WBSRocks: Business Growth with Enterprise Software and Digital Transformation

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.

Send us a textIf you are building or upgrading your e-commerce capabilities, you are likely to evaluate several platforms. This evaluation needs to be comprehensive, covering factors ranging from legal contracts, deployment issues, customer experience needs, product model complexities, and your teams' skillset. If you chose a platform without performing due diligence, you might experience cost overruns with your ecommerce budget. In today's episode, we have our guest Erin Courtnay and Eric Landmann from Earthling Interactive, who discusses the strategies and considerations to evaluate e-commerce platforms and architecture. They also discuss how the e-commerce needs differ between B2B vs. B2C and among different industries. Finally, they discussed several other nuances that drive the cost and design, including product models, search filters, and the technology ecosystem.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 textCash is the lifeblood of a company. Cash forecasting is the discovery process to predict your future cash needs. How would you feel if you discovered that you had four months of cash left to operate? I am sure you will lose your sleep. Thus, cash forecasting and understanding your balance sheet are essential. It is especially vital for cash-intensive companies such as manufacturers. In today's episode, we have our guest Alok Ajmera, who discusses the corporate performance management (CPM) function and breaks down its processes into the tactical cost-saving and strategic components. He also touches on concepts such as continuous and consistent planning. Finally, he explains the role and interactions of CPM and ERP software and what value each of these tools adds to an SMB 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 focused on the metrics for each employee where they contributed to the organization's overall improvement, it could result in millions of dollars of savings. But finding the areas of improvement is easier said than done. It requires you to perform gap analysis and trace the Gemba. It requires you to perform a deeper study of data, identify appropriate KPIs, and continuously measure to become operationally resilient.In today's episode, we have our guest Tamar Nelson, who discusses why an organization needs to become operationally resilient to combat uncertainty. She also describes why a gap analysis is required to identify the areas of improvement and start on the journey of operational resiliency. Finally, she shares several stories where she has made transformational changes to the organization by tracing the Gemba through data, surveys, and process mapping.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 textRFID technology has been available for a long time, but its adoption has been limited to high-value assets. Most manufacturers might not believe that RFID technologies can track commodities and be an excellent replacement for barcode labels. Unlike barcode labels requiring warehouse and production workers to hold the pointed gun and scan each item, RFID tags could significantly save time while expediting the scanning process. They will also provide you real-time visibility and replenishment of the inventory.In today's episode, we have our guest Andrew Johnson, who discusses the evolution of RFID tags and how RFID technology is no longer limited to tracking high-value assets. He also touches on the old-school vendor-managed inventory approach and how RFID technology enables manufacturers to enable true Just-in-time tracking in real-time across products. Finally, he touches on the several logistics associated with enabling RFID to manage your vendor-managed inventory, including the cost of printing RFID labels, their limitations, and strategies for their adoption.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 textEnergy has always been one of the heaviest line items on a P&L for manufacturers. While manufacturing executives are acutely aware of the energy costs, they have struggled to enforce energy-saving procedures. In fact, the push for quality and productivity could have counterproductive effects on energy consumption. To find the cost-saving opportunities available through energy, the executives need to consider comprehensive approaches, including factoring energy costs into product costs and performance metrics like product quality and quantity. They also need to adopt industry 4.0 technologies to provide historical data to capitalize on cost savings available through energy.In today's episode, we have our guest Mike Nager, who discusses the organizational metrics and KPIs that completely ignore the cost savings opportunities available through control and policies. He also touches on trends in other countries where energy prices may be higher. Finally, he shares several stories and describes several technologies that companies could use to accelerate industry 4.0 adoption, which will help companies save on energy costs and help them grow faster.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.