Sage Solutions Success Stories | Accounting Software NY | Financial Software NJ

In the face of rising energy costs and a fear of a global economic downturn, reducing costs is a top priority for today’s mid-size companies as they develop their Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) strategies. Yet, in order to preserve revenue streams and market share, cost reductions cannot come at the expense of customer service. This report explores feedback from over 500 mid-size companies, and aims to serve as a roadmap to those that desire to reduce costs, and improve accuracy and delivery performance.

Small and medium-sized companies face significant challenges in implementing company-wide or enterprise-wide solutions. These challenges arise from the scarcity of resources − money, time and people and expertise. And yet the business imperative to implement truly effective systems is even greater, since the technology gap between large and small companies is widening.

In response to these challenges, the prevalent thinking among business owners and management is to push ERP vendors to produce ROI measures, most frequently citing statistics such as reduced inventory and inventory carrying costs, reduction in days sales outstanding, or reduced order cycle times.

In today’s competitive marketplace, you need every available edge to ensure your company’s success. You need information that will help guide your strategic decisions. Implementing an Enterprise Resource System (ERP) that integrates all your information and processes into one coherent environment is a first – and major – step towards improved decision-making. But capturing and processing data is not sufficient to give you the insight into your business that you need today. Only when coupled with a business intelligence system can your ERP software enable users analyze and act on that data quickly and effectively.

Business intelligence refers to software applications and technologies that are used to gather, provide access to and analyze data about a company’s business operations. Business intelligence systems can help companies make better, more informed decisions by offering a more comprehensive knowledge of the factors affecting their business, such as metrics on sales, production and internal operations.

Business intelligence often uses key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess the present state of business and to prescribe a course of action. KPIs can offer valuable information for decision-making purposes, so it’s important to be sure the right things are being measured.

In the ongoing effort to operate a successful business, companies continually seek opportunities to cut costs and increase profits. Naturally, they often look first to their own internal operations to find ways to streamline processes and integrate information flows from different locations – and often from different countries – in an effort to manage them more efficiently.

Globalization is changing the way businesses compete. To succeed, companies must create new ideas that help them tap into global markets, from extending their supply chains to include foreign suppliers to reaching new customers across the world via web commerce.

Is your business considering testing international waters? If so, you’re not alone. An increasing number of small to mid-sized manufacturers and distributors are already tapping the global marketplace. These companies are reducing costs on the supply side by working with lower-cost vendors in countries such as China, Mexico and Japan. And, they’re increasing revenues by making high-demand goods and services available to new markets that were previously thought to be unattainable.

In implementing an ERP system, companies always seek ways to streamline operations and reduce costs. However, the opportunities to improve processes and minimize expenses eventually will fall to the law of diminishing returns. At some point, it will be impossible to go any further without the effort expended outweighing any added value. That’s why it’s important to always consider how your business will grow. Beyond automating processes and reducing costs with an ERP system, you have to seek out opportunities to develop your revenue stream. An advanced ERP system will provide additional tools that can help build your business.

Many companies do not recognize when they have outgrown their legacy system or what benefits can be achieved by implementing a more advanced system. The ERP marketplace is both dynamic and innovative. Management teams should perform a periodic gap analysis to determine whether it is time to upgrade to an ERP such as Sage ERP X3.

Don't take our word for it; here are some stories from customers who are satisfied with their investment in Sage ERP X3.