WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textIt’s very hard to pinpoint the real cause of ERP implementation failures due to the number of moving pieces involved. Some people would always blame the software vendors while others would blame the system integrators. In reality, these factors might not contribute to the ERP implementation failure as you would think. But one factor that has a much higher chance of firing back is the customization of the software. The more you customize, the more cans of worms you will be opening for yourself. The open-source software is more customized than its commercial variants. And because of that, they also have a much higher failure rate. In today's episode, our guest, Nick Foy, shares his insights on the reasons for ERP implementation and adoption failures based on his team’s experience in saving Odoo implementation. He also discusses why technical teams shouldn’t think of over-customizing an ERP solution just because they can. Finally, he discusses why the business analysis of each software feature and customization is equally important even when you might be buying an ERP software.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 textCommitted inventory and allocation are perhaps the most complex processes to master in the ERP world. But they are critical after a certain point in your growth. If you don't have committed inventory processes figured out, you might not be able to reserve for key customers. Every department may create ad-hoc arrangements to preserve its inventory. And that might result in inventory accuracy issues. But for the committed inventory processes to work, you must have your inventory in order. So, where do you start in your journey of committed inventory? And how to get it 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 Committed Inventory and Allocation best practices. We discussed why commitment is inventory and how the commitments might vary in different industries when the inventory may be allocated at the lot or style level. Finally, we discussed complex inventory allocation processes such as available to promise, reallocation, and disassembly after allocation.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 whole idea of eCommerce and the web have always been making IT and programming easy for marketers. So easy that they don't need to learn coding to run eCommerce operations. But the world of headless seems to be taking the opposite approach. So is every vendor treating headless as the same? Not really. Also, should the headless experience always be based on React? Probably not. Why should a technology trend be biased toward a specific tech? Also, React is not the only way to write Javascript-based apps. Oracle Commerce is often criticized for being monolithic and Java-based. But that's perhaps not true. They are one of the easiest and most customizable without requiring the clunkiness of headless. So is there only one way of doing headless? If a tech is achieving the same outcome conceptually, then it doesn't really matter whether the tech is headless or not.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Oracle Commerce Detailed Independent Review. We discussed their strengths and weaknesses and where they might fit in the eCommerce architecture for both B2B and B2C business models. Finally, we discussed their different approach to headless and why their platform may be friendlier for the marketers with their unique changeset functionality.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 textBefore Microsoft started migrating all of their customers to Microsoft Dynamics Business Central and F&O, they had a similar strategy as Epicor or Infor, with several products in their portfolio targeted to specific industry verticals. In fact, they still sell products such as Microsoft SL. While they have announced the end of life for the SL product, some community members feel that the deadline is likely to be extended. They claim this as, in their opinion, Business Central might not be the best migration path for SL customers. And they are perhaps accurate in their assessment. This is because Positioning a product designed for FMCG distribution may not be the best fit for companies primarily in the project business. So, where does Microsoft SL stand as of today?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Microsoft SL's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their strength in the construction and project-centric industries. Finally, we discussed why companies might have a hard time migrating to MS Dynamics Business Central once SL reaches its end of life in 2028. And why Microsoft may end up extending the deadline.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 people underestimate the differences in taxes and localization and their implications on the ERP processes. Some countries may have requirements such as reporting on pollution or privacy standards. But countries such as Mexico have completely transformed their taxation system to prevent corruption and bribery in the market. This transformation, however, creates unique challenges for the companies implementing an ERP system as they not only need to comply with the admin overhead registering their product and services with the govt, but they also need to automate their processes to integrate with the govt system in order to remain profitable.In today's episode, our guest, Agustín Cruz Lozano, shares his insights into the taxation and localization nuances of Mexico and why the vanilla ERP would fall short for Mexico. He also discusses concepts such as electronics invoicing, unique numbers for each submission, and the differences in the tax filing processes. Finally, he discusses how the Mexican market is overly regulated with strict requirements such as each product and service needs to be registered with the govt authorities before companies can start selling them.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 textShop floor scheduling is always the hottest debate in the ERP community. In fact, it is so complex that most SMB companies end up managing their scheduling on spreadsheets. Also, the problems are much worse when multiple systems might be involved in the architecture. They each might claim how inadequate the other system is. With no clear consensus on what works when it comes to scheduling. One of the problems often discussed on the root causes of scheduling is the number of exceptions that the shop floor has to manage. And the ever-changing nature of the schedule. So can you ever fully automate shop floor scheduling? Or would it always require manual interventions? And if scheduling is this hard, how do larger companies manage their plants where the schedule of one plant may impact the other.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss shop floor scheduling best practices. We discussed scheduling issues for different industries and product categories. Finally, we discussed several stories related to scheduling where we discussed concepts such as how WIP could impact scheduling, why material availability is equally important, and how multiple streams affect shop floor scheduling.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 enterprise platforms, it's hard to meet the expectations from all fronts: performance, customization, developer experience, and functionality. Most platforms can perhaps check a couple of these boxes. Salesforce Commerce Cloud might be able to check a lot of them. That's probably the reason it's the leading platform for enterprises. It has deep industry-specific capabilities in both B2B and B2C space. For example, localized OEM-managed sites for dealers. Or, a HIPAA-compliant web store for hospitals and healthcare facilities. Some people may argue that headless should be able to solve the customer needs of most industries.But some of these features could be so deep that unless your data model supports it, it might be harder to build on vanilla platforms. So, where does Salesforce Commerce Cloud stand as of today in comparison to the headless and legacy platforms?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Salesforce Commerce Detailed Independent Review. We discussed their strengths and weaknesses and where they might fit in the eCommerce architecture for both B2B and B2C business models. Finally, we compared their B2B and B2C capabilities and the flexibility of each solution.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 textEpicor Eclipse has a more loyal community than crypto and Metaverse. But why is that? Based on the amount of technological innovation happening, you would guess that any school grad might be able to write ERP software. Right? So then why do technologies such as Mainframe, AS400, and Epicor Eclipse still exist? Is it really because change is hard. But change is hard for whom? For companies that are using it or companies that are selling it? Or is it because customers are unwilling to change because of their strong affinity with a technology or product? If so, why should we blame the companies trying to sell and support what customers are willing to buy? Epicor Eclipse has a loyal community for a reason. But what are those reasons?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to conduct an independent review of Epicor Eclipse's capabilities. We covered many grounds, including their strength in HVAC, plumbing, and trade contracting industries. Finally, we discussed why companies are so loyal to this solution despite it being a legacy solution.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 textAutomating a process is easy. But understanding which process is the right candidate for automation is more difficult than most people think. Also, not every process is the right candidate to be hosted inside an ERP. By the same token, not every process can be as ad-hoc as RPA. There is one category that is in between the enterprise-wide cemented processes of ERP and ad-hoc processes automated by RPA technologies. It’s called workflow automation. Workflow automation inherits approval and transaction elements of ERP and ad-hoc elements of RPA. And that’s perhaps why the workflow automation category is so hot. But which processes are the right candidate for workflow automation technologies?In today's episode, our guest, Ravi Vaidya, shares his insights into workflow technologies and where they fit in the enterprise architecture. He also compares several technologies such as iPaaS, BPM, P2P, and RPA, and why workflow automation deserves its own category. Finally, he compares several workflow technologies such as BoomiFlow, Microsoft Power Platform, and ServiceNow and how these technologies can help automate the ad-hoc processes that drive data and process issues in an organization.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 bill of materials becomes complex when you might have multiple layers of costing and sub-assemblies. But you need to be at a different level when you might have co-products and by-products involved as part of your manufacturing process. The co-products can help you optimize your production process and allocate costs appropriately. The by-products can help you measure the yield percentages accurately. But unless your SKUs and BOMs replicate the physical production processes, your costs and yield percentages may be all over the place. So what are the best practices for capturing by- and co-products appropriately as part of the production process?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss Co-products/By-products best practices. We discussed their definition and how the definition and their treatment might vary in different industries. Finally, we discussed these concepts from many different perspectives such as costing, scheduling, and in-process testing.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.