillcrest Foods, Inc.

Do you walk around and “look” at inventory to guess and gauge usage and need?

Many food distributors do just that.  They have been in business a long time and there is built in knowledge of customer and seasonal demand.  What moves, what does not and what to do with surpluses or not having sufficient supply and cost expense of expediting replacement inventory?

How does your organization handle recalls and FDA requirements (FDA Food Safety Modernization Act - FSMA)?  Do you have the ability to include all lot numbers on products and paperwork?  How much time and effort does it take you to process a recall?  What about the paperwork and certificates of origin?  Where are these documents found and how are they linked to your inventory?

If you are processing food inventory manually, then your ability to meet the FSMA requirements will be limited and expose your business to great risk and regulatory nightmare.

How efficiently do you process your distribution, truck loading and routing?  What tools does your ERP solution provide to ensure your customer needs are met?  How long does it take to train your workforce?  Is the equipment and process intuitive?  How many times during the day do they have to look up information and how much time does it take?

Handling inventory is a primary focus of food distributors as is financial processing.  You need to service your customers, yet also manage their credit usage on the Accounts Receivable (AR) side and expenditures via Accounts Payable (AP) on the vendor/supplier side.  The General Ledger (GL) ties all the various aspects of the financial reporting and forecasting together.

If these topics strike a nerve with your organization and you are curious if you are doing everything reasonably possible to empower your workforce and drive efficiency in your operations, then it is time to contact Dolvin Consulting.  We work with industry experts to help you look at and evaluate your organization from a fresh perspective.

We look forward to serving your needs.

Time for Help

What keeps you up at night when you are in charge of technology delivery for your business?  Every company struggles at some point in time.  At different periods of growth and contraction, struggle is part of the process.

Struggle is normal. 

The theory goes that Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions are designed to integrate the entire business (i.e. the Enterprise).  The more this is embraced and the more departments or functional roles that are integrated in your solution the more efficient your operations could be. 

Okay, makes sense right, purchase an ERP solution, install it, migrate your information, train your people, and start saving lots of money, buy a boat and relax.  But what if you already have an ERP solution?  What if you have more projects than budget?   Where are the savings you thought you were supposed to have?

Savings are potentially there, but like a sculptor, you need to uncover them. 

Where most companies start is inventory.  Even small reductions in inventory levels have the potential of improving the bottom line.  Small is relative, but think in terms of two to three percentage point drop in levels.  Cutting your inventory in half is not realistic.  It would cripple your business, but a small drop of a few percentage points is realistic and achievable.

The other area that works hand in hand with inventory levels is high accuracy.  It is the other side of the coin and cannot be separated.  There are several ways to measure accuracy, but most practical is the count.  Is what you have on the shelf the same as what you have in your inventory system?  How close these two numbers are is a measure of accuracy. 

The ultimate goal is 100% and that may or may not be realistic, but 97/98% or higher is where you need to be headed.

I know of a company that had 100% accurate inventory every month, but only one day a month, once a month.  When they did a complete physical inventory count each month, it was accurate, at that time.  Then it was off the rest of the month.  They did not have an inventory control system. 

For some companies it is the same or similar story.  They only know what they have when they count it or when they do not have it.  Out of stock equals zero and that is accurate, but not good when a customer orders it.  Their systems have not kept up with their business and the problems have cascaded from there. 

The Inventory Control module name implies that you will have control of your inventory once you install it.  In most places the inventory is in control instead of the other way around. 

You in fact must trust the system to do what it is designed to do, but that is hard to do when there is no confidence in the system.  When that happens people do just about anything to bypass and avoid the very solution that is designed to help.

The Inventory Control module is intended to do is give you observability.  Warehouse Management Systems (WMS) are designed to monitor the movement of inventory from reception, to put-away, counting, and pick-pack-ship. 

WMS solutions are usually separate and do incur additional investment, but make sense, because it provides the tools to effectively manage inventory.  By monitoring the movement of inventory you do add a level of effort, but the payback is in accuracy and people actually using the system you paid for and depend on. 

When your workers actually find the inventory the system says should be there in the place it says it should be, then their confidence increases.  That increased confidence leads users to use the system more. 

Most people do not mind using a system that actually works and helps them do their job.  Trusting and using the system are critical components to building accuracy. 

Accuracy is key to driving profitability. 

With an accurate system, procurement orders the right amount of the correct products.  Customer service can accurately answer customer questions and concerns.  The Finance department can process transactions and produce financial reporting more quickly and accurately.   

There are a lot of intricacies of implementing and actually using both an Inventory Control and Warehouse Management System properly.  Books have been written on the subject.  The purpose of this writing is not to tell you how, but to give you confidence that you can have accurate inventory, you can trust your system and you can generate savings. 

Any benefit comes after effort. 

These systems work, if you trust them to do what they are designed to do.  Dolvin Consulting works with manufacturers and distributors to help them understand and implement their inventory systems.  Contact us today to see how we can help.

Please share your success and failure stories here with the rest of our readers.  You story counts.

Customer Self Service Matters

Most organizations understand that if you treat your customers fairly, they will return.  If you treat them really well they will refer others to your business.  What is equally true is if you treat your customers poorly, they will tell everyone they know whenever they can.

A positive customer experience should be at the heart of any system improvement, upgrade, or replacement.  Efficiency matters when it ultimately drives customer needs.  Automation matters when it means products are ordered, stocked, picked and delivered to meet your customer’s needs.

In what way can you serve your customer’s needs without significantly increasing your overhead?  What is your competition doing to serve their customers and attract your customers away?

Many Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions have an integrated web or Ecommerce module.  Fully integrated is preferable, because of the efficiency, reduced errors and time delays in processing and updating. 

Less overhead is a good thing.

But what about the thought that your products do not fit the standard perception of what people purchase online?

As it turns out when you provide your customers and users with self-serve capabilities they feel empowered.  They feel like you trust them. They feel like you value them.

Adding this capability may not be where you would think you can increase productivity, especially when you look at the upfront costs.  However, by adding or upgrading Ecommerce, Sales force automation, and Contact Relationship Management (CRM) solutions to your system, you are removing roadblocks to growth. 

Customers know when you value them and are providing them tools to access what they need when they need it at a time when it is convenient to them.  Employees know when you are trying to help them do their job better by providing better access.  Management knows the satisfaction of being able to get the information they need when they need it.

Real-time access to information is the heart of your ERP system.

Increased sales as a result of these improvements is a natural result.  Increase customer satisfaction is priceless.  Customers like the ability to research products, view transaction history, place orders, get hard copies of invoices, check balances and yes of course pay balances online.  Customer self-service reduces employee resources needed to service the inquiries.

Automation allows a business to use their people where they can do the most good.  Sales force personnel need quick access to stock and balance information for their customer service needs.

Serve your customers and grow your business.

Providing web services will improve customer retention and capture business that might go to your competitors.  Even if your products are not something that ships easily or at all, providing the capability for your customers to browse, research and collect information will benefit your business. 

Take a look at how and where you do business.  Don’t you think your customers want the same thing? 

Not all solutions are created equal.  Integration with your ERP solution is key.  Some businesses build interfaces to integrate separate systems that have the functionality their customers need.  Keep in mind that the more pieces the greater the chance of a break down. 

Regardless of how your solution is built, the solution must address your customer’s needs and not yours.

With the potential return on investment (ROI) and the general movement towards a connected world, Ecommerce, Sales Force, and CRM solutions are prime areas for update, upgrade or replacement.

In what ways are you serving your customers?  What solutions are you considering or have implemented?  What returns are you expecting or received? 

Please share your thoughts with our readers.

At Dolvin Consulting we work with your team to find solutions that drive efficiency and automation in your operations.  Working solutions that are just-right for you, your business and your customers.  Contact us today to see how we can help.

Cycle Counting (Part 2): Tips for Choosing the Right Inventory Software to Support It

How accurate are your inventory records? It’s a question you've probably asked yourself on more than one occasion.  It is what every organization that handles inventory struggles with at one level or another, at one time or another, and coincides with automation and efficiency efforts.

Changing from Annual to Cycle counting does take some planning, but the long term benefits may well be worth the effort.  It also something that may need to be approved by your board or other regulatory body depending on your industry.  

We have found that many businesses need to do both Annual and Cycle counting until they show a consistent accurate inventory for at least one year.  After that time period the annual counting can be discontinued.  It is important that you demonstrate good accounting controls and financial reporting.

Please read the article series below to find out more.

Find Accounting Software continues their 2-part series and answers some additional questions about cycle counting.  Find Accounting Software has some great resources to help you navigate through the sea of change.  Read on for more information.

 

Tips for Choosing the Right Inventory Software to Support It

Where are you struggling?  Do you know how to get started?  What you should count and when?  What approach will you take?

At Dolvin Consulting we work with your team to find solutions that drive efficiency and automation in your operations.  Working solutions that are just-right for you and your business.  Contact us today to see how we can help.

Cycle Counting (Part 1): What Every Inventory Manager Should Know About It

Are you finding variances in your inventory counts no matter how hard you try, no matter what controls are in place?  Enter the Annual Physical Inventory and all the prep work, resource allocation, overtime, headaches and putting business on hold while you try to lock down your inventory during counting.

Are you considering cycle counting in addition to or as a replacement to an annual physical count? 

Please read the article series below to find out more.

Find Accounting Software starts their 2-part series and answers some important questions about cycle counting.  Find Accounting Software has some great resources to help you navigate through the sea of change.  Read on for more information.

 What Every Inventory Manager Should Know About It

Where are you struggling?  Do you know how to get started?  What you should count and when?  What approach will you take?

At Dolvin Consulting we work with your team to find solutions that drive efficiency and automation in your operations.  Working solutions that are just-right for you and your business.  Contact us today to see how we can help.

Customer Service Matters

Through hardware, software and service offerings, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems can provide a portfolio of solutions to help manufacturers and distributors streamline production, operate more efficiently, improve planning and scheduling and implement more fine-grained and flexible decision-making processes.  Solution providers are helping businesses optimize their technology and make the most of their ERP and supply chain applications by extending analytic capabilities, making better decisions, improving order management and purchasing, plus many other capabilities.

 

The driving factor for many organizations often starts with “there ought to be a better way”, “our overhead is too high”, “we have too many errors”, “there is no observability”, “it takes too long” to name but a few.  There are also some that rationalize not addressing the issues by saying “that’s the way we have always done ‘it’”.  Find any challenge and add “too much” or “too little” to it and it will become the seed to change when someone tacks a price tag on it.

 

What type of benefits should a solution have?

 

Ultimately manufacturers, distributors, retailers and others need to make better, quicker decisions and act faster in complex markets. They need solutions that deliver powerful advantages which includes the ability to find the right information, from the right place, at the right time.  This includes workflow tools and notifications. 

 

Higher productivity. 

 

When you can help your employees avoid the clutter and overload of increasingly complex solutions to be able to focus on the information they need to make decisions and move their workload forward.  You empower your employees to attend to more important tasks first.

 

Easy Access to systems.

 

The definition of mobility has evolved in recent years to mean any device, any time, any where.  While this is the evolving definition for the mobile sales force, many companies are single location based and their devices are desktop computers.  What they find with newer solutions is that they can take advantage of mobile solutions at client meetings or when they count, receive, or pick-pack-ship inventory.  The theme of the ivory tower and dished-out information no longer works in competitive industries.  Businesses must improve the efficiency of the way they collect and deliver information to their employees, suppliers and customers.

 

Collaboration.
 

Newer solutions must increasingly bridge the gap between the traditional ERP solution and other web based solutions such as social media.  This integration creates new opportunities for employees to collaborate in real time with colleagues, suppliers, and most importantly customers.  Empowering employees to answer questions more quickly is a key component in customer service.  Meetings can be planned and coordinated more quickly.  Complex tasks can be divided and delegated with greater efficiency.

 

Customer Service.

 

Overall we should be investing a lot more time and energy in solutions that drive customer service.  Whether that is an updated ERP solution, integration with social media, contact management, or other solution.   It does not matter if the solutions are on premise or hosted in the cloud as long as the integration is tight and does not increase errors.  ERP Vendor integrated solutions potentially have the greatest Return on Investment (ROI).  Sometimes the upfront costs seem higher, but when you look at the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) fully integrated solutions, that you did not have to integrate, are the best buy.

 

Your organization needs the tools and applications that empower them.  Solutions that give them access to the information that your customers need, like how long until I receive my order, or being confident when you tell them what they want is in stock and doubly sure they will actually receive what they ordered.

 

Your customers have questions.  They want to know you care. 

Your suppliers need information.  They want to serve you better.

Your employees need to bridge the gap between the internal and external worlds.

 

What is your organization doing to empower your employees?  Our readers would like to know.  Please share your ideas and what changes you have or are in the process of implementing.  Are you considering a new or upgrade to your ERP solution?  What new modules are you considering?  What third party solutions would you like to integrate and why?  Are you planning on small incremental steps or a major overhaul?

 

At Dolvin Consulting we work with industry experts to find the right solutions that will fulfill your goals to drive your efficiency in your operations.  Share your ideas here with our readers and then contact us to see how we can help you serve your customers better.

 

Technology is Too Important for the Business not to be Involved

This statement is exactly the point that should resonate with business owners.  With the recent publicity of the Internet Cloud services, everyone’s focus seems to be there.  There are a great number of benefits for Cloud services, storage, collaboration, and operations, but there has to be a business driver to make the changes.

 

Cloud or not, any investment in technology should have a driver that will provide a reasonable Return on Investment (ROI).  The recent fiscal crisis focused on cutting costs and increasing efficiencies.  Budgets were and still are very tight, so there needs to be business driver to make changes.  What is good for the business?  What will allow us to compete more effectively?  How can we use technology to empower our people to open and serve new markets?

 

In years past, the Technology Department in a corporation reported directly under the Finance department and was used to tabulate numbers for financial reporting.  Technology has evolved through time to the point where it is fully integrated in our lifestyles.  All you have to do to verify this is stop walking or whatever you are doing for a minute and look around.  People are stuck in their phones, tablets, and laptop computers.  Used to be at a luncheon if you saw someone bowed, they were giving thanks, now more than likely, they are checking their email. 

 

Everyone is a technology user today. 

 

This shift in technology from the glass room to people’s hands has changed the view of how technology should be used in business.  The shift is not only in the technology itself, but also includes the business.  The Internet and related technologies has leveled the competition plane enough so that companies from one to twenty or more now have access to tools and technology that keeps them connected and competitive.  Smaller companies are more agile and can make a technology shift and adopt new technologies much more quickly than large organizations.

 

Regardless of company size, executives want and need their phones, email, messaging, and applications in their hand, available when they need it, on their schedule. 

 

This transition is not a blanket resolution to say that Information Technology Departments have no role in the decision process, it is more a reflection that they themselves are taking on different roles.  Solutions are being driven by the business demands and technology is looked at to deliver the solution.

 

One note of caution for the early adopters is the more separate systems that are implemented either on premise or hosted in the Cloud, the greater the burden on the transfer of information and an exponential growth for errors.  This is no small issue.  Every time humans are involved, the more humans involved, the greater the potential for errors.

 

The prevalence of new technologies eventually leads to consolidation at some point.  Multiple suppliers offering almost identical products and services.  It is a trend repeated throughout history.  The only difference today is that it can take a lot less time for products and services to transition.  Adopting new technologies quickly can give a boost to a company, however, that new technology may also be replaced tomorrow or consolidated to another platform.  This can actually destabilize an organization depending on how much that organization relies on the technology.

 

Public, private, hybrid, large corporation, small supplier, there are a multitude of choices. 

 

What really matters most is customer service.  How well your supplier of services serves you is a reflection of how well you service your customers.  You will naturally be attracted to those that give the same level of service or the level of service you want to deliver. 

 

Nothing is more important than customer service.

 

A happy customer refers others to you.  A happy customer returns and buys more stuff.  A happy customer pays your bills.  We all need happy customers.

 

There is a lot of use of social media to get a consensus of what works and what does not.  Industries are the same and yet each organization struggles at different points along the path to success.  This is where a trusted advisor can help.  The advisor can take an objective view of the organization and let them see themselves in a new way.  The advisor can narrow the field of many solution providers to a few candidates taking care of the leg work allowing you to concentrate more on your business.

 

You just cannot make the decision alone.

 

While true for many technologies, this is especially true of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions.  Given the scope of the change an ERP solution can make for and in an enterprise, it takes correspondingly more effort and diligence to make the right choice.

 

A lot of time and energy can be invested in trying to upgrade and make work an existing system that was never intended to handle the latest business trend. 

 

Selecting an ERP solution is an educational process. 

 

It requires open dialog so that the solution matches the challenges.  Many sales people call offering solutions to problems that do not exist.  To avoid that, someone needs to be open and honest about areas that could use improvements.  This is where a trusted advisor can help by interfacing your challenges with potential solutions.

 

Deeper relationships are needed in today’s ever changing world of technology.  An understanding of the role technology plays in an Enterprise is a crucial factor in selecting a trusted advisor and solution provider.

 

Dolvin Consulting works with industry experts to deliver Enterprise solutions that drive efficiency, reduce costs and increase profitability.  Contact us today to see how we can help you define the challenges that slow your business down and identify potential solutions.