Friends Don’t Let Friends Hire Their Friends

Friends Don’t Let Friends Hire Their Friends Jeff Hyman, Forbes  Balancing relationships in and outside of the workplace can be a difficult juggling act; however, when a friend is hired in the workplace, that makes the juggling even more difficult.  This new co-worker who is seen as an emotional confidant outside of work, might receive office favoritism and act as a person to confide in.  Northwestern Business School professor Jeff Hyman believes that mixing friendships and work isn’t the best practice, but gives several steps/things to consider if you are going to hire a friend.     read more

How to Write a Compelling Company Description

How to Write a Compelling Company Description    Brian Hart, Inc. Whether you are a budding entrepreneur or a seasoned business professional, writing a company description can be a difficult task to attract new business.  This description is a core part of your messaging, and it’s important to be succinct when everyone is now inundated with too much information.  Learn about the steps you can take to craft a compelling company description. read more

You Can Be a Great Leader and Also Have a Life

You Can Be a Great Leader and Also Have a Life   Bridget Schulte, Harvard Business Review  There is often a story in the business world that uses the flawed logic that achieving career success comes at a price of losing your personal life.  We have heard examples of Elon Musk and Mark Cuban sacrificing their lives to make billions.  It doesn’t have to be this way, however. Learn strategies on how it really is possible to ‘have it all’.  read more

Social Media Strategies

Social Media Strategies Brendan Kane, Entrepreneur Building exposure for your brand or company is no easy task.  Brendan Kane, a noted social media advisor to the likes of Taylor Swift, Rihanna, and Disney, walks us through several strategies to build a large social media following in a short amount of time with high levels of engagement.  Learn five helpful tips on steps you can take with more robust posts and better content, using strategies that apply to multiple social media platforms. read more

December Notes - 5 Daily Habits for on-the-Job Happiness

5 Daily Habits for on-the-Job Happiness Jeff Olson, Entrepreneur  According to a noted psychologist, we need a three-to-one ratio of positive to negative experiences to be happy in life, and research shows that happier people are more motivated, persistent, and outperform negative people.  Jeff Olson founder and CEO of a wellness products company, helps clarify what happiness is not and gives us five actions we can practice every day to achieve more happiness in our daily lives. read more

ERP Mentoring

Ask anyone anywhere who has accomplished anything, the proof is there, if you know what you are looking for.  Ask a professional sports player how they perform at such a high level.  Ask a professional sports player why they have a coach, after all they typically have been doing the same sport since they were a young child.  What more is there to learn?  At some point don’t they know it all?

What is it that you want to accomplish and is it realistic in the time frame and budget you have set?

If you want to achieve more, then you need to associate with someone who has fruit on their tree in the area of your need.  Someone who has succeeded and has experience with the challenges you expect to have and the hurdles you are not even aware of.

When settlers started expanding west (here in the United States for my foreign readers) they looked for guides that knew the territory they would travel, the challenges they would likely encounter and knew which resources they would need.  How long would the trip take?  What would they experience?  Had anyone else been successful?  How would they know when they were “there”?  It was a big land and easy to get lost.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions have similar challenges for businesses and equally challenging objectives for the solution providers.

• What is working now?  What is not working?  Why? 
• Have you mapped out your processes?
• Do you know what makes money and what increases overhead?
• What amount of budget have you allocated to an ERP project?
• Who are the stakeholders?  Who makes the final decision?
• What would it cost you if you did nothing?

How long can you remain competitive if you continued doing what you always have done in the way you have always done it?

One of the biggest challenges businesses find themselves having to navigate when they make a decision to start looking for a new solution or upgrade, is what is it exactly that they do and how do they do it.

It really is a necessity to map out the existing business process.

Customers.

How are customers found and serviced?  You know, the people or organizations that actually buy the “stuff” you provide.  Where are they located?  What do they buy and when?

How do you manage their credit?  You are their supplier.  How do they communicate with you and how do you keep them up to date? 

What tools do your customer service people have available to answer the questions from your customers?  What tools do you provide to let them self-serve their needs? 

Products and Services (Stuff).

How do you stock and deliver that stuff?  How do you know how much stuff to keep on hand and how do you find it?  Do you know how much stuff you have now and where it is located?  How do your people find it, pick it, and ship the right stuff?  What does it cost if you ship the wrong stuff or the right stuff to the wrong customer?

What tools do your procurement people (buyers) have to identify what needs to be ordered and when?  Do you buy based on supplier deals or customer demand?  Do they guess what is needed?  Do they walk around and use an educated guess?

Suppliers and Vendors.

Where do you get your stuff or the material to make your stuff?  How do you know what to purchase and when?  How much is too much?  How long does it take to get more stuff?  Do you drop ship any of your products?  Are you being billed the right amount?

How do you generate a forecast and keep in touch with the organizations that ultimately enable you to deliver your solution or finished product to your customers?  How do they need to get paid?  How do you manage your credit?

Employees and Labor.

How many people does it take to service customers?  How many to pick, pack and ship orders?  How many people to run your finance department?  Procurement?  Warehousing?  Production?  How often are you on-time or late on customer deliveries?  Do you have sales people on the road?  How many locations do you need to coordinate?

A big clue that you should be looking for a new solution is when you start adding people and you do not gain an equivalent amount of productivity.  For example, you have 10 people in your warehouse.  You add two more.  You might expect 20% more productivity and you do not even come close to that return. 

In fact the inefficiencies in your operations just absorbs the extra labor capacity.

There is no magic pill.

No simple article is going to solve your challenges.  Likewise, no volumes of information are going to transform your operations.  There is too much information and too little experience to sort through it all to find the pieces you need, that relate and fit your organization.

A sales person is not the first one you should start with.  It is not that they are not intelligent.  It is not that they do not know about the solution they represent.  It is not that they do not know about competitive solutions. 

The issue with sales people is that their goal is sales.  After all is that not what you want your sales people to do?  They are needed and there is a time and place for them.

What you need most is a mentor and coach, often referred to a Trusted Advisor.  What is their goal? Is it your solution that addresses your critical business needs?  First and foremost the trusted advisor’s responsibility is to help you identify your business process, how you operate and what options are available within your budget and most of all what is reasonable and achievable.  You may want to have 100% accurate inventory, but that might not be possible.  You may want to ship more products with less people, but what investment would be necessary to make that happen?

A note of caution regarding people involved in the decision process.  When taking inventory of the stakeholders in your operations, the more people that are involved in the decision the less consensus there will be.  It is not linear, the lack of consensus will be exponential in growth with more people involved.

MaaS – Mentoring as a Service.  It is what we do.

Your challenges are important to you and your business.  More than likely they are not unique in your industry.  Dolvin Consulting provides business consultation services that can be used to help you navigate the sea of change.  We leverage our industry and business relationships to help you identify your challenges so that we can find a solution together.  Please contact us today to see how we can help.

Information is Cheap

Information, once highly valued, has become a very cheap commodity. 

Thanks to the interconnected world and web browsers, just about anyone with an Internet connection can find out just about anything at any time.  Connection is provided in so many ways today with so many devices providing access.  Information resources often number in the thousands or hundreds of thousands or even millions. 

“ERP Software Solutions” returned 4,850,000 results during the writing of this posting.  If you really wanted valuable information, it is available.  This information is available for the most part at no-charge or the dreaded word “Free”.  Each and every day the time equivalent of more than eight years of video information is uploaded to YouTube.

What information will be of value?  Which piece of information helps solve your problem?  Do you even know where your problem lays?

Anyone who has been around a while knows the true value of free.  Either it is worth what it costs or it is of little value. 

With so many resources available much pressure exists for the suppliers of information to position their resources high on search engines creating a potential conflict of interest of genuine information of value and the quest for income.  Everyone screaming look at me, look at me.

In general we love having choices and having so much information available, but how can we apply it to our decision making?  What happens if we really need the information to transform our businesses?  We seek more and more of it, not less.  How can we filter what we need with what we have available?

This information quest applies both in external resources and internal management of business operations.  Information is key.  Not knowing where you are going leaves you nowhere.

We are now at the point where Internet Librarians have become the valued resource.  It is not enough to know the answer to a question.  The Internet is full of answers. 

The key is knowing the questions and how to apply the answers to your real world challenges.  

Business Technology consultants have become that well needed resource.  It is important to understand the difference between Managed Service Providers (MSP) which provide the resources, monitoring and support to keep your business operating versus Business Technology Providers which consult as trusted advisors to guide you into the future.

At their core all Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions for Manufacturing and Distribution are designed to help companies manage inventory more efficiently.  All of the modules and add-ons have that imbedded in their design, either directly or via a supporting functional role, such as Finance. 

The Supply Chain’s needs have not changed since the beginning of distribution services.

Wikipedia defines Supply Chain Management (SCM) as "the systemic, strategic coordination of the traditional business functions and the tactics across these business functions within a particular company and across businesses within the supply chain, for the purposes of improving the long-term performance of the individual companies and the supply chain as a whole”.  It has also been defined as the "design, planning, execution, control, and monitoring of supply chain activities with the objective of creating net value, building a competitive infrastructure, leveraging worldwide logistics, synchronizing supply with demand and measuring performance globally."

If the challenges of the supply chain have not changed significantly over time and there is ever more information available, then what is the problem?  The answers exists.  In fact the ratio of answers to question have exponentially increased.  Every business should be running great.

What we now need is help with our questions. 

Action is the answer to the question you are asking now.  That is where opportunity to advance lays. 

What actions can I take now that will help me run and operate my business more efficiently, lower my costs and be more competitive? How do we learn what questions to ask to get the answers we need?  How do we incorporate this new philosophy?   How do we get the best information to the people who need it most?

How do we deliver on the promise of results?

Dolvin Consulting has the experience, resources and contacts to help you find the right questions to the answers you need.  Contact us today for help, which is why we are here.

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.

What Do Your Customers Really Want?

Recently I had a well-intentioned discussion with someone.  The conversation was initiated by a request of a mutual contact.  The person who asked me to have the talk hoped that common points between me and this other person would make the conversation easier that it would have been for them. 

The conversation goal was to address a challenge and suggest a workable solution.  Seemed simple enough at the time.  After all, how hard would it be to have a helpful conversation?  It should have been a win-win situation.

I started with a true story.  I wanted to let him know that I knew that I understood the challenge and it was not just an empty conversation by someone who thought they knew everything.  The conversation started well, the approach taken was good, and he appreciated the heartfelt thoughts and the personal impact of the story.

What then was the problem?

What problems do most customers or prospects have with people (sales) that just want to help?

In my opinion the problem/challenge in this case was made worse and not better, because I made some assumptions.  Yes, I know the old adage about the word assume.  The personal impact story was a good start.  It created a bonding.  The person indicated that they appreciated the approach.  He uses the same approach with the people he works with. 

What I found out after our second conversation was that the conversation went bad, because one of the additional examples I used to make the point.  It was a third party story instead of a personal story and the person was put off by it.  I certainly did not intend it to be this way.  I was quite sincere in my presentation and just wanted to give an alternative example.

Lessons learned.

We can all take note of the point here.  People do business with people they like and are like them.  Personal stories help build a relationships.  What do “we” both have in common?  How do I know and what makes me believe that you understand my challenges and pains? 

We all want to be heard, and perhaps more importantly, understood.

We all know that we are supposed to ask questions.  What happens too often is we ask a few questions and then start in with a solution.  We make assumptions.  For many of us we have seen similar situations so often, that we go into an automatic mode of “I recognize this problem, here is the solution”. 

The reality is that it probably is the same problem we have seen so many times.  Something like inaccurate inventory, inefficiency of operations, missed or late shipments, management decisions based on old information, etc. 

When we deal with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions for a long period of time the challenges do seem the same and we try to put them into a solution category.  We deal in efficiency and the sooner we find a match between challenge and solution, the better.  So efficient.  So perfect.

The problem is our prospects and customers have trouble seeing outside the box when they are in the box.  They need to know that we understand and actually care that they find a successful solution to “their” challenge.  They typically have a lot more riding on the solution than simply more efficient operations.  Almost everyone would like to be more efficient.  Everyone wants happier customers. Happy customers are the ones that refer new business and come back again and again and are loyal.

Our customers and future customers need to know that we understand.  

They need time to digest and discover that the solution we see in our minds solves their challenges.  You cannot tell them it will work.  You and I need to ask more detailed questions that identify our common interests, needs and wants.  The solution then addresses the problems or it does not. 

No sales, just conversation.

The people we interact with want to communicate.  A sale is the byproduct of great conversations, not the purpose of one.

 

At Dolvin Consulting we are always learning and would like to take the knowledge journey with you.  We want to listen to what is important to you.  Contact us today so we can start our conversation. 

What If? What Then? Managing your Business Reputation in Today's Age of Social Media.

Social Media:  Reputation Management for YOUR Business

What If? What Then?  

Managing your Business Reputation in Today's Age of Social Media 

 

How do employers monitor and enforce social media policies in and out of the workplace? Protecting trade secrets, maintaining data integrity and customer satisfaction are some of the key objectives of the standard business. One "Like" or "Retweet" is all it takes to damage the reputation of your business. Accessibility to Social Media is almost universal.

 Join the Tech/Ed Committee for a unique and timely panel discussion on Social Media in the Workplace. Learn from a team of experts how to effectively handle a Social Media fiasco and steps to take to ensure your organization's covered.

Thursday, May 22nd

7:30 - 10:00 a.m.

Princeton HealthCare Community Room at the Hamilton Area YMCA

   

Discussion topics:

1. Social Media Policy Implementation

2. Acceptable/Unacceptable Behaviors

3. Disciplinary Actions

4. Repairing Relationships with Customers

5. Legal Ramifications

Panelists include:

Michael DeCamillis Dolvin Consulting IT Specialist

Gene Underwood Bluest Sky LLC Marketing Professional

Dolores Kelley, Esq. Stark & Stark Legal Expert

Jennifer Gardella Your Social Media Hour Human Resources Professional

Early registration is recommended. Light Breakfast will be provided.

Do you have an old, unwanted PC or Laptop? Donate it to the 2014 Trenton Digital Initiative and Receive a Waived Entrance Fee. 

Contact Jeff Richardson for more information (609) 689-9960 x16.

Pace yourself with ERP selection and implementation

Most of us know the story of the hare and tortoise.  The story concerns a Hare who ridicules a slow-moving Tortoise and challenges the tortoise to a race.  The hare soon leaves the tortoise behind and, confident of winning, takes a nap midway through the course.  When the Hare awakes however, he finds that his competitor, crawling slowly but steadily, has arrived before him. 

 

The account of a race between unequal partners in which ingenuity and trickery are employed to overcome a stronger opponent.  The over ambitious and overconfident, start and stop versus the steady consistent and persistent effort.  Haste makes waste and the race is not to the swift.  There are a number of lessons in this story which apply to life in general as well as selecting and implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution.

 

Thousands of businesses arrive at a similar crossroads every year.  As it turns out timing really does play an important role.  If you replace your existing solution too early, you may end up with more software than you need.  If you wait too long, you could end up struggling with inefficient business processes that damage your business performance and prospects for future profitability and growth.

 

At what point do the costs of maintaining your existing system outweigh the benefits of keeping it in place?  When is the right time to make the move?  All businesses at one point or another will struggle with the same issues.  The impact varies, but the challenges are similar.

Has your workforce growth outpaced your infrastructure?  Have you added locations and mobile workers?  Is your information contained in multiple systems?  Do you have separate customer relationship management (CRM) system, customer service processing, inventory control, warehouse management (WMS)?  Are you overburdened by spreadsheet sprawl? 

 

 

Is there a single dashboard where all information is summarized with drill-down to the details?  How long does it take to get consolidated financial information?

 

What is the cost of inefficiency to your organization?

 

How well are your customers served?  Do they get different information from different sources?  Are your deliveries accurate?  How much better does your competition reach their customers (or your customers)?  How much guess work goes into forecasting?  Customers expect you to have stock levels, order status and delivery tracking at any time they contact you and they expect it to be accurate.  Sales people need to have all the latest information on hand even when they’re out on the road when they are in front of customers and prospects.

 

Does it take too long, how long does it take, to share information and is it correct?

 

Where actually is that inventory?  Did you reorder what you already have, because you could not find it?  Can your customers self serve their information needs?  How much work goes into filtering and analyzing your information into meaningful sales campaigns?

 

How many systems are you using to deliver information?

 

Have you reached the limits of your existing solution(s)?  Have those limits limited your ability to serve your customers and grow?  Are you adding more people to your workforce and still are not producing more?  Do your struggles drive the need to add more and more disconnected systems?  Are your people resourceful and just want to get their jobs done individually instead of raising the productivity of your entire organization?

 

Do you dream of adding more products or services, but dread the overhead of implementation in your current solution?  Not if, but how big are the challenges to adapting to new business trends?  How much time and energy go into the technology of your business versus working on your business?  Do you have budget for technology or are you fixing and patching? 

 

What Return on Investment (ROI) can you expect and how long will it take to get there, if you do invest in a new solution?  How will you bridge the gap from where you are now and your vision of the future?

 

Well defined goals and a trusted advisor can help to pave the way.  Where do you want to be in the future and when?  With an advisor you can document and map processes and match them to the right ERP solution.  While there may not be an exact match, a good fit between challenge and resource will help to define your processes and roadmap to solution implementation. 

 

Compare the starting and stopping, heading in wrong directions, not getting key functions working in a timely manner causing cost overruns and failed implementations with what a strong and steady tortoise-like approach can bring. 

 

Are you a rabbit or tortoise? 

 

Which yields better results? 

 

What happens if you do nothing?

 

Dolvin Consulting works with your team to define a roadmap and develop a clearly defined project plan for the future.  We work with industry experts to match challenge with solution.  We cannot guarantee you will fix all of your problems, but we do know that an organization that selects a solution that integrates the entire business process tends to yield great returns.  Why not contact us today to see how we can help. 

 

Streamlining Manufacturing Processes and Improving Inventory Management

Any organization that handles inventory at any significant level will struggle at one point or another with inventory control and warehouse management.  Operations start normally enough and growth is accommodated fairly well until a trigger happens.  That trigger can be any number of changes.  They may include a merger or acquisition, new product line, updated manufacturing, new demand or market penetration.

 

 

As business grows the need to address multiple customer and separate industry segments at the same time are examples of growth that many systems cannot handle well.  A given system may have been designed to work with a single industry and its unique needs, but may not scale well to accommodate new industry segments.

 

What happens when there are new lines of business that have different requirements?

 

It becomes increasingly critical to streamline and manage the massive amounts of information being transmitted and processed from various locations such as customers, billing departments, technicians, trucks, and more when hundreds of organizations in a variety of industries rely on your systems for its equipment and supplies services,

 

A common constraint in many older Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is their limited ability to efficiently and cost-effectively perform critical every day sales and service functions. 

 

These older systems tend to be very labor intensive and involve too much paperwork.  These constraints are multiplied when there is a mobile sales force that needs to have printed materials before traveling to customer locations.  This information has a tendency to go out of date quickly so that Salesreps would not have a clear snapshot of what products customers were using, what they were already billed for and what they already paid.  Delays in billing amplified the gap.

 

Recognizing that your current service billing and inventory processes are leading to increased costs is a first step in finding a solution that will reduce costs and streamline operations.  

 

You first have to recognize you have a problem before you can find a solution. 

 

Finding a system with real-time visibility of its data that has the ability to present it in a meaningful way is a critical step to moving forward and being more competitive.

 

To address efficiency issues companies need to find solutions that help to automate and integrate all of its ERP processes and provide an accurate, real-time view and control of the organization’s customer and inventory data.  Adding to the complexity are businesses that have manufacturing processing to integrate as well.  

 

Any new solution will certainly need easy deployment and real-time data discovery which will result in increased customer satisfaction.  Leveraging mobile technologies is often a key factor especially when a mobile sales force must be supported.  Mobility is important not only in extracting information, but also in updating the backend ERP system automatically.  Tasks such as invoicing can be done directly and automatically through handheld devices to eliminate the expense of time delays, postage and inefficient paper processing.

 

Implementation any new system can have its challenges.  When change is embraced in an organization the process can be seamless and quick.  Seamless integration of the entire organization will provide a seamless view of all data.

 

Key benefits and results of a comprehensive and fully integrated solution can include:

Rapid implementation.

Seamless integration.

More efficient and up-to-the-minute inventory management.

Real-time accounts receivable control and inventory updates.

Transition from paper to electronic records/management.

Reduction of human error, manual processes and employee resources.

Automatic printing of needed forms.

Real time updates and adjustments.

Reduction of operational costs.

 

Working with a responsive ERP solution provider that takes the time to listen and truly understand your challenges is invaluable.  Access to the leadership of that solution provider is equally important.  Having the ability to developing a flexible solution without rewriting the system can transform the way you automate and streamline your organization.   

 

Transformation.

 

How have ERP solutions transformed your operations?  How have implementations of new solutions increased efficiencies, reduced costs and increased profitability in your organization?  We would like to know.  Please share your successes and failures with our readers.

 

Dolvin Consulting works with industry experts to help you find the right solutions that will fit your business and your operational culture.  Contact us today to see how we can help.

 

With truly automated operations and real-time access to critical data, you will be able to offer your customers outstanding service and support that will truly set you apart from your competition.

 

When to Upgrade your ERP Solution

The pain associated with upgrading or replacing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system can often be equated to open heart surgery without anesthesia.  It is not a comfortable situation.  No way around it, there will be a lot riding on any new implementation.   Carriers can rise or fall on the success of a project of this magnitude.    Upgrades can be a little less strenuous, but that too depends on the amount of time passed since any maintenance has been done and number or releases skipped.

 

In contrast if your organization has picked a solution that matches its enterprise processes and has minimized its modifications, then you are in an enviable position.  It means that you found a good solution, have a great relationship with your ERP vendor and embrace change.  I am not saying any of these things are easy.  When they align with your organization’s mission it becomes easier to stay current.  The work does not go away, but the dues have been paid and the results of staying current are the benefit.  Do you want to work now, upfront or later on an ongoing basis?

 

Staying current is a critical component to great customer service. 

 

In what way are you letting your customers know that you value their business?  Saying thank you is a good start.  Showing them that you recognize their changing needs by keeping current is putting your money where your mouth is.  It is one thing to say you value your customers and it is another to show them.

 

So, when is a good time to upgrade? 

 

Upgrading only for the sake of upgrading is not a very good reason.  The component to consider is the vision of the future of your particular industry.  What is the Star Trek future vision of your industry?  What would go beyond really-cool and actually make doing business with you an opportunity to grow a relationship. 

 

Customer satisfaction goes beyond making it easier to do business with you.  It is all about the relationship. 

 

Ask yourself if you would still purchase from one of your suppliers if their price was a little higher than a new vendor that showed up at your door.  What if the price difference was a lot?  Would the supplier you have used for the last decade work with you to be more competitive, perhaps in ways other than just price, like availability?

 

Upgrade and new installation projects do not exactly have stunning success rates in general.

 

Successful implementations do have a common theme.  A project manager, a lot of planning, research and a tough-love approach.  The last thing that you need is a yes-yes person.   It takes a willingness to get out of your comfort zone and to be willing to look at what you are doing with a new set of eyes.

 

I remember years ago when a friend bought a new red compact pickup truck.  He made sacrifices to get the truck.  I was generally aware that they existed, but it was not until he bought it and was customizing it that I started seeing that type of truck all over the place.  I was now “aware” that there was something else out there.  He wanted a customized solution that represented his vision.  He had vision.  He did not change the truck, it was still a truck.  He changed the way the truck met his needs.  I was now aware of how his customized solution took the basic and tailored it to his needs. 

 

Other indicators of the need to change. 

·         It takes too many steps, and in particular, manual steps to complete a task.

·         There are too many separate systems. 

·         There are significant differences between book inventory and perpetual inventory values.

·         You have a sense that it is takes too many people to complete simple tasks.

·         You spend too much on technology support.

·         Your customers are doing more business with the competition.

·         You signed on to your own web site and could not figure out how to place an order, could not find a phone number to call or you could not find reach a human being that would listen and let you know that they understood your challenge (regardless of how trivial).

·         Is your ERP solution the solution that supports the majority of business applications and is the repository for the corporation’s information?

 

 

When was the last time you called your own customer service department and pretended to be a potential new customer to see how your customers are treated?

 

The decision to upgrade or implement a new solution is not an information technology decision.  It has to be a business, a business process decision.  Senior management must take ownership of the decision process.  Too much rides on the outcome.

 

Upgrades should be periodic and deliberate. 

 

The upgrade decisions must be aligned with the strategy of corporate vision.  The costs must be justified.  They need a project plan and general consensus.  The resources needed must be identified and available.  The alternative is rapid technological obsolescence.

 

ERP solutions are a critical component of any organization on a growth path.  As many business processes need to be incorporated and integrated in the solution.  The more fully an organization is integrated, the more operational efficiencies can be obtained.  Automation and integration is how you stay competitive.

 

ERP changes are also a great time for companies to evaluate their current processes and look for opportunities to eliminate custom software, unneeded modifications, and third-party or legacy systems in order to simplify their environments and lower costs of ownership.

 

Making the decision is not always easy, but the benefits are worth the effort if the process is done right.

 

What are you doing to streamline your organization?   We would like to hear what you have to say and learn what you are doing.  Contact us today.  We are here to help.  Dolvin Consulting works with manufacturing, distribution and specialty retail companies to help them streamline their computer operations, reduce costs and become more profitable.