What is the importance of business process understanding in digital transformation

 

In my last blog, I have mentioned about three essential factors of Digital Transformation.  Process, People, and Automation.  These are not significant factors for digital transformation alone, but it is the crux of any business.  Once you have all the three in perfect sync, your business will flourish.  

Many companies are doing the same business.  They are either manufacturing or dealing with the same product lines.  Probably, with the same target customers.  If you observe them closely, only a handful of them can scale up their business smoothly.

Why?  If you look deep inside each of them, though they are almost into a similar business line, the way they do things is substantially different.  They adopt different practices to procure, stock, sell, and handle the finance.  In other words, the process of doing business vary.

Why only a few of the organizations can scale up?  Why aren’t the others able to scale up?  In reality, only a few of them have given focus to the process factor.  In simple terms, each employee must be aware of what exactly they must do.  This awareness is natural and common in the organization of smaller size. Still, hard as the organization grows, Important processes, at least, should be well described and documented with room for no confusion or delays in such a situation.  When roles and responsibilities are very well maintained, everyone can work smoothly. Monitoring becomes easy; accountability increases and, in turn, paving a path for high performance and scalability.

So, how do we start to streamline the process factor?  It is not as difficult as you think.  It is relatively straightforward. We must know all the repetitive tasks during business automation and how much time and effort it takes. Conclude, you need to have good clarity on who is doing what and when and which areas need to be improved for better results. 

Just note down all that you are doing now in a particular department.  Who, What, and When?  Take care of all the possible scenarios.  Please don’t think only about the happy scenarios.  Take care of the variations and the exceptions too.  Once you complete the process documentation, you can see the points where you can improve.  You can see the bottlenecks needs your attention.  This exercise will open up the high-volume tasks, which can be better automated!

The basic level of process mapping is simple for our purpose; that is enough. Remember, the process and the documentation are to get things done. If you have this clarity, it will help you find a suitable automation solution, like an ERP.  This will make an ERP work for you; instead, you work for the ERP!

Let’s start the digital transformation in the right way.  Let’s resolve the root causes.  Of course, if you need any help, Galaxy can help you.  Happy reading!

 

Customer Support Services

 

Does your ERP enable credit control?

 

Is your ERP intelligent enough?

 

WriteWell 2020

 

How do I start my digital transformation journey? Week 1

Today marks the day that we embark on this digital transformation journey. The efforts to transform the way you are doing business.  To transform your business and make it ready to embrace the digital world.  I am happy that you have already understood that this is not a one-time effort, rather a continuous process.  Once done, it brings a tremendous business outcome.  A journey worth traveling over the years!

Every journey must start with a single step.  Maybe a baby step, or for that matter, a giant leap.  In both cases, one common thing is that you need to start somewhere and keep going.  Keep moving forward, irrespective of the pace at which you make these changes; you are sure to reach your final destination.  Success Guaranteed!

The digital transformation journey is no exception.  As I have mentioned earlier, digital transformation is not a magic wand.  But it can do wonders and it is very much doable.  But you need to put in serious effort for it happens. Digital transformation is all about the changes that you need to bring into the work culture of your organization.

Now, let’s look at the three key points to start your digital transformation voyage.  Without these points, you will not be able to kick-start your activities.  The three key points are Process, People, and Technology.  These three points will ensure success in your digital transformation journey.  Of course, there is more to add to the list, like your organizational culture, top management commitment, budget, planning, etc.  But you need to start somewhere.  Let’s look at each of these points in a detailed manner.

Process:  I am sure that you have an established process.  It is working.  But you may find a need to refine these processes and to be more effective in increasing productivity.  The challenge many organizations face is in the level of documentation and enablement of these processes.  The processes reside in the minds of a set of employees or leaders.  If this is the scenario, then we need to work on it.  Since we will bring changes to these processes while attempting digital transformation, it is essential to know what you are trying to change.  The impact of each shift will vary drastically. To identify the effect of any change, you need to have documentation of all the current processes.  To me, this is the first effort that has to be done, even before taking any further step towards planning the future course of action.

People:  People are different. That’s good. You need to have the right ones to be in your team to move forward successfully.  It is not about the rank or position in the organization.  It is all about attitude.  You need to have some born leaders.  I am sure you will find them in every organization. You need them to act as change agents.  They will instill motivation among peers, which is contagious. 

Digital transformation has much to do with changes.  Changes are nothing but pain.  You need to spend extra time and effort to bring those planned results.  Embracing changes will be an innate talent within born leaders.  By identifying and assembling the right team, you have won half the battle. Placing the right team can make or break the whole effort.

Technology:  Today, once you think about the technologies available, it is overwhelming. There are so many proven technologies you can work with that can considerably improve your business. This is where you need to be cautious.  A technology working in one organization may not guarantee success in your organization. There are many other factors like organizational processes, people, and maturity level, to mention a few that contribute towards a successful implementation.  

Please don’t get carried away with any technology. The right questions to ask while choosing a new technology are: -   How much efficiency can it bring?  Is your team matured enough to handle this change?  Do investment and ROI are justifiable?  Once you do the homework properly, you will find the right technologies that suit your organizational culture, maturity, and budget.

Do you feel this is only for big enterprises? Not really.  Even the smallest organization can very well implement digital transformation.  We can help you with the necessary steps for you to start and keep moving forward.  Next week, let’s dive deep into every single point mentioned above.  Digital transformation is not a herculean task.  To achieve the desired results, you need to spend quality time in preparing.  Please don’t get over-ambitious, be realistic. It is only not about technology, but it is more about people and change. 

WriteWell 2020 - Win US$100, monthly

 

Business Process Documentation

 

ERP acceptance testing

 

ERP on cloud and on premise

 

Digital Transformation Jump-Start for SMEs

 Digital Transformation Jump-Start for SMEs – Weekly every Sunday!

Today, the need of the hour for any organization is Digital Transformation. Lots of write-ups, many discussions, and a lot more presentations and seminars, but the question remains; Where do I start? What should I do? How much does it cost? Does it suit my Business Model?

Even today, many of the SMEs feel that Digital Transformation is only for enterprises, but that is not the case. It applies to everyone. The degree at which you can implement varies according to the organizational structure and maturity. It is true that depending on the organization and its maturity, the level of Digital Transformation and its starting points vary considerably.

I am trying to look from the SME company's point of view to start the Digital Transformation. First of all, let's get one thing clear; digital transformation is not a magic wand! It is a systematic approach to address the challenges of the day to day working of an organization and resolve them to improve the efficiency of work. Also, Digital Transformation is a journey. It is a continuous process. Digital Transformation efforts vary from one organization to another since the addressing problems are different. One fit for all approach will not work out here.

That being said, there are few standard processes and activities you need to do, no matter the organization type or size. I am trying to put across some necessary steps to help your company to get into the digital transformation journey. These steps are very adaptable and applicable for any SME irrespective of industry, size, or even geography.

"Digital Transformation Jump-Start for SMEs" is an initiative to help those companies who are interested in getting into the bandwagon of Digital Transformation. I am going to put up a THREE-Point strategy to build up the fundamentals. I am sharing my last 29+ years of experience in the business process and automation domain, which may help you to get started.

As the name suggests, this is only a Jump-Start. You will need to build upon this. You can create an internal team, brainstorm and, make plans to move forward. Internal team ownership is the only thing that can assure you success. The ideas maybe my perspective, but I can assure you that this will help you at some point in time. At any point, if you think you need a separate view or professional support, please don't hesitate to call us. We, Galaxy Technology, can be Your Digital Transformation Partner!

Please come back to the blog every Sunday. Happy reading!

I wish you all a great week ahead!

Digital Transformation Jumpstart

 

How reliable is your ERP?

 

3 tips for calculating your ERP’s Total Cost of Ownership (TCO)?

Well done!  You have taken enough time evaluating various ERPs and finally narrowed it down to one. You have achieved a significant milestone. But another crucial factor to consider is the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). I believe that TCO should be the final decision-making point during the acquisition of an ERP. After considering all the apparent direct and indirect costs and a few of the hidden charges, you have arrived at the TCO.  With satisfactory TCO figures, you can get down to brass tacks and start the acquisition process.

 

Let’s quickly look at the TCO factors that affect the affordability of an ERP.  There are three vital factors to consider, namely, acquisition cost, customization cost, and operating cost.

1. Acquisition cost.
The acquisition cost calculation is very straight forward—the total cost you incur from purchasing the ERP licenses and its related Hardware.  Also included are the database and Operating System license costs, connectivity and security-related investments, software & system upgrade expenses, and finally, storage and backup costs.  

2. Customization Cost
Perse, you will most definitely need to do some customization while implementing an ERP.  Customizations end up becoming mandatory and an extra cost almost every single time. Customization charges can vary considerably depending on the level of planned customizations.  Predominately there are three types of customizations: process & Features, Forms & Reports, and External Application or Service integrations.  A clear-cut understanding of customizations will save you time as well as money during implementation.  Make sure you plan all your customizations well in advance. If you try to do something on the fly, it will not only jeopardize the whole implementation plan but also break the bank!
 
3. Operating Cost
There are some specific operational costs that you need to consider.  The first one is the Annual Maintenance Charges (AMC).  You need to pay a certain percentage or a fixed charge (as per the vendor terms and conditions) as AMC. The payment of AMC is to make sure that you are getting the latest patches of the software and continuous support from your ERP vendor. AMC can vary from vendor to vendor.  Apart from the vendor AMC, you need to consider some extra support charges paid to the implementation partner on an ongoing basis.  Most of the cases, service charges are calculated on a Time & Material (T&M) basis.  Another critical operating cost depends on your type of deployment.  If you are using a cloud deployment, you also need to calculate the monthly usage charges of your cloud service provider.  Similarly, there is an additional cost to maintain the hardware infrastructure in case of an on-premise deployment.

ERP White Elephant

 

Is your ERP extensible? Or does it impede your innovation?

We are now living in a world where everything changes very quickly. Changes are quite evident in every part of our day-to-day life—household gadgets, computers, mobile phones, for that matter, anything that you come in contact with on a regular basis. There are not many options other than adapting to the changes.

When it comes to change, business is no exemption.  Business models are changing rapidly.  Many new business models are emerging.  Sometimes changes are overwhelming, and it is a bit difficult to cope up with the changes.  But, in reality, if you need to grow your business, or even to survive, you need to embrace those changes.  

When you consider an ERP for your business, have a medium to a long-term plan is very important.  It is not easy to change or reimplement ERPs every year.  So, when you are planning to invest in an ERP, you need to do due diligence to make sure that the chosen ERP will have all the necessary extensibility factors.  In short words, it should be a future-ready one.

Let's look at the significant ERP extensibility evaluation points.

1. On-premises to cloud

Cloud-based applications are the order of the day.  It is becoming a part of every business in one way or another.  Every company in the future needs to look at various touchpoints with one or the other cloud-based applications.  Make sure that your ERP has got cloud extensions and possible cloud integration points.

2. Geographical Growth

Globalization is now a business reality. The world has become 'flat,' and we are living in a world where there are no more boundaries. If you are planning to expand, the ERP must be able to keep up with your vision.  Your ERP must have various localizations to match with the respective business modalities and rules of the geography. 

3. Intelligent Future

Well integrated and connected applications have become the order of the day.  Moreover, applications are becoming more intelligent progressively. They have become much more than trifling tools that record your business transactions. They have grown into complex systems that advise you on how to conduct your business. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies have started to create a significant impact on every business.  How good is your proposed ERP in these lines?  Understand your vendor's roadmap and take the final decision. 

4. Collaborative Working

Every business has competition.  You need to have a strategy and an action plan to tackle the game.  If you look at the present business scenario, collaboration has become the new way to tackle the competition.  When you need to collaborate, you need to create business extension points with the partners and suppliers globally.  You need to establish a continuous workflow with these partners and suppliers.  Does your ERP support business process workflows? Make sure you have a clear understanding on this matter and please don't get confused with transaction flows with business process workflows. While they may sound similar, but they are entirely different concepts. 

5. Digital Transformation

To meet the expectations of your customers, your organization must turn agile and resilient.  The need for individual products that can capture and share information which can even be controlled remotely, are increasing.  Your systems should have the ability to interact with these external products improving day to day business. With digital transformation, you need to achieve the agility to satisfy the demanding customer expectations.  It is very crucial to have a clear understanding of the current digital transformation capabilities of the ERP under consideration.  It is no more a nice to have!  Very soon, it will be a necessity for survival.

Is your ERP extensible?

 

Does your ERP enhance productivity?

 

Does your ERP enhance productivity? Better be clear, don’t assume!

Automation, in general, can improve productivity. By eliminating the manual process, automation can bring improved working efficiency as well as reduce errors. ERP applications provide automation at a transactional level for your entire business. Automation helps to enhance the productivity of each department and employee, culminating in an overall improved organizational productivity. But one thing you need to keep in mind is, the productivity enhancement levels are not the same across businesses; they vary quite significantly

.

How do you evaluate the productivity enhancements that apply to your business? For this, you need to look at it from your business process viewpoint. Analyze the pain points in your various business process steps. Make sure to map the automation feature of the ERP and corroborate with all your pain points. If there are no red flags raised, subsequently, look for the ease of use and productivity gain possibilities.

You can make use of these FIVE points as a yardstick to evaluate the productivity enhancement possibilities for the ERP of your choice.

1. System Complexity

The complexity of the application (ERP) plays a significant role in productivity enhancement. If the system is very intuitive and easy to use, then the adoption rate will be high. An excellent user interface will make all the difference in day to day usage of the system.

2. Efficiency

By automating repetitive tasks, you can bring efficiency improvement. A Wizard-like feature can improve productivity to a great extent. To give you an example, if you eliminate duplicate data entry points, the system will be at its optimal productivity level. Automation will save time and eliminate human errors during data entry.

3. Industry Best Practices

Best practices are critical. You need to look at various industry-related best practices and their conformance in the system. Especially the local regulatory compliances. For example, GST or TAX related compliance requirements. Your proposed system should have a built-in capability to generate various mandatory reports.

4. End-User Training & Online Support

No matter how sound your system maybe, in the end, it is up to the user to maneuver and operate the system. The vendor or your implementation partner has to provide excellent training to the end-users. Give them the proper attention that they require. It is essential to look for online help as well as the support services offered by the system. Role-based content navigation and enablement will ensure you the best training scenario. If you can make the end-users and the system work hand in hand, your productivity enhancement is guaranteed.

5. Employee Empowerment

Empowering the employees must be one of the primary objectives of an organization. Empowered employees can increase customer satisfaction by providing them with relevant information and timely support. Your proposed system should empower the employee with real-time information that is easy to access. Process, People, and Tools in sync guarantee the best results possible!

Favorite "agility" factor in SAP Business One?

 

Is your ERP adaptable, or are you getting adapted to it?

 

5 adaptability requirements of an ERP

Charles Darwin’s words are very much valid for an ERP too, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, it is the one that is most adaptable to change.” 

Change is the essence of life. There is no exception for the business too. Continuously business models are changing, and new models are emerging. Your ERP must be able to tackle this situation. 

During the evaluation process of an ERP, addressing the Adaptability of the proposed ERP should be a matter of concern. Don’t overlook it.  Adaptability, a non-functional requirement, is a compelling influencer in the system architecture. As you are aware, system Architecture defines ERP and its usage scenarios. So, Adaptability is critical.

Now, let’s look at Adaptability from the ERP perspective on how it can influence the system.

1. Resourcefulness

Once you look at the various resources provided by the ERP vendor, you will be able to verify this. Make sure that you have sufficient resources provided by the vendor to make you and your system adaptable to future changes and challenges. To cite a few examples like extension APIs, integration touchpoints, and cloud technology extensions, etc.,

2. Agility

Agility is another major factor to reckon with in an ERP evaluation process. Even though you have all the resources to make it future proof, how agile are they? Does the system allow you to change and make it adaptable to the changing environment quickly? For example, your ERP system demands some additional fields to extend functionality. Is it practical to do this in a few hours, or is it going to take days and with much technical complexity? A nimble system always ensures agility. Agility ensures on-going business success. 

3. Staying Current

Technology changes very fast. To keep up with the changes is very important. You should not get lost. What is the latest technology trend which is prevailing in your industry or business domain? What is the level of conformity in the ERP? Does the technology is already implemented, or is there a clear future roadmap for it? Be aware and make the right decision. For that matter, all the current technological advancements will not have the same impact on your business. Let me make it lucid; an online shop integration module will have the most significant influence on a company that is running the traditional business along with an online portal to sell their products and services. The online extension module can make a significant impact on the inventory, delivery, and accounting functionalities, which nothing but the crux of your business.

4. Future Roadmap

When you spend time with the salesperson, please don’t forget to check up with him about the future roadmap of the ERP. The future roadmap is very vital and will give you a clear idea about where the product is heading. Look at your industry perspective and be aware of the advancements. Do you find a match? This one synergy will safeguard your ERP investment. Since ERP implementation is a long-term investment, don’t leave anything for chances. 

5. Embrace Learning

The more you know about your industry and the changing trends, the better you are. It applies to the solution that you are buying. The vendor should have provided clear and detailed documentation. Easily accessible at the right point of need. Documentation should support your administrative and functional teams to become self-reliable. A well-documented common issue on the daily usage scenarios and quick fixes for that will add a lot of value. Of course, your team should embrace the continuous learning mode of the industry best practices and usage to the ERP solution implemented too.

For Adaptability, there are three significant angles to look at, too. 1. Business Changes. 2. Technology Changes. 3. Demography and Cultural Changes. The above topics are for yet another blog. It’s coming soon. Happy reading!

 #ERP, #Agility, ##adaptability #sapbusinessone #changemanagement

Favorite functionality in SAP Business One?

 

Evaluating ERP functionality - 7 Tips

 

What to look at your ERP functionality before you decide one?

 

1. Basic Functionality

Almost every ERP comes with the basic functionality of Accounting, Sales, Purchase, Inventory, Banking, and Reporting modules.  Some advanced ERPs also include features like CRM, Services, and Production Management.  A handful of ERPs have Project Management as a built-in capability.

The point here is, don’t get overwhelmed with the above listed functional capabilities of an ERP.  It is always better to look from your business point of view to map the functionalities of the ERP.  As I have mentioned in my previous article, you are the master of your business.  You know your pain points better than anybody else.  Look for a solution for those pain points in the system.  This way, you are sure to make the right choice.

2. Extended Functionality

Any ERP, whichever may be the brand or vendor, is not a perfect fit for every industry.  Everyone has a sweet spot.  Ask the salesperson for a reference customer who is in your similar line of business.  References will reduce the surprises and implementation risk considerably.  Also, make sure that the ERP confirms various industry best practices and standards.

3. Mobile Extended CRM

Customer Relationship Management is a standard module with all prominent ERPs.  But when you look at this functionality, it has the highest use, when your salesperson is on the move.  You need to make sure that there is an extended Sales & CRM mobile app available.  For sure, this will make your sales team more agile and responsive to the customers.  To a great extent, mobile apps are no more an option but a necessity. 

4. Mobile Extended Services

Mobile enablement is vastly right for the service team also.  Service people are always on the move.  They need to have all the information about the customer, equipment, and the incident history handy with them.  If they can have information about the availability of the spare parts back at your warehouse, the service call will be most practical and productive.  A seamlessly integrated mobile app is a must for the service team.  Think about it, whether your business has a service component or not.

5. Integration with E-commerce

Today, most of the business has an e-commerce extension to their core business.  Do you have an e-commerce webstore?  Or are you planning to have something similar soon?  Are you selling your products through portals like Amazon?  The above questions will answer your requirement to have a different kind of stock, delivery, and payment transaction requirements for your business.  Your system should do these transactions and must be in a position to integrate with your primary business.  This integration will improve the responsiveness and fulfillment capability of your e-commerce business.  Responsiveness is one of the significant success factors for your e-business!

6. Integration with your office apps

Emails are an integral part of any business.  Every interaction with the customer is essential and needs to keep as a record.  Here comes the challenge.  If you are going to do this manually, let me tell you, it will never happen.  The case is worse if you have a sizable sales team with multiple product lines.  You need to have the functionality to integrate your emails and documents automatically with your ERP.  Automation will eliminate the challenge of manual tagging and filing of the emails with respective customer/vendor.  I am sure this will be an immediate productivity booster.  

7. Reporting & Dashboards

Last but not least, Reporting is one of the big things you need to make sure before you finalize your ERP purchase decision.  What are the standard reports available?  Using the reports, do you have the facility to slice and dice the data for your analysis purpose?  How easy can you export the data from your ERP to your favorite desktop app, Excel?  Can you see the reports and dashboards while you are on the move using a mobile app? Can you create a new Report with a few clicks, or you need a programmer to make it every time?  Please understand, report generation is not a one-time activity, but a continuous process!

7 tips for choosing ERP

 

How to identify the best fit ERP for your business? 7 Points for selection

 Today, we are living in a world of choices. For anything and everything, you have plenty of options. Let it be in the case of Studies, Automobiles, Apparels, Mobile Phones, for that matter anything you look around for your business or personal, you have plenty of choices. Beware, choices can lead to confusion and challenges!

The ERP world is no exception. Today, there are many products with a variety of functionalities, and each one is claiming their supremacy—a plethora of offers to exciting you. The power of the word ERP is vital; nowadays, many accounting software companies rebranded their products as ERPs!

You must do the necessary due diligence before selecting an ERP of your choice. First of all, you need to do a bit of discounting from the ‘pure’ sales talk and flashy brochures! Sorry, don’t mistake me, I am not against salespeople! You are the person who knows your business better than anybody else. Look at your current pain points and look for the possible elimination of them by using the ERP solution. Share the pain points with the ERP sales & technical presales team. Now, let them demonstrate to you how the proposed solution can fulfill your expectations. Don’t allow the sales process to be a prescriptive one. As much as possible, drive it to be a consultative one.

Are you getting your business automated with the ERP? Or your ERP is forcing the company to its way? To me, this is another crucial point to make it clear. I agree; a good ERP will enforce some industry best practices. Still, it should not overall deviate your fundamental flow. Of course, you must be willing to make changes since changes are the essence of life. But it should not be overwhelming.

Once implemented, your ERP software should be an enabler to boost your business and productivity. The implementation must ensure a seamless flow of business activities across your various departments. The least disruptive system will have the highest internal acceptance. Remember, only with people, processes, and automation working together will bring the desired results.

Now, let’s look at some practical points to avoid the common pitfalls and make your transition to automation smooth and predictable. The following 7 points will help you to identify the best suited ERP for your business. Functionality, Adaptability, Productivity, Extensibility, Affordability, Reliability, and Supportability. I will be putting each of them in a separate blog. Come back again to read further. Happy reading!

Company Profile

 Company Profile of Digital Transformation Division Galaxy Technology Company 

Go beyond emails with workflows and approvals

 

How to take control of your support services department by using SAP Business One?

 In any business, services are equally important as the sales process. An excellent services department ensures customer loyalty with the company's products. While establishing a brand, service quality is similarly essential to product quality. Apart from creating customer loyalty, a mature and properly managed services division will generate continuous cash flow.

There are a few challenges with any successful implementation of a service system. You need to take control of the service operations, starting from generating Warranty Cards, Service contracts, Systematic Planning of service visits, and Availability of the right service parts. A well-managed service department will automatically create new sales. This way, your service department will act as an extension of your sales department.

In SAP Business One, you have the facility to generate the Equipment Cards (Warranty Cards) automatically using the serial numbers assigned to the products. A service contract is a legally binding document, and you need to manage it properly. Service queue management system in SAP Business One provides the facility to categorize various types of customer inquiries based on the customer demography, product categories, and according to the service teams.

The success of any service department is leveraging the knowledge gained over time. Most of the time, an service inquiry will have some relation to an earlier incident. Documenting incidents and abstracting the knowledge gained on each of them will generate a solution knowledge base. Solution Knowledge Base is the collective knowledge base of problems and its resolutions accumulated over a period. SAP Business One will help you to create a solution knowledge base. A well-documented knowledge base and its availability to the service teams will boost the service effectiveness considerably. It reduces the time to resolve the customer issue, thereby enhance customer satisfaction.

SAP Business One has a Mobile Service App as an extension to the service department activities. It is beneficial for the field service team to carry the complete customer details, product details, service history, and inventory availability with them, even while they are on the move. Using the Service App, the service representative can provide the service reports on the spot by collecting the customer's signature on the mobile device, generate the sales order for the spare parts, and schedule various routine activities while on the field itself.

Manage your customer service department well and ensure customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. Convert your service department from a cost center to a profit center!

Are you excited to have a first-hand feel of the service module of SAP Business One? Don't hesitate, call Galaxy Technology today. We can demonstrate it, Live.

How to achieve your digital transformation goals with SAP Business One ERP?

Digital Transformation

Other than COVID-19, probably, ‘Digital Transformation’ will be the most used terminology in the business community today. Every vendor is trying to reposition its products and services to satisfy the customer expectations to become digitally transformed. Enterprises are transforming their business according to the new norms of digital transformation.

What is digital transformation? It is not a technology, not some products, but it is an all-new way of doing business. Enterprises are trying to match the new expectations of their customers. At this point, only one thing is correct; you need to innovate or perish! Disruption is the order of the day. You need to unlearn many things, change many of the existing business practices, and find new ways and means to conduct your business. Of course, this has to happen without affecting your current flow. Let me say it is possible, but a real challenge.

Change is pain. You need to come out of the comfort zone to embrace the change. To make this happen, you need to have a platform, which is ready for consumption today, and future proof too. The platform should ensure the smooth transition from the Analog world to the Digital world. A platform, which is scalable, robust, and cost-effective one, provides the best ROI

SAP Business One & Digital Transformation

SAP Business One SME ERP is one such platform, which has proven over the decades, and to 1000’s of customers worldwide. The intuitive and robust solution makes your day today. SAP Business One supports you in making the smooth transition, which I have mentioned above. The natural extension points with Cloud Technologies, IoT, Machine Learning, Big Data, Mobile Technologies, and Analytics will make your enterprise future-ready.

Let’s examine each of the technologies and its implementation in SAP Business One succinctly.

Cloud Technologies: SAP Business One offers multiple types of cloud deployments to minimize the upfront IT investment. Your Fixed Cost Vs. Your Operating Cost. Hosted solutions are available from SAP or Partners. Also, you can have your private cloud deployment too.

IoT: The Internet of Things (IoT) is a network of physical objects. Various sensors are to connect Vehicles, machines, and home appliances with your ERP. Monitoring and maintenance are automated and controlled by the system, which then will enact us to do various predictive analytics.

Machine Learning: The algorithms which make the enormous unstructured data into useful information by the use of Machine Learning. Machine Learning is embedded in all systems, devices, machines, and software. Machine Learning will impact the business and society at large. Sales Recommendations and Intelligent forecasts are some examples of Machine Learning implemented in SAP Business One

Big Data: Today, we are living with Exabyte or Zettabytes of data, which goes beyond the human brain can imagine. How to extract the best information out of this? Predicting the customer experience, anticipating the business problems, and even predicting customer demands more accurately and very well in advance. SAP HANA helps you with, Cash Flow Forecasting, Advanced Available-to-Promise, active Enterprise Search, and Predictive Analytics.

Mobile Technologies: SAP Business One provides the Sales and Services App, which can extend your business processes seamlessly, even while you are on the move. It is available both on iOS and Android platforms.

Analytics: SAP Business One for HANA provides a wide range of analytical portfolio. Dashboards and KPIs will make your business measures easy to understand and help you to make the right decisions on-time. Interactive Analytics, Advanced Dashboards will help you to visualize and do various analyses. Analytical Portal allows you to see all your reports from a web browser, anytime and anywhere.

To conclude, by investing in SAP Business One and getting it properly implemented, will ensure your business transformation journey a smooth and predictable one. You are not only investing and reaping the benefits today but also making headway to the Digital Transformation voyage!

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKfJoklgoRw

I am sure this is a bit exhaustive. But according to your need and priority, we can demonstrate each of the technology, Live. Contact Galaxy Technology today.

How to integrate SAP Business One with cloud-based business applications?

 You are living in the era of the digital economy. Many businesses have opened their virtual stores. In specific industries, the brick and mortar store culture is slowly fading away. In many sectors, e-business is more than a convenience, has become a necessity. Your virtual footprint will take your business beyond boundaries. Along with the reach, the availability of your products and service to your end customers are now 24X7!

Any new business model always comes with some challenges too. No surprise, the e-commerce model also has its challenges. It is slightly different from the normal expansion mode of opening more and more stores. The way e-commerce portals have to be managed and integrated with the traditional business is a challenge. The customer expectations are visiting an online portal widely different from a walk-in customer to a physical store.

Like in any store, you need to have necessary business processes like sales, payment collection, delivery, inventory management, and purchase have to be managed and integrated with the newly opened web store along with your primary line of business. The challenge is that you need to have tight integration with the current ERP system and the web store. Your web store processes should be an extension of your core business activities. A seamless flow has to happen with your existing ERP system and the web store processes.

As I have mentioned earlier, for your web store, automation and integration of the following are mandatory with your ERP. You need to have an integration of your Logistics operations, Inventory, Payment Gateways, Marketing and Communication systems, SMS Service Providers, and any other cloud services with your ERP. Once you do the integration, then your web store will become a standard extension to your business, like an additional physical store that you have opened.

SAP Business One Integration Hub add-on provides all the above integration scenarios out of the box. You need to install and deploy the Integration Hub add-on with the help of your implementation partner to get going. The inventory management, supply chain management, payment management, notifications and follow-ups, integration with your external CRM systems, or even with intercompany activities across your business establishments, are some of the capabilities of the SAP Business One Integration Hub. The most sensitive issues with the inventory and payment management are now entirely in sync with your existing business line. You are thus producing a smooth working and better ROI for your existing SAP Business One implementation.

Is it a bit overwhelming? Don’t worry; we can demonstrate it, LIVE! Contact Galaxy Technology today.

How to become an 'Intelligent Enterprise' to outperform the competition?

 Enterprise computing has changed a lot. Today we are at a stage where intelligent technologies define enterprise computing. Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, IoT, and Distributed Networks are few to mention. In today's competitive world, you need to have technologies, frameworks, and tools to convert your business to face the next level of challenges and to make a smooth transition to become an intelligent enterprise.

Let's examine the enterprise computing journey for the last few decades. During 1960-1980, it was the era of mainframe computing. The large enterprises adopted these automation practices. 1990 – 2000, was the era of client-server computing. PC's become more popular and along with internet usage got wide popularity. Broadband technology made internet availability to every nook and corner of the world, and SMEs jumped into the computing and automation world. Many ERPs have become popular. 2000 – 2010 was the era of mobile technology. Smartphones gained popularity and influenced the computing world in a significant way.

2010 – 2020. During this period, you have witnessed many disruptive technologies changing the world and touched every individual on their day to day life. Enterprises embraced the techniques and tools not for the technology's sake, but the very existence. The digital economy took complete control and touched every common man. The enterprises, for that matter, even the small companies, joined the digital transformation phenomenon and became successful.

Going forward, the future success of any enterprise or business depends on their capability to adapt the emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and IoT enabled systems to run their business. You need to have a framework, systems, and practices to outperform the competition and emerge as a winner. You need to have an intelligent suite of applications, well-integrated, and implemented to tackle various business processes. The intelligent suite should have touchpoints to satisfy the customer, suppliers, and the internal employees of the organization.

The need of the hour is to identify the right solution, which can deliver the automation for today, keeping in mind of the intelligent days to come. It is not practical to change the systems very frequently. Invest in the solutions and practices, which will take your organization to the next level with the emerging and compelling, intelligent technologies. Your evaluation in these aspects will ensure that you are getting the best ERP, which can run your organization today, and takes you to the future. Be aware and do due diligence on evaluating and implementing the "Intelligent" Systems for your ensured successful business journey.

Video Link: https://www.sap.com/products/intelligent-enterprise.html?video=c08d46b3-807d-0010-87a3-c30de2ffd8ff

Are you interested and would like to discuss further? Or would you like to see some of the above in action? Contact Galaxy Technology today!

How to work with Gantt Charts in SAP Business One project management?

SAP Business one offers a comprehensive project management module. You can manage your projects end to end using SAP Business One. Linking the various project-related documents to one place allows you to have tight control over the project as well as a smooth execution. Associating a financial project will help you to determine the income, expenses, and profitability.

While defining the project, you can assign various stages of the projects as well as related tasks for each stage. You can specify the start date, end date for each stage as well as for each task. This way, it will enable you to track the completion of the project. At the beginning of the project, you can define a budget. While going forward, you can monitor the budget variations.

To manage various phases of the project or even to manage a sub-contractor for your project, you can use the subproject feature. You will be able to set the budgets for each subproject. Cumulative consolidation of the subprojects will show the project’s overall completion status.

You can manage all the project related documents, activity management, work orders related to the project in one place. Also, you can document all open issues and resolutions.

Now, you have the facility to use the popular Gantt Chart feature in the project management module. This facility is introduced by intuitively and interactively. Either you can visually adjust the dates in the Gantt Chart, or you can do the traditional way of modifying the dates in the columns. In both cases, it synchronizes bi-directionally.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esYAnSx_zzw

Do you need to see all this live? Please contact Galaxy Technology today!

What are all you can do with the newly added Web Client for SAP Business One?

 In the Release 10.0 SAP has provided a new Web Client for comfortable day to day functioning of SAP Business One. The SAP Business One web client follows the SAP Fiori design principles. It covers all the core processes and business logic.

A few of the significant actions you can do with the web client include the creation and updating of Sales Quotations, Sales Orders, Deliveries, and AR Invoices.

In the Purchasing side, you can create and update Purchase Quotations, Goods Receipt PO, AP Invoices, Goods Returns, and AP Credit Memos.

In the Business Partner front, you can create and edit Business Partner Master Data.

Both in the Items and Activities side, you can create and edit new Items and Activities. You can also set notifications for various activities.

In all the above functionalities, you can also have a list view display, previewing, and printing of various documents.

Various Analytics and charting related activities are also possible through the web client. To have the optimized user experience, you can use either Google Chrome or Firefox web browser. It is also possible to launch the web client from the regular SAP Business One application.

Web client also provides the capability of handling the following, Multiple Branches, Exchange Rate Entry, Relationship Map as well as The Enterprise search.

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPtd37sz3RA

 Please get in touch with Galaxy Technology today!

How to make your IT department redundant for creating ad-hoc business reports?

 Every ERP system will have a ton of reports. Most of the cases, you need to customize them with the help of an IT or internal software department person’s support. At the time when you need to make a decision, maybe you are not provided with the right report. You need to ask your internal team or IT expert to make it for you. By that time, he designs and creates a new one for your consumption; your requirement will change. Does this phenomenon sound familiar?

An ideal solution is going to be, the non-IT, or the business decision-makers must be capable of creating their visualizations on the go. They must be empowered to play with the data as they would like to be. They must export the data and do further analysis on a much prevalent and familiar office tool like MS Excel.

SAP Business One provides you this facility. No wonder why SAP Business One is the most popular SME ERP in the market. The in-memory SAP HANA technology makes you happy with the right information at the correct time, that too, with the lightning speed. Be it any business, SAP Business One captures and stores data along with the various business processes. Utilizing the stored data, as per the situation demands to derive some information, it’s just a matter of few clicks—no need for any IT expertise. Once you have the right visualization, you can export the report as per your requirement. Further, if you need to do further analysis, you can very well export the data into the most popular business tool, MS Excel.

A self-reliant line manager will become more productive, mainly for two reasons.
 1. He saves much time explaining his need for the IT person - Knowledge transfer.
2. He can act well on time - His self-reliance

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDXuply_FZc

Does it seem to be a bit exaggerated? Don’t worry; we can demonstrate and prove it live. Please get in touch with Galaxy Technology today!

Internet of Things (IoT) – What is this?

The IT world and the Internet are full of jargon!  You need to be in sync with this always.  If you are not following this very meticulously, you will be left out.  It will not be an exaggeration that you will be obsolete in no time.  The only way to stay current is to be in touch with the latest developments and terminologies as close as possible.

Let’s look at today one of the buzz words of the current internet and computing world – the Internet of Things (IoT).  Way back in 1999, when Kevin Ashton, who coined the term, during his work in the Procter & Gamble, probably he would have never imagined that IoT is going to become such a big thing with numerous opportunities.  As we can see today, IoT has a significant influence on our day to day life.  Now, it is more than an idea, but a reality of connected things over the Internet touching every part of our daily life.

Smartphones and the Internet are working in sync with the IoT creates a new way of doing business.  Customer support and service has new dimensions with IoT.  Manufacturing, medical, distribution, hospitality, you can name anything which has a connection to IoT nowadays.  Now we have many software systems come with an extension possibility to connect various hardware and even another cloud-based service to enable the IoT.

Along with IoT, the latest technologies like Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence, combined, makes immense possibilities to increase customer satisfaction.  SAP Business One, the SME ERP solution, has come out with a lot of value additions in this area.  It is the vision of SAP to deliver an Intelligent Enterprise to customers.  Through diversified capabilities of Intelligent Enterprise, visibility, focus, and agility get improved, thus resulting do more with less, best in class customer experience, and inventing entirely new business models itself.

Examples are many.  Have a look at the small video to get a first-hand idea about IoT.  

If you are interested to know more about the possibilities of IoT to get integrated with your business, and how to get it connected with your ERP system, let’s have a call.  Contact Galaxy Technology today!

How to consolidate and improve the efficiency of working with multiple business units or companies?

When you work with multiple business units or companies under one roof, you need to consolidate the transactions and finance to get better visibility of the business. For this, you need to have a seamless integration between the transactions and operations of multiple companies. You need to have a standard language to speak across the various entities. To streamline the sales or purchase processes, you need to have this intercompany collaboration and integration.

Intercompany integration add-on from SAP Business One reduces many of the manual reconciliations required otherwise. There will be a substantial productivity improvement since we are using many of the standard items created once for other places, like the customer, vendor, or item master data. The intercompany add-on also reduces the painful report compilation work. Now, just in once click, you have all the consolidated reports available ready to consume.

With the implementation of the Intercompany Integration add-on, you will be able to create a common baseline, a standard process across all the business entities. Many a place the manual entry, which is nothing but a duplicate effort, can be eliminated. Not only reduces the time, but it considerably reduces the errors. The integration will enable us to make a centralized payment system. By which you will be able to exercise better financial control. Business decision making is going to be more transparent and timelier since the management need not wait for compiled reports from various departments.

The three distinct advantages:
1. Sharing of common business data across multiple units or group companies.
2. Business Process Standardization
3. Efficient control over business activities and financial reports

Are you facing any similar challenges mentioned above? Let’s spend some time to have a live demo. Seeing is believing! Contact: Galaxy Technology today!

How can you make an informed business decisions in milliseconds?

 SAP Business One, the SME ERP, allows you to integrate various business functions of your company. It provides you with seamless integration possibilities. Once you have the data captured, that is not sufficient to boost productivity. You need to have the correct information for the right decision making—many organizations facing challenges in this area. Don’t worry; this is very much possible!

SAP Business One with the HANA Data Platform provides you easy-to-consume information using dashboards. In SAP Business One, dashboards are an integral part of the cockpit feature provided. With a variety of dashboards, you can see the data visualization using the standard pie and bar charts. It can be either time-specific snapshots or dynamically refreshable visualizations.

SAP Business One provides you various predefined dashboards. It provides dashboards for Financial, Sales, and Services modules. Of course, this is not a limiting factor; you can create your dashboards as per your business demand. According to the roles and responsibilities of the user, you can deploy them in your business. In a business context where you would like to monitor the business performance of your company, that too, without running the Business One application, you can do so with SAP Crystal Dashboard Portal. You can view the dashboards in a simple web browser.

Deploy the SAP Business One dashboards to increase the informed decision-making capability of the organization and thereby improve the organizational agility. The more agile you are, the more you will be successful in business!

Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSRQPCr-yA