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Success in your business is a balance between people and tools. Smart, hard-working staff make a huge difference. And if you have technology in place that supports them, it will amplify their efforts.

Sometimes, though, that's a big "if".

The people who make software and hardware don't always pay as much attention as possible to the needs of people who use it. And they rarely know your company's specific processes, let alone base their development decisions on them. So unless you've got a citizen developer on your team, it can be hit-or-miss as to whether a given upgrade is actually an improvement.

In fact, some new and/or improved technology tools may actually make it harder for your team to get work done. It might be as small as a redesign that moves important features to new places on the GUI. Or it could be as large as an expensive purchase that included all the bells and whistles, but doesn't have functionality vital for your staff.

Martha Bird, writing for Entrepreneur.com, discusses this dilemma. She identifies three vantage points you can use to help evaluate technology options. Use them to make sure your team and your company get the best benefit from each purchase.

1. Does the technology blend in with the way your people work?

Some tools complicate processes in an attempt to stand out from the crowd. But an interface that stands out isn't necessarily a selling point. Instead, the people who use the tools get the most advantage when the tools fade into the background. When software makes things so easy that you don't even notice it's happening, that's a well-made system. Whether the underlying code is simple or complex doesn't matter. The key point is whether it helps your team get things done.

2. Does the tech help your team focus on human-work?

One of the primary purposes of technology is to make things easier, not for the sake of easiness, but in order to address more valuable needs. Automation can handle some tasks better than people, freeing those people to do work that computer tools cannot accomplish. Look for software that can be customized to work the logic-based, repetitive aspects of your company. As a business grows, smart entrepreneurs always notice better and better ways to do things. The technology should support this kind of growth. And this lets you redirect your team's attention onto strategic, creative, and relationship-centered assignments.

3. Does it help your staff collaborate in their work?

Part of that human-centered work your team can do will be working together. Not only does this lead to better results, but it brings the fringe benefit of strengthening the team. Powerful technology will enable these kinds of interaction, promoting awareness, cooperation, and cross-pollination between different groups in the company. This synergy can be enhanced when you find tools that make it natural for people to combine efforts.

Insightful business people will recognize the exchange here — time invested in evaluating tools will pay dividends when you actually purchase. Like the old fable, a deliberate pace will help you progress better than quickly jumping at every new technology release.

 

Among business operations software, aACE 5 stands out as one of the few systems designed based on the end users. Our development was driven by feedback from initial users, and now you have the opportunity to benefit from their recommendations. Our ongoing effort to meet each client's needs is one reason why simple and effective customizations are mentioned so frequently in testimonials about our product. Contact us today to learn how aACE 5 can integrate, automate, and accelerate your business processes.

"Michael and his team have customized their aACE FileMaker system to fit the needs of our business model. Because we work in the alcohol industry, government regulations are very strict and mandate how we must track and record data; they also require us to file numerous operation-related reports on a monthly or semi-monthly basis. Because of the peculiarities of our business, no stock program would have done the work that we needed it to do, nor helped us to reach our goal of reducing manual recording/reporting on a repetitive basis." ~ Jasmine Crandall, Midwest Custom Bottling LLC

The psychology behind making choices shows that we don't do really well when there are too many options. And when it comes to eCommerce hosting solutions, there are a lot of options.

As Lucinda Honeycutt points out in her article for Entrepreneur.com, all these eCommerce hosts might make it easy to assume that they're equivalent – and that it won't matter too much which one you select. But if you only use one criteria to filter through the web hosting crowd, you need to at least consider the speed and reliability you'll be getting for your online store.

When you can have customers shopping 24/7, even a little trouble with access can translate into notable revenue loss.

The first aspect to consider is speed. How quickly or slowly your eCommerce site loads has a direct impact on user experience. We can all relate to that. You know the feeling of sitting quietly, staring at a buffering circle. It doesn't take too long before we decide to do something else. Your potential customers are the same. Some of them won't even hang around for more than two seconds.

Lucinda points out that a one-second delay in load times could add up to a seven-percent cut into your conversion rate. And the consequences for slow web sites are aggravated by the fact that search engines also rank you on speed, so those delays might put your site farther down on the results page. You can directly control some of the speed-related details on your site (e.g. optimized images and coding), but obviously this factor deserves some attention when you're shopping for an eCommerce host.

The next major factor is uptime – in a given year, how much of the time will your web site host have your site available for customers? Any business owner, whether for a company that's small, mid-sized, or large, would love to know their online store would be open 100% of the time.

However, most hosting services won't make that impressive claim. Instead you're left to choose how many 'nines' you want after the decimal place. That might sound like a detail too small to worry about. But the time difference between a site that's up 99.9% and 99.99% is about 40 minutes per month. Compare that to how long it takes an average user to make a purchase on your site, and you could be losing a number of sales each month.

And again the consequences ripple out from the direct impact. When one customer can't access your eCommerce store, the difficult experience could easily affect their next purchasing decision, as well as the informal reviews they share with friends and family. The uptime that a hosting service can guarantee is a significant detail for you to consider.

Your company's growth is going to be ongoing and steady. So you need to plan for what's going to happen when you go from 100 orders a month to that many per week. If your eCommerce host can't keep up with the demand from your customers, it could trip up your progress. Switching your entire store to another host is possible, but can be dangerous too. So make your initial decision with the long-term plans in mind.

Lucinda ends her article with some well-deserved attention to the actual costs of a eCommerce hosting solution. The monies needed to set up your store and keep it running all day, all year are a definite concern. Those costs range high and low, and they're also charged in different ways. Some platforms charge based on bandwidth you use, the number of transactions you complete, or the number of products you advertise. Others assign a flat monthly fee or simply take a percentage of each sale. While this factor may seem like the most direct impact on your decision, keep in mind that some of the features mentioned above actually can have a larger impact over the year.

Use these areas to create your own ranking system and bring a clear order to the wide assortment of eCommerce hosting providers. With due diligence and hard work, you'll be able to find the solution that will take your company where you want to be.

 

With integrations offered for some of the most popular eCommerce hosts, aACE 5 establishes a direct connection between your online store and the rest of your business operations tools. Orders started online flow seamlessly into aACE, eliminating duplicate data entry and greatly reducing the risk of human error. Contact us today to learn more about aACE eCommerce integrations.

“I would recommend aACE to any business owner facing the challenging task of integrating their Amazon orders into one solution that handles all of their needs. There isn’t much limitation to what the software can do, and it flows beautifully.” ~ Cory Elliot, Founder and CEO, Troy Filters Ltd.

Some business people might describe a CRM system as high-risk, high-reward. And it's true that without careful attention, the investment into customer relationship management software might get lost. When you manage the tool and the data right though, even a small or mid-sized business can get unparalleled benefits.

In his excellent article on Entrepreneur.com, Jonathan Herrick gives a handful of warnings you can use to make sure you're doing things right. Focusing attention on the pain-points first, he explains that the one thing worse than misusing CRM info is not using it at all. That said, it's also clear that misusing the data is no picnic. Poor CRM usage can aggravate things for a business owner who feels like she's steering a ship in the dark; an executive who feels frustrated because everyone is busy, but nothing is getting done; or any decision-maker who feels debilitated by missing and incomplete data.

Leveraging your CRM starts with these four best practices, the reverse of Herrick's trouble-spots:

1. Concentrate on the Right Data

CRM systems today can be fully integrated with ERP and accounting tools, capturing a goldmine of details. But the computer isn't able yet to tell a dirt clod from a gold nugget. It's up to you to focus the system, processes, and personnel on the valuable information. Whether you've found the most benefit from direct mail, phone calls, social media, or mass email, your CRM efforts should prioritize that contact info. In other words, don't worry about the data you don't use. And definitely don't bother your customers with entering data that won't benefit anyone.

2. Measure the Right Performance

Related to the first tip, this one puts you on notice against high numbers that don't equate to high sales. With your company website or eCommerce store, you might find that tracking the increasing number of visitors is a feel-good – but that end of the pipeline doesn't provide much to help you with making decisions. Instead, work backward from the customers who cross the finish line, looking for patterns in their progress. Those recurring details are the metrics that matter most. Ensure that info gets to the right people in your organization and keep those numbers front and center, checking every campaign and initiative against this vital market feedback.

3. Bring Order to the Chaos

The CRM system you use will only be as helpful as your team's efforts make it. Automation is a great time-saver, but people are still needed for recording the crucial info. Yes, a lead called at this time on this day — what was the conversation about? Getting the team into the habit of carefully noting what happens with contacts, prospects, and clients may take planning and patience. When they understand how personalizing interactions can help with profitability, getting these processes in place can become easier. Analyze, educate, and encourage the work that will keep your CRM data valuable.

4. Put the Data to Work

Once you have organized, valuable information, you're half-way there. The next stage is to align the business processes to the picture of market reality your data shows. In a sense, each click and phone number is feedback for you, but your team has to act on it. This might start with internal changes, re-directing attention where it's most useful for the pipeline, but it will expand to boost your relationships, connections, and sales. It can even show you new opportunities where your team can thrive.

Having CRM software won't make all the difference. Having good data won't either. But having these pieces in place for your team to take advantage of might surprise you.

 

aACE 5 is designed to facilitate the business approach suggested in Herrick's article. It's a comprehensive yet cost-effective, cross-platform system that is customizable and provides apps for mobile users. Sculpted according to feedback from various professional services, wholesale distribution, and light manufacturing clients, this software is designed to accelerate your business growth. If you're looking to upgrade a CRM system, asking some questions about aACE 5 can help you get the best ROI. Learn more today.

"aACE has a comprehensive customer relationship management section that leads into prospective customers becoming real customers. From that point, you can take an order from start to finish by capturing deadlines, resources and material costs spent on a project, as well as extensive accounting functions." ~ Lili Hall, President, KNOCK Inc

Manufacturing businesses succeed as they arrange their operations around continuous improvement. This foundational principle, however, can be easy to lose sight of when it comes to deploying ERP solutions. When making such a crucial investment, that is exactly the time a business must resist the attitudes that can cripple an ERP project – or even the whole company.

IndustryWeek.com has published a pointed article that serves as good warning for companies preparing to deploy ERP solutions. This advice arises from the experience of Paul Henderson of QAD Acia Pacific, and it is framed as three memorable "sins" of omission. While the article is focused on manufacturing companies, the warnings ring true for any other business, from wholesale distribution to professional services.

1. Forgetting the Principle of Continuous Improvement

Minimizing defects and improving quality seems like it would be an obvious part of any manufacturing company's ERP project. Unfortunately not all ERP vendors align themselves to Six Sigma, Lean Manufacturing, or any other approach for continual improvement. Instead, they seem to operate on a theory of a software big bang (or perhaps ERP ex nihilo). That is, the ERP solution must spring forth into being, fully formed and complete, at the first implementation.

This method is usually over-complicated and less-than-agile, over-budget and exhausting. And the negative results ripple out into a larger pattern. One project like this can make an organization gun-shy, unwilling to take on other software implementations until a crisis emerges. Which often requires another massive, rushed deployment, followed by another rapid depreciation of value.

Could your company get caught in this pattern? How could any company that survives on slow, progressive excellence stumble into this pitfall? One possibility might be the good intention to get the most functionality for the company's dollar. This would be a misdirected effort to purchase as many features as possible, rather than purchasing the needed functionality plus the necessary ongoing support (aka continuous improvement).

2. Ignoring the Business that the ERP Should Support

This obstacle is related to the first. It involves letting the ERP software eclipse the processes, activities, and value that your company actually delivers. It might be understandable that an ERP vendor would be eager to make the sale, but it should also be a red flag for you.

A quality vendor will be focused on holistic success — your improved operations will be more important than a single sale. Conversations and planning must stay focused on that larger goal. And if an ERP vendor has a pattern of lapsing into tunnel vision around what the product needs, you should address it right away.

3. Assuming the Project is Complete at Go-Live

Extending from the second pitfall, this troublesome mindset can be easier for an ERP buyer to fall into. We like closure. Especially when that completion is a measuring point for our accomplishments or success. However, a solution used for something as broad and valuable as enterprise resource planning doesn't really "stop". So if a vendor gives you the impression that they're going to ride off into the sunset after go-live, you'll want to have a candid discussion about expectations.

ERP goals continue to evolve even after the ERP software is launched. This is why the closure of deploying the software may be a nice turning point, but can't be considered the end point. The business goes on and better measures of success will be drawn from the operational improvements you see after launch. And because this long-term focus is central to success, it's vital to begin with this end in mind. At the outset, identify some key indicators that will be benchmarks to demonstrate the value your company is getting from the new ERP solution.

 

Overall, a manufacturing company should be well-situated for a successful ERP project. Play to your strengths, following the continuous improvement principles that help your business succeed each day. These established practices will help you avoid the problems that can arise in a major software deployment. They can help you get the most from your ERP investment.

 

At aACE Software, our entire sales process is focused toward your organization's ongoing success:

When you reach out to us, our first step is a brief phone conversation to identify whether your company is at a point to fully benefit from aACE 5. If it looks like a good match, we schedule a free demo where we can show you how a fully integrated accounting, CRM, and ERP solution works. As needed, another demo may follow, focused on diving deeper into a select few of your top priorities. If it looks like aACE can help with your business goals, the Discovery Phase becomes a time to look into the details. We examine how the customization, deployment, switch-over, and ongoing support will need to work in order to ensure your continuing growth.

To learn more about how we strive to support client operations, check out our FAQs or contact us today.

"Our specific workflows called for a flexible central platform that we could bolt on customized work-area specific tools. Implementing aACE, in the FileMaker environment, has proven to be the right solution to get us just that." ~ Matthew Pelfrey, Director of Process and Compliance, Duggal Visual Solutions

For today's web-savvy entrepreneurs, establishing a business presence online takes only a few dollars and a few minutes. There are sites for hosting eCommerce, designing logos, writing copy — for handling all aspects of a globally accessible company. However this creates a business paradox: while it's easier than ever for organizations to get started in online sales, it's harder than ever to compete and succeed in online sales.

Dan Reich, writing for Forbes.com, offers five tips to help you excel in eCommerce. This advice is garnered from several top-tier e-merchants and it can make a difference in how you seek success.

1. Niche Differentiation

Fact: If you're selling something that Amazon can sell just as well, then it's likely that Amazon will win out. But the opposite is also true. There are things you can do that Amazon can't replicate and therefore can't compete with you. Reich describes these areas as industries with "high degrees of differentiation and low degrees of uniformity". His quotation from Olga Vidisheva of Shoptiques.com anchors that idea even further: “Your offering must stand out and have a point of view.”

This isn't a matter of having a unique color scheme on your eCommerce site (although more on that in moment). Instead it has to do with the products and services you offer. For example, Amazon can't sell custom-designed, hand-made jewelry or clothing. It can't sell the experience of working with you on a customer's unique order. And while the eCommerce giant can sell industrial air filters, it can't keep up with your installation services and scheduled replacement offerings.

Whether you're in wholesale distribution, professional services, or light manufacturing, it can be a good investment to spend some additional time developing your unique product offering.

2. Logistics Excellence

The pressure from Amazon isn't limited to the types of products you sell. Your customers have shopped on Amazon, so they know how user-friendly an online purchase process can be. This means you need to provide a similar level of service. It can be difficult to match Amazon's shipping options, but if you manage expectations effectively, customers will be pleased when they get exactly what you promised to deliver.

The package that arrives can be another way to set yourself apart from large, generic stores. A perfectly correct order is vital, but if you can also provide an un-boxing experience that is unique, you're one step closer to the niche differentiation mentioned above.

3. Omnichannel Outreach

While your eCommerce site might be where the orders come in, that doesn't mean it's the only place where you engage with potential customers. Whether you also run a brick-and-mortar store, a dynamic social media presence, or an engaging app, customers should recognize your company. The design aesthetic should be consistent, helping users feel like they know who you are and they can trust you with their business. Repeat purchases and customer loyalty are crucial in the digital global-market.

4. Consistent Connections

Taking advantage of the omnichannel in another way, you need to be sure that each business site, whether digital or otherwise, includes cross-promotion. Your email campaigns, apps, social media posts, and company offices should all make reference to each other. Each avenue is a way you can serve your customers better, learning what their needs and interests are, then helping satisfy them.

5. Continual Improvement

The digital marketplace is constantly developing. New tools are being created and existing services and products can become more affordable as your company grows. Keep your organization open to taking advantage of the best opportunities out there. The specific path you take will be as unique as your business niche, but the key is to be learning and re-investing in your small business growth.

As Olga Vidisheva says, "It can be difficult for a small business to really make an impact online, even when it has a beautiful site." At first your growing company may seem like it is dwarfed by eCommerce giants and lost in the crowd of other small organizations. But with persistence, long-term planning, and smart use of the best practices like those explained above, success in your niche is a very real possibility.

 

When you see increasing momentum in your organization, it becomes important to re-invest in tools that will sustain your progress and even accelerate it. Business operations software can quickly create dividends in your resources, streamlining and automating chores so you can focus on more valuable tasks. aACE 5 is a five-star ranked solution for your accounting, CRM, and ERP needs. When you're ready to enhance your business velocity, we're eager to talk with you about how we can help.

"I have been an aACE user for more than 8 years and I find myself constantly impressed with functionality and use of the system." ~ Diana Ross-Gotta, Account Director, KNOCK Inc.