Send us Fan Mail How hard could managing your business bank accounts be? Just run your EFT, receive your statements, and match your transactions. Right? Well, bank account management could get extremely nuanced as well. For example, if you are not set up positive pay, your accounts could get locked down for several days. Sure, you will get your money back if you have had a fraudulent transaction. But the money might not be available for months. So what do you need to know to set manage your bank...
Oct 27, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 408
Send us Fan Mail Do you know an eCommerce platform that is open-source and targeted at SMBs? Do you know an eCommerce platform originated in France? Do you know an open-source platform that has thousands of installations? Do you know an eCommerce platform that makes money primarily from selling add-ons? Do you know an eCommerce platform that is built on PHP but not on Magento? If you guessed PrestaShop, then you are right. In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a ...
Oct 26, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 407
Send us Fan Mail Which ERP system has been in the market for more than 20 years? And designed from the perspective of job shops? It is the ERP that was built by shop owners who had owned a shop before. It is the ERP that gets its name from its owners' last name. It is also the ERP that would be fit for smaller shops and that ECi acquired in 2000. Which one did you guess? If you have guessed, E2 Shoptech. Then you are right. In today's episode, we invited a panel of industry experts for a live di...
Oct 25, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 406
Send us Fan Mail The ERP needs of make-to-order manufacturers are completely different from the make-to-stock ones. The make-to-order manufacturers need to collaborate with their customers during the design phase. And even after finalizing the design, there might be several change orders. These iterative changes make planning extremely difficult for the make-to-order manufacturers. And understanding these nuances is extremely critical to implement an ERP for make-to-order manufacturers. In today...
Oct 24, 2022•42 min•Ep. 405
Send us Fan Mail If you ask anyone what's most important for a business, they will have a million different answers. The answers could be things such as marketing, engineering, quality, and employee experience. But if there is one thing that matters more than anything else, it's cash. Either you have it, or you don't. You can fake marketing. You can fake revenue. You can fake success. But you can't fake cash. In today's episode, we invited a panel of cross-functional experts for a live interview...
Oct 20, 2022•56 min•Ep. 404
Send us Fan Mail Do you know a headless platform that has received millions of dollars in funding in the last two years? Do you know a headless platform that is equally strong with B2B and B2C but primarily targeted at retail-centric brands? Do you know a headless platform that has logos such as GNC, McDonald's, and BodyBuilding.com? But it's not commercetools, Spryker, or Elastic Path? So which one is it? If you have guessed fabric, then you are right. In today's episode, we invited a panel of ...
Oct 19, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 403
Send us Fan Mail Which ERP is designed for people-centric industries in mind? It is the one that Oracle acquired. And got two major ERP brands in one go. In fact, this brand was so big that they ended up rebranding some of JD Edward's ERP assets to this one. This is also the Workday of the 80s and 90s. And the first Windows HRMS application in the era when most other systems were mainframe-based. In fact, the founder of this ERP co-founded Workday. Any guesses yet? If you guessed PeopleSoft, the...
Oct 18, 2022•59 min•Ep. 402
Send us Fan Mail 3D should always be better than the 2D experience, especially for the furniture and home goods industry. This industry also has one of the highest return rates even if there might not be anything fundamentally wrong with the product. Sometimes it’s the perception of the measurement or fabric that might turn off some of the customers. The 3D experience allows companies not only to help their customers visualize the product. But it also helps in increasing bag size as the furnitur...
Oct 17, 2022•47 min•Ep. 401
Send us Fan Mail How important is the general ledger to your organization? You might not care until you get a huge bill from your tax department for incorrectly coding an expense. Or you come to know that your financial position might not be as strong as you thought. The correct setup of the chart of accounts determines how much admin effort you would have with your accounting. In fact, it's the foundation of the ERP system implementation. If you lump everything under one account, you might lose...
Oct 13, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 400
Send us Fan Mail Do you know an eCommerce platform that is open source and built on PHP? Do you know an eCommerce platform that is very strong with B2B features with complex approval flows? Do you know an eCommerce platform that can bump up the products in the search list based on the score of product attributes? Do you know an eCommerce platform that can have a separate landing page for different users and customer types? If you have guessed Magento, then it's not right. It's OroCommerce. In to...
Oct 12, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 399
Send us Fan Mail Do you know a Sage product that has multiple location functionality but is not designed for multiple countries? Do you know a Sage product that has multiple versions of its products for different countries? Do you know a Sage product that is targeted for distribution, agriculture, and light manufacturing and has a SQL-server-based database? Do you know a Sage product that has rich functionality for on-prem but may not be as rich in the cloud just yet? Would it be Sage 50, 100, 2...
Oct 11, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 398
Send us Fan Mail ERP implementation is easy. Anyone can do it. But, ironically, anyone can fail it as well. So how can ERP implementation be so easy and difficult at the same time? There are several reasons. But the core reason is how ERP systems are selected and implemented. Most companies follow a checklist approach. And this approach often results into hit or miss scenarios because creating a generalized checklist approach for ERP implementation is nearly impossible, especially for the proces...
Oct 10, 2022•51 min•Ep. 397
Send us Fan Mail How hard could it be to manage the vendor side of processes? Well, sometimes, it could be more complex than your customer side of processes, especially for B2C businesses. Also, it might vary based on your industry, product type, and supply chain. You might need to make arrangements such as prepayment. The R&D side of processes could be completely different from operational processes. You might want to have complex arrangements such as pre-printed shipping labels or packagin...
Oct 06, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 396
Send us Fan Mail The B2B companies have needs for eCommerce functionality such as catalog management, saving of carts, and complex product variants. But do catalog management needs vary even among B2B companies? While there are solutions that can promise catalog management, there are very few solutions that have gone as far as decoupling these three completely. This is where Elastic Path lives to its name in providing true elasticity to headless experiences. But how does it compare with other he...
Oct 05, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 395
Send us Fan Mail The number of installations for an ERP is a metric that is often used as a purchase criterion. But it can often be misleading. Misinterpreted. Misunderstood. Also, the product sold to small-to-medium-sized businesses is likely to have a higher number of installs because of the larger customer base. How about different geographies? Is that also a factor? Yes, the products sold in developing countries are also likely to have a higher number of customers due to the market being fra...
Oct 04, 2022•59 min•Ep. 394
Send us Fan Mail 70% of the ERP implementation time is spent on testing the functionality. In fact, some people might argue that most of them manual data entry with ERP can be automated. But it’s easier said than done. Because of the rigidness of the ERP data, even manual testing could be extremely challenging. Also, the testers who might not have as much background might not understand why it’s so hard to design test cases for ERP systems. With ERPs, you not only need to know how to write good ...
Oct 03, 2022•46 min•Ep. 393
Send us Fan Mail Account receivable functions should be as easy as sending a bunch of invoices, making a few phone calls, and collecting cash. It must be the easiest job in the world, right? Well, once you get into the nuances of billing, you will quickly realize that it can get very complex with different payment arrangements, payment schedules, and partial payment options. Each industry may have its own requirements on how AR is supposed to be done. Each ERP system is likely to treat the AR pr...
Sep 29, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 392
Send us Fan Mail Shopify is the name that is now synonymous with eCommerce. Shopify is so easy that you can get up and running within hours and start selling. You also probably don't need the coding background to start selling on Shopify. Then you have thousands of apps that are pre-integrated. But as you add more apps, the cost increases. Also, you might be limited with your options unless you use Shopify Plus, which is relatively expensive. So would Shopify be the right fit for any businesses?...
Sep 28, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 391
Send us Fan Mail Most people underestimate the role of products or services in defining your processes' structure. This is also probably the reason why most industries would have comparable operations. And as a result, they would be using a similar ERP system. For example, the needs of FMCG distributors are likely to be different from industrial distributors. While most distributors might have similar processes, their processes might vary based on the industry served. This is also perhaps the re...
Sep 27, 2022•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 390
Send us Fan Mail COVID has taught us that Supply Chain issues can shake the whole economy. And everyone is attacking Supply Chain issues from their perspective. And sometimes it’s very hard to understand how these solutions will collectively solve the overarching issues within Supply Chain. One of the most critical perspectives that are often missed when we talk about production scheduling is of the buyer who is responsible for procuring materials and ensuring that the shop floor has the materia...
Sep 26, 2022•49 min•Ep. 389
Send us Fan Mail If you cut any materials on your shop floor, you might have nesting software to reduce waste. But the admin efforts increased by a standalone nesting software might eliminate the benefits of reducing waste. Also, if you have multiple software on your shop floors, such as MES, QMS, EAM, nesting, SPC, etc., it might be harder to create the roles and responsibilities of different systems with a clear source of authority. This is especially harder due to the amount of back and forth...
Sep 22, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 388
Send us Fan Mail BigCommerce is the name you will hear in the B2B space. But does BigCommerce have the same options as some of the other sophisticated platforms such as Magento, with a security layer to enable procurement flows, quoting functionality, and catalog release process? Even for the omnichannel experience, you might need an external POS. But one thing it does offer is a very strong variant layer, which might be helpful for brands that might offer customizable options for each style. Th...
Sep 21, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 387
Send us Fan Mail When an ERP system uses a specific buzzword or something that customers might relate to, it's typically the marketing hype. And not really the strength of the product. For example, several cloud products might include a "cloud" word, even if they might be legacy products. Just to prey on uninformed customers! But there is one system that really lives to its name called Infor Visual. That has similar visual capabilities and organization that is rare to find in smaller software pa...
Sep 20, 2022•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 386
Send us Fan Mail There are many different business models for how each ERP vendor promotes its products. Some like to go direct to the customers with their own professional services team while the others only sell through their partners. While not common, some vendors also have OEM arrangements, which is similar to the technology licensing business model, where a distributor may have exclusive rights to modify the product and white label with their branding. This additional layer of complexity m...
Sep 19, 2022•41 min•Ep. 385
Send us Fan Mail eCommerce consultants have been the most enthusiastic about the importance of product configurators. How this is a need for every custom manufacturer. But product configurator comes in many shapes and sizes. A product configurator could be a simple form on a WordPress site that sends out an email to the backend team. Or a 3D configurator with a live product experience. Just like the way you would experience in the Virtual Reality world. But while talking about configurator exper...
Sep 15, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 384
Send us Fan Mail If you were to name the top 2-3 eCommerce platforms, I am pretty sure you would have Magento on your list. Sure there are always going to be pros and cons of every single platform, but you might find a lot more pros with Magento than cons. The pros are going to be especially applicable for businesses with complex products and catalogs. The businesses that are B2B are likely to benefit from Magento's capabilities. But can Magento be a good replacement for companies exploring ente...
Sep 14, 2022•58 min•Ep. 383
Send us Fan Mail Sage 50 is the household name for companies that might be in the revenue range of up to $10 million. In fact, there was a time when Sage 50 literally meant that the software was designed for companies with up to 50 users. But some companies may use it even after they outgrow that mark. Sage 50 competes with QuickBooks desktop and will have all the problems that QuickBooks Desktop is likely to have. These problems are likely to become severe with the interaction of offline and on...
Sep 13, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 382
Send us Fan Mail Creating good content takes time, effort, and investment. But targeting the right content for the right target buyer and prospect is even harder. Because how do you know which prospect might care for which piece of content? Also, even if they might care about a specific topic today, they might move on from that topic in the future. And this makes engagement marketing super hard. But artificial intelligence is changing that in helping curate content and distributing to the approp...
Sep 12, 2022•33 min•Ep. 381
Send us Fan Mail Outside process management is a critical process for manufacturers. It's hard for them to run their operations without the support for this process. But you will be shocked how many ERP systems don't support this process natively. Despite their claims that they all are designed to work for any industry. So what are the nuances when it comes to outside process management? And how involved does it get across the industries? Can you manage it outside of the ERP? In today's episode,...
Sep 08, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 380
Send us Fan Mail Consulting companies have never been good at selling products. IBM is a classic example. They have always struggled with their true identity. While they were one of the strongest engineering organizations, just like BlackBerry, product marketing is a different skill. And that's probably the reason why they ended up selling all of their software assets to other organizations.' WebSphere Commerce is one example. At one point in time, WebSphere Commerce used to be the gold standard...
Sep 07, 2022•1 hr•Ep. 379
