Send us Fan Mail The journey of ISO could feel overwhelming with the amount of standardization and documentation required. But if your machine shop never served a regulated industry, it could be a great start as you expand your market to other sectors such as aerospace, defense, or automotive. You will not only be required to change your processes and procedures, but you need to game up on training and documentation. In today's episode, we have our guest, Derek Hall, who describes the importance...
Aug 31, 2021•41 min•Ep. 138
Send us Fan Mail Due to how companies function in the startup phase and evolve, most of them operate in silos because it's hard to find cross-functional talent. In addition, the cross-functional processes are perceived to be slow. It's also tough to train people in multiple disciplines. As a result, most SMBs will have one person responsible for each function: sales, purchasing, AR, AP, HR, etc. While this siloed nature may help you sail through the startup phase, it's the cross-functional align...
Aug 30, 2021•38 min•Ep. 137
Send us Fan Mail Managing digital projects have never been easier. While there have been tons of attempts to improve the process with Agile methodologies, the timeline, budget, and scope are still tough to manage. There are several explanations as to why digital projects are harder. For example, each digital project is fairly unique, even if it is repeatable ERP implementation. Then you have the problems of invisibility. Managing digital projects have always been art and science. That's probably...
Aug 27, 2021•59 min•Ep. 136
Send us Fan Mail E-commerce opportunity is highly lucrative. As an executive responsible for e-commerce success, you will come across several options and opportunities. But if you don't know how to plan for e-commerce, you might be out of cash without knowing what went wrong. For example, it could happen as you overcommitted in channels that didn't perform to your expectations. Or you stocked too much inventory in the hope of getting significant traffic from your e-commerce efforts. E-commerce b...
Aug 26, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 135
Send us Fan Mail If you are a small business operating as a single entity with one warehouse and site, most of your suppliers will have a handshake relationship. But as you grow, you are going to add more sites. Each site may have its procurement functions and may manage its supply chain. This is where having accurate supplier intelligence and a comprehensive risk profile of suppliers becomes important. In today's episode, we have our guest, Matt Keyes, who describes the importance of supplier i...
Aug 25, 2021•33 min•Ep. 134
Send us Fan Mail Every user in a company has different needs when it comes to completing their jobs. The warehouse users, in particular, are worried about how fast they can move the goods and organize accordingly. Therefore, to be effective with warehousing operations and organization, you need tons of data that can help you analyze the most efficient way of running them. In today's episode, we have our guest, Roy Strauss, who describes WMS systems and how they can help meet your operational ope...
Aug 24, 2021•42 min•Ep. 133
Send us Fan Mail Automation technologies are advancing at a rapid pace. There are tons of options available whether you are looking to automate some of the operations of your production process. Or you may be automating process steps such as trailer unloading that are essential but may not be billable. And the more repeatable tasks you can automate in your facility, the better quality products you can produce, and the more cost-effective your products will be. But to take full advantage of these...
Aug 23, 2021•41 min•Ep. 132
Send us Fan Mail To understand the total cost of ownership of software, one of the critical pieces that you need to understand would be the software license and pricing. There are several nuances of the licensing model with several variables that could impact your total costs. The licensing and pricing nuances could be as simple as whether you are buying a single-user or multi-user license, or it could be as complex as whether you would still be paying for your license if the user leaves the com...
Aug 20, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 131
Send us Fan Mail The game has completely changed when it comes to serving customers in the new world of e-commerce. The personal touch that existed in the traditional world may not exist in the e-commerce world. The customers also operate in self-serve mode, so they need a lot of information to research and make decisions. You might think that the role of salespeople may not be relevant in the new world of e-commerce, but their role is even more relevant as they need to become coaches and provid...
Aug 19, 2021•56 min•Ep. 130
Send us Fan Mail How vital could bookkeeping be? Isn't it all about capturing all the transactions and creating a bunch of statements to file taxes? Well, strategic financial planning is where your real opportunities reside. If you are not strategic about it, you may be chasing wrong opportunities that may not have as much financial value as you would if you were strategic with your bookkeeping. In today's episode, we have our guest, Jeannie Doherty, who discusses how strategic bookkeeping diffe...
Aug 18, 2021•44 min•Ep. 129
Send us Fan Mail Today's consumer requires most stores to provide the same experience that they will get from larger brands. These experiences could include click-and-collect, also known as buy-online-pick-up-at-store, integrated loyalty across channels, and omnichannel experience across all the channels. These experiences require you to have your inventory centralized and reconciled across channels. Or there will be friction to the process with significant customer experience issues such as not...
Aug 17, 2021•46 min•Ep. 128
Send us Fan Mail Managing aerospace projects is just like solving puzzles. You have many moving pieces, including managing your customers' expectations, coordinating with your supply chain, and meeting the specification requirements. But when it comes to the NPD process, a project manager's job is even harder due to increased risk and the lack of available data to estimate accurately. Estimating and delivering a project within time and budget requires tons of data and experience to forecast all ...
Aug 16, 2021•51 min•Ep. 127
Send us Fan Mail If you plan for your next digital transformation initiative, you need to decide whether you will opt for an on-prem system or cloud. You might ask why anyone would even worry about on-prem in 2021. Well, there are several reasons. If you already have an IT infrastructure and are locked into on-prem licenses, the cloud option may be more expensive. You might also want to opt for on-prem if any regulatory constraints require you to be present on the on-prem system. Finally, some p...
Aug 13, 2021•58 min•Ep. 126
Send us Fan Mail The average rate at which the average consumer abandons their shopping cart before making a purchase is 81%. There are countless reasons why consumers leave their shopping carts. These reasons could be legitimate such as unexpected shipping costs. They could also be website functionality issues such as the requirement for a new user account, their tendency to research to buy later, and security concerns. These issues affect conversion, sales, and customer experience. In today's ...
Aug 12, 2021•59 min•Ep. 125
Send us Fan Mail If you are exploring the ISO journey, your current collaboration tools might outgrow your needs driven by ISO compliance. Your current legacy PLM tools may not support collaboration features. If your current processes are manual or done on a spreadsheet, you may be overwhelmed with the tracking and information required to submit to regulatory bodies. Like any other cross-functional process in your organization, your design review processes require multiple teams, including quali...
Aug 11, 2021•41 min•Ep. 124
Send us Fan Mail The processes of most food and beverage businesses are challenging due to government regulations. Still, the distillery business is even trickier due to maintaining inventory through the production process. There is significant inventory tied in the final phases of the production process. Then you don't have access to the final consumer as the government mandates you to go through the distribution channels. Finally, there are significant quality and packaging guidelines that nee...
Aug 09, 2021•44 min•Ep. 122
Send us Fan Mail The majority of digital transformation initiatives fail, and in most cases, they fail because of people issues. When it comes to building digital initiative teams, you need a comprehensive approach. The first batch of champions you have chosen to drive the initiatives may be super excited initially. But their excitement may fall off once they realize the amount of effort involved in driving these initiatives. Then you need to manage the detractors' expectations, or they may be e...
Aug 06, 2021•57 min•Ep. 121
Send us Fan Mail Choosing a platform for your e-commerce is not easy. There are several factors to consider. While SaaS options make buying and maintaining easier, their pricing could be tricky to understand. The hosting for open source options could be cheaper, and the licensing fee might not be applicable with these options. On the other hand, the development and support costs could be more expensive. The SaaS option may require you to use their payment gateway and might take a cut on your rev...
Aug 05, 2021•59 min•Ep. 120
Send us Fan Mail When you start your business, you are going to do everything in your power to survive. You might sell anything and everything to anyone and everyone who has cash. But as you grow, the number of decisions that your team will have to make daily will grow exponentially as well. The more products you maintain, the higher the number of decisions you need to make daily, which causes frustration and chaos. This frustration will grow within your employees, but it will be equally frustra...
Aug 04, 2021•49 min•Ep. 119
Send us Fan Mail Packing is always the bottleneck in most manufacturing facilities and is often blamed for slowing production down. But replacing the packaging equipment is never fun as you need to understand thousands of variables related to machines and their impact on your process. The manufacturers might not understand your processes or product, and you might run into a scenario that the packaging machine may not work for your specific needs. And then you might run into contract issues or fo...
Aug 03, 2021•34 min•Ep. 118
Send us Fan Mail What comes to mind when you think of the most complex business from the viewpoint of business processes? I can almost guarantee that it will not be a poultry business. How hard could the poultry business be to run? Shouldn't it be as simple as raising a bunch of chickens, feeding them corn, and selling eggs and chicken parts? Well, running a poultry business requires tight control of yield and financial processes. There is always a push for higher productivity and yield because ...
Aug 02, 2021•34 min•Ep. 117
Send us Fan Mail The traditional methodology for selecting software focuses on features and functions. In fact, if you have too many features, the software is likely to be complex, and it may be harder for business users to learn and adapt it. While features are important to select the right software, more often than not, you will rarely use all the features offered by your software. In fact, the overall utilization of your software would probably be lower than 20%. Most software demos focus on ...
Jul 30, 2021•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 116
Send us Fan Mail Most financial executives leave the deployment details to their IT team as long as their websites run fine. But while making a decision for your e-commerce platform, your biggest cost driver will be how and where the solution will be deployed. If you are signing a SaaS or hosting contract, you need to pay attention to at least ten different variables such as performance tiers, the price increase at each tier, storage restrictions, security, speed, and staging environments. These...
Jul 29, 2021•1 hr•Ep. 115
Send us Fan Mail If you are responsible for cutting the check for your marketing spend, it's a frightening experience. Your marketing teams may sound highly confident in every initiative they might have on their radar, but you know from your prior experience that marketing investments are extremely risky. You require careful analysis of your existing successes and mapping out the channels that have been the true contributor to your success. In today's episode, we have our guest, John Readman, wh...
Jul 28, 2021•39 min•Ep. 114
Send us Fan Mail E-commerce is all about mapping your sales and marketing processes digitally regardless of the type of your business, irrespective of whether you transact online or send them invoices. But while transitioning to e-commerce, one of the resistance you will face is the adoption of e-commerce, as your sales team is likely to derail your efforts because of a conflict of their interests. To be successful with your ecommerce journey, you need to create an organizational strategy and co...
Jul 27, 2021•42 min•Ep. 113
Send us Fan Mail If you are embarking on the journey of your digital transformation, you will have several options. You can either work directly with the software provider and utilize their implementation team or work through a consulting company. Both approaches have their pros and cons, and the process requires due diligence from your side to ensure that the company you are hiring truly understands your business and is qualified to implement your project. In today's episode, we have our guest,...
Jul 26, 2021•43 min•Ep. 112
Send us Fan Mail Some enterprise software vendors provide their professional services, while others rely on resellers and system integrators. If you are evaluating your enterprise architecture, one key decision you will need to make would be to work directly with OEMs or software producers vs. consulting companies. While working with OEMs, you don't have to deal with multiple companies, but they could be expensive, not as skilled, or flexible. On the other hand, with so many system integrators o...
Jul 23, 2021•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 111
Send us Fan Mail The journey of e-commerce requires you to think about your processes starting from your sales to production. While selling online is a big part of it, that's not the only component of e-commerce. In fact, you don't need to always pay online with e-commerce, especially with B2B businesses with complex products. With such companies, the major component of digital commerce requires enabling online quoting. The online quoting processes include configurable products in the self-serve...
Jul 22, 2021•58 min•Ep. 110
Send us Fan Mail The digital journey is more than simply identifying technologies and implementing them. The most challenging part of any digital initiative, especially if it involves customer interaction, is understanding customer behavior and what drives them to engage with your brand and make a purchase. Making assumptions or not involving your customer experience and service professionals in your digital strategy initiatives fires back as they are closest to your customers. In today's episod...
Jul 21, 2021•51 min•Ep. 109
Send us Fan Mail When it comes to meeting timely growth targets, pricing is an essential and powerful tool for marketers. Also, in the world of e-commerce, where you might not have as much relationship leverage and location advantage, pricing strategy becomes critical. When we think about pricing and discounting strategies, I am sure you are perhaps thinking of BOGO and B2C, but pricing strategies are even more complex in the world of B2B with account and contract complications. In today's episo...
Jul 20, 2021•39 min•Ep. 108
