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Some of the most basic Customer Relationship Management (CRM) features are just that –basic. Today’s aggressive sales arena needs tools of the trade that are hardly basic. Having an integration to the office ERP system is just the type of tool that will set a salesperson ahead of the pack when dealing with customers.
Here are a few of the tools to look for:
- Full integration – You have a Proposal; your sales person can usually see how he got
the lead, when he got the lead, what effort has been spent. How about what other Invoices or Proposals you have had for this person; Volume pricing on the Proposal items; Vendor cost data; comparable vendor costs; comparable customer pricing; shipping data; past vendor performance; collection data. Whatever you have in your accounting system, your inventory system, your sales system – anything and everything should be viewable for fast answers, quick changes and more sales. Why have all this information if you are not putting it to good use?
- Outlook integration- Your office staff emails, texts, sends attachments and corresponds with customers and prospects. Connecting all of this information so that your salesperson can see what was sent and when, as well as proper maintenance of up to date contact information, is crucial in the sales process. “Accounting” should not have one set of information, while “Sales” has another.
- Marketing is now so much more than sending mass mailers and waiting for responses. When all of your information is housed under one data roof, sophisticated data mining, projections and probability reporting can be a part of your normal marketing management. “Opportunity Pipeline” tools can help you easily track sales potentials, analyze and respond to outcomes.
For more information on combining CRM with the full features of your office ERP system, as well as other revenue building ideas, ask for our free “Maximizing Revenue” white paper or sign up for a personal consultation.
Posted in CRM, ERP No Comments »
Do you use your vendors’ inventory numbers when selling to your customers? Do your Internet-savvy customers search for better pricing, better terms, better delivery times using the information you have spoon-fed them?
Can you create your own catalogs, using your own numbering system, protecting your business data, while still easily viewing your vendor connections?
Learn to -
- Use vendor information easily for pricing, pictures, website updating and comparitive bidding
- Easily create your own proprietary inventory, using data from your various vendors
- Maintain separate views of the same inventory
- Create customer specific inventory using your own proprietary data, vendor specific inventory with vendor shared data, internal reporting which combines and connects all inventory
- Market your company without advertising for your vendors or competitors
Join us for our free one hour webinar on Friday, August 24, 2012 at 11:00 and see how Proprietary Catalogs can help your business.
Register now or sign up for a personal demo!
Posted in Events No Comments »
You have a stack of new sales orders – from the phone, email, your website and other Internet sites; your inventory counts say you have what you need; your fulfillment staff is busy picking and packing; orders are rolling out of your warehouse into your customers’ hands. All is well! Or is it?
Why doesn’t the bottom line show the profit that you anticipated?
Why are the shipping costs higher than projected?
How come it takes so long to unravel the cause of these small, yet accumulating charges?
Who is doing what wrong? How can you avoid this trap moving forward?
If you are in a distribution business, your key to success rests on selling your goods profitably, and that means managing your inventory as well as managing your customers’ expectations. Trying to meet customer demands, without forethought, can result in excessive extra labor costs, as well as increased shipping and inventory costs. Complete order fulfillment, using either inside or outside(UPS/Fedex type) shipping carriers can easily help costs spiral out of control changing a profitable sale into a loss.
Here are five ways to look at your processes and reduce the costs to deliver your goods:
Vendor Shop
Call the major carriers servicing your geographical area and discuss your own requirements, such as delivery regions, volume and type of shipped goods to ensure best service and competitive pricing. Don’t just assume that bigger is always better. If you have industry-specific requirements, make sure the vendor you use is capable of meeting these needs, again, with competitive pricing. Of special concern may be international shipping, perishable item shipping or hazardous material shipping.
Rate shop
Rate shopping can be done on an order by order basis by having your shipping clerk compare shipper pricing. However, there are two other options to be considered. First, you may use the services of a broker whose job is to do this comparison for you. You can also install your own “in house” rate shopping package, where real time pricing and best rates are delivered with a mouse click.
Avoid Penalties and Chargebacks
One of the surest ways to increase shipping costs is to accumulate penalty and chargeback fees. Your customers may even be “counting on” your errors by penalizing you for late shipments or other contractual obligations that are not met. Some of the simplest corrective measures to avoid these fees involve the maintenance of accurate customer delivery information, accurate label and documentation requirements, as well as a tight integration between promised delivery date and actual delivery date data. Integrating your shipping software to your sales orders can usually be done easily and inexpensively with the help of your shipper.
Organize the Warehouse
Labor costs can only be held to a minimum in the order fulfillment department with streamlining of picking, packing and shipping. A properly organized warehouse will enable individual or group order picking to be done at maximum speed and with maximum accuracy. Investing in shelving, labelling and material handling equipment can generate the fastest return on investment where picking and packing are concerned.
Reduce Unnecessary Errors
Shipping the wrong item, shipping to the wrong customer, shipping late or shipping inaccurate orders are all costly mistakes that proper inventory control can eliminate. Starting with the commitment to the customer, inventory availability must be validated before a delivery promise can be made. The sales order must automatically create the picking ticket and this document must be used in the warehouse for complete fulfillment.
LPS has archives on over 1,000 distribution clients where shipping and inventory problems were solved with various automation tools. To ask a question or to hear more ways to reduce shipping costs, contact LPS at 908-889-6300(101).
Posted in ERP, Tip of the Week No Comments »
What is the process in place to get goods from your warehouse (physical or virtual) to your customer? How many steps are involved? How many people are involved and what is the full cost of this effort?
If you can break down each of the costs in each shipment, can you record these costs? Can you save on these costs? How is the question!
Review each of the following scenarios and learn how to record the real costs of your shipping process and, more importantly, learn how you can reduce these costs:
- Are you paying the lowest cost on each shipment? How can you accurately rate and route each shipment? Learn about rate-shopping.
- Can you combine shipments for reduced costs? Learn about rate reductions for bulk shipments.
- Are your own delivery methods being maximized? Learn how proper truck and container management can create the most benefit.
- Is your shipping staff efficient? Learn process management tools that will reduce labor costs.
- Do you have shipping errors that result from bad or incomplete information? How can this be avoided?
Let a shipping expert educate you on the most efficient, modern processes to save shipping money.
Join us for our free one hour webinar on Thursday July 18th, 2012 at 11:00.
Register now or sign up for a personal demo!
Posted in Events No Comments »
Understanding the pros and cons of cloud computing, knowing what is available and reliable in the ERP marketplace and judging the cost-effectiveness of these solutions is of prime concern to many small to mid-sized business owners.
Many companies are creating their own cloud platforms, renting their own storage space or relying on available SaaS models (Software as a Service) to move away from traditional in-house software models.
With SAP’s Business By Design or SAP’s Business One’s hosted solution, ERP users can move away from in-house systems and depend on the strength of an international software vendor to deliver a stable, reliable solution. And what other business needs are commonly being met “in the cloud?” How cost-effective are these solutions?
Pat Sigmon will be helping businesses understand their cloud computing options this week at the IACC Mid Year Conference at the Boston Marriott Long Wharf. The Cloud Computing presentation will be held on Friday, June 22nd at 1pm. For your own personal cloud presentation or for a copy of the Cloud Computing slideshow, register here.
Posted in ERP, Events, Uncategorized No Comments »
If you are selling your goods on the Internet and sales are coming in the door, why should you care about integrating to your in-house Financial System? This integration will cost money, take up your time and change office procedures, so why should you bother making the effort?
- What is your true profit margin on the goods you sell?
- Do you equate all costs of goods, such as shipping, handling and accurate inventory costs to each sale?
- Do you have real time inventory counts?
- Do you need them?
- When your customer information is changed with your online orders, do you duplicate these changes in-house?
- Do you need to transfer inventory codes, your customer’s historical information, vendor pricing changes and all other sales information from one system to another AND maintain on-going synchronization?
- What is the cost of this work?
If you sell online, great! Now, analyze the benefit of true profit analysis that can only happen when every detail of every sale is shared with your financial system.
Let an ecommerce expert educate you on the benefits of ecommerce integration to your financial system. See what your competitors are doing and understand the true “cost” when data is not joined from one system to another.
- What systems can integrate to your website?
- What data can be extracted from a financial system?
- Can Internet sales data be “mined” for greater opportunities?
- Can a small business have the same features for on-line selling that larger companies have?
- What is the true return on this type of investment?
Join us for our free one hour webinar on Thursday June 19th, 2012 at 11:00 and see what Ecommerce integration to your Financial System means.
Register now or sign up for a personal demo!
Posted in Inventory, Uncategorized No Comments »
Times are tough; the economy has hurt many small business owners; profit is hard to come by. When helping small business owners get their finances in order, Patricia Sigmon recommends SAP Business One as the ERP system of choice. Knowing what information to record, where to record it and how to analyze it is the beginning of real profit and loss assessment and the “kick in the pants” that an owner needs to keep their finances in order on a daily basis.
Patricia is proud to be part of the 2012 New York Times Small Business Summit this year and will work the Financial Boot Camp, where a panel of experts will help business owners to get their finances in order.
Now in its 7th year, The New York Times Small Business Summit will engage an owner’s entrepreneurial spirit through a combination of expert panel discussions and interactive workshops. Register at nytimes.com/bizsummit for this Monday, June 25, 2012 event at The Grand Hyatt in New York.
Posted in ERP, Events, Uncategorized No Comments »
Sometimes bar coding is the last item on the ERP implementaiton list. First there is Bill of Materials, Inventory Counts, Integration with UPS and Fedex, Shipping Optimization. Things don’t come in scanned; vendors need to be contacted; employees need training; equipment needs to be purchased.
If you have a full-blown ERP system, if you are inventory based, if shipping on time matters, then scanning cannot be left for tomorrow.
Let an industry scanning expert educate you on the benefits of scanning systems. See how warehouse management can be optimized, production can be streamlined and shipping can be more timely and accurate with low cost scanners and scanning solutions.
- How can handheld devices allow you to pick several orders at once?
- What is displayed in these devices?
- Can you be directed to the proper bins for each item?Can selected items be sorted according to common Ship-To Addresses, Shipment Dates and Shipping Methods?
- Simplify and see your profit margins rise.
Join us for our free one hour webinar on Tuesday, May 22nd, 2012 at 11:00 and see what a low cost scanning solution can do for your business.
Register now or sign up for a personal demo!
Posted in ERP, Inventory No Comments »
On the run? Working from afar? Salespeople scattered across the state, the country, the world? Your iPhone and your iPad can bring your ERP system with you, wherever you go.
- Access the information you need to run your business from anywhere.
- Ensure critical information is always at the fingertips of those who need it most.
- Navigate with ease; see data graphically represented.
- Get alerted on specific events, such as deviations from approved discounts, prices or credit limits.
- View and complete approval requests with minimal clicks.
- Drill into relevant data before making your decisions.
Don’t leave your ERP System behind; carry it with you.
- Create or view Sales opportunities, quotes and orders.
- Process service calls or work orders.
- View customer information and historical activities.
- Monitor Inventory and Product Data.
Join us for our free one hour webinar on Friday, April 27, 2012 at 11:00 and see how you can carry your ERP system with you.
Register now or sign up for a personal demo!
Posted in ERP, Events No Comments »
As a distribution company you have an opportunity to stand out from your more complacent competitors by enabling your customers to easily order from you, and track their orders online.
Small to medium-sized distribution companies are certainly not as quick to deliver this feature as the major online distribution houses. But your customers are used to ordering their own goods at home, having inventory and shipping information at hand immediately.
So, can your ERP system deliver when it comes to user friendly shipping and order information? Is it seemlessly integrated to your in-house system? Easy access to shopping carts, inventory status and shipping information is what your customers live with in their personal lives. Do they want to step “back in time” at the office?
Its time to involve your customer in your ERP solution.
Tags: ERP, order, track
Posted in CRM, Profitability Series No Comments »
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