WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

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.

Send us a textIf you are a startup, you will have several options in the QuickBooks portfolio to get your business up and running without requiring deep IT or accounting capabilities. As you grow, you might need to upgrade to several products in the QuickBooks portfolio and try add-ons such as FishBowl. However, while they have deeper capabilities functionally to support your small business, they are not designed to support the scale and transaction volume needed by a company with 8-digit revenue.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 QuickBooks' and FishBowl's capabilities. We covered several grounds, including the overview of different product offerings from QuickBooks and their positioning in the market. Finally, we covered a deep review of FishBowl capabilities along with recent reviews from public sites.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 textWhether you are pitching an initiative or getting pitched, turning down an idea is extremely uncomfortable for both parties. Although executives may be turning down the idea as they might not see how they might sell it to their boards, colleagues, or teams, they don't want to reject it as it could be a lifetime opportunity for their career. While it might feel counter-intuitive, the executives pay attention to every single idea in an organization. Still, most ideas get turned down as they could be perceived as overly zealous technical transformation, not aligned with organizational vision, or just a wish list that has very little business value.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 pitch digital initiatives to executives. We covered many grounds in this episode, including the interests of executives and what they like to hear in pitches. We also discussed how to identify the control points inside an organization and how to align pitches to various stakeholders' interests. 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 personalization strategies as the thank you note written on the post-purchase card sent to the consumer or a thank you video from the CEO. But personalization goes deeper when it comes to e-commerce. The personalized experience could include the products that are shown to the non-logged-in user based on their location or IP address. It could also include reminding users about a battery pack if the product box doesn't include a battery set.In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise to discuss personalization strategies. We covered many grounds in this episode, including why personalization matters and different features related to personalization. Finally, we discussed tools and technologies available to enable personalization and how intent data could help boost the personalized experience for your 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 an e-commerce brand is hard. And it's becoming harder with the expansion of marketplaces. While they offer significant opportunities and an easy way to acquire customers, each channel and the marketplace has fairly stringent requirements regarding their quality standards and what they like to see from the vendors. Also, the more you move your products and the longer your products have to travel, your supply chain costs increase significantly.In today's episode, we have our guest, Rick Watson, who shares how to plan for warehouse and logistics architecture for DTC brands selling through marketplaces. He also shares why SKU level planning and profitability analysis is critical for product and channel fit. Finally, he discusses his insights into concepts such as SFP and the difference between centralized distribution strategy vs. using retail locations as fulfillment warehouses for e-commerce channels.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 legacy warehouses were extremely rigid and imprecise. They had challenges in locating the precise location in the system. They also didn't map humans in the system. These restrictions limit WMS systems to accommodate real-world scenarios such as seasonality and dynamics recommendation of rearrangement of the warehouse based on demand. The modern breed of WMS systems is far more capable with the help of technologies such as machine learning and ultra-wideband.In today's episode, we have our guest, Michael Pytel, who shares how he can create a far more precise digital twin of the warehouse by mapping warehouse workers in the system. He also touches on the deficiencies of legacy WMS systems and their implications on warehouse processes and workers, and how modern systems would make their life easier. Finally, he shares his insights about several technologies, such as how different business systems and warehouse hardware technologies such as AMR and ASRS would interplay in his system and how indoor positioning and 5G would improve the warehouses.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 machine is not a microwave where you can throw a piece of steel, push a bunch of buttons, and expect your parts to be done. The inner workings of machines are fundamental to account to be able to program cost-effectively. You need to take several things into account, starting from the fit between materials and machines. You also need to figure out the appropriate setup times to make sure that you can make the part in the budgeted amount.In today's episode, we have our guest, Jennifer Bannink Bloomer, who discusses how machines think and why that matters to the machine shops. She also discusses why a comprehensive understanding of materials, machines, and their applications is essential for making parts. Finally, she shares several stories about cross-functional collaboration between machinists and engineering departments that require open and transparent communication.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.