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.

Retail Software – Achieving Effective Integration

New technology available today allows Enterprise Resource Management (ERP) solution providers to more economically provide integrated solutions that actually drive efficiency.  There is only so much overhead costs that can be cut.  Product, personnel and overhead cost inevitably increase over time.  Add business growth to the overhead increase and you end up needing a solution that can grow with your needs.

Companies are typically growing or shrinking and those cycles alternate.  Long term we hope the trend is upward.  If so, then that company will need a solution that meets their current demand and will provide the tools and resources to match and facilitate growth.

Some key features of a capable solution would (should) include:

• Automatically calculate restocking orders.  Regardless of how your products are ordered, you solution needs to track inventory movement and balance reorder availability and timelines to ensure you have enough stock to meet future demands and not too much that your overhead and handling costs increase.
• Timely reporting on sales.  Up to the minute, real-time reporting is a necessity for management to make informed decisions.
• Speed up customer check-out.  No one likes waiting in lines and they expect the prices to ring correctly.
• Integrated credit card processing.  Not only do retailers need to process credit cards, but they need to do so quickly, accurately, and safely.  Key benefits are when the credit card processing is fully integrated with the order fulfillment system. 
• Reward your customers.  Loyalty tracking allows you to recognize and cater to the needs of your customers as well as attract new customers that have similar needs.
• A single solution.  A single integrated solution that links retail stores, Ecommerce, inventory and warehousing will inevitably drive efficiency and fulfill the other objectives listed hear.
• Timely reporting.  Management needs access to real-time information, but also sales history from all sources and inventory movement for better planning.
• Procurement tools.  Purchasing needs access to all sales information to gauge trends on ordering and resupply decisions.
• Easy customer enrollment.  Online solutions need to be customer friendly.  If you make it easy for your customers to business with you, they are likely to return and do more business with you.
• Integrated marketing tools.  Your business needs integrated and easy to use tools to stay in touch with your customers.  Customer relationships need constant nurturing.
• Provide tools for your customers.  Customers need access to their information as well including sales history regardless of their point of purchase.  This helps with common questions and reordering. 
• On account customer service.  Your account customer need the same tools as retail customers.  They also need to review their credit line, reprint invoices and check order status.

Final thoughts:

Customer service is important.  Serve your customers well and they will return.  Remember if you do not service them, someone else will.  A key sign your customer value your relationship is when they refer others to do business with you.

Integration is key.  Every time people have to touch information and manual processing, you are increasing the likelihood of errors and inefficiency.

Information is key.  Real-time and accurate information is critically important to manage and run your operations.

Information and integration help to drive efficiency in your operations, reduce costs and deliver great customer service.  This cycle will repeat itself if you are using the right ERP solution. 

Performance and up-time are critical in Retail operations.  Make sure your solution runs on systems that can ensure you meet your customer’s needs first and foremost.  Kiosks are another customer service tool that generates repeat business.

Whether you have a single location with many terminals or many locations, a few part numbers or many SKU’s, the right solution should be helpful in managing operations.  Faster replenishment and minimized outages that result from new solutions help move you towards a Just-In-Time (JIT) inventory management solution.

Contact Dolvin Consulting to find out how our industry expertise and relationships can help your organization improve the way you deliver to your customers.  We are here to help.

Please share your thoughts and experiences with our readers.  What applications and tools have you implemented that have helped?  What are you looking for in a future update or system?

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.

Life Cycle Part Two

Nature duplicates life we create or is it really that the life we create duplicates nature.  It really makes sense if you think about it, because we tend to replicate our environment in the way we live, learn and grow.  Last time we looked at the life cycle of ERP solutions with a comparison to Sunflowers and plant life.  Sunflowers are an interesting plant.  The flowers follow the sun through the day, supply food for birds and animals in their replication cycle.  Their plant-life-goal is to mature, grow and plant the seeds for the next generation. 

Dragonflies are also interesting in general and in their similarities to ERP solutions. 

First there are some 5000 varieties of the species.  There are a lot of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions too.  

Each solution has its benefits, limits and niche where they work best. 

Dragonflies start as larvae in water where they spend the bulk of their life.  The early stages of ERP is often a developmental stage where a lot of the work is not seen and includes implementation, migration and training to fully take advantage of the service offerings.  

The winged version of dragonflies are what most of us are familiar with and comes after growth and trials and struggles to survive.  Once mature there is the need to stay alive, stay current and continued growth.  This is similar to ERP as more and more function is utilized in the solution and give need via growth and life cycle to a new generation. 

The next generation is inevitable. 

That next generation can be an upgrade or new solution, but it will come.  No new generation and the solution will eventually wear out and perish.  

Business needs and cycles change and ERP solutions need to change and adapt to the way your customers prefer to do business.

Choosing an upgrade or new solution is not always an easy task even if what is currently in use does not work.  Decision makers need to decide if they want to keep a narrow focus on their industry such as manufacturing, distribution or application like order entry.  Or, the decision makers need to take a more broad view of their applications and embrace the ERP moniker and include more functional roles such as customer service management which would include order entry, inventory, procurement, and manufacturing applications, like capacity planning, in one big picture.

Enterprise solutions are optimized to maximize their return when the entire enterprise is integrated.

Industry solutions are an important grouping of applications that are used and optimized for specific industries such as retail, wholesale distribution, or manufacturing.  Decision makers now have to consider traditional on premise or hosted solutions as well as more traditional questions.

Some questions to consider:  

How long has the particular software been used and how successfully? 

Total cost of ownership (TCO) is an important factor.  Most people realize that the initial upfront costs are often outpaced by the ongoing administration and operational costs. 

What initial costs must be absorbed in your return on investment (ROI) calculation?   Hardware for on premise, software licensing, maintenance, support, implementation, migration, and training?

What type of support is available?  On line, documents, phone and what time windows?

What skills are needed?  Who will provide training?  Train the trainers?  How much time will it take to get your staff up to date?  Which modules will you activate and in which order?  Do you need to know how to run everything all at once or can you train as you go after having covered the basic modules first?

Should your solution be an open-source solution or is a proprietary solution better?  What size provider is right for your business?  Are you a global organization?  Do you need a global solution? 

An open source solution may seem like a winner especially with lower license fees, however, getting support may be limited or a challenge when you get locked into a custom solution that few outside of the solution provider know how to support.  A proprietary system actually can be more “open” in the sense that people that know how to support the system will have knowledge of how to support any solution running on this same platform. 

Regardless there may be nothing worse than having a solution that is not a fit for the culture of your organization and how your customers prefer to be served.

Maturity of the solution may be a more important factor that what platform they run on.  How responsive is the solution provider to listen and understand the nuances of your operations?  Or, do they just want to pack you in a box that “works” and hope you can manage the internal changes needed to fit their mold.

Conversely, be wary of too much customization.  An over eager solution provider that will customize everything will equally box you in.  With so many customizations, how will you take advantage of new releases?  How will they keep you current with industry trends?  

Too many modifications either means the solution is not the right fit for your organization or you have highly unique business requirements.

Where will you get support?  Will it come from, is it available directly from, the solution creator?  Are there local dealers with expertise that can be onsite to help?  How many of your staff will need to be trained in support? 

It is one thing to purchase a solution, it is entirely another matter to maintain it.  Like our dragonfly, your ERP solutions need regular tending-to, environment, and opportunity to grow.  Likewise it also has to be protected from and fend off predators.  A dragon fly starts small and is usually unseen until it has passed through various growth stages until it emerges mature and winged.  It is only then we see and appreciate its beauty and appetite for the insects it consumes daily.

Let Dolvin Consulting help you navigate to a new solution, upgrade or to feel comfortable with the solution you are already using.  Contact us today to get started.  We are here to help.

The Future of Enterprise Solutions

Clearly the Internet is the future of Enterprise Computing.  And by this I mean the Internet is and will continue to change the way solutions are delivered and accessed.  Further, by delivering software through a browser with a flexible nonproprietary web interface, developers can provide the user with a single sign on and user experience of all web applications.  This simplifies the user experience, increases productivity and minimizes training costs. In addition, web based software provides mobile access enabling every user in the organization immediate anytime, anywhere access. 

Solution providers can concentrate on developing more robust solutions that solve real world business issues that drive bottom-line results.  Organizations can now compete at a very high level by leveraging the flexibly and mobility of web services.  Growth potential is unrestrained due to the scalability that web services provide.

Nearly every modern device provides some sort of web interface.  Some compatibility issues exist, but even those issues continue to fade away with more standardization.  The standardization occurs as more and more vendors require consistent tools and interfaces.  These requirements are not specific to any one solution provider. 

Standards based technologies are the modernization and automation trend for technology, just like the assembly line was to the automotive industry.

Benefits of this evolution are a more responsive design, resizable display to match the devices used, and anytime anywhere access.  The benefits facilitate the transition to Cloud or hosted solutions.  If you remove proprietary emulation and terminal emulation, you open the door to adoption.

As more and more organizations adopt in part or more fully Cloud/Hosted solutions the greater the pressure on solution providers to embrace these solutions.  It becomes a win-win situation.  More adoption, more providers, more choices. 

While not everyone is ready to completely convert today, we see the trend well underway.  Small changes lead to bigger and bigger adoption.  Many businesses are one or two generations away from complete conversion.    

The capability to scale to seasonal or continued growth without adding to internal infrastructure is a big cost benefit.  While there are still some critical business operations that need to remain in-house, hybrid solutions are helping to bridge the gap.

Consumer adoption is aiding the transition.  Younger generations are wondering what the delay is all about.  Years ago, adopting a new technology required significant education and training for internal users and external customers.  Today, both have an expectation that your organization should already be utilizing these technologies.    

New solutions are allowing customers multiple options for their infrastructure including on premise servers, platform as a service, or software as a service.  Increased productivity and automation are driving factors to better customer service.

Automation that drives customer service starts with internal collaboration and communication.  Web enable solutions allow employees to stay connected and serve customer needs whenever and wherever the occasion demands, in house or on location.

Operationally monitoring daily tasks and alerts from any module or application helps efficiency.  Assignment of user tasks and workflow alerts keep employees engaged with production and customer needs.  These capabilities help create role based responsibilities that bridge the traditional module interface. 

In the past Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions were primarily departmental based.  Today they have been transitioning more and more towards functional role based solutions.  The collaboration of hosted based solutions helps to facilitate this transition.  For example, Procurement is a combination of inventory management, customer service and buying trends, vendor purchasing, receiving, production monitoring and control.  An overall overview of Inventory processing in and out and the ability to filter the information to meet individual user needs.

Companies thrive when they empower their employees to drive results.

By providing new role based solutions employee productivity is increased allowing them to react more quickly to business demands. 

Dolvin Consulting works with industry leaders to help businesses like yours deliver comprehensive solutions to your customers by empowering your employees.  Contact us today to see how we can help your team drive greater efficiency in your operations.