WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

Send us a textWhat helps you compete in the market? Is it your unique product? Is it your operational efficiency? Is it your market segment? Or is it the alignment of your manufacturing and operational strategies with market needs and business goals? Since most manufacturers are part of a large process for their customers, simply thinking about your product's value prop may not be enough. You need to think about the entire value chain, how your products fit in that, and the implications and benefits it may have on the end goal of your customer.In today's episode, we have our guest, Kishore Khaitan, who discusses how to align manufacturing strategies with business goals. He also provided key insights into his different businesses and how he could turn them around despite unfavorable circumstances. Finally, he discussed the manufacturing processes and market nuances of several manufacturing verticals, including industrial fabrics, paper plants, and textile parts.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 involved in vendor negotiations or expense management, it's hard to know if you may be overpaying for services or goods. What if there was a way to benchmark your expenses against other companies. Enter big data for expense management. These data lakes have amassed trillions of data points in the last ten years through several data sources. They have the capabilities to benchmark your expenses for the majority of your categories.In today's episode, we have our guest Scott Berman from River North Financial Group and Jake Lindmark at Optimally, who discusses how big data solutions have evolved and now accessible for small to medium-sized businesses. They describe how these big data solutions can help and how they work. Finally, they explained several nuances associated with financial big data 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 textWarehouses have been using automated storage and retrieval systems (ASRS) for a long time. While they have come a long way in their capabilities and along with their interactions with other newer technologies such as robotic arms or cobots, their adoption is still very low. Although ASRS systems provide excellent capabilities, the key is to deeply understand your specific needs and measure your current KPIs for their successful implementation and reap financial benefits from these initiatives.In today's episode, we have our guest, Tim Harrison, who discusses various ASRS systems and why they are essential to increase the productivity of a warehouse. He also discusses barriers and opportunities in the ASRS ecosystem. Finally, he discusses several metrics and stories where ASRS systems made sense and where they were overkill, in addition to describing their software and hardware interactions with existing systems in the enterprise 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 textHow would you feel if you had a handful of customers with huge leverage decided to consolidate their vendors and put pressure to cut the prices further that you might not be able to afford? No one wants to be in this situation. What would you do if you faced this situation? Would you expand your operations to explore further cost reduction opportunities? Would you rather shut down your operations? Would you try to sell hard and not take no for an answer? Or Would you start looking for other customers? In today's episode, we have our guest, Paul Serafino, who discusses how manufacturers and distributors can get through vendor consolidation situations by their key customers. He also discusses why thinking from the overall capacity is vital to deal with such problems than limiting it to your four walls. Finally, he provides several relationship-building and negotiation techniques to help overcome the price pressure and help create superior value and strategic partnerships with 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 textWhether you are releasing new parts or making changes to existing parts, you will likely go through the engineering change process (ECN). More often than not, engineering organizations are siloed from the downstream organizations and don't understand how their engineering decisions will impact the production floor. As you add more engineers to the department, the more opportunity, you might find to have tighter engineering change control processes and reuse the existing CAD models.In today's episode, we have our guest, Andrew Hood, who discusses why classifying and promoting the reuse of parts is vital to save costs. He also describes the financial implications of poor and siloed engineering management functions. Finally, he has shared several stories and discussed the nuances of engineering organization, including the difference between PLM and PDM systems, conceptualization, and ideation process.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 textSMB manufacturers and distributors in the personal care industry face unique challenges. These difficulties could be even more for organic products or the items that need to comply with FDA., such as sunscreens. They need to ensure enough demand for new products or struggle to find contract manufacturers and labs that will accept the lower batches of order. Also, since credibility is vital for brands in this industry, the source of ingredients and the ability to have end-to-end traceability is critically important.In today's episode, we have our guest Erin Williams, who discusses the manufacturing and commercialization processes of the personal care industry. She also discusses why organic products require stringent procedures and what makes them more expensive. Finally, she has had a chance to discuss the quality and audit processes and the responsibilities and liabilities of each party involved.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 procurement departments and buyers become more sophisticated, manufacturers and distributors will see more scrutiny from their customers, especially if they might be selling high-value and complex items. They have already been facing cost pressures from their customers, but now they might see an elongated sales cycle with RFPs to compete. The RFP process might increase your costs if you don't have experience responding to them. Winning RFPs and working with procurement requires you to understand how procurement thinks and works deeply.In today's episode, we have our guest Jill Robbins, who discusses how to navigate long-term sales cycles that involves selling to and through procurement. She also describes best practices in responding to RFPs and what procurement teams value in a partner and in the RFP response. Finally, she has been able to share how procurement teams think and work from her experience of working in procurement for a very long time that manufacturing executives need to know if they are selling complex products through procurement.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 textYour CRM system is key to managing your customer relationships and providing the customer experience to help you stand out among your competitors. While most organizations may use some form of CRM system, the adoption rate is low. Most CRM systems are either over-engineered, making them difficult to use and maintain, or under-engineered with data quality issues, a roadblock to CRM system adoption.In today's episode, we have our guest Seamus Ruiz-Earle, who discusses the core reasons for the low adoption of CRM systems among sales teams. He also discusses how to evaluate a CRM and the nuances of selecting a CRM for specific industries considering their unique business processes. Finally, he provides insights into why data integrity, security, and migration issues are essential to consider while selecting and creating standard operating procedures around CRM processes to avoid significant dollar expenses because of data corruption and integrity 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 textWhen you grow in transactions and have many low-dollar transactions, the cost of processing transactions could be higher than the expense being paid. You might also face this when you may be purchasing cheaper consumable items from one-time vendors. Understanding the cost of processing is critical as that allows you to introduce different strategies for such transactions. One such strategy is to introduce a P-card for your low dollar volume transactions, which enables companies to process transactions without creating vendor records or going through an invoice matching process.In today's episode, we have our guest Scott Engelking, who describes why companies should be implementing a P-card program for their low-dollar transactions to reduce processing costs. He also describes the end-to-end process of implementing a P-card program and the roles and responsibilities of each stakeholder involved. Finally, he shares several examples and best practices for effective P-card implementation.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 textRemember walking around a gym to find the weight you wanted for your next set of exercises? It could be even more frustrating and inefficient to locate a tool or asset in a large manufacturing facility or a warehouse. What if you had real-time tracking of your tools and assets that you could locate by tracking their real-time locations. The RTLS technology is powerful and helps manufacturers in tracking critical resources on the shop floor.In today's episode, we have our guest Viren Mathuria from Sewio Networks, who describes how a real-time location system (RTLS) works and how it helps manufacturers. He also discusses several examples of how large enterprises and SMB manufacturers are using the technology as of today. Finally, he provides insights into various competing technologies available in the market, including RFID and Bluetooth, and discusses their limitations and applications.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.