WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

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.

Send us a textThere are several systems and choices available to support the needs of your functions and business processes. Best-of-breed options offer much deeper functionality and system designed for specific groups of users. But communication and integration could require significant resources and maintenance from your organization. The Full-suite options can get you the basics to get you going but might outgrow if a department has complex needs for its operations. As a business user, you need to decide how many apps you will be using in your enterprise architecture, balancing integration costs and flexibility.In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant system integration and implementation, manufacturing, and distribution, and finance. But most importantly, a manufacturer who has owned several manufacturing companies and integrated several applications as they grew. 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 textAmazon is perhaps the most visited site for e-commerce, and its product filters will probably be the most used feature on its site. Product filters help you find the products you are looking for without going through thousands or millions of products that the site might carry. Well-designed websites understand your journey deeply, and they are guiding you as you use the site. On the other hand, poorly designed websites either have too many or too few filters and ignore the user's viewpoint while designing the site. Irrespective of whether you are a B2B or B2B business, you need a sophisticated product filter strategy to provide the buying experience that your customers desire. In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant expertise with product filter design and e-commerce to discuss the best practices of designing product filters. We also have a chance to discuss the competing features such as onsite search, voice, and several other trends such as AI and how they would redefine the place for product filters. Finally, we have had a chance to discuss real-life scenarios of poor filter design and its implications on the user experience.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 your teams report problems in the production line and the capacity, their answer is often additional machines or people. Unfortunately, solving each problem with an additional body or machine results in unused capacity and unnecessary spending when the problem could be somewhere else. While there are tons of data available from machines and processes to make prudent financial decisions, interpreting data requires experimentation, design, and understanding each variable that may cause deviations.In today's episode, we have our guest, Martin Davis, who discusses the strategies to improve your manufacturing facilities' capacity and increase the overall equipment effectiveness of your equipment. He also discusses several stories where he used data to pinpoint the actual bottlenecks in the process, which saved millions of dollars in savings in unnecessary additional equipment purchases of equipment. Finally, he discusses several issues around data quality, describes the difference between operational and business technologies, and how each of these components fits 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 textWith IIOT devices on the shop floor capable of altering the state of machines through exposed endpoints for hackers, operational security is vital for manufacturers or distributors. While security issues could be frightening, and you might opt to take the approach of not connecting your shop floor with the internet, you might be missing out on the benefits that industry 4.0 machines and devices offer. With careful planning and processes, operational security is manageable.In today's episode, we have our guest, Denrich Sananda, who discusses how operational security is vital to ensure that your plant is always available and operational without any danger to the lives inside the plant. He also describes the difference between operational and cybersecurity and how to plan for the security of your facilities. Finally, he describes various concepts related to operational security, such as the interplay of networks, machines, and touchpoints and where you may have security holes in your premises.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 textHave you heard the news where a large aerospace manufacturer won a large contract for several planes? While it's exciting news, it could be equally challenging for suppliers who are part of that ecosystem and asked to staff overnight to meet the demand of their key customer. Or you run the risk of losing the relationship. In addition, the quality requirements and stringent processes make it even harder for these suppliers.In today's episode, we have our guest, Mark Evans, who discusses the manufacturing and engineering processes of a Boeing Supplier. He also discusses how to manage the expectations of large customers where your key customer may have thousands of suppliers in their ecosystem. Finally, he discusses key nuances and processes of the aerospace manufacturing industry and how it is different from other industries. 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 software and technology world is evolving daily, and so are the software contracts. As pricing becomes easier to start using software for small-to-medium-sized businesses, the incremental costs could be unexpected if you don't understand the new pricing models. While technology is making it easier to create and sign contracts, it also provides software vendors freedom to create contracts that may not have legal binding or might change even after signing the contract. In today's episode, we invited an expert panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview on LinkedIn who brings significant legal, software, and IT contracting, manufacturing, sales, and ERP implementation expertise. But most importantly, a manufacturer who has owned several manufacturing companies and lived through the contracting challenges over many years. We also invited a guest who appears on several expert witness cases should there be a conflict between the software vendor, implementation partner, and the customer.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.