The business environment has been challenging over the past few years. Yet despite high unemployment and a very competitive environment, many companies are doing well. They’ve compiled strong cash reserves, and have learned how to operate more efficiently than ever before.
The decision to come out of “retrenchment mode” and turn on the growth spigot happens fast. Market signals can change within weeks. Overnight, the time to tap those cash reserves and take action arrives. Business leaders suddenly need to make good decisions about myriad expansion options and initiatives. Read the rest of this post
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Growing Pains
From Spreadsheet Insanity to Dashboard-Driven Decisions
Performance management dashboards are a hot topic at SAP BusinessObjects events and many of our business management user group meetings. That’s because dashboards have evolved into something much more powerful than what we knew just five years ago.
They are no longer simply a collection of static images spit out by spreadsheets and tools. Today’s business dashboards are powered by dynamic business management software and business intelligence (BI) platforms. The difference can be seen immediately and all the way down to your bottom line.
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Your Company, Unwired
Enterprise mobility was by far the hottest technology subject at our May SAPPHIRE NOW conference, due in equal parts to customer excitement around our recent acquisition of Sybase, a leading database and mobile software company, and because the mobility market literally exploded in the past year.
John Chen, CEO of Sybase, a SAP Company, reported in his keynote presentation that 45 percent of SAP customers will implement mobile enterprise applications in 2011. That’s a huge increase year over year.
It’s amazing how fast things have changed. Just a few years ago, enterprise mobility initiatives were limited to early adopters, such as energy and consumer technology companies with large field service organizations. Now it seems like any new coffee shop is running its business on a smartphone rather than a cash register.
So where does your business stand on enterprise mobility these days? If you are like many executives we talked to at SAPPHIRE NOW, the rapid proliferation of mobile technology has caught you by surprise. Consequently, we thought it timely to give you a quick primer on the latest trends and share our experiences and best practices to help you make your next move in mobile.
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Get the Most out of Mobile By Managing Four Key Issues
SAP has helped thousands of the world’s largest companies deploy enterprise mobility initiatives over the past decade. Today we are helping companies with just a few million dollars in revenue achieve their mobility goals as well.
The sum of our experience? Enterprise mobility is far different than any other technology revolution that has come before it. You must be prepared, whether your company is large or small. Read the rest of this post
Expert Answers to the Eight Most Asked Questions about BI
The first story in this month’s newsletter discusses the evolutionary stages of business intelligence (BI) in small- and medium-sized enterprises. It should give you a good perspective on the impact BI can have in your company, and what differentiates a BI neophyte from a BI-driven culture of excellence.
If your interest was piqued, now you have questions—questions we probably heard before. Every day, SAP and our 10,000 global implementation partners are asked about BI from executives like you. We thought it would be useful to share our answers to some of the questions your peers ask most often.
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Budget Approved. Now What?
So you’ve submitted your IT annual budget, and it’s approved. Now comes the crucial next step: figuring out how you’re going to achieve your technology objectives with that allowance, and delivering everything on an acceptable timeline.
Until recently, IT vendors gave businesses like yours few choices in terms of deployment and pricing. Software was paid for up-front and deployed on-site. Implementation services were paid for at the completion of each phase.
But the world has changed. Today, there are myriad ways that software can be designed, deployed, and used: client-server, distributed, Web, public cloud, private cloud, mobile, insourced, outsourced, as a service—the list is long and keeps growing.
Now you can select from a range of technological approaches and financing options to find those that best meet your needs, best fit your budget, and best position you for growth. That said, with ample choice comes ample confusion.
Is it Time For a Cash Flow Health Check?
Few would argue against the importance of getting a physical every year, along with a flu shot to build your body’s immunity. Likewise, it’s also a good practice to check your businesses’ health periodically, so you can be sure it’s in prime shape in the event you need a shot of capital.
Certainly cash flow management is a top priority in any business. But it’s never more important than when access to capital is as limited as it is today. And nobody will give your business a closer physical exam than the banker, when you knock on his door, hat in hand.
It’s common knowledge that accurately prepared cash flow statements and forecasts are the basic tools required to successfully manage money in or out of your business. That’s probably how you’re making sure you have sufficient capital to meet the businesses’ daily demands.
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The Banker Will See You Now
If the past few years taught us anything, it’s that global markets can change overnight, and often. Rosy outlooks sour. Dour outlooks flower. And your banker’s feelings about financing small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) ebbs and flows with the capital markets.
While lending prospects are expected to improve for SMEs this year after a three year drought (see recent Financial Times article), finance industry experts say bankers and businesses will often remain at odds. Most bankers believe that SME’s business prospects are still tenuous and thus are higher risks.
Herein lies the conundrum for CEOs. Many tell us they feel the time to expand is now, but they need greater access to capital to act on strategic expenditures such as IT projects, mergers, acquisitions, and R&D. However, this doesn’t mean your business can’t defy both the markets and bankers’ sentiment when it comes to financing.
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Six Ways to Make your Tight IT Budget Seem Huge
Here’s a business strategy that should be familiar to every reader. When business is good, you invest in IT to improve the company’s operations, service levels, and competitiveness. When business is bad, you freeze or cut the IT spend.
While that strategy is familiar, today’s marketplace is not. Your business has weathered a historic recession that saw IT budgets pared to the bone. Ditto your surviving competitors. And while the business climate is improving, we’re not out of the woods yet.
You want to—you need to—do more with your information technology, but you’re not sure the time is right to warm up the IT budget. And you also know that getting the timing wrong could cede competitive advantage.
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Wondering which SAP Solution is Right for your Business?
When you’re selecting software for your business, you want to make sure that it’s the right fit – otherwise, it can be like watering the fern in your office with a fire hose. SAP offers an entire portfolio of solutions for small and midsize businesses – but how do you know which solution is the right fit for you?
Read this quick summary of SAP’s small and midsize enterprise portfolio – and see which solution would work best for you. Not only can you identify the right solution choice but you can also see all the benefits you have to gain from putting powerful software to work: lower costs, better business performance, and a boost to profits.
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Are your Processes the Key to Greater Profit?
If you’re looking for business improvement ideas, consider your business processes – because while they’re often invisible, your processes can make the difference between mediocre results and a highly profitable business.
But how do you go from ‘okay’ to ‘great’ – without grinding your operations to a halt while you figure out how to automate every process task? That’s where SAP solutions for small and midsize companies can help.
SAP software has process support built right in – along with the kind of functionality that will help you streamline your business processes, eliminate waste and cut costs. Get rid of repetition and rework. Cut down on costly errors. Effortlessly coordinate workflows between departments – for a stronger bottom line.
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Business Planning: the Hard or the Easy Way?
Let’s face it – the idea of business planning might not get you out of bed in the morning. It’s time-consuming. It can be arduous. And it can add another set of deliverables to your already heavy workload. How can you take time out to think about the future when you’re juggling so many day-to-day priorities?
You can’t avoid business planning – but you can make it significantly easier, more productive, and (it’s true!) more enjoyable. When you lean on advanced tools instead of yesterday’s methods, you can take the pain out of business planning.
Here’s a quick checklist that lays it out: the difference between the hard way and the easy way, at every step of the planning process. And to give you some tangible examples of that difference in action, you’ll find below the stories of three SAP customers who have simplified and strengthened their planning processes – for better results.
How SAP Business One Improves Small Business Efficiency
The ability to be nimble in today’s ever-changing market is a definite strength for most small business. But the other side of the small business coin is that you may not have the infrastructure in place to really take advantage of the opportunities that come your way. If you find that you’re spending more time putting out fires than developing new products or building your client base, it might be time for an efficiency overhaul – and SAP Business One can help.
Maximising efficiency means having a system that frees you up to focus on growing your business, not just maintaining it. It also means finding a solution that’s easy – and economical – to implement. SAP Business One pulls the following core elements of your business together into one easy-to-use system, boosting your efficiency.
Continuous Improvement with SAP Crystal Reports
“You can’t manage what you don’t measure’ is a particularly useful piece of advice for growing businesses. Yet many companies don’t have the measurements in place that they need to guide their actions. Why? Some struggle to access and integrate data from multiple sources. Others get bogged down by disagreements over which spreadsheets have the correct numbers. And some have difficulty getting information in a timely fashion to the people who need it to make decisions.
For businesses that want to better measure and manage performance, Crystal Reports provides access to all your data, ensures trust in information, and speeds delivery of information. With broader visibility and deeper insight, you and your employees can make more effective fact based decisions, and improve operational efficiency.
Access all your data
In order to see what is happening across your business, you need a clear view of all of your information. With Crystal Reports, you can access all of your data, whether it resides in ERP or CRM systems, custom applications, relational databases, or even web log files. You can then use it to create reports and dashboards to satisfy business requirements across the organization — from finance and sales, to manufacturing and operations.
