Summary
• Companies often only use 10-25% of their system’s functionality.
• Open system architecture means data can be imported from elsewhere.
• Companies may need to implement changes to their business processes.
• The amount of information generated can be overwhelming unless reporting processes are in place.
Enterprise management systems, distribution software, business management solutions, call them what you will; the tools available today to help us manage our business are highly sophisticated and packed with functionality we didn’t even realise we needed.
It’s a far cry from the glorified invoicing systems many timber companies were using a decade ago, which were bought off the shelf, plugged in, and did what we expected them to and no more.
It’s different now – today’s computer systems are designed to touch every part of an operation – sales, purchasing, stock control, pricing, customer relationships, marketing and business intelligence. Choosing the right system and managing the implementation effectively is a real challenge, particularly in an environment as unique as the timber industry, and particularly if the system is going to deliver benefits across every level of the operation.
Even choosing who should choose the system can be tricky. It’s logical to appoint a team with representatives from every department but this can lead to power struggles between IT managers and directors, and internal conflicts when team members are only focused on their own areas of interest.
Those ultimately given the role of system specifier should, however, be mindful of one thing – the correct choice of supplier is absolutely crucial if true business benefits are going to be achieved.
The ability to deal with a supplier who understands your business and the industry is as important as identifying system features and functionality. These are people with whom you are going to build a long-term relationship and they will need to understand what your long-term business goals are so they can suggest processes – and deliver the technology – to help you achieve them.
Statistics tell us that companies often only use between 10-25% of their system’s functionality. I believe the supplier’s role is to get users straight to that level and then to keep pushing them further and further beyond it.
System architecture is another crucial consideration. Today it’s increasingly important for a computer system to be able to integrate and interface with other applications and, if you don’t have a system with an ‘open’ architecture, you’re going to have problems importing and exporting data from elsewhere.
Whereas it used to be common for one provider to supply one system which did everything, today the trend is towards using a core system which links seamlessly with all the market-leading ancillaries, such as vehicle tracking systems and so on.
The time it takes to implement the chosen system should not be underestimated – in fact some companies find it quite traumatic! This is more common when those responsible for putting the system in are key people in the organisation, and it’s a constant trade-off between managing the implementation and running the business.
To enjoy serious business benefits, companies will need to revisit their business processes and make decisions over change. Straightforward improvements such as increasing the number of product groups for sales analysis means that someone will have to sit down and define what those new groups should be.
Having more data stored about products and customers means that suddenly there is more management information available than ever before and, unless you have worked out what you want to do with it at the outset and have reporting processes in place, the amount of information will be overwhelming and its potential to provide business intelligence will be wasted.
We sometimes have to say to customers, in the nicest possible way, “our software can handle this information, but can you?”. Part of our role as a supplier is to help customers identify what they are looking for and create new business processes so they can find it. Often this means changing the way they have always done things.
We install systems with a view to supporting the customer over the long term as the system evolves. Once it was the norm to simply replace your system every five, seven or ten years. Today, once everything is in place with internal operations, I see the role of supplier as being constantly proactive and helping the customer push the system out further.
The timber industry is unique and its history means there are fragmented processes and trading idiosyncrasies not found anywhere else. Generic software bought off the shelf simply won’t deliver when it’s time for a business to move to the next level. Finding a specialist supplier who is in tune with your business goals is the only way to get there.
