Move to Improve! Is It Time to Change Your Accounting/ERP System?
Increasing Market Share, Customer Satisfaction and Productivity
Businesses are faced with increasing marketplace competition, changing expectations of their consumers, rising cybersecurity threats and challenging retention and recruiting. With the rise of Uber and other niche players, companies are seeing their margins erode and finding competition in areas previously untouched. Amazon’s business model and the rise of On Demand services has conditioned customers to expect more immediacy than they have in the past. Equifax and other high profile security breaches have increased the visibility of cybersecurity threats and brought more attention to data privacy. The job market is already very near what economists call full employment. With the average tenure of a millennial employee equaling 18 months, recruiting and retaining talent is imperative to productivity.
So what does this have to do with my company’s business management tools?
In order to understand that, we should first look at the many challenges companies face when using the wrong tools.
With the rise of mobility and more access to the Internet comes accessibility to new global markets. This has increasingly resulted in increased penetration into North American markets by smaller, more nimble companies. Modern companies require platforms that can extend beyond just the basic financials to stay ahead and to penetrate foreign markets.
Customers today expect to see real-time stock levels online when they go to place an order. They also expect to be able to call customer service within 10 minutes of placing that order and be able to add additional lines to that order. Without integrated solutions tying together CRM, Finance and eCommerce front ends, a company can quickly lose customers to the competition.
Security and data privacy are of utmost importance in today’s modern world. However, data centers and expensive hardware are out of reach for many small to medium businesses. The cost of employees to maintain on premise systems and the increased liability stemming from disasters and security breaches isn’t practical for many businesses. Cloud based solutions are becoming increasingly popular as companies look to control costs and increase security.
PC’s and Laptops are not the platform of choice for today’s generation of workers. Accessibility via tablet and phone is required to stay ahead. Both consumers and employees expect instant access to real-time data from anywhere in the world. Today’s business management tools need to be accessible in order to recruit and retain talent.
GSI’s Move to Improve! Campaign has a simple objective. To help our clients and prospects evaluate their current systems and determine if they are ready for the future. Over the course of the next few weeks, we will look at ways that businesses have transformed themselves from industry contestants to industry champions through the improvement of their business management systems.