WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textThere are many different business models for how each ERP vendor promotes its products. Some like to go direct to the customers with their own professional services team while the others only sell through their partners. While not common, some vendors also have OEM arrangements, which is similar to the technology licensing business model, where a distributor may have exclusive rights to modify the product and white label with their branding. This additional layer of complexity may add another layer to the already confusing ERP buying cycle. So what do you need to know about the OEM business model?In today's episode, our guest, David Taylor, shares his insights into the pros and cons of the OEM distribution model for ERP systems. He also discusses the nuances of Australian geography and how different states might have different statutory and compliance requirements related to vendor payments, e-invoicing, and bank integration. Finally, he discusses why the data model for the Australian market may be different from the US and why the products targeted for the North American market may fall short in the Australian geography.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.

Send us a texteCommerce consultants have been the most enthusiastic about the importance of product configurators. How this is a need for every custom manufacturer. But product configurator comes in many shapes and sizes. A product configurator could be a simple form on a WordPress site that sends out an email to the backend team. Or a 3D configurator with a live product experience. Just like the way you would experience in the Virtual Reality world.  But while talking about configurator experience is easy, executing on it is very hard. As that requires a complete alignment of product, pricing, and BOM data across systems. So what are the best practices for implementing product configurators?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Product Configurator best practices. We discussed why product configurators matter and which businesses would be the right fit to enable the configurator experience. Finally, we discussed the challenges in selecting and implementing configurators including the balance between the IT and business users, setting clear boundaries across systems, and the perceived benefits of a configurator.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.

Send us a textIf you were to name the top 2-3 eCommerce platforms, I am pretty sure you would have Magento on your list. Sure there are always going to be pros and cons of every single platform, but you might find a lot more pros with Magento than cons. The pros are going to be especially applicable for businesses with complex products and catalogs. The businesses that are B2B are likely to benefit from Magento's capabilities. But can Magento be a good replacement for companies exploring enterprise-grade platforms such as SAP Hybris, Oracle Commerce, HCL Commerce, and Salesforce Commerce? If not, what would be the limitations of the platform?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Adobe Commerce/Magento capabilities. We discussed their strength of being open source and which organizations will be the right fit for Magento. Finally, we discussed their unique capabilities such as B2B features, product model, shared catalogs, and workflow capabilities.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.

Send us a textSage 50 is the household name for companies that might be in the revenue range of up to $10 million. In fact, there was a time when Sage 50 literally meant that the software was designed for companies with up to 50 users. But some companies may use it even after they outgrow that mark. Sage 50 competes with QuickBooks desktop and will have all the problems that QuickBooks Desktop is likely to have. These problems are likely to become severe with the interaction of offline and online channels. This is especially true when multiple users may be using the file from multi locations. Is that the reason why Intuit decided to move away from its desktop licensing model? And how long would it take for Sage to do the same with their Sage 50 software?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Sage 50's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their target market and data integrity issues with multiple users. Finally, we compare their capabilities with other competitors in this segment such as QuickBooks Desktop and Xero.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.

Send us a textCreating good content takes time, effort, and investment. But targeting the right content for the right target buyer and prospect is even harder. Because how do you know which prospect might care for which piece of content? Also, even if they might care about a specific topic today, they might move on from that topic in the future. And this makes engagement marketing super hard. But artificial intelligence is changing that in helping curate content and distributing to the appropriate channels as per the preferences of your readers.In today's episode, our guest, Erica Salm Rench, shares her insights on how AI can be used to improve customer engagement. She also discusses the challenges around email marketing and how AI can reduce the time in compiling the newsletters in an automated fashion to reduce the costs of marketing. She also shares her insights into the technical underpinnings of the AI technology of her platform and the emerging AI trends and technologies that will change how we interact with our customers.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.

Send us a textOutside process management is a critical process for manufacturers. It's hard for them to run their operations without the support for this process. But you will be shocked how many ERP systems don't support this process natively. Despite their claims that they all are designed to work for any industry. So what are the nuances when it comes to outside process management? And how involved does it get across the industries? Can you manage it outside of the ERP?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Outside Process Management best practices. We discussed the nuances and best practices of Outside Process Management processes and how they might vary in different industries. Finally, we discussed the overlap and boundaries of Outside Process Management processes across systems and functions.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.

Send us a textConsulting companies have never been good at selling products. IBM is a classic example. They have always struggled with their true identity. While they were one of the strongest engineering organizations, just like BlackBerry, product marketing is a different skill. And that's probably the reason why they ended up selling all of their software assets to other organizations.' WebSphere Commerce is one example. At one point in time, WebSphere Commerce used to be the gold standard for the enterprise commerce platform. But they ended up selling to HCL. Wait, but what is HCL doing with a software product? You would think that this is probably a "mainframe" strategy with a deliberate intention to buy legacy assets. So they can make charge a premium on their billing rate. But if you review the rearchitected version of HCL Commerce, you will be pleasantly surprised how fine of a job they have done with the product.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss HCL Commerce capabilities. We discussed their strengths and weaknesses and how the HCL acquisition has done wonders to the legacy product that was once the leading product for enterprise commerce for large brands. Finally, we discussed unique capabilities such as mock search, the ability to pin the products on a web page, retrieving the DAM assets using APIs, and the version control of DAM assets.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.

Send us a textERP systems get a bad rap for being biased toward manufacturing. So manufacturers must feel comfortable using the mainstream ERP systems out there. Right? Well, at least that's not true for job shops. Job shops are unique in the way they think and work. They have a tendency to feel that they have unique business processes and workflow that require them to use a unique ERP system. But if you review the ERP systems that job shops typically appreciate, you will begin to notice a trend. That these ERP systems were created because the job shops were not willing to change how the other manufacturing businesses run. And that's probably the reason why most job shops very rarely cross the inflection point of $25-50 mil of lifestyle businesses. And one software that is extremely popular in the SMB job shop community is ECi M1, which promises a lot for them. But it's so unique and different that you might face migration issues if you ever grow to cross the inflection point.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of ECi M1's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their strength of functionality for job shops and why these capabilities were born to support the broken processes that job shops are not willing to change and streamline. Finally, we reviewed their screens, workflow, and key features such as scheduling, job manipulation, and BOM structures.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.

Send us a textRecent economic events have taught us that Supply Chain is much deeper than most people think. These events, regardless of whether macro- or micro-economic, have the potential to throw off Supply Chain planning. And it requires careful calibration and cross-functional collaboration. So the Supply Chain professionals have data they need to take preventive measures to ensure that you are prepared for Supply Chain disruptions before it is too late.In today's episode, our guest, Michael Van Keulen (MVK), shares his insights on the current supply chain trends and opportunities. He also discusses the procurement maturity model for companies at various stages and what companies that are successful with their procurement and supply chain do differently. Finally, he discusses macroeconomic trends and their impact on the supply chain planning for the company in the short- and long-term.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.

Send us a textMost companies would rather give a product for free than worry about reverse logistics. Especially when the cost of the supply chain may be higher than the product itself. By the way, reverse logistics is not as simple as printing a shipping label and sending it to your customer. It could include getting a product to your facility and then recycling it or sending it to the vendor for repair. Managing these transactions could be even more difficult when multiple systems might be involved in your architecture. So what are the best practices of reverse logistics?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Reverse Logistics best practices. We discussed the nuances and best practices of Reverse Logistics processes and how they might vary in different industries. Finally, we discussed the overlap and boundaries of Reverse Logistics processes across systems and functions.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.