Discover the Hidden Potential in your Business
Lets talk about the hidden potential in your business. What do we mean by hidden? Well, imagine that you are on a distribution list of a report built by someone within your organization. You’re receiving the report because, at one time, it was a “big deal”. However, you’ve never found any relevance to the report. In fact, you’re not sure what to do with the data on the report, but you also don’t want to delete it. Have you ever thought to ask why you receive it or the importance of it?
For starters, the key people who were responsible for your software installation made many critical decisions: reports, system rules, authority levels, use of various features, etc. Those critical decisions remain in effect, even though changes may have taken place with your company, customers, employees, and business environment. As you discover “exceptions” as the new norm, you realize your business process or your software hasn’t caught up to reflect your agribusiness today. Admittedly, you may notice that it’s easier to work around the system than in it. In this case, repeat this in nearly every department across your organization and you will discover an even larger opportunity.
Ask Questions
Generally speaking, the knowledge of any system is reduced within an organization as employees come and go. Meaning, when you ask the question “Why do I receive this report?” or “Why do we do something this way?”, the answer most likely is because “We’ve always done it this way”.
Most of the time, this statement starts to become a regular response. As key personnel move on and leave, only a small portion of their knowledge is left behind with those who fill that position. This is a primary example of what happens when there is turnover in your organization. Overtime, the knowledge gap becomes bigger and bigger and has potential to impact your business’s performance.
Address Hidden Potential in your Business
The reasons your company chose your ERP may no longer be relevant. In addition, the knowledge from your software installation or procedures from implementation may no longer be with your organization. Because of this, if your agribusiness does not address the knowledge gap, the use of software will decline the longer it is in place. Although this may be true, it is not that your ERP or business processes are out-of-date, they’re simply not in sync. The goal of implementing software is to simplify, automate and standardize all key areas of your business. It is important to consult with your software provider. As your partner, they are equally invested in your success. In fact, they want to understand the changes of and within your organization. Then, they can evaluate where you may be out of sync and help create a plan to help address gaps.
When consulting with your software provider, ask these questions:
- Is my company using all the features available?
- Are we on the current version of the software?
- Are we using all the information from the system correctly?
- Are we taking full advantage of our solution?
- What can you recommend as my provider?
It’s cricial that your software facilitates doing business efficiently, with automatic checks and controls. If your system is not in sync with your processes, it might be time to review your solution configurations. Engage with your software partner to make sure your processes and systems are in line.
Contact us for more information on how you can increase your efficiency today.