WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textERP industry is divided mainly into two flavors. One is primarily focused on product-centric industries such as manufacturing, distribution, and retail. The other focuses on service-centric industries such as not-for-profit, architecture and engineering firms, construction, public sector, education, etc. But if you are in the construction or govt contracting space, your needs are likely to be unique. First, you have the compliance needs for unions with their requirements for submissions, which will require substantial reporting functionality for it to work. Then you have in-process compliance requirements, including DCAA, etc. The vanilla ERP, such as SAP, Sage, Acumatica, etc., may require several add-ons to support this critical piece of functionality. Even the ERP designed for professional services such as Workday, Unit4, or FinancialForce may struggle to support the critical functionality needed for these verticals. So what are your options if you are in this space?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 Deltek's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their positioning in specific micro-verticals, product psychology, and corporate strategy. Finally, we covered several micro-vertical stories and why they chose to implement Deltek over other 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 textRecord-to-report business processes typically take the back seat with ERP implementation projects as O2C, and P2P get the most limelight due to the customer-facing nature of these processes. Also, the decision made to streamline O2C and P2P processes and improve the cycle time for these transactions will have implications on the record-to-report processes. As you grow, your finance department is likely to grow as well. And if you can not streamline, your SG&A will likely to grow faster than your revenue. So what do you need to do to streamline your record-to-report 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 record-to-report business processes and best practices. We covered many grounds, including the scope and branches that extend from record-to-report processes, the roles, and the organizational structure of the finance department. Finally, we discussed the communication and collaboration of different systems as part of the architecture for the finance department and the best practices for process design across these 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.

Send us a textWhile you might feel how critical the testing could be in a software project? Well, that's the foundation of success whether the software will work or be usable in production. Also, there are differences in how eCommerce implementation projects need to be tested vs. the eCommerce development. In the case of the implementation projects, you might not have the users that may have a deep software development background and might not understand the importance of testing or how to write good test cases to have enough coverage for all the business scenarios that they plan to execute when they go live. Also, with the implementation projects, the major component is also users' training as testing is the first step to learn deeply about the software and have a deeper understanding of their own journeys. So how to create a good testing framework and test cases to be successful with eCommerce implementation projects?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 create good test cases for E-Commerce implementation projects. We discussed the difference between the testing strategies for eCommerce implementation projects vs web or software development projects, including differences in the skillset, resources, budget, etc. Finally, we covered the strategies for coaching and training business users in how to think and write test cases like a professional software tester.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 textEveryone has their preferences of how they shop and search. This makes the job of eCommerce companies harder as they can only do so much to understand customer preferences and align them with their product catalog. But if you streamlined your guided navigation and personalization, it could also be a competitive advantage for companies. The more personalized experience you could provide to your customers, the higher their affinity with your brand.In today's episode, our guest, Ben Rudnick, shares his insights into how companies can increase their revenue by improving the findability and searchability of their product lines. He also discusses concepts such as exponential design and reindexing. Finally, he describes the process of how artificial intelligence can be used to assist with guided navigation and how that can improve the personalization for your eCommerce 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 textScaling eCommerce operations for a global business is hard. You have multiple challenges, such as different product mixes for different markets. You might also have completely different channels and customer journeys for each channel. But if you are a medical device business, the complexity of your operations will be at a different level. You have different regulations in each market and how you price and commercialize your products, with consumers still expecting an Amazon-like experience.In today's episode, our guest, Colin Cronin, shares his insights into the evolution of B2B digital eCommerce capabilities for a global medical device manufacturer. He also shares his insights into how to find appropriate channels and markets for the eCommerce initiatives. Finally, he shares his insights into their current architecture, single source of truth, and 24X7 strategies.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 many of you might think that SAP may have lost its momentum because of the newer cloud players, it is still the undisputed market leader and has the largest market share among all ERP companies. SAP's primary market has always been among large, global enterprises primarily because of its strength as the global financial solution. SAP also had one of the deepest enterprise-grade industry functionality in the on-prem model, which has been harder to replicate in the cloud world. This is probably the reason the companies that have an edge in the cloud such as Oracle, Microsoft, or Infor have been winning over SAP. But that has changed in the recent quarters with the new leadership focusing on the Industry cloud and utilizing partner ecosystem to complement the industry functionality, which will take forever for SAP to build. But is this model sustainable? Also, would customers choose slightly more complete solutions such as Oracle or Microsoft than relying on risky partner-owned code and add-ons? Or would they use SAP as the financial solution while using Infor, Epicor, or Plex in the two-tier model as they had always done?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 capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their positioning in specific micro-verticals and their deeper capabilities than other ERP software. Finally, we discussed their unique value proposition, product psychology, industry cloud, rise with SAP, and their integration and growth 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.

Send us a textOrder-to-cash (O2C) and Procure-to-pay (P2P) processes do the most heavy-lifting in a company operationally. While O2C gets the most attention due to its customer-facing nature, if you don't have your P2P processes figured out, there will be significant implications to your planning cycle and, as a result, on O2C processes. There has also been a significant advancement in the P2P processes, including specialized tools for Source-to-pay (S2P) processes and streamlining of invoice processing, etc., through AI tools and P-card processes. The procurement teams are also significantly impacted by the recent supply chain disruptions. And companies need to rethink how their supply chain and procurement function. So what are the best practices for streamlining the P2P process, having appropriate KPIs at each step in the cycle, and having technology architecture that will serve the needs of the procurement department?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss procure-to-pay business processes and best practices. We covered many grounds, including the scope and branches that extend from procure-to-pay processes, the roles, and the organizational structure of the procurement department. Finally, we discussed the difference between P2P, S2P, and S2C processes and the communication and collaboration of different systems part of the architecture for the procurement department, and the best practices for process design across these 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.

Send us a textA lot of you might feel that email is dead. That's not true at all, especially if you are talking about consumer-centric businesses for which engagement is key to staying on top of their mind, which may not be possible through other methods because they could be cost-prohibitive. It could also be true with some B2B businesses where cross-sell, and up-sell opportunities might exist. Also, you might not like the automation through bots because of impersonal interaction. But a bot is far better than no chat option at all. It could be very handy to enable a 24X7 customer service chat option for businesses where hiring costs of customer service agents might not be justifiable. So what are the strategies that matter when it comes to email and mailbots?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 win more loyal customers with happy email and mailbot. We discussed the scenarios where email marketing will be fit vs. where it might not be as fit and how it can help with loyalty. Finally, we covered the differences between mailbots and chatbots, and if they have a place, don't have a place, and where do they have a place?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 Southeast Asian market has been on an eCommerce boom due to the availability of technology and penetration of social media and the internet to remote places. The COVID pandemic has only fueled this boom. If you are thinking of capitalizing on this market opportunity, you need to understand how the market works and how you can set up your logistics and warehouse network to make sure you are able to compete with local vendors.In today's episode, our guest, Kevin Lee, shares his insights into cross-border ecommerce practices and challenges for the South East Asia market. He also shares his insights into how the South East Asian market is different from the North American market and how to penetrate the South East Asian market. Finally, he shares different B2C and B2B categories that might be relevant for the market and how to handle strategies such as locations for warehouses, logistics networks, international contracts, and reverse logistics.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 a complex distribution business with manufacturing as part of your business model, your business processes are likely to be more complex than most traditional distribution and manufacturing businesses. It's even harder if you plan to penetrate digital channels along with selling through distributors. You have issues such as eCommerce not talking to your ERP. Then Issues such as consistent pricing need to be communicated across channels. Finally, you might have channel conflict issues that may not be in your control.In today's episode, our guest, Billy Hanes, shares his insights into the B2B eCommerce journey for a construction distribution business. He also shares his insights into different ways of integrating ERP and eCommerce and how to make a decision when overlapping functionality may exist in these systems. Finally, he shares the best practices of managing pricing across channels and how to integrate with Amazon channels in the hybrid scenarios where you might be selling through distributors as well as DTC.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.