What does a ‘growing’ company mean to you and your industry? More staff? More machinery? More manufacturing? More warehouses? More locations? Definitely more sales and more customers!
But have you ever considered that while all of the above are inevitable for a growing business, that the most challenging element might be (literally) staring you in the face?
Your business management systems could be the breaking point you may have overlooked in the euphoria of increasing your FTEs, leasing new office spaces and purchasing shiny new machinery and equipment. It might also be the single point of success, or failure, for the future growth and profitability of your organisation. If considered at the optimum time, in the most efficient way, using the most sophisticated technology available for SMEs, your business processes and systems could be the driving point for the rest of your organisation.
Also how do you know when it’s the right time to grow your business? Do you rely on intuition, hitting a challenging sales target or just because your competitors are expanding and you don’t want to fall behind? At Blue Ocean Systems, our team of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) experts approaches these issues in a more strategic and proven way.
Look at the below business processes; how many are accurate for your organisation?
- We rely on Excel spreadsheets for all business figures including sales tracking, invoices, orders, warehouse inventory and accounts payable
- We track customer feedback via our email accounts
- We are ahead of our competitors because we have just extended our warehouse space
- Staff get on with their daily tasks in their own department but they don’t have visibility of how the company is functioning overall
- Senior management collate all financial data monthly for the previous month and use this to make future purchasing decisions
- Cash flow is never accurately reported – there always seems to be extra expenses we hadn’t accounted for
- Analysis is done by the senior management when they review all the company’s spreadsheets every quarter
- The majority of the IT department’s annual budget is assigned to system maintenance and upgrades
If this sounds familiar, your company could be in real danger of sprinting before you can even crawl. Increased sales, higher revenue, more incoming orders are all wonderful indicators that your business is doing well and could be ready for expansion. But if your basic underlying systems and processes are weak, those weaknesses will buckle under the pressure of growth.
Here’s a quick insight into how each of your business functions could look when leveraging SAP Business One and how they can help your company reach its growth potential:
Financial Management and Analysis
- Regain visibility over your company’s finances and maintain optimum and accurate cash-flow levels
- Access Analytics Powered by HANA – an industry leading tool to give you the clearest picture of your company data you have ever seen
Customer Relationship Management
- Become top of mind for your consumers due to your exemplary ordering, feedback and delivery processes
- Make the customer the centre of your operations today and they will have more reason to be loyal in the future
IT and Infrastructure
- Leveraging a core software platform will substantially free up your IT team (and their budget!) to focus on business growing solutions, rather than quick fixes
- Enable them work on the most sophisticated newest tools and systems in the market instead of becoming frustrated with multiple, antiquated applications
Inventory Management
- Make critical, decisive and accurate decisions based on real-time data from your warehouse – gain the ability to bulk buy knowing that demand is in the market and your warehouse can stock it
- Always be the provider of choice for customers due to your superior supply and demand analysis
Your Mobile Workforce
- Enable managers to work on the move, anywhere, any time with SAP Business One’s industry-leading mobile solutions – don’t let the business stop because your sales manager is on the road!
Focussing some time and energy on your core processes and analysing if they are able to help your organisation achieve sustainable growth is one of the most worthwhile activities you can undertake whilst your company is still in pre-growth mode. Blue Ocean Systems has a team of ERP specialists who are passionate about discovering how businesses can set into motion an achievable growth plan – from the inside out.
Contact us today to start your growth strategy off in the right way.
Note: This story has also been adapted for publication in Steemit.