WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textA successful e-commerce strategy requires you to be able to dropship your products. This is especially true for newer brands that might not have access to the capital necessary to set up the distribution and logistics network required to meet customer expectations. Even the existing brands need to have it as part of their strategy for newer products and territories before setting up an expensive distribution network for untested ideas. But finding products for dropshipping is not easy as the dropshipping business model requires you to find the products with appropriate margins. It also requires you to find quality suppliers who are willing to support your order types, MOQs, and customer experience expectations. Finally, it requires you to research the competition and channels to ensure that you are able to compete with bigger brands that might have the economy of scale with their existing fulfillment network. So how do you decide which are the right products for dropshipping? Do you analyze each channel and SKUs and determine if dropshipping might make sense? Do you also need to consider the product weight and size to account for shipping complexities, cross-border challenges, and white-glove services that might need to be included as part of your product bundle? These are the questions you are going to have if you are exploring dropshipping as part of your business strategy.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 find products for dropshipping. We discussed the criteria for finding the right SKUs for dropshipping and the differences between B2B and B2C dropshipping. Finally, we covered strategies of how to conduct price and supplier research to set up the dropshipping network.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 oil and gas industry is unique with its process complexity and its ad-hoc nature. Also, it's even harder for global companies when you might need to comply with global regulations in each country. If you were to implement an ERP for a large, global oil and gas company, you not only have to figure out which countries would be the right candidate to avoid implementation failures as well as cost overruns, but you also need to figure out how to standardize ever-changing processes.In today's episode, our guest, Sue Shaw, shares her insights into how to succeed with large global rollouts for the oil and gas industry. She also discusses concepts such as how to develop criteria for prioritizing the countries and how to plan for costs for projects that might be as long as 10-years. Finally, she shared concepts such as joint venture billing, costing challenges across subsidiaries for the oil and gas industry, transportation management challenges, and depreciation rules.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 most businesses think that a website is important for their businesses, they very rarely understand the user experience issues that can affect the conversion rate. The issues run way deeper than we realize. And these issues might be as insignificant as color or messaging that can have a huge impact on consumer psychology. Unless you have a deep understanding of these issues and the toolset to provide you with the data that you need to discover these issues, you might not know why your site traffic doesn't convert and what objections your customers may have in doing business with you.In today's episode, our guest, Ross Davies, shares his insights on the steps for objection hunting and how that can help with discovering user experience issues on a website. He also discusses how factors as insignificant as the color or size of a button can drive the conversion rate. Finally, he discussed several stories where he was able to fix conversion issues through their approach of objection hunting and the tools and technologies that can help with these issues.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 textThere are two ways to grow an ERP company. Either you build the product from scratch or acquire several products to gain market share and then figure out your product strategy. Both approaches have pros and cons and implications for customers. But there comes the point in the company's lifecycle when you need to consolidate your product portfolio. Or you can't sustain it. Also, no one commercializes the idea of micro-verticals as much as Infor. But are they really deep in these micro-verticals? Or is it just marketing hype? How is their micro-vertical functionality compared to other deeper solutions such as IFS, Plex, IQMS, and QAD? Also, there are also two approaches to building micro-vertical functionality. Either you can keep the underlying product different or the same and utilize the industry packs on top of the core product. But Infor seems to be claiming that it has purpose-built ERP for each micro-verticals. How true is that? Is that true for both large companies as well as SMBs?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 Infor's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their positioning in specific micro-verticals and their deeper capabilities than other manufacturing ERP software. Finally, we discussed their product portfolio and their future roadmap, history, current cloud capabilities, and their evolution as a company.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 textMarketing teams typically drive the overall market penetration strategies. They could also drive your strategic priorities in key market segments and transform the customer experience. Also, while they use a lot of tools and technologies to be efficient with their day jobs, they very rarely are part of the operational core. So what are the systems that marketers need in their roles? And do they need to interface with the enterprise systems such as ERP? How do you accommodate the needs of marketers in the enterprise architecture?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss information architecture for the marketing department. We covered many grounds, including the systems for each marketing role and their process boundaries. Finally, we discussed new technologies and industry-specific architecture, including the challenges associated with B2B and B2C business models.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 textTraditional media has been a master of offering relevant content based on users' locations. And while digital media has far more traceability, brands typically struggle to deliver location-based content to their visitors. Then you have location-centric businesses that only target specific neighborhoods and cities. You might have products relevant to the specific locations as other locations might not care for that. Location-based marketing requires a comprehensive review of your marketing strategy, including product, pricing, positioning, and targeting. So how do you create effective geo-based targeting strategies?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss geo-based targeting strategies for e-commerce. We discussed the nuances of geo-based targeting and planning and how that can provide a personalized experience and improve conversion rate. Finally, we covered the differences between B2B and B2C geo-based targeting strategies along with various tools, technologies, and best practices that help can help you succeed with geo-based targeting.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 seasonal CPG business, you may have grown due to word of mouth to this point in growth, primarily through B2C channels. While B2C has its nuances for planning and procurement due to the unpredictable consumer demand, the drivers and consequences are not as severe as B2B once you have landed a few large enterprise customers. Also, if you want to have fast growth, you will need to sell through marketplaces and large retailers. While onboarding them could provide sustained growth of 2-3x without much marketing efforts, meeting their delivery and fulfillment expectations is hard. And you need much superior control of both the first and last mile to serve these key customers and avoid losing after you have landed them.In today's episode, our guest, Colby Young, shares his insights on the nuances of PO lifecycle and why it is critical for seasonal businesses such as cosmetics. He also discusses the role of the first and last mile and why the first-mile planning and collaboration are critical as the last mile to ensure timely delivery of goods to key customers, avoid inventory stockouts and missed opportunities due to disconnected processes. Finally, he discussed the planning and supply chain challenges associated with onboarding enterprise customers and how to avoid disruptions caused by sudden growth spikes.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 textTraditionally manufacturers didn't have to worry about software development or release processes as the only software they utilized for their business processes was packaged software. But with Industry 4.0, manufacturers are utilizing more and more software in their OT environment. This requires their software lifecycle to be controlled. And it needs to be compliant with any changes in the hardware. But how? Well, that's where DevOps can help. Utilizing DevOps practices can reduce disruptions and improve operational efficiency.In today's episode, our guest, Adam Gluck, shares his insights on the importance of structured software development and release processes and the role of DevOps for manufacturing OT environments. He also discusses the role of custom development and where it makes sense for Industry 4.0 initiatives. Finally, he discusses how DevOps processes differ in the OT environment from IT and why IT DevOps tools such as Git would not suffice the needs of the OT environment.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 think of ERP as a manufacturing or distribution solution. And if you are not a manufacturing company, they feel that ERP systems add very little value to operations and become limited to just finance. While that might be true for some companies such as professional services firms or marketing agencies, companies that are very heavy in assets and field service such as MRO, telecom equipment operators, utilities, and energy companies have different needs. These needs require a tightly integrated ERP system that can handle business processes such as call-to-collect, rentals, and service management. These companies have very different order management needs. For example, each line item could be delivered completely, while the next line item may not even kick-off fulfillment until the first one is delivered. IFS has a unique position in the market for these industries that other solutions can't match. It also has one of the best user experiences in the cloud comparable to Plex and Acumatica.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 IFS' capabilities. We covered several grounds, including their positioning in specific micro-verticals and their deeper capabilities than other manufacturing ERP software. Finally, we discussed their product design, history, current cloud capabilities, and the challenges of working directly with the OEM.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 textSales teams are typically known to be completely disconnected from the organization. But if you have a smart sales team, they understand the importance of technology and what it can do to the sales process. The sales technologies have also come a long way. There are so many tools out there that can help with each step of the process. But what are the systems that need to be part of the enterprise architecture to help with each sales role inside the organization?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss information architecture for the sales department. We covered many grounds, including the systems for each sales role and their process boundaries. Finally, we discussed new technologies and industry-specific architecture, including the challenges associated with B2B and B2C and how the processes might differ due to nuances of the marketplaces, customer portals, configurators, and dealer onboarding 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.