Due to the complexity of chargebacks and deductions, many suppliers do not do an effective job of investigating, documenting, challenging and managing them.

For those suppliers who do invest the resources to properly manage chargeback and deductions, they often spend excessively to properly investigate each claim in order to determine its merit.

In either case – whether carefully managing or simply paying – natural product suppliers are losing. And the loses are significant.

Accurate forecasting requires inputs from many parts of your organization from sales, production, marketing, finance and others. As important as a good forecast is, it is equally as important to use that forecast properly to manage suppliers, materials, customers and internal resources as well.

Today’s businesses move at breakneck speeds. As leaders, you need to always have the information you need to make timely decisions on critical issues. If you are waiting weeks for financials and/or days for analyses, you are missing out.

An effective Business Management System should provide you all the data you need in real time. Not only should it be available in real time, but it shouldn’t require a specialist to gather the information and it should be accessible via computer, tablet and/or smartphone.

Decisions are only as good as the information used to make them.

From payroll and expenses to managing time off – the user and manager experience needs to be smooth and effortless.

One of the biggest resource wasters and sources of incorrect data is manual re-keying and exporting/importing data. In addition to the time wasted performing completely duplicative work such as re-typing content from one application into another; even the most competent employees will make typographical errors.

Exporting and importing data from one system to another is a temporary and perilous solution to a long-term problem. Often, there are challenges with reformatting, merging, and removing duplicated data. Add to that, since the process is typically a manual exercise, it is also very prone to error (especially if the person whose job it is to do it, is out on vacation when it needs to be done).

Spreadsheets are not databases, they are not secure, and they lack versioning and change control. They are inefficient when it comes to data management. Equally important, they are non-standard and the minute you give access to another user, you completely lose control (Who edited it last? Who has the latest version? Etc.).

Trackers, check lists, to-do lists, etc.; we all have them in our personal lives, but it is dangerous to use them for business. What happens when someone calls out sick and their to-do list is a sheet of paper on their desk (or worse, a spreadsheet somewhere on their computer or even a series of ‘sticky notes’ stuck to their monitor)? Follow ups, trackers and lists should be maintained centrally within your Business Management Software solution. Besides, when’s the last time a sticky note or a spreadsheet actively alerted you because you (or someone on your team) missed a follow up? Or provided a mechanism to notate your activity against a task?

Forms are inefficient. They require someone to ‘fill them out’ and then someone else to move that data from the form to somewhere else. They are the epitome of redundancy. The real irony is that so often, these highly inefficient forms are actually built and maintained as spreadsheets.

In addition to the high cost of maintaining old, outdated systems, what is the cost of a crash or a virus or malware?

Another common problem with legacy systems is that there are very few technical resources available to support them.

The old adage “be careful what you wish for, you just might get it” is true. Large and demanding clients are exactly what most business are wishing for, but if your systems are not prepared to service them, it will cost you dearly.

Showing potential investors that your financial information, your business information, your customer information, your supplier information, your product information and all the other information used to run your business is accurate, controlled and accessible instills confidence.

Good compliance is more than simply following the rules. It involves having the tools, tracking and technology to reduce issues and quickly react to minimize liabilities if a problem occurs.

Can you:
Bill your customers the way they want?
Receive purchase orders the way they want?
Ship products the way they want?
Service your customers the way they want?

Your Business Management System should be right-sized for your business today but able to scale exponentially overnight. Conversely, your systems should also be able to scale down if need be.