WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textTraditionally, there were a limited number of channels that a company had to manage. But as the lines keep blurring in the business models, businesses will need to manage more channels. The marketplaces and their ever-evolving business model will fuel the growth of channels even further. These marketplaces also pose some of the newer challenges that didn't exist in the traditional channels, such as the dynamic changes in pricing based on market conditions and consumer behaviors. That makes managing channels even harder as the original assumptions about pricing and discount are likely to change. But what can companies do to have the strategies without any channel conflict?In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss overcoming channel conflict. We covered many grounds in this episode, including why channel conflict matters and the benefits of managing channel conflict effectively. Finally, we discussed the types of channel conflict and strategies for preventing channel conflict.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 needs of the production floor have always been the most critical for Manufacturing, with scheduling being the most challenging function. The finite scheduling method has been the most accurate and most commonly used so far. It claimed to improve the on-time delivery by scheduling based on the due date and only working on jobs when they were due. But finite scheduling never worked as it didn't accommodate real-life scenarios such as machines going down or some resources not reporting when you were expecting them. Protected flow manufacturing is the new method of scheduling that considers the real-time signals from the production floor and determines the priority of each job without missing the on-time delivery or needing to expedite at the last minute.In today's episode, our guest, Mark Lilly, shares his journey of being involved with several manufacturing ERP software systems and scheduling deficiencies in the Visual manufacturing ERP software. He also discusses how protected flow manufacturing solves the problems with finite scheduling available through the most commonly used manufacturing ERP software such as Visual, Syteline, or Epicor. Finally, he shares the integration and data requirements for the PFM module and how the scheduling needs vary across industries, including some of them having complex scheduling needs such as sequencing.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 textPeople often talk about the importance of diversification, especially for cash-intensive businesses such as manufacturing. But what exactly is diversification, and how to plan for it? Is it about having the right balance of customers? Is it about rejecting opportunities even if you might have millions of dollars knocking on your doors? Well, diversification requires the complete change of thinking and redesign of your business model. To be completely diversified, you can't just be revenue-focused. You need to think about possibilities such as, hey, what if your major customer goes bankrupt or gets acquired? Or they end up canceling orders due to a financial or marketing risk at their end.In today's episode, our guest, Aneesa Muthana, shares her journey of transforming her shop after losing all of her key customers because of the consolidation in her customers' industries. She also discusses why diversification is important for manufacturing businesses and how to diversify the business in a methodical manner rather than jumping on to every opportunity that comes your way. Finally, she shares why manufacturers require a complete transformation of their shop and not just one aspect, including understanding modern marketing methods, cutting edge manufacturing practices, and cost-saving strategies to stay afloat in business.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 textEvery company manages thousands of contracts. These contracts could belong to procurement, sales, or HR. But in most cases, the contracts management function is part of the procurement team because of the sheer volume of contracts issued and negotiated. If you don't want to spend millions of dollars in back and forth negotiating with lawyers, then you would need a contract playbook that can help define the boilerplate for your contract, along with a system to track contract expiry, legal obligations, and commitments.In today's episode, we have our guest, Karthik Rama, who shares his insights into contract management processes' nuances and best practices. He also discusses how contract processes differ across departments, categories, industries and how a contract playbook can help save with admin efforts. Finally, he discusses different toolsets and frameworks available to streamline contract management processes and where ERP and P2P systems might help.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 textERP conversations can't finish without the mention of Sage. Like SAP, Sage has always been strong in the European market as it's a European company. They have also been very well penetrated in the accounting and CPA community due to their distribution and business model. Sage has many different products in its portfolio, with construction and process manufacturing industries being its strength. While there have been many debates about the 3rd spot in the ERP market among Microsoft, Infor, and Sage, after SAP and Oracle, Sage maintains a clear lead in the SMB segment even above SAP and Oracle.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 Sage capabilities. We covered several grounds, including the overview of different product offerings from Sage and their positioning in the market. Finally, we discussed the differences between cloud-migrated and cloud-native products and which Sage products are cloud-native and which ones are not.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 main challenge with ERP is that it cannot address 100% of your organization's needs, no matter how good it is. There will always be company-specific needs such as reporting or KPIs. There are also likely to be several integrations that you might require, such as integrating your inventory forecasting, demand planning system, or e-commerce. These integrations and reporting requirements will drive changes to your core ERP functionality, such as exposing additional data fields through interfaces or screens. While customizations provide great flexibility to tailor the experience to your needs, over-customizing could fire back due to increased technical debt and maintenance.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss the customization of ERP systems and the resulting nightmares because of it. We covered many grounds in this episode, including the difference between configuration, customization, and integration. We also discussed when customization makes sense and when it could be overkill and why customizing the ERP system is so difficult.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 e-commerce companies remain busy chasing new customers and visitors to the site. And they ignore the average order value, also known as deal size in the traditional world. There are several ways to increase your average order value, such as trying different pricing experiments, bundling, up-sell, and cross-sell. But you would not know what's going to work unless you design suitable experiments and measure them accurately. In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss measuring and increasing average order value. We covered many grounds in this episode, including why average value matters for e-commerce companies and the specific strategies to increase it. Finally, we discussed how to A/B test various strategies and how it can help improve the average order value.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 textIt's tough to keep up with the trends and technologies in the e-commerce ecosystem. Social media marketing and channels have grown significantly, especially due to COVID. As a result, it's becoming harder and harder to manage the marketing budget and explore the right channels for your market segment and business model. Managing relationships and promoting your offerings through nano influencers is one such trend that's been rising in popularity lately. But it almost seems like a lottery ticket as some brands have been massively successful through these strategies, while others feel it's a waste of time and money.In today's episode, we have our guest, Paul Benigeri, who shares his insights into the nuances of nano influencer marketing. He also discusses the channels and market segments appropriate for nano marketing and describes the process and best practices. Finally, he shares his experiences of recruiting and managing relationships with nano influencers and several stories of working with 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 textThe journey of serving the DoD market could feel frightening. While it might provide stability to your fluctuating revenue cycles, it also comes with a significant overhead with the process upkeep. But as part of DoD compliance, you get several benefits, such as protecting your IP as DoD is trying to protect your proprietary methods or patents. With these controls in place, professional investors will see your business as more sustainable if you decide to sell it. Finally, you could use these measures in your sales messaging to pass along some of these costs to your customers to rest assured that they are working with a financially stable vendor.In today's episode, we have our guest, Dale Parmenteri, who shares his insights into CMMC preparedness and assessment nuances. He also provides practical advice to business owners about the real value of penetrating the DoD market and if the overhead is worth the hassle. Finally, he discusses several other concepts, such as the importance of financial and cybersecurity control, the risk of running end-of-life applications and software, and the value of financial audits to increase the value of your business.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 textWith innovations in technologies, we have put software on every device and endpoint too soon, which has increased the attack surface significantly. Unfortunately, this has also been done without truly understanding the ramifications of these advancements. The hackers or state-sponsored agencies are advancing their capabilities with the same speed, if not more, with these developments. And businesses need to keep up with them, or their intellectual properties could be at risk. The SMB businesses, in particular, are at a higher risk as they can't afford to spend millions of dollars on Cybersecurity.In today's episode, we have our guest, Bill Palifka, who shares his insights into low-hanging fruits for SMB businesses without breaking their bank. He also shares insights into concepts such as the cybersecurity needs for IIOT vs OT devices, awareness of the potential known and unknown access points on the network, and the attack surface for hackers. Finally, he shares his insights into why tracking the end-of-life of software is crucial for avoiding any attacks and what to do if you get hit by ransomware.  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.