Is your business looking backward or forward? Are you indulging yourself by dwelling on better times gone by, or are you investing for the day when the economy starts humming again?

Four51′s SAP Business One implementation team has been working with a group of about 20 very focused, very aggressive distributors over the last year. These guys aren’t complaining about hard times. They’re sharpening their tools and investing in growth.

The integrated Four51/SAP system is well beyond the beta testing phase. As we accelerate the pace at which we’re replacing old embedded industry systems around the country, we’re discovering some patterns.

1. Buried Treasure in the Business. Once you have a real business management system, you’ll find money that’s been leaking out of the business for years. Where? Inventory management and purchasing management, among other areas. One Distributor found $3,000 per month of pure profit within the first month of going live.
2. Benefits of a Connected Business. The systems we’re replacing allow employees to work in silos. Information doesn’t flow from department to department, so the business has no built-in quality control and no ability to act in real-time. Simple things can make a big difference, like a business owner being instantly alerted that a CSR changed the payment terms for a customer. Or a sales rep being notified that the largest order of the year was just received into inventory.
3. Waxy Build-Up in the Business. Putting in a new system forces healthy dialogue, and requires that cross-functional teams tear down processes in order to improve them. Some of these processes have been around forever, and have gummed up the business. We’re seeing a lot of these conversations:

• “Why do we do it that way?”
• “I guess because we’ve always done it that way.”
• “We can eliminate steps and use the system to make this easier.”
• “Awesome.”

Liberating, yes. Saves money, yes. Makes you faster, smarter, and more responsive to clients? Yes. Just ask the distributor in TX who landed a Top 10 retailer based on the reporting power of SAP.

Do something today to get your business ready for tomorrow. As the noted Austrian psychologist The Terminator once said: Anger is more useful than despair. Drop us a line if you want to talk about end-to-end integration, FanTools for Facebook, or custom development services.

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