One of our core values here at BrainStorm Software is to help businesses grow by looking to the future, so we’ve collated some of our Top Ten Tips to help you achieve this.
Scroll down to see our Top Ten Tips to equip you to compete and thrive in this ever-evolving digital world.
Tip 1 – This is a message to the CFO’s and it’s about our Business Intelligence (BI).
With the right BI, you can transform your business, with data and insights into future trends and likelihoods. It will make your CFO office smarter.
So if you’re not on board with Business Intelligences as yet. It’s time to start.
Tip 2 – Assess your Business Intelligence (BI).
How do I assess this?
Focus on what your business and its users actually need from a BI solution to drive real improvements and help you reach your organisation’s strategic goals. This approach will create a roadmap, reduce rework, drive action and ensure missing data is captured. In addition, the strategy will give the organisation a benchmark to measure the ROI generated from BI.
Tip 3 – Get an ERP and choose the right one.
ERP’s can streamline all operations end-to-end on one platform from finance to distribution, giving a birds-eye view on all of your business operations.
The selection process of finding the right ERP can sometimes be a minefield of smoke and mirrors and you can end up with a solution that isn’t right for your business goals and costly to your bottom line.
Typically a strong ERP will come with pre-built modules such as a CRM, project management, etc. It is here you can define your must have’s and your nice to have’s which will make your ERP shopping list easier.
Tip 4 – Construct a possible future scenario.
With your current systems now in place, map out your future business desires. Here are some questions to help you:
- How many more employees you will have in different aspects of your business
- Will you have more assets?
- What is your total revenue in 5 – 10 years time?
- What does this look like in resourcing?
- What areas do you want to expand?
- What new products or services are you hoping to bring into your business?
Lastly, what dream processes would you like to implement?
Tip 5 – Find the Core Features that you need.
With your ideal future business mapped out, what are the core features of your ERP functionality?
For example, do you need:
- Sales & Marketing
- Order Management & Fulfilment
- Inventory Management
- Engineering (BOM/ Routing and Request to approve)
- Purchasing
- Manufacturing
- Quality Control
- Financial Management
- Project Management
Tip 6 – Define your nice-to-haves.
What would you like to have that’s not a core necessity, or perhaps a ‘special requirement’ not typically found in the core functionality of an ERP?
For example;
- Configuration of products
- Mobile Sales management
- Delivery Management
- Warehouse Management
- Human Resourcing
Tip 7 – Design the absolute deliverables to meet your business goals and desires.
Include an internal systems review with key players. This step will help you prepare the output of a High-Level ‘as-is’ business process flow diagram & possible future streamlined processes.
With your flow diagram outline any possible future flow’s – this will help identify any core functions that are in every use case and some that might drop off the core list. It will also highlight features that might slide into the core requirements.
Tip 8 – Delineate the required ERP core capabilities
Defining your core ERP capabilities gives you non-negotiables and enables a quicker process for the elimination of ERP’s that don’t meet your core business requirements now and for the future.
It is now time for you to confidently pull together a core requirements list according to the job functions of your business processes.
Tip 9 – Get the right external team behind you and the right training for your internal team.
BrainStorm Software offers a comprehensive service, which includes constant support and onsite or online training for all staff to ensure the ERP is being utilised effectively.
It’s one thing to take the time and investment to implement the ERP but here at BrainStorm, we ensure that the ERP is implemented and performing correctly to get you the results you need as quickly as possible.
Tip 10 – Get a health check!
It’s important to continually check in and assess your BI (Business Intelligence) and your future scenarios and the core direction of the company.
For example, are you ready to move from a B2B to a B2C? Are you ready to add further warehousing and tracking to your ERP. These applications can be added to any ERP with BrainStorm Softwares specialist software.
If you’ve found these tips helpful feel free to contact us today!
