WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Sam Gupta
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May 5, 2022 • 1h 31min

WBSP310: Grow Your Business by Understanding NetSuite's Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion and Weekly Digital Transformation News Stories

Send us a textOne thing is the most consistent about ERP systems is that you will always find surprises. And that is even true for systems that may be well-liked or rated. Also, it doesn't matter how versatile a solution could be. Their design would make them a natural fit only for certain industries. If you make assumptions about any ERP systems, it's likely to fire back. You might think that systems as well adopted as NetSuite may not have limitations and might work for most industries. Well, that is not true. While it's great for certain industries, it struggles in other patches. So what are the core strengths of NetSuite?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to discuss major stories in the ERP and digital transformation space and an objective and independent review of NetSuite's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their strength in finance and global multi-entity capabilities. Finally, we reviewed their distribution and manufacturing capabilities and where they are not as strong, especially with their deeper manufacturing capabilities such as their bill of materials, costing, and 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.
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May 4, 2022 • 58min

WBSP309: Grow Your Business by Learning Budgeting Business Processes Best Practices, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts

Send us a textThere are various ways of creating a financial budget. In fact, the key to budgetary planning is not to spend time getting 99% accuracy with your budget. It's the monitoring of the budget that matters more. So that you can take appropriate actions based on how far off you are from your budget. Budget planning is even more critical for industries with large amounts of inventory, heavy capital equipment, and human resources-driven industries. The budget planning could even vary across industries. So what are the features you need in a tool designed for budgeting?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss budgeting business processes best practices. We covered many grounds, including the impact of supply chain and cash flow on budget and different methods of budgeting. Finally, we covered the difference between forecast vs. budget, strategic vs. regular budget, and incumbrance business processes.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.
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May 3, 2022 • 1h 1min

WBSP308: Grow Your Business by Learning Social Commerce Strategy, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts

Send us a textSocial media offers one of the biggest opportunities for eCommerce companies. The opportunity could include starting from influencer marketing to targeting ads on social media. Yet not many companies truly understand how to take advantage of social media. The company that really understand the nuances of each platform are crushing with their numbers, whether you talk about LinkedIn Influencers or TikTok. Also, the companies such as Twitter have been trying to figure out how they might be able to create an Amazon-like experience where the users might start searching for products on Twitter as opposed to searching on Google. But how to start on the social media strategy, and how to succeed with it?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss social commerce strategy and how eCommerce companies can take advantage of it. We also discussed several other social commerce-related topics such as trolls, reputation management, and the importance of educational content. Finally, we discussed the nuances of each social media platform and how to align your strategy with the social media platform. 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.
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May 2, 2022 • 47min

WBSP307: Grow Your Business by Learning Supply Chain Nuances From the Construction Industry w/ Bahadir Erdem

Send us a textEach industry has its own unique supply chain challenges, irrespective of whether you are in the manufacturing industry or construction. In the case of construction, you have a long sales cycle and demanding projects where you need to make sure you have suppliers lined up as soon as the project closes. The supply chain disruptions might result in delays with your projects, lost relationships with other business partners, and cash flow issues.In today's episode, our guest, Bahadir Erdem, who shares his insights into the supply chain issues and processes for construction, building material, and roofing industries. He also provides his insights into how the supply chain processes differ and unique forecasting challenges for these industries. Finally, he discusses several other supply chain concepts such as stockouts, SKU rationalization, and recent supply chain challenges.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.
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Apr 29, 2022 • 1h 27min

WBSP306: Grow Your Business by Understanding SAP S/4 HANA's Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion and Weekly Digital Transformation News Stories

Send us a textThe best-run companies use SAP S/4 HANA. The platform really lives to its name with its depth in transactions, deep workflow and auditing capabilities, and most robust planning and forecasting capabilities. But, in general, it is also the most hated vendor and platform. But why is that? It's primarily because of the misunderstanding of the purpose of the SAP S/4 HANA platform. It is also the most hated by companies that want to use ERP as the glorified database and have minimal experience with planning and control on the organization. But you can go so far as a company until you master your inventory and cash. This is especially true for public companies with deeper financial control and reporting needs. And the CFOs have a tough job if they are responsible for controlling the financials of more than ten countries. That's probably the reason why CFOs love SAP.In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to discuss major stories in the ERP and digital transformation space and an objective and independent review of SAP S/4 HANA's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including its history, evolution, the strength of the HANA platform, product architecture, and inbuilt workflow for Sarbanes-Oxley's needs. Finally, we reviewed the greater financial traceability built as part of the product, the approach for two-tier, and the current product roadmap.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.
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Apr 28, 2022 • 1h 1min

WBSP305: Grow Your Business by Learning How To Build Consensus Among Teams, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts

Send us a textERP vendors and resellers race in a competition that no one will ever win. It's the TIME required to implement ERP software. Most vendors will oversell how quick and easy their software package is, some even claiming to implement as fast as a month. These claims are nothing but overstated. The most challenging part of an ERP implementation is to make critical business decisions and build consensus. Some executives might change their entire business model instantly without thinking through the consequences. And while others might take forever to decide the base currency and the decimal places they should use for reporting. Building consensus for ERP projects is a true test of leadership skills. It requires skills and experience. The savvy leaders have figured out how to manage at the thirty thousand foot level without losing touch from the ground. But what do these leaders do differently to build consensus? And not concede to an organization's power struggle and political elements?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss how to build consensus among teams. We covered many grounds, including the challenges entrepreneurs face with their leadership skills during ERP implementations, why sales skills are most crucial for team members to build consensus, and why team building during acquisitions is even harder. Finally, we covered several stories related to building consensus among teams.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.
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Apr 27, 2022 • 1h 1min

WBSP304: Grow Your Business by Learning Private Label Dropshipping, a Live Interview w/ a Panel of Experts

Send us a textWhat do you buy as a consumer? Do you think you buy a product, brand, marketing hype, trust, confidence, or perception of being better, superior, healthy, wealthy, or smart? Well, one thing any marketer will tell you is that product is the least important of all, especially in the world of eCommerce, where you can't touch and feel the product before buying. This is the very reason why private label drop shipping exists. It's the exact product you could purchase anywhere else, but you will buy the private labeled product at a much higher price. But is that equally applicable in the B2B setting where the buyer is slightly more educated, informed, experienced, and sophisticated? Also, what are the nuances of the private label strategies? How do you incorporate that as part of your business model?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss private label dropshipping. We also discussed the differences between the private label and regular dropshipping and the differences in the B2B vs. B2C dropshipping. Finally, we discussed the strategies to accommodate dropshipping in the business model for eCommerce businesses and the MoQ and margin requirements for the business model. 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.
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Apr 26, 2022 • 45min

WBSP303: Grow Your Business by Learning Operations Control Tower Strategies Through Industrial DataOps w/ Slimane Allab

Send us a textMost manufacturing companies are barely automated at the plant level. The premise of industry4.0 and specifically industry data ops is high. But it requires companies to have a centralized command and control, just like a supply chain control tower. The operational control tower will receive data from the plants and uncover operational efficiency synergies, whether you talk about energy consumption, predictive maintenance anomaly detection, or process bottlenecks. But what is the process of building operational control towers, and which technologies in the market can help with that?In today's episode, our guest, Slimane Allab, who shares his insights into industrial data ops and why companies need an operational control tower to gain insights into centralized process efficiencies. He also provides his insights into how operational control towers are likely to be similar as supply chain control towers as companies gain maturity with their industry4.0 operations. Finally, he discusses the differences between analytical and workflow technologies and compares several similar technologies in the market from the industrial data ops category.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.
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Apr 25, 2022 • 50min

WBSP302: Grow Your Business by Learning Integrated Supply Chain Strategies w/ Phil Kramer

Send us a textSupply chain is hard to define as it's very cross-functional in nature. It starts with receiving goods from vendors at your dock. And then it finishes with how you ship your shipments to your carrier. While these two touchpoints may be completely isolated, looking at your supply chain in an integrated fashion could provide significant cost savings and streamline your processes. But it's easier said than done as multiple departments are involved in the process. And it's very hard to execute on the integrated supply chain strategies unlesss you have executive alignment from the top.In today's episode, our guest, Phil Kramer, shares his insights into integrated supply chain planning and why companies need to have an integrated strategy for their supply chain. He also describes key TMS processes such as bidding for the freight rates and why companies need to have a process for auditing their freight invoices. Finally, he discusses several stories where the integrated supply chain strategies such as utilizing pre-paid freight with vendors or analyzing all your spend across parcel vs. LTL resulted in significant cost savings for his clients.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.
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Apr 22, 2022 • 1h 27min

WBSP301: Grow Your Business by Understanding Microsoft Dynamics GP's Capabilities, an Objective Panel Discussion and Weekly Digital Transformation News Stories

Send us a textThe announcement about the end of life of an ERP system has fired back every single ERP vendor. Whether we talk about Oracle announcement for JD Edwards, SAP announcement of ECC, or Microsoft announcement of GP, the vendors that have a lot of solutions in their customer base without very strong communities can typically sunset their products very easily without much noise. But that is not possible when you are a vendor such as Microsoft. And you have one of the most adopted ERP solutions with over 40K installations. So MS may keep extending its deadline for EOL for GP. But how long? Would it have a clear direction for the cloud just like other products in the MS portfolio like Dynamics BC and F&O?Does it make sense to buy GP in 2022? Does it make sense to stay on GP and wait until Microsoft officially sunsets it? If so, what would be your alternatives? But which businesses would be the right fit for Microsoft Dynamics GP?In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live discussion on LinkedIn to discuss major stories in the ERP and digital transformation space and an objective and independent review of Microsoft Dynamics GP's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including its history, technology evolution, product roadmap, strengths, and weaknesses. Finally, we reviewed which industries and market segments are using Microsoft GP as of today and which segments are going to be the best fit.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.

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