Blog - ‘ERP’
Wednesday, October 10th, 2012
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 »
Thursday, July 19th, 2012
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 »
Thursday, June 21st, 2012
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 »
Monday, June 4th, 2012
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 »
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012
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 »
Tuesday, April 17th, 2012
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 »
Tuesday, November 15th, 2011
If a distribution company with multiple warehouses had a Facebook page, what would its relationship status be?
“It’s Complicated.”
In our last “Building More Profit in your Distribution Business” post, we discussed inventory as the number one focus of small business owners with their software searches.
You might be a wiz at using your current software, or Excel, or even index cards, to control inventory in your one warehouse. But add an additional warehouse, or two, or three, whether they’re virtual or physical, and your current system breaks.
Can your current software keep up?
Your inventory could be spread across warehouses, or you might store different items in different warehouses. You might have two or more warehouses.
But do you know what are your committed, on hand and on order counts across all your warehouses are?
Can your current system handle this? If not then it’s time for an overhaul.
Conclusion
A modern ERP system can easily help you take control of inventory not just for real-time numbers and forecasting accuracy, but over several warehouses.
If you’re running multiple warehouses and your software isn’t specifically designed for this, then it’s time to get new software.
Posted in ERP, Profitability Series | No Comments »
Monday, October 31st, 2011
Pricing can make or break your distribution business.
But it’s one of the most complex parts of your business. In this ultra-competitive business climate you need to make sure you’re priced competitively, while handling other complexities such as volume pricing, customer-specific pricing and vendor-specific pricing.
Keeping track of all the moving pieces can become a full-time job.
The Importance Of Price Management
Your distribution business relies on competitive pricing. You also may have contract-specific pricing, and may also offer vendor-specific specials. Your sales people may have negotiated special pricing in order to bring on a new customer, or close more business during the last day of the quarter.
Managing pricing specifics has never been more important for a distribution business.
Many companies use spreadsheets to manage their pricing. But keeping track of the different versions of spreadsheets across your company can be overwhelming, especially when you’re trying to decide which version contains the current pricing formulas.
ERP Systems Make Price Management Easy
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems provide the answer.
You can add complex formulas for customer-specific, vendor-specific, and volume pricing to your ERP system, so when your customer places an order the correct price is automatically calculated.
But ERP systems add an additional element: the trust factor.
Instead of chasing the latest Excel spreadsheet with the correct formulas, an ERP system is always up-to-date. As the common industry buzzword states, an ERP system contains the “single version of the truth.”
Conclusion
In the distribution business profit margins can be razor thin. Pricing items too low can erase profits. But commoditization and globalization also means slight differences in prices could mean the difference between competitive success or failure.
An ERP system provides the answer. These are sophisticated systems that take complex pricing formulas and automatically apply them to your ordering system.
If profitability in your distribution business depends on complex pricing arrangements, you should seriously consider implementing an ERP system
Tags: erp systems, pricing, profitability
Posted in ERP, Profitability Series | No Comments »
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