Business Intelligence (BI) has traditionally been the domain of big companies. It was costly to implement, required highly skilled employees who were in short demand to conduct it, and the software was incredibly complex. That’s all changed in the past few years due to the advancement of cloud technology. Many vendors now offer Software as a Solution (SaaS) apps that small businesses can use to conduct BI in their organization.

Here is an overview of four Business Intelligence SaaS apps that you could use in your business:

KPI KPI (Key Performance Indicator) is a company that offers a cloud based dashboard that integrates with your CRM or ERP software. It provides a way for businesses to visualize, analyze and report real-time data from your business’s key metrics. All the results can be viewed on your computer or on your mobile device.

GoodData GoodData is an on demand BI provider that offers users a base service that they can add apps to as and when needed. The whole service and dashboards are stored and run in the cloud, and are considerably cheaper than traditional BI services.

Bimotics Bimotics offers an on demand BI service for businesses in almost every major sector. They offer one suite that has data connectors, an established BI engine and analytical tools that should meet most small businesses’ needs. The suite can also be accessed by almost any mobile device.

Tibco Silver Spotfire Silver Spotfire is a cloud based SaaS aimed at individuals and small businesses. It lets users create interactive dashboards and visual analytics without the need of costly infrastructure. This app also integrates with major social media services, allowing users to put live dashboards on their blogs.

These are just four useful apps that you can use in your business. If you’re interested in how you can integrate BI solutions into your business, please contact us.

As a follow up to our post defining the acronyms and terms commonly used in ERP and CRM software implementations, we’ll continue with some technical and cloud terms. When in doubt, ask your vendor to clarify the terms they are using. In their excitement to show you the latest advancements, vendors sometimes forget that not everyone lives and breathes technology.

Technical Terms You Should Understand

SQL. Structured Query Language, commonly pronounced “sequel”, is a relational database system whose primary function is to store and retrieve data as requested by other software applications.

Workflow. A sequence of connected procedural steps that are automated through the ERP or CRM system. For example, a workflow for purchase requests could automatically route POs over a defined value to a supervisor for approval before processing.

Customization. Programming that adds functionality to an ERP or CRM system to meet unique needs of an organization. ERP systems are written to offer functionality that most companies need and don’t include industry-specific functionality. Customizations can automate processes that companies need to fulfill an industry or process specific requirement.

Integration. The connection between two systems that allows for the flow of data from one system to another, or reciprocally between the systems. For example, a company’s storefront website is usually integrated to the ERP so that inventory availability is updated on the website, and transactions completed on the website flow back to the ERP.

Cloud Terms Explained

Cloud Computing. In terms of ERP and CRM, cloud computing means that users access the software through the Internet or via a remote connection.

Hosting. The ERP or CRM software application is housed and managed by a cloud services provider. Application support includes installation, upgrades and user configurations. Application licenses can be owned or rented (subscription).

SaaS, Software as a Service. The software publisher delivers the application via the Internet to users on a subscription basis.

Hybrid. Hosting services built to suit unique business needs. For example, a company owns their servers but houses them in a secure hosting facility, and receives operating system and application support from the hosting provider.

Private Cloud. Infrastructure supporting the cloud delivery of applications that is dedicated completely to one customer.

Public Cloud. Infrastructure supporting the cloud delivery of applications, that is shared or “multi-tenant”, serving a variety of businesses, individuals or groups.

With an understanding of the basics, you’ll be able to ask your solution provider better questions. We are ready to tell you more. Let’s talk about what ERP or CRM could mean for your business.

Every industry has their jargon. Acronyms can be confusing, and common terms can take on entirely different meanings when you venture outside your field. When it comes to evaluating ERP or CRM software, you’ll be well equipped with the following primer.

Start with the basics

ERP. Enterprise Resource Planning is a software system that manages the transactions and flow of data between all the business functions in an organization, including: financial management, human resources, manufacturing, supply chain management and project accounting.

CRM. Customer Relationship Management is a software system that manages the flow of data for a business’s sales, marketing and customer service functions.

XRM. A term used to describe the functionality of CRM to manage more than customer activity. XRM can be used to manage the flow of data for any definable entity. For example, XRM could be used to track and schedule the use of company equipment.

LOB. Line of Business applications are software systems that deliver functionality for a specific industry business requirement. LOB applications are often integrated with the ERP system, for example: an engineering firm uses a computer aided drawing application to calculate material requirements, which are then integrated into ERP for costing.

BI. Business Intelligence is the reporting of data from the ERP, CRM and LOB applications in a form that is useful to business decisions makers. BI applications can include dashboards and reports as well as charting and analysis tools.

Add-on Products. Most ERP applications manage the high level functionality that most organizations need, and depend on an ecosystem of development partners (see ISVs below) to create applications that manage special requirements. For example, an ISV might develop a warehouse management system specifically built for the beverage industry.

Service Providers

VAR. Value Added Resellers are professional service companies that specialize in the installation, configuration and training services supporting the implementation of ERP, LOB and CRM systems.

ISV. Independent Software Vendors are application development companies that create software to address specific industry or niche market requirements.

SI. System Integrators are professional services companies that help businesses integrate all of the systems in their organizations for a more holistic approach. SIs often have the capability to create custom applications that will integrate into enterprise ERP systems.

Partner. Includes VARs, ISVs, SIs and other service organizations that support a software vendor’s products. For example, Microsoft partners are members of the Microsoft Partner Network (MPN). The MPN program provides training and certification to their network of 640,000 partners.

MSP. Managed Service Providers are professional service companies that provide outsourced management of technical services for organizations. For example, an MSP may remotely manage a company’s in-house computer servers.

Next week, we’ll define common technical terms, including the latest “cloud” jargon.  If you would like a deeper understanding of any of these terms, give us a call. Let’s talk about what ERP or CRM could mean for your business.

Customers have high expectations and they’re getting higher all the time. They expect quick responses and accurate answers. Whether chatting online, sending an email, or calling you on your phone, customers don’t expect to wait, or to get passed on to someone else. It’s not easy to meet those expectations if your employees have to go to more than one place to find the information or documents they need to answer queries.

Connect Departmental Silos If your organization has silos of sales, service, operations and accounting data, it’s time to connect those systems. A fully integrated system with shared data will:

• Allow salespeople to see where orders are in the fulfillment process
• Let customer service reps know where the item is in the supply chain
• Help accounting bill service tickets more quickly
• Provide access to actual in-stock inventory and price information

Sales and Service Teams Can Add Value In addition to added customer service, your sales and service teams can build sales with connected systems. With instant access to information across the organization, they can cross sell and upsell to build order value:

• “Model 365 is in stock and priced at $45. However, Model 367 with the automatic turn-off is only $50. That’s quite a deal.”
• “We just received a shipment of gilded cases for that violin. That makes a beautiful set.”
• “The technician is on his way out to fix the printer.  We are having a sale on cartridges, would you like him to bring you out your usual order?”

With connected information, customer satisfaction and the opportunity to enhance order value go hand in hand. Is it time to break down the silos of information in your organization? Microsoft Dynamics ERP and CRM solutions are built to work together for unified business management. Let’s talk.

According to IBM, nearly 90% of the data available at this time has been created within the past two years. When you stop and think about it, it boggles the mind. What makes this more intriguing is that the amount of data will continue to exponentially grow and threatens to overwhelm us. This sheer amount of information available to us and the related issues have been termed Big Data.

You’ve probably been reading technology blogs and have seen Big Data mentioned in conjunction with large companies, maybe even dismissed it as something, “for the big guys”. While Big Data is currently the focus of large companies, it won’t stay that way for long and it will pay to know about it.

What is Big Data? In recent years the amount of data available has exploded and companies have reached a point where there’s so much of it available they can’t physically store or analyze it using existing means. This quandary is called Big Data.

Frank Moss, former director of MIT Media Lab, describes Big Data as coming from, “Computers, smart phones, GPS devices, embedded microprocessors, sensors...[which] are forming a ‘societal nervous system’ that is generating a cloud of data that’s growing at an exponential rate.”

This growth has overwhelmed many companies causing a need for Big Data solutions. These solutions provide businesses with a way to immediately make sense of vast amounts of information, make informed decisions and exploit data.

What can I Do With Big Data? The uses of Big Data are near limitless. For small businesses the best deployment, currently, is for market research. You can use Big Data to help decrease the risk of decisions by increasing your knowledge of current trends, your target market’s demographics and customer buying patterns. Research that would normally take weeks can be done in minutes or seconds, allowing your company to make better marketing decisions quicker and with a higher chance of success.

Are SMEs Ready for Big Data? Large companies are utilizing Big Data because they simply can’t keep up with the incredible amount of data generated. At the same time, smaller organizations have simply not reached the point where they are being overwhelmed by data, therefore there’s no pressing need to look into it. This is rapidly changing though, so it’s beneficial to keep your eye on developments.

If you have any more questions regarding Big Data or Business Intelligence and their uses within your organization please contact us, we will be happy to sit down with you.

Today’s social connectedness, mobile devices and instant interaction, “any time, any place” are changing the way your customers live and work. To remain competitive, your business needs to adapt to the new reality.

Connect People Inside and Outside of the Organization Traditional business management applications are passive, backward-looking systems that report on the results of past activity. That’s no longer enough for businesses that want to actively engage with employees and customers. Systems need to connect information to provide insight into performance, as well as the interactions between people.

Business management systems of the future need to incorporate communication with transactions, helping customers to make the right decisions. Collaboration must be linked to production to coordinate workers who are not in the same room. Reporting has to evolve from tracking past results to visualizing future opportunities.

Unified Business Management From email to voice to video, from presence to social - business management solutions, including ERP and CRM, should help connected organizations to:

• Leverage the exploding number of channels to connect with customers, at the time and place of their choosing.
• Create an inclusive, listening organization by extending collaboration scenarios that exist internally to include customers.
• Evolve from an organization that engages with individual customers, to one that leverages the crowd to benefit the brand.

Connected organizations remove impediments that separate information from the people who need it. They foster internal and external connections that inspire innovation and improve productivity. Unified business management systems support connected businesses by providing insight that people need to make better, more informed decisions.

Microsoft has just released a white paper entitled “Dynamic Business: From Aspiration to Reality” to share the vision of how businesses can adapt to the new social realities. Download the white paper and let’s talk about how business solutions built to support innovation could help you build a connected organization.

There are many aspects of business that managers and owners would like to control and improve. One of the most common is Customer Relationship Management, or CRM. This has become so important that companies like Microsoft have developed software to help managers with CRM. Do you use Microsoft Dynamics CRM in your business?

Last year, Microsoft released the online version of its popular Microsoft Dynamics CRM software, taking advantage of cloud services and giving users the ability to access the software from anywhere. With the release came the same features as the offline version, plus some extra ones. Here are four features you can take advantage that’ll make using CRM Online that much more efficient.

Set Personal Default View If you use or view one section more than others, say that the majority of your work is done with accounts, you can set CRM Online to open to accounts.

• Choose which folder or heading you’d like to serve as your default.
• Click the View tab, and select Set As Default View in the top left of the screen (just under File).

Enable Additional Languages When you first start a new account with CRM Online, you will be asked to pick the main operating language. Microsoft calls this the Base Language. It is the language the system will work in unless otherwise specified. Once this has been set, you can’t change it, you can however change the language of CRM Online’s display and help screens, or add another language. This is useful for businesses that have a multinational working environment and want to give their employees an easier way to communicate.

To enable different languages:

• Click: Settings select System followed by Administration.
• You’ll see a Languages option, click it.
• In the page that opens, you’ll see a list of languages along with their status. Click the box beside the language you’d like to enable.
• Press Apply and the language’s status will change to enabled.

Once you’ve enabled the language, you can change Online CRM to show the new language by:

• Click File and select Options.
• In the window that opens, select Languages.
• You can select to change the User Interface Language (display language) and help language here.
• Click OK and you’ll see the interface has changed.

However, you won’t be able to change the language unless you are a system administrator.

Save CRM Shortcuts in Outlook Did you know that you can jump to folders in CRM Online from Outlook? It can be done by using Shortcuts.

• Open Outlook, and look for Shortcuts in the navigation pane (typically on the left).
• There’ll be space below shortcuts, so right-click on Shortcuts and select New shortcut. You can also hit “S”.
• A popup window will open displaying a list of options. Find your Online CRM organization name and press the white triangle beside it to open a list of subfiles.
• Find the file or location you want, select it and press OK. You’ll now see the location under Shortcuts in Outlook.

Sharing Charts Often you’ll be working on a project and be asked by colleagues how you made the chart, or if you could share the chart with them. Instead of sitting down and showing, step-by-step, how you made the chart, you can share it with them as long as they are also Online CRM users:

• Find the chart you’d like to share, click Charts at the top to display only charts. This’ll make it easier to find the chart if you also have other files in the same folder.
• Press Click here to view the chart on the right of your screen.
• Under the Chart ribbon, you’ll see the Share button. Click it.
• A new window will open, select Add User/Team.
• From this window you’ll be able to search for teams and people to share the chart with. Click the box beside their names, followed by Add and then OK.
• The people will show up in the previous window with share options. Click which permission you’d like to give the people, followed by OK.

The users you have shared the chart with will now be able to see it.

There are many other features in Online CRM and we would be happy to help you discover them. If you would like to learn more, please contact us.

Remote operations, home-based workers and accelerating customer expectations are changing the way we do business. The business processes that supported one team in one location won’t provide the best support for the extended workplace. An ERP implementation provides a unique opportunity to take a new look at processes and refresh the whole organization.

The first step in redefining business processes is for each department to identify the tasks that require coordination and collaboration between multiple individuals or groups. Then, define the challenges of the current process – where is communication breaking down and what are the ramifications?

Remote employee training example Let’s use an example of a business that needs to train employees regularly on new products.  The review identifies the following problems at each step:

• Coordinate attendance and logistics - Difficulty setting training dates without a number of scheduling iterations. Manual processes required to identify those employees who need training.
• Travel to training - Loss of employee productivity by taking attendees away from their jobs. Increased burden on attendees to coordinate travel planning.
• Evaluate performance - Attendee and instructor test scores manually consolidated from Word and analyzed in Excel.

Impact of the problems Once the problems have been identified, you can start on the path to correction.  It will be helpful to define the impacts of the problems, so that you can prioritize the importance. Impacts from our example would include:

• Increasing time and resources required to coordinate training and logistics as the company grows.
• Increasing costs of attendee travel as more employees require training.
• Data entry errors resulting from manual processes.

With clear definitions of the problems you are experiencing and the impact on the business, you can begin to evaluate ERP solutions.  A spreadsheet or other template can help organize and communicate your findings. Working with an ERP partner, you can determine the best way to automate the processes that are really holding back your teams.

Is it time for you to revisit your business processes? Let’s talk about how Microsoft Dynamics ERP can help your team improve efficiency and productivity.

When it comes time for your organization to evaluate ERP systems, whether you are replacing a small business accounting package or an aging ERP, it’s important to clarify the components.  Each piece (often called module) of the ERP system delivers different value for your organization. To get the most from the full system, make sure your evaluation team understands the fundamentals.

Financial Management At the core of ERP are the financial modules, including general ledger, accounts receivable, accounts payable, billing and fixed asset management. If your organization is considering the move to an ERP system to support expansion into global markets, make sure that multiple currencies and languages are supported, as well as regulatory compliance in the U.S. and in foreign countries.

Other functionality in the financial management modules will include budgets, cash-flow, expense and tax reporting. The evaluation team should focus on areas that are most important to support the strategic plans for your organization.

Business Intelligence Business Intelligence (BI) has become a standard component of most ERP packages. In general, BI tools allow users to share and analyze the data collected across the enterprise and centralized in the ERP database. BI can come in the form of dashboards, automated reporting and analysis tools used to monitor the organization’s business performance. BI supports informed decision making by everyone, from executives to line managers and accountants.

Supply Chain Management Supply Chain Management (SCM), sometimes referred to as logistics, improves the flow of materials through an organization by managing planning, scheduling, procurement, and fulfillment, to maximize customer satisfaction and profitability. Sub modules in SCM often include production scheduling, demand management, distribution management, inventory management, warehouse management, procurement and order management.

Any company dealing with products, from manufacturers to distributors, needs to clearly define their SCM requirements to properly evaluate an ERP solution.  It’s easy for a vendor to focus on their applications’ strengths and not address the full needs of the company.

Human Resource Management Human resource management ERP modules should enhance the employee experience - from initial recruitment to time tracking.  Sub modules can include payroll, performance management, time tracking, benefits, compensation and workforce planning. Self-service tools that allow managers and employees to enter time and attendance, choose benefits and manage PTO are available in many ERP solutions.

Manufacturing Operations Manufacturing modules make manufacturing operations more efficient through product configuration, job costing and bill of materials management. ERP manufacturing modules often include Capacity Requirements Planning, Materials Requirements Planning, forecasting, Master Production Scheduling, work-order management and shop-floor control.

Integration Key to the value of an ERP package is the integration between modules, so that all of the core business functions are connected. Information should flow across the organization so that BI reports on organization-wide results.

ERP can be easier than you imagine - Microsoft Dynamics ERP is cost effective and familiar to your users. If you are thinking about upgrading your systems to a fully integrated ERP system, give us a call.

As the economy rebounds, it’s time to realign your view of cash flow. During the recession, maintaining enough cash to make payroll and keep the doors open was the primary focus for most organizations. Now that the future is looking brighter, are you ready to align your resources and costs to maximize cash flow and profits?

The next stage of growth The accounting program and spreadsheets you used in the past to manage payable, receivables, inventory, and payroll can’t handle the larger task of optimization as your business grows. Balancing all of the variable resources in your business, and matching them to your forecasts goes beyond manual processes.

To grow your business effectively and remain competitive in today’s fast paced economy, you must have a clear view of:

• the status of your resources, including inventory, employees and capital assets
• operational efficiencies, including the costs to produce and deliver your products
• cash flow through the business to support operations

Aging accounting systems and spreadsheets cobbled together can’t deliver a complete picture of the three fundamental building blocks of your organization. To support growth and take advantage of the growing economy, it’s time to look for an ERP system. Connected data and consolidated reporting will give you the ability to balance all the elements for success.

Usability for fast results As you begin evaluation of ERP systems, keep in mind that usability is critical to fast results. The economy is rebounding now, and you need to implement an ERP system quickly. Choose an ERP solution that gives employees a familiar user interface, and is integrated with Microsoft Office. With both cloud and on-premises deployment options, Microsoft Dynamics ERP is an easy choice.

Let’s talk about how you can take your business to the next level. Call us today.