

WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation
Sam Gupta
WBSRocks podcast features in-depth conversations on customer experience, digital transformation, supply chain, eCommerce, industry 4.0, and enterprise software categories such as CRM, ERP, or analytics suites. The purpose of the show is to help CFOs, COOs, CEOs, and business owners with their daily commercial, operational, or financial challenges by taking a deep dive into business cases and processes, technology strategy and architecture, transformation initiatives, and business models. The show also offers an independent analysis of technology trends, various enterprise software vendors and solutions, and their mergers and acquisitions. Subscribe today to stay on top of digital transformation trends!
Episodes
Mentioned books

Oct 24, 2022 • 42min
WBSP405: Grow Your Business by Learning the Process Challenges of Make-To-Order Manufacturers w/ Nirav Shah
Send us a textThe ERP needs of make-to-order manufacturers are completely different from the make-to-stock ones. The make-to-order manufacturers need to collaborate with their customers during the design phase. And even after finalizing the design, there might be several change orders. These iterative changes make planning extremely difficult for the make-to-order manufacturers. And understanding these nuances is extremely critical to implement an ERP for make-to-order manufacturers.In today's episode our guest, Nirav Shah, shares his insights into the process challenges of make-to-order manufacturers. He also talks about the order and product differences of make-to-order manufacturers and how that impacts the downstream ERP processes. Finally, he talks about planning and scheduling processes and the value MRP brings to make-to-order manufacturers.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 20, 2022 • 56min
WBSP404: Grow Your Business by Learning Cash Flow Management Best Practices, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts
Send us a textIf you ask anyone what's most important for a business, they will have a million different answers. The answers could be things such as marketing, engineering, quality, and employee experience. But if there is one thing that matters more than anything else, it's cash. Either you have it, or you don't. You can fake marketing. You can fake revenue. You can fake success. But you can't fake cash.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Cash Flow Management best practices. We discussed the differences between cash and accrual accounting and how that might impact the predictability of cash flow. Finally, we discussed the impact on cash flow because of poor inventory optimization, supply chain unpredictability, and inability to collect your AR.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 19, 2022 • 1h
WBSP403: Grow Your Business by Understanding fabric’s Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion
Send us a textDo you know a headless platform that has received millions of dollars in funding in the last two years? Do you know a headless platform that is equally strong with B2B and B2C but primarily targeted at retail-centric brands? Do you know a headless platform that has logos such as GNC, McDonald's, and BodyBuilding.com? But it's not commercetools, Spryker, or Elastic Path? So which one is it? If you have guessed fabric, then you are right.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss fabric’s capabilities. We discussed its unique value proposition, its deep capabilities with DTC and B2B companies, and its journey of multiple rounds of funding within a few months. Finally, we discussed the background of their executives and how that might influence their corporate and go-to-market strategy.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 18, 2022 • 59min
WBSP402: Grow Your Business by Understanding Oracle PeopleSoft's Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion
Send us a textWhich ERP is designed for people-centric industries in mind? It is the one that Oracle acquired. And got two major ERP brands in one go. In fact, this brand was so big that they ended up rebranding some of JD Edward's ERP assets to this one. This is also the Workday of the 80s and 90s. And the first Windows HRMS application in the era when most other systems were mainframe-based. In fact, the founder of this ERP co-founded Workday. Any guesses yet? If you guessed PeopleSoft, then yes, you are right. It's the ERP that is still supported by Oracle and is majorly used by universities and public-sector organizations.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Oracle PeopleSoft’s capabilities. We covered many grounds, including which industries would be a fit for Oracle PeopleSoft and its history being as popular as Workday in the 80s. Finally, we discussed its features such as overlap % with project scheduling, workflow capabilities, and delegate management features.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 17, 2022 • 47min
WBSP401: Grow Your Business by Learning How To Start on a 3D Experience Journey w/ Beck Besecker
Send us a text3D should always be better than the 2D experience, especially for the furniture and home goods industry. This industry also has one of the highest return rates even if there might not be anything fundamentally wrong with the product. Sometimes it’s the perception of the measurement or fabric that might turn off some of the customers. The 3D experience allows companies not only to help their customers visualize the product. But it also helps in increasing bag size as the furniture may not appear so well without the right lamps or the art. But creating a 3D experience is very expensive. It requires planning and building quality assets. Or the 3D experience is likely to fire back because of the perception of poor quality.In today's episode our guest, Beck Besecker, shares his insights into how brands can start on their 3D experience journey. He also shares his insights into the entire process of what is involved in creating the 3D assets and which roles are likely to be involved. Finally, he talks about several tools used in the process and how the new trends may be driving the 3D space.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 13, 2022 • 1h 4min
WBSP400: Grow Your Business by Learning General Ledger Best Practices, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts
Send us a textHow important is the general ledger to your organization? You might not care until you get a huge bill from your tax department for incorrectly coding an expense. Or you come to know that your financial position might not be as strong as you thought. The correct setup of the chart of accounts determines how much admin effort you would have with your accounting. In fact, it's the foundation of the ERP system implementation. If you lump everything under one account, you might lose the insights that you need to be able to find the root cause of financial issues. If you make it too broad, you might enter too much data during your transactions and may have adoption issues among your operations team because of the overly engineered processes.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss General Ledger best practices. We discussed the scope and boundaries of the general ledger processes and why the way your general ledger is set up might have an impact on your KPIs and operational performance. Finally, we discussed general ledger practices in different industries, the interaction of BI tools with general ledger, and the differences of general ledger processes for public vs private companies.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 12, 2022 • 1h 1min
WBSP399: Grow Your Business by Understanding OroCommerce’s Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion
Send us a textDo you know an eCommerce platform that is open source and built on PHP? Do you know an eCommerce platform that is very strong with B2B features with complex approval flows? Do you know an eCommerce platform that can bump up the products in the search list based on the score of product attributes? Do you know an eCommerce platform that can have a separate landing page for different users and customer types? If you have guessed Magento, then it's not right. It's OroCommerce.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss OroCommerce’s capabilities. We discussed its unique value proposition, developer-friendly nature, and its roadmap. Finally, we discussed some of the very interesting features such as its ability to rank different products in its search results and rank based on product attributes, workflows to enable B2B approval flows, and the hierarchies of its business objects.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 11, 2022 • 1h 3min
WBSP398: Grow Your Business by Understanding Sage 200's Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion
Send us a textDo you know a Sage product that has multiple location functionality but is not designed for multiple countries? Do you know a Sage product that has multiple versions of its products for different countries? Do you know a Sage product that is targeted for distribution, agriculture, and light manufacturing and has a SQL-server-based database? Do you know a Sage product that has rich functionality for on-prem but may not be as rich in the cloud just yet? Would it be Sage 50, 100, 200, 300, 500, or X3? Well, if you guessed it right, we are talking about Sage 200.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Sage 200s capabilities. We covered many grounds, including which industries would be a fit for Sage 200 and which industries might not be the best fit. Finally, we discussed its features such as allowing duplicate serial numbers, having only mins and not maxes on some screens, and costing and pricing layers.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 10, 2022 • 51min
WBSP397: Grow Your Business by Learning How Shadow ERP Processes Leads to Implementation Failure w/ Peter Joeckel
Send us a textERP implementation is easy. Anyone can do it. But, ironically, anyone can fail it as well. So how can ERP implementation be so easy and difficult at the same time? There are several reasons. But the core reason is how ERP systems are selected and implemented. Most companies follow a checklist approach. And this approach often results into hit or miss scenarios because creating a generalized checklist approach for ERP implementation is nearly impossible, especially for the processes that might be happening outside of the ERP system.In today's episode our guest, Peter Joeckel, who shares his insights into the concept of shadow ERP and how that drives ERP implementation failure. He also discussed how measuring and understanding the shadow ERP processes can result in better outcomes for your ERP implementation. Finally, he shares his insights into the importance of data plumbing and the challenges associated with having multiple software systems in the architecture.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.

Oct 6, 2022 • 60min
WBSP396: Grow Your Business by Learning Account Payable Best Practices, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts
Send us a textHow hard could it be to manage the vendor side of processes? Well, sometimes, it could be more complex than your customer side of processes, especially for B2C businesses. Also, it might vary based on your industry, product type, and supply chain. You might need to make arrangements such as prepayment. The R&D side of processes could be completely different from operational processes. You might want to have complex arrangements such as pre-printed shipping labels or packaging arrangements. They all could have implications on your AP processes. Also, each industry may have its own requirements on how AP is supposed to be done. On top of it, each ERP system is likely to treat the AP processes differently. So what are the best practices for streamlining AP function?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Account Payable best practices. We discussed the scope and systems involved with the accounts payable and P2P processes. Finally, we discussed the architectural challenges and the changing role of ERP because of the introduction of the new systems.For more information on growth strategies for SMBs using ERP and digital transformation, visit our community at wbs.rocks or elevatiq.com. To ensure that you never miss an episode of the WBS podcast, subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform.