12/9/2008

Website Strategies for your Business

With the new year approaching and businesses looking for new ways to increase revenue and decrease cost for 2009, make sure that you don’t overlook the 24/7 business tool that you have in a public website.

Last week Meritide hosted a “Website and Internet Strategies for Your Business” seminar. The goal of this seminar was to provide some initial stepping stones for business leadership to evaluate and modify their website strategies around business ROI. This focus looked at how a website can be coordinated with other customer supply chain interaction including customer services, and their overall go to market strategies and internal marketing and sales efforts. This seminar did not focus on brand or product marketing or on consumer based selling --- but instead on the website as a tool to streamline the business you do with your clients and customers in a business to business relationship. Much like banks, schools, health providers, and car repair shops provide you as a home consumer with online services that you have now come to depend on and expect, you can provide dependable and valuable service to those who buy from you.

The seminar also outlined some basic best practices related to selecting technology for supporting a website or intranet strategy.

These best practices include:

build vs. BUY

· Start with your ERP or CRM systems and determine integration and business requirements

· Customization should be a differentiator, not a core approach

· Make sure that products and modules are not available for your existing packages before you build

· Be flexible in your implementation of requirements to reduce cost (80/20 rule)

static vs. DYNAMIC

· Eliminate the technical, external, or expensive bottlenecks that you may have with an easy to use CMS

· Stage more content more often because non-technical users can update the site

· Utilize new collaborative and community functionality to form a customer community

proprietary vs. OPEN

· Don’t get stuck behind based on a vendor lock-in strategy

· Select a product that is flexible, nimble, and transportable

· Make sure there are adequate resources available that know the product

Stand alone vs. INTEGRATED

· Reduce long term IT cost and IT maintenance with an integrated system

· Increase overall value to customer with real-time account information and order processing

· Reduce risk of moving data manually, rekeying data, or delayed processing

· Reduce customer service cost with automation of front end to backend process

Meritide will provide readers of this blog with a complimentary strategy assessment tool that you can use to jump start the next evolution of your website.

This strategy assessment tool is intended for business leadership and owners to use to offer business value to their customers and clients to increase revenue and decrease the cost of doing business with them. A website can be much more than an online brochure or online shopping cart and can be used as a critical application in the Customer Demand Chain. A well done website can increase customer intimacy and create a larger return on all coordinated sales, marketing, and customer service efforts.

Click here to download the assessment

We hope that this assessment can provide you with value as you look to 2009.

Posted at 2:29 PM by Neil Otto | Category: Website and Collaboration; ROI; Content Management and Portals; Order Management Systems | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

11/12/2008

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle – Part 3

Neil Otto – Solution Manager

neil.otto@meritide.com

Meritide Inc.

In many ways this “green” mantra for saving the planet provides an effective strategy for hard economic times as well. Many of us have probably started to use this concept in our activities at home whether for economic or environmental reasons. Have you stopped to think if this same strategy can increase the ROI on your IT budget to stretch it and allow you to help out your business during down economic times? This is the third of a four part series to introduce you to steps you can take within your business to reduce, reuse, and recycle the technology and software you support and have already acquired within your company.

Step 3 – Getting more out of your existing software packages and putting off large scale software implementations

Although difficult economic times can often be the opportunity to innovate with a new software package, you might not be able to guarantee the ROI or take the risk of a software selection process for new ERP, CRM or HR software. You might want to shift strategies to continuing to invest in the use of your current systems instead of moving to new software. There are several manageable and affordable options that will allow you to recycle your existing systems to get an additional two to three years worth of use out of them with a measurable ROI while weathering the economy and dealing with reduced budgets.

Re-train your employees on the use of the system

If you haven’t been training existing employees as they change positions or training new employees when they come on board there is a good chance that this lack of training is preventing them from using your systems full capabilities. This lack of training may be preventing your employees from applying the functionality of your software to address new issues or processes. Make sure your employees know every part of the software capability that aligns to their responsibilities. Make sure they have a broad enough understanding of how their role in using the software integrates to the broader business so that they can participate in innovation, automation, and increasing efficiency in the business by using the software to its fullest. If you survey your employees, even informally, you will probably find at least some of them who feel uncomfortable with their understanding of the software or who are perpetuating incorrect or inefficient use of the software. Bring in the experts to evaluate how your software is being used and to train or retrain your employees so they can use it like it was put in yesterday. Don’t let years of neglect for training or oversights in position handoff or role changes rob you of ROI from your existing system.

Expand and Enhance your current system with additional modules and third party add-ons

Do you have modules within your software that you have purchased but are not using? Are you aware of what modules your vendor provides that you may not be using? Are there companies that provide additional add-on modules for your current system? You may be able to add value to your existing core system by adding supported functionality on top of it. Take the time to get current with your vendor and understand what they can provide for your system even if it is somewhat antiquated. Do some digging and find out what third party companies are providing for your system. There are often third-party products available to specifically get more value out of legacy systems. Now might be the right time to price out some of those add-ons and modules that you didn’t put in place when your system was installed. You can also get up to date with what offerings there are for your existing system related to new technologies such as web interfaces, web services, XML integration, and workflow or performance management. You may not need to change systems or even upgrade your system to take advantage of new innovations that were not available when your system was originally installed.

Integrate (or re-integrate) your system to other systems and tools

Integration can be key if your goal is to get more efficiency out of an existing system or to streamline business process to reduce latency. Integration can also be the key to getting more timely information out of your system when you need to make important decisions. Take the time to re-evaluate your current system integrations (or lack of them) and assess where you can more fully integrate your major systems together. If you have existing integrations, you might be able to get more out of them with new technologies such as web services and XML. Make sure that the way you are doing integration is still the best way related to stability, supportability, and maintainability. Make sure your integration process allows for flexibility and can be used easily to increase the value of your systems.

Re-implement your system to retool it to your current business needs

Are you thinking about a new system because your current system doesn’t match your current business needs or process? Make sure that before you pull the plug and go through the selection and purchase of a new system that your current system can’t be retooled to meet current needs. What if you started from scratch and re-installed the system you already own? If you went through the steps of requirements gathering, implementation, training, and cut over (all required for new systems) could your current software do the job with the functionality it has? Often times dissatisfaction with large-scale software is caused by business requirements that have changed since it was first installed. Start fresh without the investment in new software purchases.

Next Week - Step 4 - Evaluating Open Source Options for short term tactical advantage

About Neil Otto -- As the Meritide Solution Manager and CTO, Neil Otto provides strategy and guidance to the Meritide organization and its clients. His area of expertise and experience relates to applying software and technology to address and solve business issues and create new business opportunities. He has worked within Meritide’s Web Enablement, Open Source, and Microsoft Stack practices and provides senior business and technology architecture consulting for our clients.

Posted at 12:34 PM by Neil Otto | Category: ROI; Order Management Systems | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

12/27/2007

No. It’s not just an online shopping cart.

Online order management systems provide your customers with the information and support they need to make informed purchasing and account decisions and ease the buying process by streamlining the information and communication exchange with your company. We know that not all products can be purchased online but that does not mean that an order management system isn’t right for your company. Order management systems go well beyond the shopping cart to provide the ability to request and receive complex and repeat quotes electronically, to monitory delivery and shipment information about an order, and to view real time account, payables, and open order statuses.

Develop your Top 10 for Customer Satisfaction

What if your customers could get the answer to their 10 ten most asked questions without picking up a phone or waiting for a response? Would they find value in that service offering? Would you find ROI in that offering through increased sales and reduced cost of customer service time? What if your sales representatives could spend more time selling instead of servicing accounts and answering repeated and common questions?

Your online order management system doesn’t have to provide full end to end electronic ordering in order to be valuable and successful. Just start with your top 10 and move forward from there. Here is an example:

1. Did you receive my most recent order and enter it correctly in your system?

2. Do I still have time to change an order before it is shipped?

3. When will my shipment leave your facility and how is it being shipped?

4. What have we ordered from your company over the last month?

5. What items have we ordered that are backordered and when can we expect them?

6. What is the amount of our current open payables to your company?

7. Did you get my last payment and what was the amount of payment?

8. Can you provide a quote on my product request?

9. Who should I call if I have a problem with an order or want to discuss your products?

10. What new items or products do you have to offer that we may be interested in!

Imagine if you had a simple online system that allowed your customers to get answers to these 10 common questions in a concise and reliable way. Would this encourage them to do more business with you? What if the answers to these 10 questions were emailed to them at their request or on a weekly or monthly schedule? Would that help you to maintain loyalty and shorten pay cycles with your customers?

Expected Services, Exceptional Results, Just the Beginning.

Do you check your bank account status online? How about your credit cards? Your children’s grades or your health benefits? You expect these services from the businesses and organizations you interact with and the chances are your future customers may expect these services from you. Once you establish an expected online presence for your customers and they know that they can get reliable and timely information about their account and orders, you can leverage that interaction to provide additional value. Over time this can transform the relationship with your customers to provide exceptional customer services with a low cost. You can use the process of adding features and value as a way to publicize your investment in your customers satisfaction while at the same time controlling the cost and maximizing the ROI in your order management system. Your Top 10 for customer satisfaction solution is just the beginning. It provides the base of technology, system integrations, and business process that allows you to move forward to support additional services such as online quoting, virtual sales process, supply chain integration, and yes, maybe even an online shopping cart.

No Reason To Wait

Implementing a Top 10 for Customer Satisfaction Order Management System doesn’t need to wait until your next software upgrade or implementation. Meritide can provide this value for you today. Meritide can work with you to evaluate your existing people, process, and technology and determine how you can provide the answers to these questions to your customers online. Meritide provides solutions through a unique approach that uses a combination of delivery, integration, and development approaches that includes:

1) Evaluating your existing software and systems to ensure that you are using them to your full potential. Do you have online capabilities that you are not using? Meritide can help you realize the full value of the investments you have already made.

2) Evaluating additional modules or add-ons that are available for your existing software. Does your software vendor or a third party offer online order management capabilities? Let Meritide act as your agent to determine their value and fit for your organization and ensure a successful implementation of them.

3) Evaluating Open Source options. Open source options can provide a low cost, license free, community supported option for software packages to deliver online order management capabilities. Meritide has experience with the broad offerings this open source model provides and we can help to determine if there is a package that is right for you.

4) Custom Software and Products. Meritide can provide custom development when needed to provide unique online systems for businesses that are seeking competitive advantage through the use of technology solutions and products. Do you have a new or underserved market you would like to address? Can technology play a role in addressing that market? Let Meritide develop a solution or product with you to increase your market share.

5) Software as a Service, On Demand Products, and Managed Service Offerings. Don’t want to invest in the resources or infrastructure to support a new software solution? Meritide can provide services to let you use a solution now without the high technology investment. Over time you can bring the solution in house or you can just continue to experience the low risk and high value that software as a service provides in the online order management solution.

Posted at 1:41 PM by Neil Otto | Category: Website and Collaboration; Order Management Systems | Permalink | Email this Post | Comments (0)

more.blog