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Tim Phelan

5 Ways Technology Consulting Firms Benefit from ERP Partnerships

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In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, technology consulting firms are vital in helping organizations adapt to digital transformation. One crucial aspect of this process is enterprise resource planning (ERP), which enables companies to manage core business functions efficiently. Technology consulting firms can form strategic partnerships with ERP publishers to enhance their ERP offerings. This blog post will explore five ways technology consulting firms can benefit from these partnerships.

1. Access to Cutting-Edge Technology

By partnering with an ERP publisher, technology consulting firms gain access to the latest advancements in ERP technology. This enables them to offer their clients innovative solutions and stay ahead of the competition. Close collaboration with the ERP publisher allows technology consulting firms to gain insights into the product roadmap, future enhancements, and upcoming features. This knowledge helps them provide comprehensive and up-to-date advice to their clients.

2. Expert Training and Support

Working closely with an ERP publisher provides technology consulting firms with expert training and support. The ERP publisher offers in-depth training sessions, webinars, and certification programs for consultants, enabling them to enhance their skills and stay updated with the evolving ERP landscape. Additionally, direct support from the ERP publisher ensures that consultants can quickly resolve any technical issues or challenges faced during implementation or support activities, leading to a seamless client experience.

3. Marketing and Sales Support

A partnership with an ERP publisher allows technology consulting firms to leverage the publisher’s marketing and sales resources. Consulting firms can reach a broader audience, generate more leads, and increase brand visibility by collaborating on marketing efforts. The ERP publisher can provide sales guidance, collateral, and access to potential clients, strengthening the consulting firm’s sales capabilities. This collaboration helps attract new clients and expand the consulting firm’s customer base.

4. Enhancing Consulting Portfolio

Technology consulting firms can enhance their portfolio through an ERP partnership by offering a comprehensive range of ERP services. This enables them to meet the diverse needs of their clients, whether it be ERP implementation, customization, integration, or post-implementation support. With access to various ERP modules and add-ons, consulting firms can tailor solutions according to their client’s specific requirements, ultimately providing more value.

5. Competitive Advantage

Partnering with an ERP publisher gives technology consulting firms a competitive edge in the market. By aligning themselves closely with a renowned ERP brand, consulting firms can build a reputation as trusted experts in ERP technology. This association enhances their credibility and differentiates them from other consulting firms. Furthermore, technology consulting firms can capitalize on the ERP publisher’s brand reputation, leveraging it to attract new clients and secure long-term business partnerships.

In conclusion, forming partnerships with ERP publishers offers numerous benefits for technology consulting firms. The advantages are manifold, from accessing cutting-edge technology and receiving expert training to leveraging marketing and sales support, enhancing consulting portfolios, and gaining a competitive advantage. These partnerships empower consulting firms to deliver exceptional ERP services, stay at the forefront of industry advancements, and ultimately drive business growth.

Boosting Efficiency by Building Stronger Technology Alliances

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In today’s business landscape, it’s more important than ever for organizations to have strong partners with complementary products and services when they embark on an ERP initiative. In fact, 82% of IT decision makers agree that technology alliances are essential to help companies achieve their business goals. But finding partners can be challenging. Here are some tips for making the most of your next alliance.

The biggest challenge when forming a technology alliance is managing the expectations of each party. If you don’t have a clear understanding of what each party expects, then it can be difficult to ensure that everyone is aligned with their goals and objectives.

To begin with, make sure that all parties involved have a clear understanding of what they expect out of this partnership. This may include:

  • What do you want from this partnership?
  • Why are you doing this together?

Once everyone agrees on those details, determine how much time and effort they’re willing to put into forming this new relationship. For example, if one company has more resources than another (elderly employees who live in an area where there aren’t any other tech jobs), perhaps it would make sense for them to invest more in developing custom software solutions while another could focus on improving existing systems through third party vendors instead; however some businesses may not want either option because either way would require significant financial commitment from its employees who would otherwise be supporting themselves solely by working at home or freelance jobs throughout town instead!

There must be a clear understanding of ERP strategies and success criteria at the outset, which includes realistic timelines and a well articulated business case.

The first step in developing an effective alliance strategy is to set expectations with your partners, understand their needs and then provide them with information that will help them achieve those goals. This can be done by identifying what you hope to achieve through this relationship. Once you have determined these goals, it’s important to follow up with detailed estimates as well as an action plan for achieving them within a certain timeframe (i.e., six months).

Ideally, an alliance would begin with an actual project that one or both of the companies are participating in. This provides an opportunity to test compatibility, while building credibility with potential customers.

The first step is to determine what exactly you want from your partnership: do you need help developing a new product? Do you need help implementing a new ERP system? If so and if this is something that both parties can benefit from and learn from each other’s experience, then there’s nothing wrong with starting small by implementing some basic functionality first (such as creating accounts).

From the outset it is important to be open about one’s motivation for the alliance. Is it strategic or tactical? Are there any areas that are off limits?

The first step in building a strong relationship with your partners is having an honest dialogue about what they need from you, which will help them know if they can trust you as a partner or not. The most important thing here is making sure everyone understands where each side stands on this issue and why certain decisions were made before moving forward with an agreement on how things will work out in practice.

For maximum success, each organization should align its ERP resources by specialty or role. This helps to provide consistency regardless of who is involved in the project. For example, it may be helpful to assign a partner manager who understands how each partner works; he or she can also serve as a liaison for handling issues that arise.

As you are working on your partnership strategy, be clear about one’s motivation for the alliance: does it help with sales? Or is it about other business benefits (like reduced costs)? If there are multiple motivations at play—or if multiple parties have different incentives—then expect some challenges along the way that can make things difficult and slow down progress toward achieving mutual goals.

It’s important to maintain open communication between ERP teams and vendors throughout all phases of an alliance, from post-sales support through development, testing and deployment. It’s also critical that you avoid any potential miscommunication that could lead to a breakdown in trust.

Open communication is crucial because it helps prevent misunderstandings or disputes over who’s responsible for what. This can be especially important when there are multiple partners involved in an alliance—it’s easy for things to get muddled up if one partner isn’t clear about its responsibilities or expectations when working together with another partner on a project or initiative.

The importance of building strong technology alliances is more than ever before. As organizations continue to face increased competition, they need to have partners with complementary products and services when they embark on an ERP initiative.

When you have a strong partner, it can help you reduce costs and increase efficiency by sharing best practices across the business. It’s also important for your organization to align its goals with those of its partners because if there are misalignments in terms of vision or strategy then it could lead to conflict between the two parties which will ultimately hurt both parties involved in this alliance (i.e., no one wins).

To ensure that all stakeholders are aligned, open communication should be encouraged at all times between both parties involved so that any issues can be resolved quickly without causing any harmful effects towards either party involved in this alliance (i..e., no one loses).

The benefits of a strong technology alliance can be significant for both parties involved. By aligning business resources, organizations can accomplish more in less time with fewer resources. This is especially true for companies that may not have the financial resources to build their own ERP system or need help developing an existing one. The benefits are equally shared by vendors who get access to new markets and customers while providing exceptional value at competitive prices.

13 Apps For Kids With Special Needs

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My son was diagnosed with autism just over 18 years ago. We were not alone. Today, nearly 1 in 59 families are affected by autism. We struggled to find the best tools to help him develop necessary life skills. From practical to educational, technology has come a long way for special needs children on the spectrum and their families. Here are 13 apps for special needs to support your child and help you overcome some of the day-to-day challenges.

Communication Tools:   

  1. LetMeTalk (AppNotize): If your loved one is nonverbal due to autism, Asperger’s, aphasia, speech apraxia, cerebral palsy, ALS, or down syndrome, the LetMeTalk app turns any Android phone into an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) device. Users can select from more than 9,000 images to add to their personal vocabulary profile and create sentences. Several profiles can be maintained, with language support in more than a dozen languages, including English, Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Chinese. (Cost: Free)
  2. ProLoQuo2Go (Assistive Ware): This AAC application comes with a hefty price-tag, but users say it’s worth it, as an effective and one-of-a-kind communication tool between students, teachers, and parents. The app works by choosing a username and communication level ranging from all customized, single word communication, or sentence building. The six-by-six grid is easily customizable to suit your child’s needs and preferences. (Cost: $250)

Scheduling & Productivity Tools:

  1. ToDo Visual Schedule (Enuma, Inc.): This Apple Watch compatible scheduler helps those with autism begin to understand responsibility with a visual guide to the day’s agenda. Unique event icons on a vertical timeline, along with a checklist breakdown of steps within each icon, help children understand what they should be doing in the moment, with notice about what’s coming next. (Cost: $12.99)
  2. ChoiceWorks (Bee Visual): Help children with: scheduling, waiting, and feelings. Kids can devise and stick to a timed routine, build patience by passing the time with an activity, and consider options when feeling upset. Customization options let you upload photos and audio for a more personalized experience. (Cost: $6.99) 
  3. DayCape (Daimonic Creations AB): This free scheduling app is geared toward Kindergarten through Fifth Grade, with personal or preset images for each daily activity. Notifications can be set to alert children to upcoming activities. The app aids with attentiveness, communication, hygiene, responsibility, and problem-solving. (Cost: Free) 
  4. Habitica (HabitRPG Inc.): Over 3 million users can’t be wrong, can they? HabitRPG gamifies life by offering incentives for doing chores, completing personal hygiene or fitness activities, and accomplishing self-set goals for school or work. Role players defeat “monsters” and “level up” their avatars with sweet gear and random prizes when they achieve their daily tasks. A collaborative social aspect lets users interact with and motivate one another. (Cost: Free, with in-app purchasing) 

Problem-Solving Tools:

  1. Birdhouse (Birdhouse LLC): Friendship Circle rated Birdhouse one of the “Top 10 Special Needs Apps” for caregivers. Thousands of parents use the app to organize notes regarding behavior, nutrition, health, schedules, sleep cycles, medications, and progress in therapy. Identifying triggers and patterns is easier than ever, with shareable results to keep spouses and medical staff in-the-loop. (Cost: Free)
  2. Question Builder (Mobile Education Store Inc.): Question Builder is geared toward kids ages 4-12 who are learning to identify the “who, what, where, why, when, and how” in a given situation. Caregivers can choose from three different levels that give kids three to five different choices to answer questions based on inferencing and comprehension. (Cost: $5.99) 

Reading Tools:

  1. Voice Dream Reader (Voice Dream LLC): Reinforce reading training by importing books, web pages, PDFs, power points, word docs, and Dropbox documents for your child to read aloud. The built-in dictionary aids with comprehension, while a translation feature helps those learning new languages. Sync books with Apple Watch to combine reading with physical exercise. Customization options let the user select a voice, font, and pace. Students can read along with highlighted text or lock the screen and listen. (Cost: $9.99, with in-app purchasing)
  2. The Monster At The End of This Book (Sesame Street): Reading has never been so fun and downright hilarious! Narrated by Grover, one of Sesame Street’s most lovable monsters, this read-along book contains visual cues to relay different emotions and comes with questions that parents can ask while reading to ensure comprehension. Grover begs readers NOT to turn the page, as he fears “the monster at the end of the book,” but kids can’t resist but slash every rope and smash through every wall to overcome the muppet’s best defenses and force him to face the inevitable. (Cost: $4.99 or free on Kindle FreeTime)  

Skill-Building Tools:

  1. Bugs and Buttons (Little Bit Studio): Fun and whimsical, Bugs and Buttons improves motor skills like tapping, pinching, dragging, and tilting, while focusing on activities involving counting, critical thinking, pattern recognition, memory, hand-eye coordination, and sorting. Among the 18 activities, kids can play tic-tac-toe with a dragonfly or build beautiful patterns out of buttons and yarn. Unlike many lower-priced apps, this one thankfully does not include third-party advertising or in-app purchases. (Cost: $2.99)
  2. Dexteria (BinaryLabs Inc.): Improve motor skills, handwriting, coordination, and focus with short, engaging activities. This app is used by occupational therapists for special needs children and adults recovering from stroke, and is supported by Huntington University research. (Cost: $5.99, with in-app purchasing)
  3. Toca Boca (Toca Boca AB): Through an interactive and imaginative game, children role play storekeeper and customer, while learning about making purchase choices, cooperating, counting with money, negotiating, turn-taking, following directions, and managing resources. The kid-friendly interface is guided by cute animations at your child’s pace, with no intrusive third-party advertising, in-app purchases, or stressful rules. (Cost: $0.99)

Screen time is not the enemy. When apps are selected with care and used collaboratively, they can be empowering and bring a household together. For us, technology has been a game-changer that allowed us a new channel to connect with our son. Like every kid these days, he of course knows the technology better than we could ever hope (I think he reprogrammed the clock on my VCR!!!). 

5 Reasons You Should Move Your Business to the Cloud

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cloud-migration

Small businesses are beginning to choose cloud computing more than ever before today. It’s for good reason. Upfront costs tend to be low, access to cloud data is available anywhere, and there’s less risk of data loss when there is a crisis. If your company is still considering going with cloud computing, here are five important benefits why you should choose to make the move.

It’s more flexible and allows for effortless collaboration

When your company moves to the cloud, you get a host of software options to perform virtually any business task with. For example, a friend of mine who owns a specialty pet supply store uses the Shopify cloud app as her point of sale system as well as performing everything from inventory management to e-commerce on one interface.

ERP systems, like Sage Business Cloud delivers a full-business lifecycle solution from financials, through inventory, production management, people management, and distribution.  When you move to the cloud, you have the choice of working with your business processes in more flexible ways than before.

You can easily scale up when your business grows

Most small businesses plan to grow into bigger businesses one day. Growing, however, can be a problem when you use software solutions that you have brought together in-house. When you move to the cloud, every software-as-a-service (SaaS) app made available to you should be inherently scalable. It is built from the ground up to be scaled up or down.

Cloud migration increases data security and disaster recovery capability

From data security to concerns about the ability to recover from fires or floods, small businesses are usually not well protected. When disaster strikes, nearly 40% of small businesses never reopen. Others take as long as three months to recover. Storing all your data on the cloud not only means greater security, but it also gives you the ability to get to your data even when the physical location of your office is inaccessible. In addition, using hosted voice cloud solutions means that calls to your company proceed as always, even when connections to your office are interrupted.

The cloud frees your IT department to work on other things

When you employ cloud-based IT solutions, you take a huge load off your in-house IT department. Freed of routine, everyday tasks such as keeping systems running and answering support questions, your IT department is likely to have more time to innovate for your company.

You save money on up-front costs

Whether you’re a small or medium business, moving your business processes to the cloud can mean saving the money that you would invest in software and services in initial setup, configuration, and training. It was found in a study by The Aberdeen Group that organizations using SaaS ERP typically achieved ROI faster than companies with an on-premise ERP solution. You are also likely to gain access to tools and resources that you wouldn’t normally have if you had to buy everything that you used.

When your company takes advantage of the efficiencies of cloud business solutions, you gain direct access to the best tools available without having to worry about scalability in the future. You get better resilience in the event of a crisis, and your IT team can do more for your company than simply deal with everyday problems as they occur. Moving your business to the cloud can be a smart move.

Talent Pool Shallowing: How to Attract and Retain Talent

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Talent Pool Shallowing: How to Attract and Retain Talent

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that for the month of April in 2019, the national unemployment rate had decreased from 3.8 percent in March to 3.6 percent. This is a record low for the 21st century, and the lowest it has been since 1969.

Yet, data suggests likely imminent interest rate increases and the potential of trade conflicts which can result in the steady growth we have been experiencing changing to steady economic contraction. Thus, companies will need to tighten their proverbial belts and do more with less; hopefully, do more with the best by attracting and maintain their most valuable colleagues.

To get the best, more than ever recruiters are forced to investigate candidates with other firms and lure away employees in hopes of filling their roles with the best talent. While this may seem like a far cry from an easy task, many employees are not necessarily motivated to keep their current positions.

Many Americans Are Unhappy At Their Work

An article posted by Forbes in 2018 states that, “53 percent of Americans are currently unhappy at their work.” With this many people unsatisfied with their positions, many colleagues may leave the company with the hope of better financial packages. They may not be any happier there, but at least they are being compensated better.

This puts many companies in a bind, especially those who already have talented team members or are in industries with flat to little growth. The exit of vital colleagues could stagnate a firm’s growth and profitability. This happens frequently across all industries. An article by the Work Institute reports, “42 million, or one in four, employees [were projected to] leave their jobs in 2018.”

Turnover costs were estimated at $600 billion in 2018, and the number is expected to increase to $680B by 2020.

– Work Institute

Imagine if 25 percent of your current staff just decided collectively to leave. That leaves another workload to be placed on another person, either someone at the firm that will end up being overloaded or a new employee that has no guarantee as being as good at their job as the former. Also, training new employees is a significant investment.

And if this is not incentive enough to attempt to keep your current crew, then consider that turnover costs were estimated at $600 billion in 2018, and the number is expected to increase to $680B by 2020 (refer to the Work Institute article). That attrition will have a large blow on the profits, not to mention the negative impact on morale. 

What is pertinent to this article is the following statistic from the same article: “nearly 77 percent of that turnover could be prevented by employers.” This shows that employees are not just looking at their paycheck and benefits to determine their job.

They’re looking at management; they’re looking at the environment that the administration establishes; they’re looking at their place within the company, and more than ever they are looking to be part of something bigger than even the company—part of making a difference in the community.

Lack of Growth and Progression Top Factor for Leaving

We all know the fact that an employee’s retention rate is significantly tied to their direct manager. However, High Speed Training states that the largest reason for employees leaving a company is a lack of growth and progression. Your colleagues could feel like they have reached a dead-end in their career, with no means of climbing or growing. Such emotions can lead to a lack of belonging, and moreover a resentment towards the company. 

In November of 2012, David K. Williams and Mary Michelle Scott wrote a blog-post for the Harvard Business Review titled Five Ways to Retain Employees Forever. These hold true today:

  1. Responsibility
  2. Respect
  3. Revenue-sharing
  4. Reward
  5. Relaxation Time

Build a Culture of Giving Back to Increase Employee Happiness

I submit that in addition to these tried and true strategies, it is important for today that teammates feel like they are making a difference—not just in their duties, but in the world around them. It instills a sense of a greater purpose that brings people together and creates an esprit de corps.

A group of people standing in front of a building Description automatically generated
Sage Habitat for Humanity

The company I work for, Sage, does an excellent job of this by sponsoring events such as the Invictus Games where colleagues volunteer. We have an entire division focused on “giving back”—Sage Foundation. Whether it is Habitat for Humanity, Boys and Girls Club, or whatever your particular cause is, each Sage colleague gets 1 week off—in addition to any PTO—to give back.

These activities bring us together, make part of something bigger, and point to the ultimate reality…we are people who want to be a part of a group that makes an impact, regardless of what we do for a living. 

The Bottom Line

In summary, with the economic realities we face it is imperative that organizations focus on attracting and retaining talent in order to have the opportunity for continued success. Here are a few excellent resources: