WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textThe traditional methodology for selecting software focuses on features and functions. In fact, if you have too many features, the software is likely to be complex, and it may be harder for business users to learn and adapt it. While features are important to select the right software, more often than not, you will rarely use all the features offered by your software. In fact, the overall utilization of your software would probably be lower than 20%. Most software demos focus on the commonly used scenarios as the demo would be harder for business users to follow, but they are rarely a critical success factor for your software selection.  In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise with technology procurement and software selection to discuss the critical success factors for software selection. We also discussed the process for building the criteria for software selection and their deeper implications. Finally, we discussed several stories of software selection and how to identify the critical processes that will be similar to performing heart surgery to your business operations.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 financial executives leave the deployment details to their IT team as long as their websites run fine. But while making a decision for your e-commerce platform, your biggest cost driver will be how and where the solution will be deployed. If you are signing a SaaS or hosting contract, you need to pay attention to at least ten different variables such as performance tiers, the price increase at each tier, storage restrictions, security, speed, and staging environments. These factors could drive your costs significantly in the long run if you don't understand their implications.  In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise with deploying and implementing different e-commerce systems. We also discussed the basics of the software deployment process, the importance of staging environments, and how deployment affects your SEO and security. Finally, we discussed how to compare competing solutions in order to make an informed decision for your e-commerce deployment.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 responsible for cutting the check for your marketing spend, it's a frightening experience. Your marketing teams may sound highly confident in every initiative they might have on their radar, but you know from your prior experience that marketing investments are extremely risky. You require careful analysis of your existing successes and mapping out the channels that have been the true contributor to your success.In today's episode, we have our guest, John Readman, who discusses how to compare and measure marketing channels to plan your marketing budget. He also discusses how to attribute the total cost of sales and get comprehensive insights for each of your customer groups. Finally, he discusses how to design touchpoints, stages, and the best practice to design stages for longer sales cycles. 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 textE-commerce is all about mapping your sales and marketing processes digitally regardless of the type of your business, irrespective of whether you transact online or send them invoices. But while transitioning to e-commerce, one of the resistance you will face is the adoption of e-commerce, as your sales team is likely to derail your efforts because of a conflict of their interests. To be successful with your ecommerce journey, you need to create an organizational strategy and compensation plan that incentivizes everyone in your company to encourage your customers to move to e-commerce.In today's episode, we have our guest, Lori McDonald, who discusses sales compensation best practices for organizations aiming to transition to e-commerce from the traditional sales model. She also discusses why digital commerce is cheaper for organizations because of the self-serve and automated nature of the model. Finally, she discusses the best practices for creating sales compensation that will take a holistic view of the organization.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 embarking on the journey of your digital transformation, you will have several options. You can either work directly with the software provider and utilize their implementation team or work through a consulting company. Both approaches have their pros and cons, and the process requires due diligence from your side to ensure that the company you are hiring truly understands your business and is qualified to implement your project.In today's episode, we have our guest, Bonnie Tinder, who discusses the pros and cons of various digital transformation project models, working directly with software providers or through a consulting firm. She also discusses how these projects vary in the enterprise vs. SMB space and how team turnover is the most significant contributor to project failures. Finally, she discusses the most important criteria for selecting a software vendor.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 textSome enterprise software vendors provide their professional services, while others rely on resellers and system integrators. If you are evaluating your enterprise architecture, one key decision you will need to make would be to work directly with OEMs or software producers vs. consulting companies. While working with OEMs, you don't have to deal with multiple companies, but they could be expensive, not as skilled, or flexible. On the other hand, with so many system integrators out there, it may be harder to evaluate their core expertise. Irrespective of whether you work with OEMs or consulting companies, you will most likely be working with multiple companies and signing multiple contracts. What can you do to reduce the surprises you might get with your implementations?In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise implementing ERP and digital transformation projects for several years to discuss the pros and cons of working with OEM directly or through consulting companies. We also discussed the differences and their motivations for each of the players involved in the implementation, including OEMs, VARs, SIs, and ISVs. Finally, we discussed several other topics related to today's discussion, such as contract differences in each of these arrangements and implications of project and partner churnFor 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 e-commerce requires you to think about your processes starting from your sales to production. While selling online is a big part of it, that's not the only component of e-commerce. In fact, you don't need to always pay online with e-commerce, especially with B2B businesses with complex products. With such companies, the major component of digital commerce requires enabling online quoting. The online quoting processes include configurable products in the self-serve mode while supporting tiered pricing and account management through the web. In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise with quoting strategies and how they can benefit different businesses. We also discussed which products are the right fit for e-commerce and quoting and which ones could be overkill. Finally, we discussed the process of how to start on the journey of online quoting, starting from product modeling, conversion of service-based offerings to configurable products, and finally, their implementation in iteration.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 digital journey is more than simply identifying technologies and implementing them. The most challenging part of any digital initiative, especially if it involves customer interaction, is understanding customer behavior and what drives them to engage with your brand and make a purchase. Making assumptions or not involving your customer experience and service professionals in your digital strategy initiatives fires back as they are closest to your customers.In today's episode, we have our guest, Howard Tiersky, who discusses the process of customer empathy, the importance of user experience research, and the approach of design thinking to improve the outcome of digital initiatives. He also talks about the structured methodology he has developed through his engagements and working with several customers. Finally, he discusses the importance of data and why organizations need to be tracking that as an asset to differentiate and develop a competitive advantage.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 textWhen it comes to meeting timely growth targets, pricing is an essential and powerful tool for marketers. Also, in the world of e-commerce, where you might not have as much relationship leverage and location advantage, pricing strategy becomes critical. When we think about pricing and discounting strategies, I am sure you are perhaps thinking of BOGO and B2C, but pricing strategies are even more complex in the world of B2B with account and contract complications.In today's episode, we have our guest, Eyal Rozenberg, who discusses B2B E-commerce pricing nuances and how it is different and more complex than B2C. He also talks about various complex pricing scenarios such as sub-order, which impact user experience and ERP interactions. Finally, he describes the differences between pricing, discount, and coupon and why multi-channel pricing scenarios are even more complex to implement.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 automotive industry is unique as not only it has challenges associated with B2C, such as focus groups and consumers driving the demand, but it also has all the challenges that other B2B manufacturing companies would have. The automotive industry is also fairly unique with faster cycle and lead times, which drives the need for instant availability of parts in the JIT fashion and reduces the BOM complexities. But since you have so many stakeholders, and vendors involved in supplying parts, even a minor change in product assembly could impact the whole ecosystem, including OEMs and suppliers.In today's episode, we have our guest, Melissa Drew, who discusses the product life cycle of automotive products and how it is different from other industries. She also discusses the difference between manufacturing, engineering, configurable BOMs, and their nuances in the automotive industry. Finally, she has had a chance to touch on the importance of focus groups and how that drives the entire engineering and manufacturing process and tool selection and adoption for automotive companies.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.