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The coronavirus pandemic may have forever altered the modern workforce, pushing sudden adoption of work-from-home opportunities at unprecedented levels.

According to one study recently shared by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, at least 37% of U.S. jobs can be performed entirely remotely. That’s good news for many businesses still grappling with mandated social distancing requirements and the “new normal” of doing business with fewer people close together at most on-site locations.

With an increasing number of remote work teams, and some teams adopting a hodge-podge approach that blends work-from-home and on-site work groups, how do you help your employees stay productive and improve efficiencies in this blended environment?

Here are 5 ways you can boost employee productivity at home or in the office:

1. Acknowledge That It’s More than Slacking Off and Zooming Around

When it comes to working from home or blended remote and on-site teams, you may get laser focused on adopting new software and related technologies that replace some of the key functions in your normal on-site operations.

For example, if you need to talk with someone, instead of walking across the hall for a chat, you might use an app like Slack for instant communication. Or, if you manage tasks with daily brainstorming sessions and meetings, you may replace those with tools like Asana, Trello, or Monday. And of course, if you want to still meet to stay connected, you might adopt tools like Google Meet or Zoom.

Those are all great tools, but what about your critical business functions? Does your accounting software work independently of your invoicing solution? In a typical day, does someone on your sales team create invoices and hand them off to your accounting team for collection and reconciliation? Do your team members manually input or import and export data from one system to another to handle key tasks? That might work okay (albeit inefficiently) for on-site operations, but how can you do that successfully with a fully- or partially-remote team?

This is where you should consider adopting a business management software solution. One that facilitates integration of all your critical business operations and enables quick and easy access to data to stop those manual imports and exports or repetitive keying-in of core operational data.

2. Choose a Solution That Works for You

Before selecting a business management software solution, evaluate your existing critical operational systems and functions. Here are some core questions to consider:

• What are our most critical business systems?
• What are our most critical business functions?
• Who is responsible for these functions?
• What is the impact on business if we can’t do these functions or they don’t operate efficiently?
• What are our existing processes?
• Where are these processes the strongest?
• What are our existing issues with these processes?
• Do we have any duplicated workflows in our processes? If yes, why? Can we eliminate them?
• What gaps and improvements can be addressed with a business management solution?
• How well do these existing functions operate in a fully remote or partially remote work environment?
• How can we improve these processes with business management software to make them work optimally in this environment?

When it comes to adopting new technologies, many have shiny features that look great in the ads, but aren’t functions you may actually ever use in your daily operations. Don’t just choose the shiniest solution on the market. Choose the one that best meets your unique business needs and helps you improve your daily efficiencies today and can scale with you in the future.

3. Break Down the Silos

Silos are often the biggest obstacle to efficient business. Whether those silos are caused by geography, departmental autonomy, technology, or specific knowledge retained by key employees, disparate workflows slow down operational efficiencies.

In many organizations, especially those that have experienced rapid growth, this is most evident when it comes to data and information sharing. The culprit is often technology that’s been grandfathered along as the organization has grown, trapping critical business data in software that either doesn’t communicate with other systems or can only be operated effectively by a limited number of people on your team.

To break through these silos and improve worker efficiency, consider adopting a business management software solution that enables your critical business operations to communicate with one another, freely share data between departments and locations, and ensure everyone on your team has access to the most current, accurate data and information when they need it—no matter where they are working from.

A business management software solution can unite many of your key business functions, from accounting to customer relationship management (CRM). You can even integrate enterprise resource planning (ERP) to get a full picture of your operations like purchase orders, inventory, and shipping, all in one single solution.

4. Empower Your Staff

While improving productivity begins with making sure your employees have the tools and resources they need to be successful, it’s only as effective as your training and education. You can put the tools in your employees hands, but if they don’t know how to use them — and don’t understand how learning will make their jobs easier — they may become more inefficient.

When planning for a new business management software solution, including your awareness and education strategies in that process is critical. If your employees don’t understand what the software is intended to do — and how it can make them do their jobs better with less time and frustration — adoption and usage can be low.

A great success starter includes involving key team members — those whose day-to-day functions will be supplemented by your business management platform — in your planning strategies when reviewing and selecting your solution.

Empower them to be a part of the team that makes your platform selection. Involve them in the implementation phases where appropriate, and solicit and respond to their feedback about what works and what needs improvement throughout the process. These team members can become internal champions to help get employee buy in across your organization. The more employees who understand what your solution is intended to do, and understand how to use it, the more likely you’ll see improvements in both employee productivity and efficiency.

5. Keep a Pulse on Your Team

Pandemic fatigue is real. Not only are your employees dealing with the added pressures of job performance in a new environment, they’re also carrying the weight of a changing world around them. Whether that’s spousal or familial job losses, family illnesses or loss of life, financial pressures, or children now home-schooled, employee mental health is just as important as ensuring they have all the tools and resources they need to be successful at work.

As your team adopts new strategies and technologies to help them be more productive and efficient at their daily tasks, don’t forget about the value of routine check-ins just to see how they’re doing. What challenges are they facing? Are their resources your company can provide to help?

And don’t forget about the value of recognition. As your employees journey into this new normal, acknowledge them for outstanding work and helping your company accomplish your goals. A business management software solution helps you have complete visibility into your operational successes and challenges so make sure to routinely review your efficiencies and acknowledge your team members for improvements and exceeding expectations.

Want to know more about how aACE can help you boost your team's efficiency? Register now to save your seat in our upcoming webinars.

Learn how aACE can help you take your business to the next level in this month's exciting webinars! From exploring the basics of aACE Accounting to a special guest presentation on how to better manage your operations, here are our topics for August:

August 4th – Commissions

Discover how aACE's comprehensive commissions tools can help you incentivize your sales team and reward your affiliates for referring new business.

August 11th – Accounting Basics

Explore aACE’s GL Accounts module and learn how aACE makes it easy to print financial statements, navigate the general ledger, reconcile bank statements, and more. This webinar is very audience-driven, so come early and bring questions!

August 18th – Beyond the Chaos Guest Webinar: 3 Ways to Remove Chaos from Your Business

Join special guest presenter Susan Fennema, Chaos Eradicating Officer (CEO) of Beyond the Chaos, as she walks us through three ways to manage the many moving parts of your business. From creating basic policies, processes, and procedures; to gracefully managing demanding client projects; to optimizing your project management software, this webinar will help you take back control during this chaotic time.

August 25th – Recurring Transactions

Take an in-depth look at how aACE automates recurring transactions, allowing you to set up automated payments for bills you know are coming regularly. Check out our feature highlight on the subject for a sneak peek before the presentation.

We look forward to seeing you in our presentations! Register now to save your seat.

Investing in enterprise software has traditionally been a time-consuming, resource-depleting, expense-stretching ordeal. But it doesn’t have to be—not with modern business management software (BMS) solutions or enterprise resource planning (ERP) tools.

So how do you overcome the fear of hassle and disruption when it comes to selecting new enterprise software to improve operational efficiencies? Let’s take a look at 7 tips that can help you be better prepared when it comes to selecting a new enterprise software solution.

First, let’s explore what enterprise software is and how BMS and ERPs are related.

What is enterprise software?

Enterprise software helps companies improve efficiencies for core operational functions and includes business management software (BMS) and enterprise resource planning software (ERP).

According to Gartner, enterprise software spending is expected to reach $503 million in 2020 and exceed that at $556 million in 2021. Enterprise software expenditures are a smaller part of the projected overall global IT spend of $3.9 trillion in 2020, an increase of 3.4% from 2019.

In addition to BMS and ERP, here are some other examples of enterprise software solutions:

• Payment processing tools
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software
• Accounting software
• Inventory management
• Human resource management systems
• Invoicing and billing systems
• Business intelligence
• Automated workflows
• Order management software
• Business continuity planning software
• Supply chain management software
• Knowledge management systems
• Marketing automation tools
• Project management software

What is business management software (BMS)?

Business management software enables you to efficiently manage your business operations in a single complete, cross-platform software solution. Unlike disparate, task-specific software that often silos your data and makes complete visibility a challenge, BMS solutions pull all your most important data and operational resources into one program, enabling you to quickly see how well your business is performing, where you have gaps, and where you need improvements.

What is enterprise resource planning (ERP) software?

Enterprise resource planning software is a type of enterprise software used for business management. An ERP can help you automate your core operational functions including inventory, supplies, product development, shipping and receiving, product delivery, and other functions such as sales and marketing, accounting, finance and human resources.

Working Together to Improve Operational Efficiencies

Business management software and ERPs improve your overall operational efficiencies. Together, they can help you decrease expenses and improve productivity by automating many of your repetitive manual tasks and providing clarity about how your business is functioning at any point in time.

ERP solutions are proving their value across industries both large and small.

More than half of businesses in a recent survey said investments into ERP and BMS systems are priorities. Why? Well, with ERPs, for example, more than 95% of companies say they have experienced process improvements after implementing an ERP, including more company-wide collaboration, centralized data, and reduced process times.

That’s why it’s not a big surprise that ERP platforms are among the most in-demand enterprise software solutions for small businesses.

But what about traditional challenges that historically attached themselves to executive conversations about selecting, purchasing, and implementing new enterprise software solutions? How do you work through them?

Just like any new purchase, an ill-informed selection could leave you spinning your wheels and burning money. Here are a few tips to help you vet new enterprise software for your organization.

1. Determine goals and objectives

Every new project needs a starting point. While enterprise software can solve a wide range of challenges, your list of goals and objectives should be narrow.

Some questions to consider:

• What problem exists and how do you want to solve it?
• What are your critical operational processes?
• Can any of these critical functions be supplemented or enhanced with a software solution?
• If yes, which specific functions do you want to target?
• What are some of the ways an enterprise software tool could make your processes more efficient?
• Try reverse-engineering your challenges based on product offerings. Does it work?
• What are your anticipated benefits?
• Do you have a list of requirements?
• Have you created a rating or weighing scale for these requirements?
• For your core business processes, do you have challenges or existing problems with accuracy or errors?
• Could a software solution solve these challenges? If yes, how?
• What is the expected return-on-investment for the software?
• What will your ROI metrics be and how will you evaluate them?
• Have you solicited feedback and input from the individuals whose roles will be directly affected by software implementation? Do they have concerns or hesitations?
• Can those issues be addressed before making a purchase and implementing a new product?
• Have you shared your goals and objectives with key stakeholders and organizational executives? Do you have executive buy-in?
• What is your planned timetable and timeline goals?

Enterprise software evaluation, selection, and implementation often require resources and knowledge outside your existing organizational framework. While you can draw on the experience and recommendations of cross-functional teams and stakeholders, you may want to consider working directly with a business management software advisor to help you set goals and objectives, analyze data, and make the best decision to meet your organizational needs.

2. Set an accurate, comprehensive budget

The budget process can be the most tedious and frustrating part of planning for new enterprise software. It’s not uncommon for poorly-planned tech projects to quickly exceed their budget, which can often stall the implementation and adoption processes. However, with careful planning you can set an accurate forecast with incidentals to help you stay on track, even if your project changes over time. It’s good practice to overestimate rather than come up short-handed in the end.

If your project is large-scale, you may want to adopt a phased approach for your budgeting process.

Some questions to consider:

• What is your target budget including software purchase, advisory services, implementation, data transfer, possible downtime, and any other related expenses?
• What issues could you encounter that could increase your potential project costs? What can you do to mitigate those issues?
• Does the program offer everything you need out-of-the-box or will you need funding for add-ons and customizations?
• Will you work with a professional advisor for your software vetting processes or will your internal teams handle this?
• What are the anticipated up-front costs? Implementation expenses? Related licenses and fees? Support costs? Are there other scaling or on-going costs to anticipate in the future?

3. Create a short-list of key vendors

This is where the fun really begins. It’s time to dig, dig, dig into research. Now that you know your goals and objectives, which problems you need to solve, your requirements, and budget, it’s time to create your list of solutions and vendors.

Download our free white paper: Choosing the Right ERP for Your SMB

Take your time. Read reviews. Ask for references. Watch videos and product demos. Then make a short-list of three to five vendors for consideration.

Some questions to consider:

• How long has your company been in business?
• How long has this product been on the market?
• How many clients do you have?
• How often do you release updates or upgrades for your software?
• What happens when you do an update or product upgrade? Is there downtime?
• What’s your customer retention rate?
• Do you have cloud-hosted or on-premises solutions?
• Do you have licensing or user limitations?
• Do you offer web and/or mobile apps?
• What types of training do you offer?
• What are your customer support processes?
• Does your product have integrations with [your organization’s existing software and programs]?
• Is your software developed and supported by an in-house team or is it out-sourced?
• What’s an upcoming feature that has you most excited?
• What is your product’s implementation process and how long does it generally take?
• What is your average turn-around time for help tickets or other support requests?

4. Determine software scalability

All business leaders want their companies, products, and services to grow and flourish. This is a process that may happen quickly or you could experience slower, but steady growth over time.

As your company grows, your needs will change. Can your solution scale with you?

Some questions to consider:

• What happens if I need to add more users to the system?
• Are there limits on specific roles or access privileges?
• Do you have an advisor I can work with directly as my company scales and changes?
• Do you offer ongoing support and training for product upgrades and new features?
• How do you communicate new and changed features to your existing clients?
• How often do you roll out new features for your software?
• Do you solicit feedback from your customers about product issues and suggested changes?
• Will my data be siloed or held captive within your system?
• How do I share data within your software to my other critical operational systems and applications?

5. Evaluate risks and weigh risks against benefits

When it comes to new technology solutions, third-party issues could put your organization at risk for financial burdens — such as fines or penalties for improper compliance to workflow and supply chain disruptions that stall or thwart your organization’s abilities to meet operational goals.

Some questions to consider:

• Have you conducted a vendor risk assessment?
• What is the critical operational function this software will address?
• What would happen if you face a disruption or other issue with this solution provider? How would it affect your ability to continue operations as normal?
• Does your solution meet your basic compliance and regulatory requirements?
• What cybersecurity processes and protections does this vendor have in place?
• Do they have business continuity or disaster recovery plans to deal with cyber attacks, data breaches, or other disruptions?
• Have you conducted risk assessments for related second- and third-tier vendors?
• Is there another software provider who may provide similar services at less risk?
• If not, are you comfortable mitigating those risks?

6. Trials and evaluations

We all know how great some marketers are and it can be easy to be drawn in on hype for a new product or service, especially in IT.

But how do you know if the product you’re considering will meet your organizational needs before you invest all your time and money on something that looks great, but fails to perform?

First, request a custom demo and be sure the product advisor tells you how the product can — and will — solve your organizational challenges. Have your own list of challenges and be prepared to ask the advisor to explain how the product can tackle those issues. Don’t be hesitant to walk away from a company that can’t answer those questions in a reasonable timeframe.

Some questions to consider:

• Does the company offer a free trial, evaluation period, or other product guarantee?
• Does the company offer adequate training and resources?
• Will the company share use cases and customer testimonials with you?
• Does the company offer references so you can talk with others who use the product?
• What do other customers say about technical support?
• Are there known bugs or issues?
• How often does the company do product updates?
• Is the company scaling itself?
• If the company offers a free trial or evaluation, can you transfer data and information from your trial/initial setup process into your full working software version?

7. Select your new software solution and begin implementation

Your enterprise software buyer’s journey began with a problem that needed a solution. Once you’ve completed the first six recommendations, it’s time to select your new software and begin the implementation, adoption, and usage phase. Are you ready?

Some questions to consider:

• Is this solution cloud-hosted or on-premises?
• How complex is the installation and set-up process?
• How much time does your provider need to get the system operational for you?
• Have you identified the key team members who will use the software?
• Have you identified the key processes and roles the software will supplement?
• Have you determined a training schedule and do you have adequate training resources at your disposal?
• Do you anticipate implementation or adoption roadblock? If yes, what do they look like and what are some steps you can take to overcome them?

Decision-making

Choosing a new software vendor doesn’t have to be as scary and frustrating as it used to be. With foresight, planning, testing, and evaluation, you can be confident you’re moving forward with a solution that can meet your budget and achieve the operational efficiencies you want for your organization.

Need help finding the right enterprise software solution for you? Join us for a free upcoming webinar to see aACE software in action and learn more about how it can help you do business better.

"[The aACEsoft] team has provided a system and support that has really allowed us to do more than we expected to be able to in switching to a new software. It unified functions within our company that previously had little to no communication with each other." - Theodore Fotopulous, Operations Manager, Raydoor Inc.

Thanks to COVID-19, we’re all now well aware of just how rapidly our personal and professional lives can be impacted by a major disruption.

Unfortunately, many businesses were caught off-guard by the swiftly-changing regulations that came about as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. For some, it was akin to setting up a virtual workforce practically overnight. Others struggled with how to tackle day-to-day tasks without putting their staff at risk.

And while throughout much of the first half of 2020 many offices and desks were empty, the need for new ways to conduct effective and efficient business went into overdrive.

In many cases that demand for efficiencies directly impacted corporate culture, spawning not just discussions and long-term planning for innovation, but the need to be innovative, responsive, and decisive on-demand.

In a survey from Global Workplace Analytics, 88% of respondents said they were working from home during the pandemic, and for almost 60% of them, this was a new experience.

From new cybersecurity and data privacy risks, to communication and productivity concerns, those changes did not come without significant challenges.

So how have some of the most effective and resilient organizations met those challenges?

By embracing business automation to help speed up workflows, decrease manual tasks, and improve reliability and accuracy with fewer resources and on-site help.

Types of Business Automation

Automation can be used in a variety of ways to help make your business more efficient, not just during a pandemic or major disruption, but as part of your daily operations. Here are a few examples:

Business Process Automation (BPA)

• Invoicing
• Inventory management
• Order management
• Job tracking
• Shipping and receiving
• Sales quotes and bulk pricing
• Sales commissions
• Accounts payable
• Scheduling
• Calendar automation
• Customer support

Robotic Process Automation (RPA)

• Routine file backups and transfers
• Moving data from one system or application to another
• Managing expense reports and reimbursements
• Updating contact information
• Reconciling accounts

Marketing Automation

• Collecting contact and user-behavior details from your website and social media engagements
• Responding to customer inquiries and complaints (i.e. chatbots, emails, phone calls)
• Distributing personalize communications like newsletters, emails, targeted ads, social posts
• Customer reminders
• Product announcements or new discounts/deals/sales
• Surveys and feedback collection

Understanding Your Goals

Process automation sounds great, right? It is! That’s because essentially you can do more work with less effort and increased accuracy. But, what are the barriers? Why did so many businesses need such a significant disruption before opening their eyes to the value of task automation?

For many, it’s the same scenario that companies face any time changes are considered for operational processes. “If it ain’t broke,” people don’t want to fix it. Further, selecting the right software to help you with process automation and getting it both successfully implemented and adopted can be challenging.

But you can improve your automation adoption outcomes with advanced planning and organizational analysis.

Before selecting an automation solution, it’s important to understand your business goals and objectives, not just for right now, but as your company grows and scales over time.

• How are business operations functioning now?
• What’s working well?
• Why is it successful?
• Could it be improved with automation?
• Where are your existing fail points?
• Can they be resolved with automation?
• What barriers/resistance do you face with employee acceptance and usage?
• How can you address those barriers and break them down early on?

It’s also a good idea to do a business impact analysis.

• What are your core business processes?
• Who is responsible for those tasks?
• What are your most critical business assets, systems, and applications?
• How would automation directly impact those processes and assets?

Risk assessments can also help you improve your implementation success.

• Are there risks associated with task automation?
• If yes, what are those risks?
• Can you mitigate those risks?
• What’s an acceptable level of risk?
• Do automation benefits outweigh your risks?

It’s also important to point out here that automation shouldn’t just be about which tasks are easiest to automate. Consider the value-add of each automation procedure. Start with critical processes and assets and then adopt additional automation processes overtime.

How Automation Can Help Your Business

Here are 9 awesome ways automation can help your business continue to adapt to our changing new “normal” during and after COVID-19 as well as for the future:

1. More Opportunities for Remote Work

According to that Global Workplace Analytics report, almost 76% of global office workers will continue to work from home post-COVID-19. Automation can help you more efficiently leverage your remote workforce. It’s a value-add in a number of ways, but especially in areas where teams are used to working together (face-to-face) to complete a series of tasks for a specific function. Automation can help you ensure each of those steps is tackled, in the right order, with notifications and alerts for your remote team.

2. Less Time Wasted on Duplicate and Manual Processes

With process automation, your employees can focus on more strategic processes and planning while automation handles your manual, repetitive tasks. One survey indicates that about 60% of today’s occupations could automate 30% of their activities or more.

3. Process Efficiencies and Expense Reduction

Not only can automation free up your existing staff and resources, it can also save your company time and money. Did you know that about 45% of tasks companies pay people to do could be automated? That percentage equates to about $2 trillion in wages every year.

4. More than Remedial Tasks

While some companies begin automation with simple tasks, automation isn’t just for remedial activities. Even your C-Suite could benefit from automation.

And it’s not just for lower-paying, less-skilled work like you might think. Did you know that about 20% of CEO time could be saved by using automation for things like data collection and reports that guide operational decision-making?

5. Fewer Human Errors and More Accuracy

Since you’re working more efficiently and automation is handling your manual, repetitive processes (like re-keying data or importing and exporting data from one source to another), your workflows will have increased accuracy and decreased chances for human errors.

6. Fewer Silos and Improved Internal Communication

Since automation can move data and information for you without those manual re-entries, it helps break down information silos and improve communication. Not only can you share data and information across departments and remote teams, you can track processes, implement consistent project management, and ensure all your teams are accessing the correct files and data at all times. No more random files living on someone’s desktop where your team can’t access them when needed.

7. Improved Communication with Partners and Customers

Automation does more than improve your internal processes. It can also strengthen your relationships with your vendors and customers. For example, good process automation solutions should include vendor integrations allowing you to facilitate key requests and communication such as supply inventories and automatic reordering. And, having a product in stock — or advanced communication about possible shortages or backlogs — can help you keep customers happy and potentially prevent them from moving on to a competitor if your product is not in stock.

8. Increased Visibility and Accountability

Automation is great for increased visibility across your workflows. By moving processes within a single platform, you can do routine performance checks to determine what’s working well, where you have failures and what gaps need your attention. This is particularly important for compliance and regulatory mandates where increased visibility could help you ensure that proper and approved procedures are followed all the time.

9. Happier Employees

Pulling employees away from manual, repetitive tasks can help improve overall employee job satisfaction, but it can also increase employee engagement by quickly facilitating important (but process-based) tasks for your teams. For example, you can automate your employee requests for time off or expense report approvals instead of having them sit on a desk or in an email inbox for approval. Faster, more effective and clear communication builds stronger teams and can increase employee morale.

10. Scalability

The effects of COVID-19 on the workforce is likely to linger for months, if not years. This creates challenges for your company to meet customer demands with more efficiency. Automation enables you to scale your operations to meet customer demands, without the added pressure of also having to hire more people. In one study about process automation effectiveness, respondents said that on average, return on investment for process automation generally took less than 12 months. And in terms of efficiencies, automation averaged about 20% of full-time equivalent (FTE) capacity. Since you’ll need fewer people to do more tasks as you scale, you can focus instead on hiring the right people for the right jobs instead of hiring more people for more work.

Need help choosing a platform that can best meet your company’s process automation needs? Check out one of our upcoming webinars to see aACE software in action. You can learn more about production benefits, inventory management, accounting basics, recurring transactions, and more. Register now to reserve your spot!

In light of COVID-19 social-distancing and stay-at-home orders — which have now spanned three months or longer in some areas — many businesses are struggling.

Some, particularly those in retail, that closed doors temporarily have announced they will likely never re-open. Others, like restaurants, have adjusted from full indoor tables to take-out orders, curbside pick-up, and limited outdoor seating.

Other industries are doing better — and in some cases even thriving, especially those engaging in ecommerce.

In late April, for example, ecommerce in the United States was up more than 120% compared to the same time last year. The latest numbers show great promise with late May remaining at more than 110% over the previous year.

This may not be a trend that’s likely to disappear when communities go “back to normal” post-COVID-19. One report indicates that by 2040, some 95% of purchases may be made through ecommerce. By next year, there will likely be about 2.14 billion digital buyers around the world.

If you’re a retailer of goods and services and you’re not already actively engaged in ecommerce — or you’re not doing so strategically — you could be falling behind while your competitors make gains.

First, what is customer engagement?

Customer engagement, while broad, encompasses all the ways your brand and customers (including potential customers and former customers) interact with one another. These interactions can represent a range of communications. The more successful companies offer customers a multitude of engagement opportunities and then let the consumer decide which option works best. While not exclusive, here are some examples of customer engagement channels:

• Calls
• Text messages
• Emails
• Chats, both with bots and real people
• Reviews and ratings (both positive and negative)
• Feedback/website forms
• Social media comments
• Likes and follows on social media
• Direct communication with your employees and staff
• Customer support portals

Why is customer engagement important?

Customer engagement is more than selling products and services, but, if done well, that will be the end result.

Customer engagement is about setting yourself apart from your competitors and building trust — and often an emotional connection — between your customers and your brand. The better your customer experiences are, the more likely you may be to convert sales leads into customers and retain them for additional, ongoing purchases with your company.

Not sure what’s effective or where to begin? Here are 7 ways to increase customer engagement for big gains in ecommerce:

1. If you don’t have an ecommerce site, now is the time

According to the 2020 Remote Payments Survey from PYMTNS.com, in 2020, consumers are more than 30% more likely to make an online purchase than they were the previous years. It’s a move fueled by COVID-19 forcing closures of many brick-and-mortar stores, but with convenience, speed, and reliability increasing with online retailers, it’s a trend that may not dissipate in the near future.

If you don’t have an ecommerce site to help you deliver goods and services to the public — and especially if your retail locations have been closed or have limited capacity — you’re missing an opportunity to engage with your customers who may very well be stuck at home or limiting their in-person interactions to only essential services.

The United States, according to Statista, has one of the highest ecommerce penetration rates of anywhere in the world. Pre-COVID19, the report indicated that in 2019, some 80% of internet users in the U.S. were expected to make at least one purchase online, which is up from 73% from 2013.

2. Focus on the ecommerce experience

Today, it’s not just enough to have an ecommerce site (although it’s a great place to start!). You also need to ensure that your site works properly, is engaging, and easy to use.

Here are some questions to consider when auditing your ecommerce site:

• Is your site visually appealing?
• Does it load quickly with no technical issues?
• Is your site secure?
• Does your site accept common, trusted payment methods such as credit or debit cards or PayPal?
• Does your site effectively tell your brand story and connect with consumers?
• Does your site make it easy for users to find what they’re looking for?
• Is pricing clear and easy to understand?
• Do you offer a variety of shipping alternatives?
• Do you make it easy for your customers to communicate with you if they have questions or concerns?
• Is your site mobile friendly?

While you may be stuck at home working from a laptop or computer during coronavirus restrictions, remember, a growing number of your potential customers are likely using mobile devices to connect with you. At least 72% of respondents in that PYMNTS.com payment study are using mobile devices for ecommerce.

And because the adoption of mobile devices and high-speed internet have made most consumers accustomed to fast service, it’s important to ensure your site loads quickly on both desktop and mobile devices. That’s because on average, almost half of consumers expect a site to load in two seconds or less and about 40% of your potential customers will leave your site if it takes longer than three seconds to load.

3. Focus first on re-engaging existing customers, then attracting new ones

Acquiring new leads and converting them to customers is challenging, time consuming, and it can be expensive.

In tough times, your efforts may be better focused on re-engaging existing customers than trying to find and convert new ones. That’s because in most cases businesses have a 60-70% chance of selling something to an existing customer. For new customers? That chance can drop to as low as 5%, and in best cases, only 20%.

This can be especially beneficial if you’re trying to sell a new product or service because your existing customers can be seven times more likely to try it. And the good news doesn’t stop there. Those repeat customers are more likely to spend more money with you — almost 70% more than a new customer.

Not only do these customers spend more with you, it’s cheaper to retain an existing customer than find and convert a new one, which can cost you six to seven times more.

And existing customers are almost 60% more likely to return to your site if you recommend more relevant products.

4. Get social

While people are stuck at home during this pandemic, more people are using social media more frequently. In an early study at the start of the outbreak, some 43% of users said they thought they would use social media more while at home. Think about it for yourself. How many times have you aimlessly scrolled social media during the past few months? This is a great place to focus your marketing efforts for your ecommerce sites.

If you have an advertising budget, target your social media ads to existing customers. But even without one, you can use social media as a tool to share your brand’s stories, offer promos and deals, and engage with your customer base.

5. Listen

eCommerce success will take more than just being on multiple social media and digital advertising platforms. You also need to listen to and engage with your customers. Meet them where they are.

Don’t just push messages and posts outward. Monitor all your accounts and engage with the customers who engage with you. Create compelling content that encourages engagement. Respond to messages quickly with integrity and offer viable solutions to known problems. Graciously accept criticism and say thank you to the customers who support you.

Did you know that 65% of U.S. consumers say that a positive brand experience is even more influential than advertising?

6. Capture data and deliver personalized experiences

When it comes to ecommerce, personalization is key. Hopefully, you’ve already tailored your marketing messages to your core buying demographic, but today, modern buyers expect much more.

About 45% of online shoppers say they’re more likely to shop on a site that offers personalized recommendations and the click through rates for digital advertising is more than 10x compared to ads without personalization.

7. Have great customer service

Earlier in this post we mentioned some of the communication channels you could use to engage with your customers. These days, ecommerce isn’t just about setting up a site and waiting for customers to come to you. You have to go to where your customers are and engage with them. That engagement includes exceptional customer service with fast and effective responses.

And the better your customer service, the stronger your ecommerce sales may be. One Gartner report indicates that almost 90% of companies expect to compete for customers based primarily on customer experience.

Quality customer service is key here. Not only do 73% of customers say their customer experience is an important factor in purchasing decisions, but some 42% are willing to pay more for a product if they have a welcoming customer experience.

Facilitate engagements with business management software

There are a lot of moving pieces and parts to an effective customer engagement strategy. It can be challenging to keep up with it all. Business management software (BMS) can help.

You may want to consider a BMS that easily integrates with your existing operational systems and applications. BMS can help you streamline processes for your customer relationship management software (CRM), your accounting system, billing, and even shipping and receiving.

If you’d like to learn more, join aACE for our “Sales Leads and aACE CRM App” webinar on June 16 where you can learn more about using a BMS to increase your customer engagement. Register now to reserve your spot!

Learn how aACE can help you streamline your operations and take your business to the next level. Last month, we covered topics ranging from expenses to commissions and production to cost of goods sold. Here's what we have in store for June:

June 2nd – aACE Basics

If you’re brand-new to aACE, this is the webinar for you! Learn how aACE’s system-wide conventions make it easy for new users to interact with the solution. Check out our video before the presentation to get a sneak peek at aACE’s user-friendly design.

June 9th – Managing Transactions

aACE makes it easy to track each step of a transaction, giving you the peace of mind that comes from having one solution manage every aspect of a sale or purchase. We’ll explore how users manage transactions in aACE using the Purchase Orders module as our example.

June 16th – Sales Leads and the aACE CRM App

Your sales team is moving fast to keep your customers and prospects engaged, and they need a solution that can keep up – even when they're on the go. See our CRM App in action and learn more about how sales leads move through aACE. Check out our sales leads and CRM App feature highlights for a sneak peek before the presentation.

June 23rd – Sales Orders

See aACE's sales order, drop shipping, and special order workflows in action and learn how aACE makes each of those workflows a breeze. Before the webinar, check out our feature highlight for a preview of some of these topics.

June 30th – Shipping and the aACE Pick App

Your customers depend on you to get them the right products at the right time. Learn how aACE streamlines the pick, pack, and ship process with our Pick App and shipping integrations, and take a sneak peek by checking out our feature highlight.

Register now to save your seat and see aACE in action!

If you’re a small or mid-sized business (SMB) owner or executive, you understand that the better you are at business, the more customers you have, and the more products or services you sell, the more complex day-to-day operations can get.

This can be especially complicated if you have growing teams where new employees are routinely added to your roster, or you have high turnover within your company.

Growth and change make it difficult to keep up with new customers, new orders, billing, and all the back-end tasks associated with running an SMB. It’s especially tricky if you’re doing a lot of manual tasks or using spreadsheets or static word processing documents to manage your operations.

In some cases, the opposite can be true.

In today’s COVID-19-influenced business world, you may struggle to keep up not because you’re growing, but because your staffing situation has changed in light of “stay-at-home” orders or because your staff is sick or afraid to come to work because they’re worried they’ll get sick.

So whether you’re growing and can’t keep up or you’re trying to figure out the “new normal” of operating with reduced staff during a pandemic, how can you manage operations more efficiently?

It may be time to think about an enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Did You Know: About 95% of businesses that implemented an ERP said they’ve experienced “significant” improvements in workflow and that today, about 65% of small businesses are using ERP consultation services?

An ERP can help connect all of your core business operations, systems, applications, and processes into a single platform. ERPs offer a wide range of options from orders and billing, to customer relationship management systems (CRMs), to inventory and production management, and more.

The goal of using an ERP is to more efficiently manage your systems and processes to reduce costs, time spent, and resources used while conducting more efficient (and in some cases automated) processes with fewer errors and more accuracy.

But there are a lot of ERP solutions on the market, and, in general, they’re not cheap. So how do you know where to start? As an SMB owner or executive where do you begin and how do you have the confidence that you’re making the best choice for your business, not just today, but for the future?

Here are five tips to help you select the right ERP platform for your SMB.

1. Outline your needs

Selecting an ERP isn’t like shopping for a new car. Sure, they’re both big investments and require a lot of thought and research, but that’s about where the similarities begin and end.

With an ERP, you don’t start with what’s on the market and then decide which is best for you. Instead, you have to start by figuring out what’s best for your business — and what meets all of your goals and objectives — before you take a product out for a test drive.

A big mistake SMBs can make early in this process is starting out with a list of ERP platforms and then trying to figure out how to make a platform work for your needs.

Instead, begin by outlining your business needs and requirements. First, look at your existing processes and systems:

• What works well?
• Where do you have gaps?
• What can you do better?
• Where can an ERP help with efficiencies?
• Which processes are critical to your operations?
• Do you have existing software or applications that handle those processes? How efficient are they now and for your future needs?

In setting your ERP requirements, your starting point should be where your operations are today, but you must also look forward. What will your business needs be in a year? Five years?

It’s important here to include a cross-section of representatives from your work teams for this part. Talk to the people who are responsible for your core functions on a daily level.

• What do they like about your existing processes?
• How do they think they can be better?
• How do they feel about using new tools to help them work more efficiently?
• Are they open to new technologies?
• Will they willingly use an ERP solution if they are well-trained and fully understand the product benefits?

Understanding your requirements both short and long term will set you on the right path to choosing your perfect ERP solution.

2. Set a budget

Once you’ve determined your needs, it’s time to set a budget.

ERPs can be expensive, but you should anticipate recouping some of those costs in savings over the lifespan of your platform.

On average, an SMB can spend as little as $25,000 for a small business ERP to $1 million or more for a medium-sized or larger enterprise. Here are some things to think about when making a cost-estimate for a new ERP.

First, how will the solution be deployed? On-premises solutions often cost significantly more than cloud-hosted options.

Most on-prem and cloud-based solutions come with additional fees like subscriptions, licensing costs (how many users access the ERP), and service.

While some ERP vendors like aACE include access to the entire solution for each named user, other ERPs charge fees for modules for specific business tasks. For example, there may be one fee for a CRM module and another for an accounting module.

This is where step 1 is important. Some vendors offer more modules than you need or will ever use. Don’t get caught up in the “what if you might need this?” sales-push. Know what you need now and for your business in the future. Stick to your list, but be open to professional input, but only if it aligns with your business goals and objectives.

Other additional ERP costs can include fees for training, maintenance, and more. Some maintenance fees can cost at least 15% of your implementation expenses. Let’s say you’re a small business that invested $100,000 in your ERP implementation, could pay an additional $15,000 a year in maintenance fees alone.

If you have existing systems that you’re using for day-to-day operations, for example, accounts payable, you may have more fees for software integrations into your ERP platform.

For licensing fees, depending on vendor, these can range from less than $1,000 to more than $4,000 per year.

Also, if your requirements call for significant customization of a core ERP product, you’ll look at expenses for that, too.

And what about upgrades? Some vendors charge upgrade fees when they release new software versions.

It’s also a good idea to budget for overages. They happen frequently with technology implementations. One study finds that more than half of companies surveyed exceeded their ERP implementation budgets and more than 60% took longer to implement than expected.

If you’d like to make more accurate budget predictions during this step, you may want to work directly with an ERP advisor who can align your requirements to a more realistic budget. To learn more about what goes into the pricing of an ERP implementation, check out our FAQ on how much aACE costs.

3. Review platforms

Once you know your requirements and have your budget, it’s time to look at platforms. There are a lot of ERP solutions on the market, so it’s hard to know which is best for you.

Software review sites like Capterra are a good starting point.

These sites outline core offerings of a variety of platforms, including information about what’s included with a product. You can also make comparisons between competitors.

Once you’ve delved into several review sites, use that information to make a list of platforms that meet the short- and long-term requirements you outlined in step 1 that also fall within your budget.

Then, comb through customer reviews.

You can quickly narrow your list with products that get five star reviews on sites like Capterra. If you feel that list is too narrow, you may want to consider products with four-star or higher reviews.

Don’t just look at product reviews. Seek out information about customer service, training, education, and staff availability for support, too.

4. Demo the product

From your short list, it’s time to see the product in action.

Where you can, first try to find on-demand videos and feature highlights or live webinars online. This can help you further shorten your list. If those types of demos aren’t available, then it’s worth the time to set up an appointment for a personalized demo. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, many companies offer these demos remotely.

High-level product demos can help you narrow your list further.

• Which platform looks easiest to use?
• Which platform will meet your needs with the least amount of customizations and add-ons?
• Which platform do you think your team will be more likely to adopt and use to its full potential?

Try to narrow your list to the top two or three competitors, and then ask the vendors to give you a second demo to take a deeper dive into your top priorities.

At this point, some vendors will set up an account for you and let you loose in the software without any guidance. Others, like aACE, pair this trial period with a paid training process known as Discovery that enables you to experience the software as it would work for you. While not a full implementation, this can help you better understand how the program works and, with your existing knowledge of your team and requirements, you can make better informed decisions about which products appear easier to implement and will be more user-friendly.

5. Select a vendor

Once you’ve sampled a couple of your favorite products, it’s time to select your vendor. Here are some questions you may want to ask before narrowing your pick.

• What’s involved in the implementation process?
• How long does implantation take?
• Will my critical business operations be affected during implementation?
• What type of training do you offer for new users?
• How does your customer support system work?
• How often do you release updates or upgrades?
• Is there expected downtime for updates or upgrades?
• How often does your product need maintenance and what’s required?
• How can you help ensure I have no unexpected or surprise costs in the future?

ERPs are Good for SMBs

Once you’ve selected your vendor, it’s time to begin the ERP implementation process. Soon, you’ll be on your way to more efficiencies for your day-to-day SBM operations.

There are a number of business benefits for adopting an ERP:

• Streamlined processes
• Task automation
• Standardized processes
• Relevant and secure data sharing across multiple systems without repeated re-entry or re-keying
• Less repetitive work for your employees
• More transparency in your operations
• Less chance for errors and fraud
• More productivity
• Data visibility and simple reporting tools
• Improved compliance and audit performance
• More collaboration and better communication across your company
• Improved customer service and more satisfied customers
• Fuels innovation and scales as your business scales

Have questions about selecting an ERP solution for your small business or looking for ERP consulting services? Check out our white paper on choosing the right ERP for your SMB.

This time a year ago, the word “pandemic” seemed like a far-off phrase used only in history books to describe horrible events that shaped the world. But today it’s part of our reality, and it’s a reality that’s altered the face of business and the global economy.

As COVID-19 spread first from Asia then to other parts of the world, government leaders here in the U.S. at the federal, state, and local levels sought ways to curb the virus spread while trying to keep essential services operational.

As stay-at-home orders spread from coast to coast, “non-essential” companies were left scrambling to figure out how to stay afloat when workforces either couldn’t come onsite or where team numbers dropped drastically and conditions changed inside offices and facilities around the country.

For retailers and other services providers, this new normal meant not only having to make workforce adjustments, but also adapt to new ways of doing business to reach customers and clients. Companies that previously relied on walk-in business or onsite transactions suddenly had to figure out how to move into the digital realm to keep going.

Move to Digital Payment Processing

Long before the coronavirus changed the working landscape — and fueled by more card-based transactions — many companies were already considering a move to more convenient digital payment options for customers.

According to the U.S Federal Reserve, between 2015 and 2018, debit and credit card payments increased almost 9% each year. By 2018, the most recent data in the study, the value of remote card payments equaled in-person payments. Today, with social distancing and many facilities closed to the public, it’s likely we will see even bigger growth in remote payments values for 2020.

Back in February, before the heart of the outbreak, the global digital payments market was valued at more than $3885 billion, and that’s expected to increase to more than $8686 billion by 2025. Of that total value, the average transaction value per mobile point-of-sale (POS) payment user is more than $3,647.

The report also indicates that online and ecommerce payments that don’t require a card in-hand had a higher growth rate — 23% over the previous year — compared to card-in-hand transactions.

Digital payment is becoming the payment method of choice for most consumers, and it’s driven largely by the proliferation of mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, many of which have digital “wallets” that remove the need for handling actual cards for transactions.

If you haven’t yet adopted remote payment options for your customers, there may never be a better time. Because of coronavirus, social distancing may continue for weeks or months longer. The information at this point is still uncertain. That means you’ll need ways to collect payments from your customers without engaging in-person. So where do you begin?

Here are a few steps that can help you adopt a digital payment system for your business:

Virtual Terminals

First, consider adding a virtual terminal to your traditional point-of-sale (POS) system. The virtual terminal can also serve as your credit card payment system and they’re great to have as backups to your onsite payment terminals.

You can access your virtual terminal to process customer payments from any device, like a computer, laptop, tablet, or smartphone, that has an internet connection.

Unlike a traditional in-house payment system, you don’t swipe or tap a card to complete a transaction. Instead, you manually enter your customer’s payment information into the system for processing. For example, your customer calls in for service and instead of paying in person, the customer can give you payment card information and you can enter it into the system directly.

To lessen the likelihood of fraud and to potentially decrease the overall expense of purchasing a virtual terminal system, look for terminals that have an Address Verification System (AVS). AVS allows you to enter additional verification information such as an address to decrease the likelihood of fraud and ensure legitimate transactions.

Your existing card payment processor should be able to help you add a virtual terminal to your existing account.

Text Payments

Another great option during social distancing is text payments, and it’s a system many of your customers may love.

With text-to-pay, you can text an invoice directly to your customer’s mobile device and they can make a payment when it’s convenient.

This is a particularly great option for companies that offer services, for example home or business repairs. You can send a technician to do the work and instead of waiting around to complete an invoice and engage for a transaction, your employee can complete the required task and then send an invoice remotely from wherever they are.

Smartphone Terminals

It’s likely that soon more non-essential businesses will be allowed to reopen, but what exactly that looks like remains uncertain. In some states where this has already happened, businesses are offering curb-side pickup for a variety of products, not just food. This is a great place to use smartphone terminals. All you need is an internet or cellular connection.

There are a few ways companies offer these mobile payment options. One is with a card reader that connects to your device. You simply swipe the card from the reader to complete the transaction. Some companies even offer small handheld devices that can electronically process the transaction without having to use your personal device.

Integration is Key

Regardless of your remote payment option of choice, be sure that your digital services fully integrate within your existing business management software solution.

For example, aACE integrates directly with a variety of payment processing options to ensure you have seamless access to all your data when you need it. With aACE+ OpenEdge and aACE+ SagePay you can execute credit card, debit card, and ACH payments with ease from within your aACE solution. To learn more about payment processing, check out our feature highlight on aACE+ Payments. Then register for an upcoming webinar to learn more about what aACE can do for your business.