The new dynamic of today’s global economy is one of constant change; where the pace of innovation that once took years to yield new technologies, marketable products and services is growing exponentially. Underlying this new economy are significant shifts that require fast-growing small to midsized enterprises (SMEs) to find new ways to increase operational efficiencies and accelerate their growth to keep pace with competition. According to Gartner, soaring data volumes associated with more business transactions are estimated to increase by a staggering 650% over the next five years. Coupled with the expectation for instant access to accurate information across the entire supply chain, SMEs are faced with obtaining immediate business insight into large volumes of operational data.
By adopting a real-time business approach, whereby a company conducts a range of business activities in real-time, including the gathering and acting upon business intelligence, SMEs can achieve benefits at both operational and management levels. Supporting real-time business operations is in-memory analytics, which takes a different approach than traditional business intelligence systems. Rather than storing business data on various external disks and caching bits of data in a computer’s random access memory (RAM), real-time intelligence puts the data directly into RAM. Technological innovations in computing power and storage have made it possible to store large amounts of data in RAM than ever before, and as a result SMEs have access to extremely fast query responses.
Effectively managing big data is no longer reserved just for large enterprises. SMEs have many advantages over larger competitors and now leveraging SAP Business One with HANA, they have access to big company performance priced to meet the needs of small businesses. SAP Business One, version for HANA enables SMEs to perform real-time analysis on very large volumes of transactional data with zero impact on business systems. By allowing businesses to move from after-event analysis to real-time decision making, business users are empowered to react immediately to changing market opportunities.
SAP Business One, version for HANA benefits SMEs across many industries including:
- Better demand forecasting based on huge data volumes
- Real-time risk management for businesses that are closing new policies, and quicker calculation of cumulated risks in corresponding areas
- Improved trade promotions and supply chain management processes for product companies using advanced forecasting algorithms based on point-of-sale data.
Additionally, businesses that currently employ SAP Business One and SMEs that are new users to the platform do not have to be concerned with outgrowing SAP. The SAP HANA platform has been designed for scalability, easily handling more data and delivering even better performance as more users access the software at the same time. This means that as your workforce expands and more users access the system, you won’t have to worry about outgrowing SAP Business One.
To learn more about how businesses are now adopting real-time decision making through business systems that support in-memory technology for faster processing times read the Oxford Economics whitepaper; “Real-time Business”.
In contuning Vision33's Top 5 Best New Features in SAP Business One 9.0 as determined by the Vision33 TOTAL CARE Team, this post will focus on the first new feature, Advanced Account G/L Determination. Advanced Account G/L Determination allows businesses to view all of their financial accounts in one centralized module instead of individual modules like in the current version of SAP Business One. Along with the centralization of the financial accounts, SAP Business One 9.0 added new rules/determinations (map by BP Groups, Ship to Country and Ship to State) for determining which transactions should go to which accounts. The implementation of primary and secondary priorities for these rules determines the allocations to each account. Overall, this feature allows users to segregate G/L accounts based on the rules/determinations set, for example, segregating the Sales Revenue Account by Country, State, Item, or Business Partner Groups.
The series of images to follow demonstrates the functionality of Advanced G/L Account Determination. Additionally, you can view the live web chat hosted by Vision33 to gain even more insight into this new feature.
Enable Advanced G/L Determination
To enable Advanced G/L Account Determination you must go under Administration -> System Information -> Company Details -> Check "Enable Advanced G/L Account Determination." Once the box is checked you can access the Advanced G/L Account menu.
Access G/L Account Determination Main Window
To access the G/L Account Determination main window you go to Administration -> Setup -> Financials -> G/L Account Determination. This window will list all of your standard accounts, all of which can be assigned rules. These rules allow you to fine tune your accounts and structure them the way that is most applicable to your business.
Advanced G/L Account Determination Rules and Criteria
To access and setup rules for your accounts you need to open up the Rules. To do this you click "Advanced" in the G/L Account Determination main window. Doing this will open up the Rules window and from there you can setup rules that are specific to a particular account. Within this window you can set priorities for each account which will determine the allocation of resources to chosen accounts. Furthermore, you can add additional priorities by opening the Determination Criteria window. The priorities within the Determination Criteria window are considered primary priorities, while the priorities within in the Rules window are considered secondary priorities. In SAP Business One 9.0 new rules for allocating by BP Groups, Ship to Country and Ship to State have been added, giving you more options for your accounting journal entries.
Overall, SAP Business One 9.0 provides a flexible and centralized system to manage inventory G/L Account Determination with ease resulting in more accurate G/L accounts.
Vision33 Live Web Chat: Advanced G/L Account Determination in SAP Business One 9.0
In this webchat, Vision33 goes over:
- Setup of Advanced Account G/L Account Determination
- How to access Advanced G/L Account Determination
- Tips and Tricks on how to use the new feature
The small to midsized enterprises (SMES) sector is one of the fastest growing business sectors; that represents new opportunities for innovation and growth. Despite the often high level of competition that exists in this space, SMEs remain optimistic. The recent episode of Coffee Break with Game-changers hosted by Bonnie D. Graham, focused on the current SME space. It discussed the momentum this sector has been experiencing, and the importance for innovative and growing companies to continue growing - lest they be overcome by their competitors.
According to Aviva Freudmann, Research Director for the Economist Intelligence Unit, despite economic challenges facing the space, research demonstrates that businesses are optimistic about their prospects, focusing on growing sales revenue. “Starting and running a small business is like riding a bicycle. You either move forward or you fall down” stated Freudmann.
However, such views are not replete with baseless optimism; indeed SMEs have many reasons to have a positive outlook on their future prospects. According to Vision33 TOTAL CARE Manager, Carl Lewis, SMEs have several advantages over large enterprises. Decision making for one is much quicker; adopting things such as automation, workflow and mobility into the mix is possible at a much lower price point than the competition. Even without dedicated IT resources or an IT department, SMEs are able to leverage the benefits of technology to support their growth through new deployment models for ERP solutions. This infrastructure enables SMEs to deploy quickly and support operations on a global scale, maximizing their investments in IT.
Furthering the point, Kevin Gilroy Senior Vice President of Global Channel Operations SAP stated that, “SMEs have to change their mindset regarding IT in order to excel, understanding that IT is their friend, not their foe.” Vision33 supports a number of attractive and cost-effective SAP on premise ERP solutions, such as SAP Business One; cloud systems like SAP Business ByDesign; and hybrid solutions including SAP Business One onDemand. These solutions take into consideration the requirement of SMEs to be capital efficient by providing the flexibility to keep variable costs low and allowing the company to scale rapidly.
Listen to the full recording of SAP Business One - Defying Gravity: SMEs Go Global to get more insight on trends facing SMEs and to find out how you can support your business growth and keep up your business' momentum.
The upcoming release of SAP Business One 9.0 showcases SAP’s continued investment in the core functions of what makes SAP Business One the single integrated software system that SMEs need to help see their business more clearly, and accelerate their growth. Focusing on the needs of small to midsized enterprises to streamline business processes, gain instant access to complete and accurate information, increase profitability and manage resources more efficiently, SAP has made a number of improvements in Version 9.0 to ensure these needs are met. Version 9.0 demonstrates significant improvements in core business logic, reporting and analytical functions, providing a more user-friendly system with increased performance and lower total cost of ownership. In addition, the enhancements made to the core functions of Business One also provide key benefits which are highlighted in the diagram below:
Over the next five blog posts, we will highlight the Top 5 Best New Features in SAP Business One 9.0 as determined by the Vision33 TOTAL Care team, who manage more than 500 SAP Business One customers. Check back for a closer look at some of the new features of the new version.
It is said that anything growing, grows exponentially. While this is true for small to midsized enterprises (SMEs) that are successful in the marketplace, the same is not true for the accounting software they use to run their business. While using multiple out-of-the-box business software may enable SMEs to support their business operations early on, these applications lack the scalability and essential features necessary to support businesses’ continued growth. As an SAP gold channel partner, Vision33 has helped hundreds of businesses achieve their goals for growth with a single enterprise resource planning solution; such as SAP Business One. In looking at recent recipients of the Vision33 Visionary Customer Awards 2013, it is possible to see the exemplary ways in which businesses have achieved their goals for growth by leveraging the powerful business intelligence gathered from SAP Business One.
For instance, one of the many challenges facing SMEs comes amidst expanding operations to new markets, or countries. During this process, businesses often lack operational transparency when each new office is managed from a central database at head office. In this circumstance, simple inquires such as stock position, outstanding sales and purchase orders are not readily available to the employees who need them. By association, use of spreadsheets, to manually determine manufacturing Resource Planning (MRP) decisions increases the probability of inaccurate current and projected stock positions.
By adopting SAP Business One, SMEs can overcome these challenges by supporting the creation of multiple localized databases that are connected to allow for intercompany transactions between companies, customers and vendors. This decentralized approach provides an accurate picture of a business’s current and future stock needs for each individual office, based on outstanding sales and purchase orders resulting in accurate MRP forecasting.
Another challenge SMEs can overcome with an ERP solution like SAP Business One relates to inventory management. Without an integrated business management solution, forecasting minimum stock levels for key customers and order fulfillment requirements are often based in inaccurate estimates. Without the appropriate business management solution some businesses resort to physically setting aside inventory in the warehouse to ensure that they are able to meet their orders.
With SAP Business One, businesses can use multiple warehouses for key customers, both minimum stock levels and stock needed for order fulfillment, managing them outside of the general warehouse in SAP Business One. This provides more accurate ‘available to promise’ dates for non-key customers and ensuring the ability to deliver to key customers as previously promised.
What these two examples illustrate is that challenges faced by SMEs as they grow can be addressed by real-time access to information gathered through SAP Business One reporting features. Discussed in greater detail in the article Mastering the Art of Reporting, SMEs that implement SAP Business One in their organization have access to powerful reports that provide access to information that meets the needs of a multitude of different decision makers in your organization.
To learn more about how other Vision33 award winners are leveraging SAP Business One to overcome business challenges and achieve continued business growth read the full Visionary Awards announcement.
Leading provider of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Solutions for Small to Midsized Businesses announces the winners of its annual customer awards: Diono LLC, Envelopments Inc., FreshOne LLC, Pro-face, and TEAM Enterprises.
Irvine, CA – March 26, 2013 – Vision33 Inc., an SAP gold channel partner and leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for the small to midsized enterprise (SME) market, today announced the winners of its annual Visionary customer awards program. Recipients are recognized for best use of the SAP® Business One application in obtaining valuable insight to drive their company growth and achieve business goals. The winners this year include Diono, Envelopments, FreshOne, Pro-face, and TEAM Enterprises.
“Vision33 is continually amazed by the novel ways that our clients leverage technology to drive growth and achieve measureable success. This year Vision33 is happy to present the Visionary Awards to acknowledge their effort and thought leadership in maximizing customer value delivered through technology,” commended Alex Rooney, Vice President, Vision33. “Vision33’s experienced Consultants understand how to maximize value achieved through technology and remain committed to supporting our customers through their continued success.”
Selected from amongst hundreds of valued Vision33 customers across the U.S., this year’s award winners best demonstrated new ways to leverage SAP’s transformative technology solutions implemented by one of Vision33’s 13 regional offices across the U.S:
Diono LLC (us.diono.com) – Based in Puyallup, Washington with offices around the globe, Diono manufacturers some of the safest car seats in the industry and a wide range of convenient travel accessories. Diono’s imagination, ingenuity and solid commitment to customers has resulted in many award-winning products. By continuously transforming the industry, Diono’s success has earned it four appearances on the Inc. Magazines 500 Fastest Growing Private Companies, and product availability in 54 countries. With SAP Business One now integrating its global operations, Diono is positioned for further accelerated growth. Committed to new ways to provide the most value to customers and employees, Diono has extended the reach of its SAP Business One data through zedSuite Portal solutions.
Envelopments Inc. (envelopments.com) – Located in Santa Ana, California, Envelopments is a build-to-order manufacturer of custom communiqués and exemplary paper presentations offering the largest selection of custom enclosures, card stocks, papers and envelopes. Envelopments is the pioneer of the mix and match system of paper products, ideas and related tools, all while focusing on quality, unsurpassed customer service and extremely fast fulfillment. In its continued effort to deliver greater value to its customers, Envelopments has leveraged SAP Business One to obtain insight to predict and manage inventory on a minimum level so that they can reduce excess inventory costs and achieve a shorter turnaround for customer orders.
FreshOne LLC (fresh-one.com) – Located in Dallas, Texas, FreshOne is a grocery and convenience store wholesaler that provides custom pre-packaged, fresh food products and related value added services on a nationwide basis. FreshOne’s focus is to provide its customers with quality products and build long-term relationships, while working with them to find the most profitable solution. FreshOne has been taking advantage of the flexible accounts receivable capabilities in SAP Business One, which allows transactions to be sent and received electronically – importing hundreds and sometimes thousands of orders in just minutes. As a result, FreshOne has become a greener company that operates more efficiently with very little printing.
Pro-face (profaceamerica.com) – headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Pro-face, a division of Schneider Electric, is a leading global supplier of a broad range of industrial automation hardware and software solutions. Pro-face is supported by 17 major offices and over 1,200 representatives around the world and offers leading industry technology products. As a proven and trusted industry innovator with more than 40 years of experience, Pro-face’s solutions are installed in the world’s most recognized manufacturing facilities. Keeping pace with its innovative technology, Pro-face now employs SAP Business One to accept orders from a multitude of channels including direct, distributors, representatives and installers. Pro-face is now able to deliver an exceptional end-customer experience through integrating SAP Business One with its eCommerce solution, zed eCommerce (zedsuite.com), for a truly integrated sales platform.
TEAM Enterprises (teamenterprises.com) – located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, TEAM Enterprises is a global marketing provider with over 400 full-time employees and 6,500 event specialists located in every major city across the U.S. From traditional sampling or mobile tours to the most innovative high-tech engagements, TEAM Enterprises employs a full palette of tools to ensure client brands resonates with the consumer. Viewing SAP Business One as central to its global operation, TEAM Enterprises has further leveraged the application by empowering employees to enter time and expenses through zedSuite’s portfolio of Web solutions for SAP Business One. Additionally, TEAM Enterprises connected its ADP payroll solution to SAP Business One, which eliminated many hours of manual data manipulation. This has enabled TEAM Enterprises time to focus on moving forward with new initiatives, adding value to its client base and improving overall profitability.
“We congratulate this year’s winners of Vision33’s Visionary customer awards, all of which are also SAP Business One customers,” said Mark Milford, National Vice president, North America Ecosystem Group, SAP. “This award program created by Vision33 embodies the customer-centric values we promote within the SAP PartnerEdge® program. As an SAP channel partner for SAP Business One, Vision33 has empowered many small businesses to implement the solution and achieve their objectives of improved growth, lower costs and a better understanding of business processes.”
About Vision33
Headquartered in Irvine, California, Vision33 Inc. (vision-33.com) is a leading business management software solutions provider, focused on reselling and supporting the SAP® Business One application and the SAP Business ByDesign® solution. Through its 13 offices located throughout the U.S., Vision33 provides software and consulting services to enable small to midsized businesses to gain immediate benefits in better managing and growing their businesses.
As an SAP gold channel partner, Vision33 has more than 500 customers throughout the U.S. Vision33 has been consistently honored for its notable growth and dedication, earning titles and awards such as the SAP North America Partner Excellence Award 2013: Top Channel Partner – SAP Business One; SAP Business One Partner of the Year, U.S., in 2012; Accounting Today’s Top VAR 100 List; INC500/5000 fastest growing company lists; the Orange County Business Journal Fastest Growing Company List; and recognized as a finalist for a 2012 SAP Pinnacle award in the category “SAP PartnerEdge® Global Fastest Growing Reselling Partner of Year.”
Vision33 is a member of the Group zed family of companies. With roots dating to 1992, Group zed (www.gzed.com) is a privately owned and operated corporation, which provides its family of industry leading companies with the strategic vision and tools to deliver on the promise of technology to customers, setting them apart from other industry peers.
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SAP, ByDesign, PartnerEdge and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
SAP Forward-looking Statement
Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as “anticipate,” “believe,” “estimate,” “expect,” “forecast,” “intend,” “may,” “plan,” “project,” “predict,” “should” and “will” and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.
For more information, Press Only: Sarah Coish +1 (949) 420-3000, sarah.coish@vision-33.com
SAP Business One, version for SAP HANA or B1H is available now! A revolutionary platform that’s best suited for performing real-time analytics, and developing and deploying real-time applications. At the core of this real-time data platform is the SAP HANA database which is fundamentally different than any other database engine in the market today.
This new version of HANA sits alongside the previous HANA solutions such as SAP Business One Analytics powered by SAP HANA. In the case of SAP Businesse One ANalytics powered by SAP HANA, the application replicated the SQL database to a HANA database - the reporting burden placed on a Business One SQL database is 100% offloaded to the HANA server. Additionally, this version delivered some really powerful new analytic tools, providing immensely more powerful, fast reporting and providing a new platform for all reports and analytics for the future.
Now there is another option for small to midsized enterprises, with the new Business One on HANA, a comprehensive one-box in-memory solution. With this application, Microsoft SQL is eliminted and the entire SAP Business One database is moved in-memory. In every way, this in-memory database is faster and more productive than SQL running on traditional hard drives.
Both of these HANA solutions will help SAP Business One users continue to scale their busiensses and run on SAP business One for many more years to come.
We hope to see a migration path from Microsoft SQL systems to HANA B1H systems in the near future. At present, exisitng customers can none-the-less redeploy should they want to move to the Business One on HANA while SAP Business One customers can add the SAP Business One Analytics powered by SAP HANA and immediately take advantage of the powerful new tools.
Customer-centric, BTO manufacturer of personalized communiqués and paper presentations achieves unprecedented 14-minute lead time following implementation of customized SAP ERP application in partnership with Vision33
Irvine, CA – March 18, 2013 – Vision33, recent recipient of the SAP® North America Partner Excellence Award 2013: Top Channel Partner – SAP Business One, today announced a milestone in its partnership with Envelopments Inc. following its successful implementation of the SAP Business One application. With SAP Business One, the Santa Ana-based leading build-to-order manufacturer of custom communiqués and high-end paper products, now has complete operational visibility needed to reduce its inventory holding costs, support new sales business processes, and reduce production time.
Envelopments Inc. began its operations in 1993, pioneering custom communiqués and paper presentations through a design outlet in the Irvine-based retailer, Elements. Introducing signature products such as the Envelopments Pocket Folds® Enclosures and creating the first mix and match custom invitation system led Envelopments to early success.
Investing in a more robust infrastructure to support its growing operations included larger warehousing to store inventory, add manufacturing processes, and developing an extensive Dealer/Designer network to expand their product line and sales channels. However without a solid, scalable business management software platform to manage its business growth, Envelopments did not have a free-flow of information necessary to control inventory and production costs, manage its vendor and customer relationships, or further scale its operations.
“As we grew we were falling behind with our data flow and orders; having to hold large amounts of inventory to prevent stock-outs resulting in increasing costs – this had to do with the lack of good reporting with our out-of-the-box accounting package which did not provide customized reporting or the business intelligence needed to support our scale of operations,” recalls Mark Smith, Co-Founder, President, Envelopments. “Our goal then was to implement a business management solution that would enable us to better manage our data starting with order entry through manufacturing processes all the way to shipping and at the same time provide the company with the ability to customize reporting to obtain business intelligence to support our specific business processes.”
As a part of the implementation process, a business process optimization was conducted in which Envelopments business process was dismantled and analyzed to determine where improvements could be made. This process underpins Vision33’s role as a partner to challenge how manufacturers such as Envelopments operate in effort to streamline their business. “The real value in working with a well-known implementation partner like Vision33 is its expertise in the implementation of SAP Business One,” said Mark Smith. “The application provides a platform that gives us the functionality that a manufacturer needs now but also the extensibility to enable us to support custom processes and do business our way.”
Coming from a retail background, Envelopments’ focus has always been on how to improve the quality of the products and services delivered to the customer. “With SAP Business One we now have complete operational visibility across our business, enabling us to predict and manage inventory on a minimum level so that we can eliminate excess holding costs,” added Tom Johns, Vice President Business Development & Operations, Envelopments. “Now, when an order is made through our website, in many cases we have achieved turnaround with the order processed and waiting for shipping in about 14 minutes; that’s real value for our customers.”
With the implementation of SAP Business One now complete, Vision33 continues to work closely with Envelopments to find ways to further optimize its existing processes and open new business channels into the future. “By leveraging business management technology to support its growing business operations, Envelopments has demonstrated its commitment to delivering even greater value to its customer base,” concluded Jeff Denes, General Manager of South West Region, Vision33. “We are excited to continue working with a dedicated, fellow Orange County business such as Envelopments and helping achieve its customer-centric goals for growth.”
To learn more, read the Envelopments customer success story.
About Envelopments
Located in Santa Ana, California, Envelopments Inc. (www.envelopments.com) is a build-to-order manufacturer of custom communiqués and exemplary paper presentations offering the largest selection of custom enclosures, card stocks, papers and envelops created with a designer’s palette of more than 250 stocks. Envelopments is the pioneer of the mix and match system of paper products, ideas and related tools all the while focusing on quality, unsurpassed customer service and extremely fast fulfillment.
Through an extensive network of dealers and designers and direct to consumer sales, Envelopments delivers its products and services such as the Envelopments Pocket Folds® Enclosures to cater to those who wish to communicate a message in unique and creative ways; from brides sending wedding invitations to businesses wanting to spread the word of a big corporate event.
Envelopments nurtures a creative, collaborative environment, which provides their staff, business partners and customers the opportunity to grow and enjoy the personal and professional rewards resulting from the company’s excellence serving all 52 states across the US and doing business in 33 countries across the globe.
About Vision33
Headquartered in Irvine, California, Vision33 Inc. (www.vision-33.com) is a leading business management software solutions provider, focused on reselling and supporting the SAP Business One application and the SAP Business ByDesign® solution. Through its 13 offices located throughout the U.S., Vision33 provides software and consulting services to enable small to midsized businesses to gain immediate benefits in better managing and growing their businesses.
As an SAP gold channel partner, Vision33 has more than 500 customers throughout the U.S. Vision33 has been consistently honored for its notable growth and dedication, earning titles and awards such as being named the SAP Business One Partner of the Year, U.S., in 2012; Accounting Today’s Top VAR 100 List; INC500/5000 fastest growing company lists; the Orange County Business Journal Fastest Growing Company List; and recognized as a finalist for a 2012 SAP Pinnacle award in the category “SAP PartnerEdge® Global Fastest Growing Reselling Partner of Year.”
Vision33 is a member of the Group zed family of companies. With roots dating to 1992, Group zed (www.gzed.com) is a privately owned and operated corporation, which provides its family of industry leading companies with the strategic vision and tools to deliver on the promise of technology to customers, setting them apart from other industry peers.
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SAP, ByDesign, PartnerEdge and all SAP logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
For more information, Press only: Sarah Coish +1 (949) 420-3000, sarah.coish@vision-33.com
Business and IT alignment has been an important consideration for businesses for more than 30 years. With a rapid pace of technological innovation, businesses are tasked with determining how to best leverage opportunities to improve the alignment of technology with business to achieve success. While research suggests a strong correlation between alignment maturity and an organization’s performance, the benefits need not be exclusively available to large enterprises that have access to the resources to invest in business technology. Business management applications designed and priced with small to midsized businesses in mind are driving the trend forward.
There are a number of reasons for which SMEs strive for alignment between IT and their business operation such as; automating manual processes to free up time to grow their business, accessing information from across their business processes to inform business decisions in addition to building and maintaining customer relationships. Take for example IT Solutions provider Virtual Graffiti Inc; as a fast-growing business on the prestigious Inc.5000 list, it needed to align its business with a technology solution that would not only run its business better, but also help improve the customer experience.
Vision33’s Virtual Graffiti customer success story highlights how the company was able to align its business processes with ERP software to enable the automation of sales processes so that it can focus on its core competencies; providing exceptional IT solutions to its customer base. With SAP Business One, Virtual Graffiti has much better control and visibility across its entire business; filling in the information gap that had delayed customer order fulfillment in the past. This helps manage relationships with prospects and customers, resulting in an improvement in customer satisfaction.
The importance of businesses leveraging technology to create an exceptional customer experience is furthered by both president and CEO of Virtual Graffiti and Vision33’s own Carl Lewis, manager of Vision33’s TOTAL Care customer service program. During their appearance on the SAP Coffee Break with Game Changers, each gave a perspective on the topic that creating an exceptional customer experience can provide small to midsized businesses with a sustainable competitive advantage and enable them to maintain success against larger competitors that take advantage of their economies of scale.
While business and technology alignment is a trend that will likely remain important well into the future, technology alone does not drive business success in isolation. Next time, we will discuss how businesses without an IT department or IT skills can maximize the benefit achieved from leveraging business technology with a certified ERP implementation partner.
Over the last several weeks, Vision33 has focused on sharing business insights gathered from both our business management software implementation consultants as well as from the latest industry research on business trends that represent important considerations for small to midsized businesses for 2013 and beyond.
To recap, the business technology trends previously identified for 2013 were found to fall into the following areas:
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Continued adoption of cloud computing
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Focus on business agility and speed to market
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IT and business alignment
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Maximizing benefits from IT system
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Business productivity & maximizing expenditure
Previously, the Vision33 blog series focused on the continued adoption of cloud computing, analyzing in more detail why it continues to be a top trend for 2013. The analysis considered the benefits that cloud computing presents for small to midsized businesses, defining its role as a deployment option for business management software such as SAP Business One, in addition to responding to myths about the cloud that may have delayed some small to midsized businesses from adoption the cloud in 2012.
While the topic for this week’s discussion centers on the growing trend for small to midsized businesses to focus on improving business agility and speed to market, it is evident that cloud computing technology is implicit in the discussion since businesses can leverage technology deployed via the cloud to respond to market opportunities and competitive threats.
Business agility and speed to market has ranked highly as a business trend for many years now - suggesting that the downturn in the US economy in recent years, and the continued uncertainty projected into 2013, has resulted in management’s concern with focusing on responsive IT approaches that can deliver immediate value. With cloud-based technologies, businesses are afforded the ability to focus on their core competencies without diverting their attention to developing technologies in house to support the scale of their growing operations. Additionally, they can easily bring online support for additional business functions incrementally which presents costs structures representative of IT budgets for small to midsized businesses.
In this way, cloud computing technologies enable small businesses to improve business agility since they can now focus their resources on their business strategy and core competencies while a vendor manages the software and hardware. Because of the resultant savings, small businesses are then able to shift more resources to innovation, essential for business survival in today’s economy. Next week it is on to IT and business alignment.