Take our FREE ERP Assessment | Download one of our free Microsoft Dynamics Demos

Who are the digital nomads? In simple words - people, who work remotely. But recently, the term "digital nomadism" shifted from a work style to a lifestyle and more and more professionals, like programmers, marketers, and salespeople, can work and still explore the world at the same time. So, how can digital nomads transform your business?

Enhanced Communication

Because digital nomads work remotely, there's no need for them to ask their manager questions in person every 5 minutes - it's much more convenient and effective to send one or two e-mails. Digital nomads also feel more comfortable using messaging or video chats, which can be set up across departments.  

Engaged Employees

Take our FREE ERP Assessment | Download one of our free Microsoft Dynamics Demos

There's a lot of buzz around digital transformation right now. Microsoft claims that it's the future of business that can bring millions of additional revenue for companies. In simple terms, digital transformation is the process of digital technology implementation; "going paperless," according to Wikipedia. But what does this mean for your business?  

Better Customer Understanding

With digital technologies, you now can gain in-depth information about your customer segments. For example, social media helps you to interact with your clients directly and understand what makes them happy and what doesn't. Business intelligence software allows you to get useful insights, which assists in figuring out customer behavior.  

Focus on Strategic Tasks

MS Dynamics 365 for Sales vs Salesforce | Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Sales features

It's a big misunderstanding that if you just buy and implement a CRM system, it will immediately boost your revenue. Getting a CRM system on board, is just the tip of an iceberg. Below are three tips on how to get the most benefits from your CRM system:

Accurate Data is a Key

You may have the fanciest features in your CRM system, but they won't get you any useful insights, once your data isn't accurate. Make sure that the process of data input is easy, quick and clear, so your employees will be motivated to provide your CRM system with accurate information.  

Customize it

Take our FREE ERP Assessment

Who are the millennials? Known by some to be lazy, narcissistic, impatient but extremely tech-savvy and ambitious generation with a willingness to change the world. According to Environics Analytics, millennials make up 37% of the Canadian labor force now, and this number is expected to rise to 75% by 2028. They have high expectations for everything, so how they can change the way ERP software is implemented?

1. Accessible Anywhere, Anytime

Millennials want data to be available whenever and wherever they want it - and it relates not only to mobile access. They invented the term "Bring Your Own Device" (BYOD), which means that they want to see all the necessary data on their personal devices. In this case, an ERP system needs to be flexible, mobile and easily accessible.

2. User-Friendly Interface

Take our FREE ERP Assessment

Even though ERP vendors try to make implementation as smooth as possible, there are still some challenges that may come along the way. It takes a lot of time for employees to get used to the new software and start to get benefits from it but there's a way to make this transition faster. Below are three tips on how to make an ERP system implementation more comfortable for your employees.

1. Build an ERP system around existing business processes

Often, business processes of a company are adjusted to an ERP system. But it's a big mistake. To start getting benefits from an ERP system as soon as possible, it's better to identify all the gaps in the company and then build an ERP system around existing business processes.  

2. Establish trust with your ERP implementation partner

Learn about how we serve the Manufacturing industry 

It’s a well-known fact, that manufacturing is one of the biggest industries in Canada, which makes up almost 12% of Canada's national GDP. The industry is still growing, and manufacturing companies need modern software to ensure maximize growth potential. Here are three more reasons why manufacturers should consider an ERP system:

1. Enhanced Communication between Departments

Communication is a crucial factor for a manufacturing company, which has tens of different departments as well as a need to work efficiently. An ERP system can ensure effective communications between departments through connecting an entire company into one unified system.

2. Automated Processes

MS Dynamics 365 for Sales vs Salesforce | Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Sales features

No doubt, CRM plays a significant role in today's business world – it provides useful insights, improves customer service and automates everyday tasks. But what about one of the fastest developing industries in the world – the IT industry? How can a $200 billion worth industry benefit from a CRM system? Here are three ways how CRM helps software companies to increase their sales:

1. Determine the best marketing channels for quality lead generation

Does your marketing team know which leads bring you the most value – the ones that were acquired from LinkedIn or the ones that saw your ad on Google? Assessing it without a CRM system is tough.  A CRM system can also determine the most effective messages, which influence a sale, and the best time to deliver them. This makes a CRM system an irreplaceable tool for software sales.

2. Develop a well-established customer journey

What Is Moniroo? | See Moniroo in Action |  Learn more about Moniroo's features

No matter what size your business is, time tracking is always a good idea. Without time tracking software, it's easy for your employees to get lost in projects and hard to follow their efficiency and productivity. Below are more reasons why it’s worth considering implementing a time tracking software for your business:

Track Work Efficiently

Time tracking software can create time sheets, which makes it easier to understand your company's workflow. Moreover, you can do without the punch-in/punch-out process and other old-fashioned attendance systems, which make time tracking process more complicated and less convenient both for you and your employees.

Improved Client Billing

MS Dynamics 365 for Sales vs Salesforce | Sign up for a free Dynamics 365 for Sales course! | Learn more about Dynamics 365 for Sales features

While creating emails, people usually make two significant mistakes: in their emails, they sell too much without any useful content, or they put too much content without enough selling. So, how can you find "the golden mean" and make your emails more effective? Here's a handy guide:

1. Be Yourself

Let’s be honest – people are tired of emails that contain similar messages and don’t have anything personal. The vast majority of them is based on the traditional techniques, which make them look just like one another. To combat this, try to contribute a little bit of your personality into an email – tell a joke, share your opinion, be honest about the product that you sell. Soon enough, your personality can come through the emails and become a unique identifier that’ll make your company stand out.

2. Use Trends

View our free webinars | Take our FREE ERP Assessment

According to World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business Rank, Canada ranked the 2nd country in the world for starting a business (New Zealand took the 1st place if you're curious). Vancouver and Toronto always make the lists of the best cities for startups. So, what makes Canada so attractive for entrepreneurs?

Access to Governmental Funding

Canadian government encourages people to start a new business through providing a variety of grants, loans, and tax credits. You can find a financial support program “for every taste” -  it can be regional, industry-specific or just general business support. For example, you can get up to 50% of a tax credit for your R&D investments with the help of SR&ED. This has attracted a number of tech geniuses to launch their startups in Canada.

Great Talent

According to Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, there are 1.1 million small companies (1-99 employees) in the country. However, 60% of small businesses fail within the first five years, so there's a big concern for entrepreneurs on how to stay competitive. Here are three ways you can stay ahead of your competitors if you run a small business.

1. Be passionate

Usually, small business owners started their business because of passion. Passion drives motivation, which makes small business owners the busiest people in the world. They don't finish their work when it's 5 o clock and rarely think about vacation. This drive and passion are factors that make them successful.

Convert your passion into hard work, and you’ll be one step ahead of the pack.

2. Use CRM

In December 2016, the world got to know that Microsoft acquired LinkedIn. Now we can see the first results of this deal – Microsoft has announced that Dynamics 365 for Sales is integrated with the LinkedIn Sales Navigator.

The new LinkedIn solution is a widget, which integrates into your dashboard and consists of 2 parts – a member profile and a company profile.

A LinkedIn member profile allows you to get general information and some insights about your prospect. It also helps you to find the best ways to get introduced to your prospect as well as proposes a list of related leads based on your target audience.

According to the latest statistics from RightScale 2017 State of the Cloud Report, current cloud adoption among companies is 95%. This could mean that we’re not too far away from having 100% of companies who will use the cloud for their daily tasks. There is no better time than now to think about moving your ERP system to the cloud. Here are 3 reasons why you will benefit from it.

Lower Costs

The most common and the most attractive benefit is, of course, price. A cloud-based ERP system offers lower upfront and operating costs - you wouldn’t need to spend a huge amount of money on hardware, purchasing the ERP solution itself and hiring staff to maintain it.  A cloud-based ERP system requires only flat-rate monthly fees, which will make your life much easier and become a less costly option for your business.

Quicker Access to Information

With a cloud-based ERP system, you don’t need to spend much time to perform your daily business operations. Once you have an Internet connection, you can access to your ERP system anywhere you want. It makes much easier to spend time outside the office and still stay on top of everything that happens with your business.

As a small business owner, you always think about new solutions to increase revenues and boost your company’s growth. ERP software is definitely one of those things that can help improve your business’ efficiency but, as everything in life, it can have some pitfalls. What are the pros and cons of ERP for small businesses? We examine them below:

ERP Pros

• Increased productivity - By storing all the data in one place, it makes it much easier and faster for your employees to get the necessary information and focus on working towards the business’ goals for success rather than spending time contacting other employees from different departments.
• Improved collaboration – A robust ERP system will help improve collaboration between teams by providing easy access to data to help make decisions quicker.
• Lower operating costs - With one ERP system, you don’t need to spend money on separate software for each department.
• Generate business insights – An ERP software performs analysis on different processes, so it makes the process of a decision-making smoother and more comfortable with accurate data.
• Improved security - ERP systems provide advanced security settings, so you can rest easy knowing that your data is well-secured.

ERP Cons

• High price - It’s no surprise that ERP implementation and its further use are followed by significant expenses. But the modern market of ERP software can provide you different price options for any budget. As an example, Microsoft Dynamics 365 for Sales, starts from only $48.60 per user/month.
• Staff training - Usually, it takes a significant amount of time and effort for employees to learn new software. But thanks to WebSan University, you can make this process faster and more efficient.
• High risk – The ERP implementation process can become a problem for a small company because of challenges of data migration from an old system to a new one. Our advice: Have patience and read about 3 Biggest Failure Cases of ERP Implementation and How You Can Avoid the Same Mistakes for some tips.

Alina Hura, Digital Content Creator, WebSan Solutions Inc., a 2014 Ontario Business Achievement Award Winner for Service Excellence

It’s no surprise that every business somehow uses Excel in their everyday routine. It’s the easiest and the most popular tool to organize your company’s data. But eventually your data starts to outgrow Excel possibilities. Here are 3 signs that your business needs to switch from spreadsheets to more advanced accounting software.

1. Your spreadsheets aren’t manageable anymore

If finding a single figure in your spreadsheet makes you feel tired, angry and irritated, it’s a sure sign that you need a database. Once your spreadsheet reaches 100,000 rows, it will slow down your computer and make it almost impossible to find necessary information. A comprehensive solution like Microsoft Dynamics GP can easily store your data with a possibility to create powerful and useful reports for your business. 

2. You use advanced Excel functions on a daily basis

Stop overwhelming yourself with advanced Excel functions every single day. If you use such functions as VLOOKUP, PIVOT and SUMIF, you just don’t need Excel anymore. Consider looking into a new accounting system, which can produce stronger calculations. Moreover, it’s much easier to use.

Nowadays, technologies change so quickly that it becomes challenging for executives to keep a pulse on the different things going on in the tech industry and sometimes even manage so many options out in the market. From on-premise to cloud, from desktop to mobile – it may be hard to believe, but those significant shifts happened with ERP software just in the past couple of years. Here are 3 trends that we’re forecasting will change the ERP software industry in the next 5 years.

Consumerization

As 75% of the global workforce will consist of millennials by 2025, ERP vendors should be prepared. ERP solutions will likely become easier and more intuitive to use as well as reflect the experience of the most popular social media platforms. Millennials like to get access to technology immediately, so it’s likely that ERP systems will become accessible from any smartphone.

Step into the future with Microsoft Dynamics NAV, which is already available on smartphones and tablets. Download our free Microsoft Dynamics NAV trial right now!

Business Intelligence and Data

ERP implementation is a quite an expensive and difficult process not only for small companies but for some multinational giants as well. However, with full preparation and thorough research to manage expectations, a successful ERP implementation can be achieved. Below, we outline the 3 biggest failure cases of ERP implementation and offer tips on what you can do to avoid the same mistakes.

Nike and a $400 Million “Glitch”

In 2000, Nike decided to upgrade their ERP system and invested $400 million dollars into the software called i2, where their initial goal was to manage supply chain and forecast the demand for products. This decision became a disaster for shoe giant with $100 million in sales loss and 20% stock price decrease because of a software glitch, which in turn, made stores unable to fill orders for the Air Jordans.

To avoid the same mistake, be sure to set realistic goals for your ERP implementation process early on and ensure that you take enough time to test the system for any kinks that need to be ironed out before moving forward with implementation.  

Hershey and a Halloween Disaster