WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textWhile most ERP systems might feel as if they overlap entirely, there is a clear distinction between desktop apps, single-tenant, multi-tenant, and enterprise solutions. You might also need to pay attention to how many levels of BOMs are supported in the solution to ensure that you find an appropriate solution for your company. For example, most solutions that support industries such as food and beverage and automotive parts may not be suitable for complex manufacturing such as Electric Vehicles or Aerospace due to the lack of depth of their BOMs. Finally, make-to-stock planning is typically very different from make-to-order and engineering-to-order. One such solution is SYSPRO, which used to be a desktop app due to the underlying database. It has come a long way with its SQL server migration and advancement in the underlying technology platform. It may also be one of the best solutions for smaller Food and Beverage manufacturers and distributors.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 SYSPRO's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their marketing claims, especially about their transparency to their customers and their positioning in the appropriate market verticals. Finally, we discussed how SYSPRO could be a great solution for distribution and light manufacturing companies, but not so much for complex manufacturing as it's designed to be a single tenant and serve in ala-carte mode.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 textRetaining customers is 10x easier than acquiring them. But you will not be able to create the sticky effect with your customers unless you have a solid strategy behind it. Retention requires a loyalty model that makes your customers feel that they are getting preferential treatment for their loyalty. It also requires you to communicate the value of preferential treatment. Unless you communicate, how would they know that you are doing something for them? Without communication, your retention strategies may result in devaluing your products without any tangible advantage. Retention also requires you to have better experience and barriers that help them stick to your brand. Every brand has a different retention strategy. But what are the best practices when it comes to retaining your customers?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss customer retention strategies for e-commerce. We covered many grounds in this episode, including the steps and processes for customer retention and why tracking invisible churn is important. Finally, we also discussed how to measure customer retention and why it is important to right-size the customer for product purchase alignment.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 the 3PL and companies involved with freight movement may have much stronger needs for logistics and transportation processes, manufacturers and distributors can't be efficient if they treat logistics as their stepchild. In fact, more and more companies are managing their in-house fleets to meet the consumer expectations of faster delivery and issues such as driver shortages. The inhouse fleets are also required if you have regulated business or special requirements to ship your goods, such as Frozen food or if 3PLs might be cost-prohibitive for your business model. Even if you rely entirely on LTL and FTL carriers, you still have to manage the scheduling, timely loading or unloading, and coordination with your 3PL carriers if you want to avoid overages. So what are the needs and best practices to cost-effectively manage the logistics needs for a manufacturer or distributor? And what system and integrations would they require to manage them?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss logistics information architecture. We covered many grounds, including stories related to the different systems that logistics function needs and the role of POD and rate shopping systems in the architecture. Finally, we discussed why manufacturing and distribution companies need to think before bringing capabilities such as last-mile delivery in-house and how the supply chain companies have a very different business model than the traditional manufacturers and distributors.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 textGetting in front of more customers is typically the response of most manufacturers that might have sales performance issues or ambition to grow their sales. But you need a formalized sales process and a deep understanding of why you might be losing your current deals or how to find the next cohort of customers that might be similar to the ones you currently might have to be successful. Also, unless you have a well-adopted CRM for your sales team, it's hard to formalize the sales process and get the insights that will be meaningful for your sales leadership to create strategies that will help them get the desired results.In today's episode, our guest, Josh Curcio, shares his insights on CRM onboarding best practices for manufacturers in the metal industry. He also discusses why most manufacturers don't have visibility into their sales performance problems unless they have a formalized sales process and collect data that is meaningful to create a feedback loop for the sales process. Finally, he discusses the specific CRM process and data issues for the metal industry.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 more regulated a business, the harder the requirements for regulatory compliance. Pharma distribution might feel like a straightforward business, but it has several requirements related to lot and serial number tracking that only exist in this industry. They also have unique channels and how their sales and purchase orders need to be processed in order to be compliant with the regulatory bodies. Utilizing a vanilla ERP for a pharma business may be a harder lift due to the unique process development requirements on top of a vanilla ERP, which might be more expensive than buying an ERP designed for the pharma distribution industry.In today's episode, our guest, Darren Myher, shares his insights on the unique nuances of the pharma distribution business. He also discusses why vanilla ERP would fall short when it comes to the needs of pharma distributors as they have specific tracking requirements such as having a lot and serial numbers both on the product packaging. Finally, he discusses the data elements and information that need to be exchanged across the Supply Chain to comply with regulatory bodies.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 manufacturers started their businesses as they were good at making parts. They grew primarily because of word of mouth with very little investment in marketing and automation. They might be sitting on a pile of inventory and legacy machines due to their lack of understanding of how to invest in modern technologies and processes. They might also lose on the opportunities if they might not be able to meet the consumer demand due to the limitations in their capabilities. But why are manufacturers so afraid of innovation? Is the fear real or is it primarily because of their unwillingness to move out of their comfort zone?In today's episode, our guest, Tony Gunn, shares his insights on what manufacturers need to do to move out of their comfort zone. He also discusses how the iterative process to replace legacy machines with the new CNC machines can result in tapping into newer designs for consumer-centric industries. Finally, he discusses the need for innovation even for companies that might not be in the consumer-centric industries.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 textAmong most software, #ERP systems have always traditionally been the most hated. Each new ERP system that comes to the market seems to claim how they can either expedite the implementation time, increase the adoption, or change the ERP industry. Also, most new systems target smaller niches such as job shops. But the deeper your ERP system is in a specific niche, the less friendly and agile it will be as your business model expands. Specifically, the smaller job shops have a hard job meeting regulatory requirements imposed on them if they sell to verticals such as Aerospace or Medical. In general, they need IT capabilities more than ever before. But most shop owners or their executive teams don't have formal IT, finance, or procurement leadership to understand how to take advantage of an ERP system. Also, there is a fundamental misunderstanding in the machining community that you only have opportunities on the shop floor. While the shop floor plays a major role with most shops, you need to balance all your departments equally, whether finance, procurement, or operations with growth. One of the newer systems that seem to be making a significant buzz, especially in the machining community, is ProShop ERP, which has been positioned as game-changing. But is the system genuinely game-changing, or is it just marketing hype?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 ProShop's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their marketing claims, especially about their transparency to their customers and underlying technical deficiencies that may not be entirely clear to the customers. Finally, we discussed how these technical limitations might end up costing way more in data restructuring and process alignment with the mainstream ERP systems once ProShop customers outgrow QuickBooks or Sage 50, and how this uniqueness will be a huge red flag for inventors considering to include ProShop customers in their portfolio.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 warehouse is a critical component to drive operational efficiency, especially if your company moves a lot of goods. The warehouse is also the area, which is typically the start of the automation, and if you operate your warehouse without barcodes, it might take forever to deliver the goods. Also, with ASRS systems and robots, the sky is the limit with what you could do to treat the warehouse the way it deserves. But without the foundational information architecture and connected systems, it's very hard to gain the efficiencies you expect. Sometimes poor implementations or poorly connected systems cause implementation failure of large Robotics or ASRS systems. What do you need to make sure you have a solid foundation for your warehouse to automate your warehouse 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 warehouse information architecture. We covered many grounds, including stories related to the information architecture for warehouse processes and the considerations that businesses need to keep in mind while designing the architecture, including WiFi availability, interactions with 3PL, the need for robotics, and the number of sites. Finally, we discussed how newer technologies such as multi-shuttle systems, AMRs, and drones that can cycle count are driving the need for refined architecture.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 textRetaining customers is easier and cheaper than acquiring customers. But unless you continuously acquire, you might have growth challenges. You can't simply rely on word-of-mouth channels. Customer acquisition is especially critical for e-commerce. For your customer acquisition to work effectively, you need to master your ideal customer profile and the messaging that will work with them. You also need to master strategies that are going to be uniquely applicable to your customers and channels. Finally, you will need to figure out how to continuously measure and keep improving until you hit the desired KPIs for your funnel.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss customer acquisition strategies for e-commerce. We covered many grounds in this episode, including the process and steps of customer acquisition and stories related to customer acquisition strategies. Finally, we covered how to improve customer acquisition metrics by having deeper understanding of customer needs and refining the targeting 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 textAs you grow, you will be getting a lot of offers to get acquired. You might also be acquiring the companies, especially if you might not be able to meet your growth plans through organic channels. Whichever side of the M&A process you might happen to be on, you will only get value from the transaction if it is successfully executed. The most common reasons why acquisitions fail is because of the misunderstanding of the market and focusing solely on the financial models on the spreadsheets than really understanding what has really worked for the company that may be acquired.In today's episode, our guest, Kison Patel, shares his insights into the importance of people-focused M&A transactions and why buyers and sellers must understand the market deeply than simply relying on spreadsheet models. He also describes the success and failure rates of M&A transactions and what works for companies that have successfully executed the transaction. Finally, he shares why integration is the most important step of the M&A transactions.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.