Tim Phelan's Tech in Perspective

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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.

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:

5 Tips for Getting the Most out of Your Business Intelligence (BI) Initiative

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Gartner stated that over a third of business intelligence initiatives fail. Implementing a BI tool properly can deliver actionable information out of the seemingly endless amounts of data enabling organizations to be more agile, get to market quicker, and to save time by managing by exception. This can become a competitive edge, particularly in industries that are fast-changing.  BI is not an expensive undertaking though, and the better prepared you are the more likely success will come on time and in budget.  Here are 5 tips that can make the difference between competitive edge and failure:

  1. Be clear on the desired results – Too often entrepreneurs and executives get bogged down in the power of the data sources, how wonderful it is going to be to have so many desperate data sets from different systems normalized and at their fingertips. While planning the data architecture is certainly important, it can quickly eat up the entire budget.  Think backwards from the finish: what information do you want and how do you want to see it?  With this information your internal IT Department or outside consulting firm can then best design the data structure to goal, not to be all encompassing of any goal you may ever have.
  2. Get references, good and bad – If you are using a professional services organization, rest assured they should be versed well enough in the technology to make it sound like your initiative is right in their wheelhouse at a technical level you may not be as knowledgeable. It is imperative that you have the ability to talk to other managers, executives, or business owners like yourself that have had success with the firm.  I stress managers/executives/business owners because talking to an IT professional can lead to an accurate and wondrous story of a data warehouse that provides absolutely no business value.  Be sure to speak with the person who benefits from the work.  Because technology by its nature is sometimes not as reliable as one would like, it is also important to speak with a client that faced major challenges in their implementation. Granted, nobody is going to give you a terrible reference.  At least though you will get a sense of how the firm deals with unanticipated challenges in time, budget, or expectation setting.  A quick word to the wise: unless you have a segment of your IT team dedicated to data administration, reporting and has implemented a BI solution many times before, outsource it.  The disruption from normal duties and potential of losing someone who otherwise is an excellent team member over perceived cost savings that may never materialize.
  3. Chose a flexible platform – There are thousands of BI platforms to choose from that are for small business, mid-sized business, enterprise, industry specific, etc.  Connectivity will largely depend on your current data sources: accounting, production, marketing, CRM, project costing, time & attendance, and so on.  Be sure to ascertain how the final information or dashboard will be delivered to you. Important questions include: Is it shareable (can I send a file to a colleague)? Is it device dependent (can I see it from my laptop and my iPhone)? Ultimately, how you and your teams work will determine what the best option is.  Beware of solution specific clients.  While sometimes unavoidable, it is always preferable to use non-proprietary viewers.
  4. Proof of Concept – If possible, a proof of concept is an excellent way to see what and how you are going to get on a small scale.  Often, you can negotiate a fixed price that will go towards the full deployment thereby not costing additional.  Even if it is an additional cost, it is a way for you to mitigate the risk of not being happy after a much larger investment.  This is also a viable option if your internal IT is leading the project. Find a small, quickly achievable key performance indicator (KPI) and run that piece as a mini project and upon approval you move forward with the larger project.
  5. Solid Project Management – Strong project management (ideally from the consulting firm and your organization) is be the best way to ensure that expectations are met and challenges overcome in a timely and mutually beneficial manner.  This includes sign off on scope, milestone targets, billing milestones, reporting and feedback procedures, and change of scope documentation and procedures.  Make sure that whether you are using an outside firm or tackling your BI project internally that you have a project lead who is responsible for monitoring and reporting back relevant details, issues and accomplishments.

BI transforms the way we think of information.  Executed properly, key information is put in the hands of those who can act on it quicker, interpret trends, and hopefully keep the organization a step ahead of competition.  Take your time before committing resources to the project.  Follow these guideline and find a good BI provider to partner with and you will be amazed that you ever waded through those seas of reports that monopolize so much time.  Good luck and make it a great day!

Engaging Technologies for Your Organization

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I have to admit my wildest dreams as a child have been passed like Jeff Gordon passing the Sunday driver. The thought of Captain Jim Kirk demanding Scottie to beam him up immediately by speaking into a hand-held gizmo expanded our imaginations. It’s 2016 and technology continues to make quantum leaps as we saw at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) recently. How does all of this technology empower us as workers, managers, business owners?

More importantly, how do we harness what can seem as impersonal technology to create greater engagement in our work? Sean Pomeroy (@VisSoft), Visibility Software’s “Top Dog” & CEO, develops and sells software designed to recruit and retain organizational talent states, “The biggest factor in keeping the best talent, even bigger than career path, is keeping the team engaged and we at Visibility make this an emphasis in everything we create and deploy.” Here are some employee-engaging technologies if deployed properly can keep your people engaged and your organization ahead of the competition.

Self-Service

Anyone that has renewed their driver’s license online, as opposed to going to the DMV, will agree with this wholeheartedly. With the adoption of online ordering and having information available at out fingertips with the assistance of Google, bing, or whatever your flavor is, we value speed more than ever. This phenomenon is going to increase exponentially as millennials continue to climb the corporate ladders. Give your team the ability to DYI their tasks at work: look up or change HR information (dependents, address, life-changes, benefits, time off, etc.…), retrieve the information they need to make decisions without having to put in an IT ticket, make purchases (within scope and restrictions) necessary to accomplish their jobs, and even “wikifying” (enabling team mates to contribute, alter and form) certain projects and initiatives. Employees that feel empowered feel good about their organization.

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device)

Giving our teams the ability to work the way they work best with the technology that is already deeply ingrained in their lives increases their engagement because it is just easier. I have talked to many CIO’s who staunchly oppose this, citing potential security concerns. While valid, there are ways to make applications and functions that do not require the same level of security as Patient Identifiable Data (PID) in healthcare. Further, enterprise information security companies such as Trust Digital, MobileIron and Good can deliver solutions to address these concerns. At one company that I worked, one of the things the team looked forward to the most was the “Look What I Can Do with My Technology” after-hours pizza party.

Instant Messaging

The power of being able to ask a remote teammate a question while on the same conference call is invaluable. It also gives your team the ability to ask quick questions with less disruption. I caveat this technology with the assertion that you MUST publish and enforce corporate IM responsibilities and ensure that your team understands how to use the technology’s “Do Not Disturb” function.

Video Calls and Conferencing

This is not a new concept by any means. Yet, very few companies utilize this technology on a regular basis. As workforces continue to become more remote, video is an inexpensive and effective way to not lose that “personal touch.” Whether it is an enterprise-wide unified communications platform (Cisco Jabber, Microsoft Skype for Business—previously Lync, etc.…) or using FaceTime by apple or Skype for Android on individual cell phones, this technology can bring your team, partners and customers together in ways that will set you apart and create a feeling of belonging…engagement even.

Organizations today are battling for the best talent. Culture and morale are important parts of creating work environments that attract the best. I have seen at many companies the Xbox that the executive team put in the break room to boost morale, only for it to sit there unused – because if employees are going to play, they want to play somewhere else (not to mention being perceived as someone with not enough to do). Leverage technology to empower your employees by getting the more engaged and you will find your organization moving quicker, with creativity and, and with better attitude.