WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textA2X is not the name you might recognize unless you are in the Xero or Shopify ecosystem. But they have created a new category of software, which seems exciting for eCommerce merchants, especially due to the amount of additional overhead you add with each marketplace you sell on. Each marketplace and big-box retailer are trying to come up with its own business models. And sometimes, that could require as much admin effort as you would get in managing a physical store. The admin effort could include keeping the right levels of inventory in each warehouse and country where you plan to serve your customers. And then reconciling that on a weekly basis. The only difference between the physical store and a marketplace is that you won't get penalized as often with stores. Marketplaces, on the other hand, are likely to have land mines at each step. And tracking that might cost you more than your margins. So how can A2X help in selling on different marketplaces?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss A2X’s capabilities. We discussed their strength and weaknesses and why it could be a great value add for eCommerce as well as bookkeeping businesses. Finally, we discussed their matching processes, chart of accounts methodology, and how they maintain the P&L for each channel along with reconciling across channels.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 textInfor LN has been the household name for many Automotive and Aerospace companies. If they can't relate with Infor LN, they will definitely recognize BaaN. At one point, when BaaN won Boeing as their account, there was a prediction that BaaN may be a clear threat to SAP. But unfortunately, running an ERP company requires more than just the technical prowess to handle the workload at the SAP levels. BaaN would have been a tragic story. But, good for the product that it found its place in the financially capable hands of Infor. Infor LN has come a long way in its evolution, and the cloud version offers several Infor products integrated with Infor. But where does it stand today in comparison to other similar products?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Infor LN's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their strength in manufacturing complex products such as automotive and aerospace along with how dates at the operational level are the crucial factor to determining the right fit for the ERP products. Finally, we discussed concepts such as handling units, pegging, and global trade compliance that are absolutely essential for large companies to manage all aspects of their scheduling such as service, production, and procurement.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 textWhile you might feel that SAP does not care for the SMB market, SAP Business One is one of the most successful products. SAP Business One incorporates all the great features such as financial control and relationship map, along with the speed of the HANA database. SAP Business One also has a similar data model and architecture as their other product, which provides the SAP experience at a fraction of the costs. But SAP Business One Cloud is not as advanced as its on-prem variant. So is SAP Business One still a potential option for you? Or should you be looking at some other cloud- and web-enabled products?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of SAP Business One's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their cloud journey and their strength with their on-prem solution, such as the transactional traceability features similar to their bigger products such as SAP S/4 HANA and SAP Business By Design. Finally, we discussed features such as their sales and assembly BOMs and how they are better suited for project-based manufacturing because they have dates on their operations.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 textThe large companies that are present in more than 10 countries and have more than 50K employees need operational efficiencies at a different scale. The efficiencies at the plant or at the entity level are no longer enough. You need to figure out the shared services model where the lower-cost services can be provided by the countries where the costs are likely to be lower. But managing this process requires changes in the systems and processes. You need to share data across the entities and have a shared vision for the entire organization. But executing it is far more difficult than you would think. So how to implement shared services in larger organizations?In today's episode, our guest, Brian G Shannon, shares his insights into the importance of centralizing shared services for large global rollouts. He also talks about several KPIs such as cycle time and how to measure them to ensure the data quality you expect from your financial processes. Finally, he provides insights into prioritizing the rollouts where multiple countries may be involved with the ERP deployments along with setting the vision for the team.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're an e-commerce brand, kitting would not be new to you. Kitting could be a great tool to increase the average order value and differentiate yourself from the competition without necessarily launching a new product line. But kitting requires your inventory to be aligned across channels to deliver the intended results. Without the inventory alignment, it may result in missed opportunities, customer experience issues due to not getting their orders as per their timeline, and worse yet, customer churn. Kitting also requires the SKUs to be aligned to forecast the dependent inventory items accurately. Finally, kitting requires your pricing to be consistent across channels. So what are the best practices to implement kitting for your business?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss the pros and cons of kitting business processes and best practices. We covered many grounds, including the difference between a kit and a pallet, kit and WIP, and just-in-time kits vs pre-built kits. Finally, we discussed how to account for labor with kitting and which types of inventories can support kits such as raw material, FG, MRO, and QC. 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 are an eCommerce brand and starting on the eCommerce journey, 3PL may appear to be an attractive option. You might feel that the only thing matters for eCommerce is sales and marketing. But as you advance in your journey, you will quickly realize how critical your operations are for your customer experience. If your customers can't receive the right products at the right time, they will not stick with you for very long, regardless of how compelling could be your messaging and customer services interactions. But the biggest frustration would be to be penalized for none of your faults. How would it feel if your 3PL shipped your competitor's product to your customer? But that's what happens when you lose control of your supply chain. While the new 3PLs make it look very attractive due to their tech capabilities, the age-old problems with 3PLs are still the same. And ShipBob is no exception to that.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss ShipBob’s capabilities. We discussed their strength and weaknesses and why they should not be confused with an eCommerce platform. Finally, we discussed their pricing, comparison with the traditional 3PL players, and the value they offer for the eCommerce merchants.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 textDigital commerce initiatives require your product, channel, and customer data in order. Or they might not pay off as you might never get the desired results from them as you expect. While both B2B and B2C eCommerce efforts have their share of challenges, the B2B space experiences complex relationships and hierarchies that drive the process intricacies. These relationships could be because of how the relationships are set up, how contracts are structured, and how each of them are paid in the relationship.In today's episode, our guest, Jay Schneider, shares his insights into how B2B digital commerce processes differ from B2C. He compares and contrast B2B sales and marketing trends such as buying groups, marketplaces, and group purchasing organizations that have been on the rise. Finally, he provides insights into the product data and why it is important for B2B distributors to keep their house in order to be successful with the eCommerce initiatives.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 textWhen it comes to blanket orders, the business community has mixed feelings about whether they add real value to the business. But their implementation could be all over the place as well. The legacy systems that didn't support the blanket order functionality natively had to come up with creative ways of handling them. These creative ways might include canceling the lines and adding new ones as the quantity gets released. Or they could be as dramatic as creating a completely new order. Irrespective of whether you like it or not. You will end up dealing with blanket orders as they might be driven by factors such as commodity pricing or securing critical components needed for your supply chain. So, where do blanket orders make the most sense?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss the pros and cons of blanket orders business processes best practices. We covered many grounds, including the difference between contracts, regular orders, and blanket orders and whether the blanket POs should be used. Finally, we discussed several other concepts related to blanket POs such as blanket orders for commoditized products such as MRO inventory and for the critical items and for the items where price fluctuates significantly. 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 textWhen you look at the eCommerce fulfillment space, there are many options out there. And most of these options could appear very similar. In fact, sometimes it's very hard to spot the difference between a 3PL and an eCommerce fulfillment software, as both software might appear similar. Just because your Shopify can integrate with their 3PL software, it's not meant to be a replacement for your order management platform. It should not even be compared in the software category. It's just another channel similar to EDI or integration with a traditional 3PL. The newer breed of 3PL offers deeper software capabilities than your traditional 3PLs. So, where does ShipHype fit in the food chain?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss ShipHype’s capabilities. We discussed their strength and weaknesses and why they should not be confused with an eCommerce platform. Finally, we discussed their pricing, comparison with the traditional 3PL players, and the value they offer for the eCommerce merchants.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 textWhen it comes to ERP software designed for manufacturing, you will find dozen of options. But none of them come close to meeting the needs of complex manufacturers. Even the software that will claim to be designed for hybrid manufacturing and raved by their customers are really lean on manufacturing capabilities. One of the critical differentiators for most manufacturing software is their BOM and data model. Lose correlation of BOM data elements could have significant implications on your production data. This is especially true for complex manufacturing products. One such product is Epicor Kinetic, which is often one of the closest competitors of other manufacturing software such as Infor CloudSuite Industrial and Acumatica.  But how deep is Epicor Kinetic with its manufacturing capabilities? Can it support any manufacturing business model?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Epicor Kinetic's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their cloud journey, features such as advanced search that most legacy vendors might lack, and their user experience limitations as with most legacy products. Finally, we discussed their deficiencies such as their materials and operations not connected in their BOMs, their depth with the company structure, and the ownership issues of their quality module.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.