Using Enterprise Software for Inventory Management and Control

If you take a moment to ponder your business’ balance sheet, you will likely realize that inventory is typically one of the biggest numbers on it. Is this true for you? It is probable that your manufacturing and distribution company relies heavily on inventory to get the job done. Inventory is one of the biggest assets in a company. With so much of your business success relying on inventory, effectively controlling and managing it is vital. The good news is that enterprise software such as Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) or Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) can help!

How is this inventory control effectiveness measured? Traditionally, this is done by measuring how successful a company is at reducing inventory investment while still meeting customer needs and customer service goals. It is also done by achieving maximum output while simultaneously keeping costs contained. In essence, it comes down to determining what items to stock, how many of each item is necessary to keep stocked, and when more of that item should be ordered.

This “simplistic” rule for effective inventory control does not create a complete picture of the complex reality. In practice, simply knowing what to stock and how much is difficult to carry out in practice. Three overarching categories complicate the process, but Sage 300 ERP or Sage ERP X3 can help. Let’s take a closer look at the complications.

Factors Complicating the Inventory Control Process

1. Conflicting Objectives in Different Departments within the Company
   If you think about, there are some parts of your business that are probably seeking to increase inventory. At the same time, others are trying to decrease it. This complicates things as viewpoints differ on how to truly achieve better profitability.If the sales department wants to emphasize and prioritize the speed of delivery to keep up with customers and satisfy demands, they will want inventory amounts of finished goods to be high. Likewise, the purchasing departments wants high levels of inventory as well because they can get discounts when ordering large quantities at the same time. The production team wants all parts and materials to be readily available to keep efficiency along the line high. In addition, running large batch sizes is more efficient. In these three cases, increased inventory is a good thing,On the other hand, the finance department and product developers are watching trends. They want to decrease inventory of existing products in order to make room for new products. Management want inventory decreases as well because large amounts of inventory translate into less cash flow.
2. Unpredictable Supply and Demand
   There are so many factors that make predicting supply and demand difficult. These supply difficulties include unsteady supplier performance, supply chain disruptions, material scarcities, perishability of raw materials, obsolescence of products, etc. Buffering stocking levels is important in order to provide safety days of lead-time supply. The demand difficulties include the fluctuating economy, constantly changing products due to innovation, and high-traffic sales on some products with only occasional or seasonal sales of other items. This requires responding to demand individually by item in order to achieve appropriate stocking levels.
3. Warehousing across a Variety of Locations
   Manufacturers and distributors also face the problem of accessibility. This stems from finished good for sale and parts for assembly are not all housed in the same location. Instead, they are spread over multiple location making easy access to needed items difficult.Even with these complications in mind, it is still important to focus on two inventory management keys to success: meeting customer needs and stocking the least amount of inventory possible. Enterprise software can help you with both of these. The reality is that inventory management is an area being targeted aggressively for improvement by distributors and manufacturers. Do you need to improve inventory management as well?

IWI Consulting offers enterprise software system options to meet your company’s needs for improved inventory management even with the potential complications. Learn more about two solutions we offer here at IWI Consulting by clicking on the each solution: Sage 300cloud (formerly known as Sage 300) and Sage (formerly known as Sage X3).

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge. As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

Over the past month, we have taken a closer look at the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), what it involves, what deadlines it outlines for food manufacturing compliance, and how companies are affected by it. For more information on what the FSMA expects out of businesses your size, visit here. The FSMA is sub-divided into sections that impact different food system areas. Within each area, there are individualized deadlines and schedules. Let’s take a closer look at these areas by exploring statutes pertaining to them that are included in the FSMA.

Statutes within the FSMA

• Traceability- Of all the elements food manufacturing businesses will be impacted by, they will be most greatly affected by the traceability requirements that are listed in the act in the realm of “food defense.” Existing product tracking requirements are expected to drastically expand once this element is fully defined within the act. In the future, the current requirement of tracing one step in both directions (forward and back) will likely be significantly modified. Even though the defined requirements are yet to be complete, it is important to consider implementing food industry software that will help in creating more accurate and efficient tracking procedures. In order to meet transparency requirements, this should take place along the entire supply chain.
• Preventive Controls- The idea behind this element is mandating strong food safety plans throughout the food industry. Facility registrations are already mandated throughout the industry, but this is only a starting point of preventive control rules. Next up will be creating food safety plans and dealing with hazard analysis. These statutes will be determined by the end of the year, and compliance will be expected by the end of next year (2016). Again, being prepared by implementing food industry software can be beneficial because hazard analysis and expanded food safety plans will demand the use of it.
• Verification Programs for Foreign Suppliers- This element of the act requires stringent quality and safety checks on imported products. The Foreign Supplier Verification Program (FSVP) will greatly expand existing required verifications to include more record keeping and extensive verification of proper supplier conduct. The Food and Drug Administration will even be requiring current supplier lists that can be furnished to them at any time. In addition, food manufacturing companies will be required to verify supplier hazard analysis practices and a variety of other checks to be performed.

In order to comply with these statutes and the many others detailed in the FSMA, your company will need food industry software and a renewed emphasis on record keeping, transparency, assessment of risk, and food safety. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software can be of significant assistance in these areas. ERP for food manufacturers allows your business to keep these records well and leads to increased transparency. In addition, ERP for food manufacturers helps with a variety of business functions and supports.

Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3) is one example that can help your business track suppliers, lots, and processes and easily provide essential documentation to everyone who needs access. For more information about Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), visit here. For further information about food manufacturing regulations and compliance, contact us.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge. As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

The reality is that the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has far-reaching impact. No food company in the United States nor any food company that does business with the United States (including many of here in Canada) is left unaffected by the act. Believe it or not, the beverage industry is impacted as well, and this includes alcoholic beverages. With such a wide reach, companies need to understand that they are very likely affected by these rules and should be considering enterprise resource planning (ERP) software for their businesses to help in meeting them. This food ERP can be essential in keeping up with the processes and information needed to uphold the FSMA’s regulations. To understand the timeframes and deadlines for compliance of these regulations, visit here.

How does the FSMA affect companies? For starters, it is important to realize that the nature and size of a company correlates to how the act applies to it in either direct or indirect ways. These same factors also impact how stringent the compliance schedule will be. Let’s take a closer look at all shapes and sizes of businesses to see the affect the FSMA has on them.

The Smallest of Food Manufacturing Businesses- Local Producers

Very small businesses, such as local food producers, are largely exempted from the regulations if their revenue is less than $500,000 annually and results from primarily local sales. The reason for the exemption is the FSMA’s goal to preserve local food systems and keep them local. Even still, state and local regulations must be met, and evidence must be provided by these producers demonstrating state or local certification. In addition, the name of these small producers and farms must be displayed prominently throughout marketing and product labels.

Small Businesses in Food Manufacturing

For those companies that expand the majority of their sales outside of their local area and make more than $500,000 per year in revenue, compliance with FSMA is mandated. The caveat is that they receive more time to reach compliance buying them a year to 18 months to meet regulations.

Large Companies and Multinational Food Manufacturing Corporations

The larger the company, the tighter the margins. For large companies and corporations, the FSMA regulations apply in full, and the deadlines for compliance are not extended. The stakes are high to be in compliance and to do this quickly.

No matter what the size of your business, having food ERP to help with record keeping, tracking, accounting, and other tasks will be essential to your company’s ability to be FSMA compliant. In essence, it will help in getting the focus right. This focus should now be on risk assessment, food safety, record keeping, and transparency. For food manufacturing companies large enough that they are not exempt from the rules but lack resources of major and multinational companies, this is particularly the case. ERP for food industry businesses can be an integral part of successful compliance.

For more information on ERP for food industry companies, consider Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3). This ERP for food industry software will help you avoid overhead while simultaneously expanding compliance and transparency programs.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge. As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) is increasing regulations and restrictions for food manufacturing companies. Failure to comply with the regulations brings with it the threat of mandatory recalls, enhanced inspections, severe penalties, and more. Visit here for more information about the FSMA, its purpose, the implications and impact, and how regulations can be met.

In addition to understanding the act itself and what it is intended to achieve, it is also important to have a good understanding of the timelines and deadlines associated with it. These carry significant importance for food manufacturing businesses and are required to be met.

The History of the Food Safety Modernization Act

The FSMA was originally signed and put into place in January of 2011. Like most laws and regulations, it takes time to implement the laws contained within it. This is certainly true for the FSMA, and implementation is still in process. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) gradually releases new regulations following processes that allow for public and industry input. The FDA’s role has expanded significantly since with the new act, but they have only been able to gradually increase their resources which lengthens the implementation timeframes. In 2012, the registration system was implemented. On the contrary, product-tracing required by the new laws was still not finalized in 2014. In 2014, a large number of the act’s statues were approved, but they have yet to be regulated by the FDA and are therefore not yet implemented.

The Current Reality of where the FSMA Stands Today

Of the many facets included in the act, the FDA’s increased inspection schedule has still not been rolled out. This inspection schedule is an important part of the process, but there is still a need for the FDA to have budget increases in order to support this schedule. Food manufacturing companies are not yet subject to these enhanced inspections, but they will be once the funds are greatly increased over the next few years to support them.

The Future Outlook of the FSMA Deadlines

According to the schedule, all rules should be finalized within the FSMA in the beginning of 2016. This will be followed, one to four years later, by compliance deadlines. In essence, the FSMA rules and regulations should all be implemented by 2020. This is a final deadline with the hope being to have these in place even sooner. It is important to note that the size of your company matters in terms of when you must be within compliance. As a general rule, it is the case that the larger the company, the shorter the timeframe for compliance. This is likely due to their increased budget and likelihood of already having food manufacturing software in place to help them follow and uphold rules. The rules involved cover preventive control human food, produce safety, food defense, sanitary transport, third-party accreditation, and more.

In order to meet deadlines and abide by regulations, your business will likely need food manufacturing software to get the job done. This should include enterprise resource planning (ERP) for food manufacturers such as Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3). This is just one such food manufacturing software that can help in meeting regulations by supporting tracking, accounting, and record keeping.

ERP for food manufacturers can be of significant help in meeting deadlines and ensuring regulations are upheld.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge. As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

Did you know that major new food safety legislation is reshaping the entire food industry? If you are in the food manufacturing industry, you will need to be prepared. Do you understand what the Food Safety Modernization Act is and what it is all about? Let’s take a closer look to find out more information about the act and answer some important questions about it.

Understanding the Food Safety Modernization Act

Following the largest threat to safety and security that the United States has ever seen on September 11^th, safety and security are more of a major priority than ever before. This includes the importance of food security. In response, a registration system was created for food companies that also included the implementation of controls intended to improve the safety of the food system. A decade later, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) was created. It further expanded the previous regulations and is the most expansive shift in food manufacturing regulations that has been seen in a long time. By expanding the Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) power and position, the FSMA also expands the burden felt by the food and beverage industry who are responsible to uphold the regulations.

What purpose does the FSMA serve?

You’ve likely heard the expression, “It is better to ask for forgiveness than permission.” The FSMA’s intention is to reverse this thinking and shift the role of food safety from reaction to prevention. Instead of responding to outbreaks that are caused by foodborne diseases, the purpose of the act is to prevent outbreaks from happening in the first place. From farm to table, the FDA now has much greater power and authority over the entire food system thanks to the new act’s extension of its power. Not only is the FDA now able to have much greater enforcement compliance power, but the overall burden of compliance has increased substantially. This enforcement compliance granted to the FDA encompasses mandatory recall authority, greater access to records, expanded inspections, and a control and documentation program that is mandatory.

What is the impact FSMA has and will continue to have?

As a food and beverage manufacturer and distributor, this has significant implications. The burden has significantly increased to be able to prove your entire operations are properly run to ensure food safety, and this necessitates using food industry software. Safety of food will need to be proved prior to going to market instead of only being necessary after a safety violation has occurred. There is a financial investment piece to this as well because of the required expansion of testing, auditing, and documenting that will need to be instated within the company as well. This requires an investment in food industry software. If compliance regulations are not met, there is significant threat of mandatory recalls, enhanced inspections, severe penalties, and potential for federal or other regulator lawsuits.

What can assist in meeting the regulations?

An enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, such as Sage EM (formerly known as Sage X3), offers great assistance in meeting all of these FSMA regulations by automating processes. This food industry ERP software has the potential to relieve the burden of the requirements and help reduce the chance of negative consequences. For more information on food industry ERP software that will suit your food manufacturing needs, contact us.

Although there are many regulations to meet in the food manufacturing world, it is possible with the assistance of food industry ERP software that helps to get the job done.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge. As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

Many food and beverage manufacturers are getting ready to turn up the volume of production in order to satisfy growing customer demands. However, keeping tabs on high-volume SKUs, customized packaging specifications, and direct-store versus vendor-managed inventory can quickly get confusing. Deploy Sage® ERP and you can track products, customer needs, and be prepared for safety issues with efficiency and accuracy.

The food and beverage industry is already fast-paced and when you have a seasonal increase in demand or a hot new product is flying off the shelves, you need to be able to respond quickly. Manual processes, including data-entry and analysis, can create delays and lead to mistakes which can hinder your ability to respond to customer demands. You need the time-saving automation that can be found in more powerful business management solutions like Sage ERP.

You can manage all of your business operations from Sage ERP including financials, supply chain and inventory, manufacturing and distribution operations, and other core business processes. You and your team can enter and access information much faster with a single, centralized solution rather than multiple, disparate specialty software programs. As a result, you can access real-time data about your activities, such as inventory or sales data, and use this information to make strategic business decisions. You can save money by not overstocking inventory that can expire on the shelves, for example, or monitor consumption patterns to better position procurement and manufacturing operations to meet forecasted demands.

Sage ERP offers the flexibility to monitor both low-volume and high-volume SKUs, direct-store delivery and vendor-managed inventory, and you can align packaging requirements by product and customer destination. Electronic data interchange (EDI) methods can be used to tag pallets to food service standards. Lot traceability through each level of materials and suppliers can improve compliance and support your ability to initiate a recall if needed. These types of automated data collection processes make it more efficient when managing the increasing volume of critical information that your business generates and that you and your team need to use when making business decisions.

In order to keep up with increasing customer demand, you need the support of a robust business management solution. Contact IWI Consulting Group for more information about how Sage ERP can support your business as you pump up the volume of production.

In order to achieve success in integrating Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software with business processes to ensure that customer data is delivered to users of it across an entire enterprise, three fundamental elements need to be in place. To learn more about these fundamentals of integration, visit here.

Now that we know the fundamentals, let’s dive in to the capabilities achieved by Sage CRM when integrated with other Sage ERP products. If a business in the Greater Toronto Area or beyond has Sage ERP products, they can quickly and cost effectively leverage their data to both front- and back-office environments. Here are the capabilities of Sage CRM’s integration with Sage ERP that is directly linked to the three fundamentals of integration:

Front-to-Back Office Data Consistency

From its out-of-the-box state, Sage ERP can integrate with Sage CRM. This leads to bidirectional synchronization of customer information, both financial and nonfinancial, between the Sage ERP front office and back office environments. This ensures that information is captured once at the source and then automatically shared to all relevant fields throughout the Sage ERP environments without having to wait for it to be rekeyed and revalidated. This allows updated customer data to be available at all times. In addition, accurate pricing and inventory information are also available at all times.

Unified and Complete View of the Customer

Sage CRM enables employees to discover and share more meaningful customer insight by combining CRM and ERP information together. This provides an ERP-empowered CRM user experience with customer transaction information delivered through the native CRM user interface. It, in turn, also allows ERP-based customer data to be surfaced within dashboards, reports, and tabs, and used within groups, lists, and workflow automation. With true customer visibility, there are great benefits. This allows sales teams to maximize revenue potential through the identification of opportunities within the customer base. Sales representatives can book orders correctly the first time with correct account and pricing information available to them. Customer service representatives can address customer questions with confidence by having the data they need. Finally, marketing managers can calculate accurate return-on-investment based on actual revenue yield.

Facilitating “Straight-Through” Processing

The entire customer lifecycle is managed seamlessly across all interaction and transaction types with out-of-the-box integration between Sage CRM and Sage ERP. The quotes and orders functionality in Sage CRM bridges the process automation capabilities of Sage ERP. As a result, manual intervention is unnecessary with automatic order generation in the ERP system. Real-time inventory information ensures orders are fulfilled on a timely basis and meet expectations of customers. Delays and errors are eliminated because an order created in Sage CRM is automatically generated in the ERP system as well and is processed immediately.

Sage CRM is achieving integration. To understand all that encompasses this robust solution, visit here.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge.  As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

Raw ingredients needed for food and beverage products can change hands several times between the farm and the consumer. Reliable data and speedy communication both up and down the supply chain are paramount when protecting the consumer and traceability is also a big part of the process. Streamline traceability within the food industry by implementing a strong enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution.

Product safety initiatives are important when finished products leave a facility for stores and customer shelves, especially food and beverage products. Raw ingredients and food products can pass through several facilities before heading to the store and can be contaminated at any time leading to foodborne illnesses. When consumers become ill, businesses face unpopular attention which can erode trust and lead to loss of business and lawsuits in addition to costly recall procedures and fines or other penalties tied to the contamination. The transparency needed throughout the supply chain and the speed at which you need to respond to potential problems can’t be found in paper-based systems or aging systems. You need the power in an innovative ERP solution.

Today’s integrated ERP solutions offer a centralized location for all of your business data including financials, inventory and supply chain, manufacturing or distribution operations, and other core business processes. You can use real-time data to maintain visibility throughout your processes to protect your products and your customers. With the time-saving automation of lot traceability, you can track products by material, level, and suppliers and be confident that you can trace back faulty items during a recall if necessary. Data can also be used to show compliance with applicable rules and regulations, including track and trace records.

A robust ERP solution, such as Sage® ERP, can also support efforts to track direct store delivery and vendor-managed inventory, high-volume and low-volume items, and customized packaging needed for distributors. Sage ERP also supports electronic data interchange (EDI) for case or pallet tagging and radio frequency (RFID) and electronic product codes (EPC). Not only can you maintain closer attention to products that are coming and going from your facilities, you can use this data to further streamline operations, improving productivity and profitability.

Protect your customers and your business by gaining greater control and insight throughout your supply chain. Contact IWI Consulting Group to learn how Sage ERP can improve traceability and food safety.

Integrating, blending, and sharing customer information and data across departments and employees can be of fundamental importance and significance to companies wanting to make sure the business process flows with ease. The goal of front-to-back office integration is to bring disconnected business processes, applications, and data sets together. There are great benefits to achieving this objective, but there are also many challenges to achieving success in this. These challenges are based on different departments using different applications, ERP and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software solutions that don’t integrate, and disruptions to the business cycle. To discover these challenges in more detailed information, visit here.

If integration is achieved by connecting the disconnected processes, applications, and data sets within a business, this translates into effective management of customer relationships, lower costs, higher profits, and a sustainable, long term competitive advantage. Simply put, integration of CRM and other business facets is essential across offices. True integration is made up of three fundamentals. Let’s take a closer look at these elements of front-to-back office integration that are essential to saving costs and reducing potential errors for companies throughout Canada, including Toronto, and beyond.

Three Fundamentals of True Integration

1. Front-to-Back Office Data Consistency

Being able to share consistent data between CRM and ERP applications is essential to integration. This requires businesses to create dynamic links from entities within CRM systems to ERP systems so changes in either show up on the other system, too. Working with the same information across the board reduces or removes the need to reenter information and error potential.

2. Unified and Complete Customer View Regardless of Data Origination

Enabling employees who are the users of the CRM and other systems to view combined financial and nonfinancial customer information within a single application, regardless of where the information is being generated or stored, is so essential to true integration. This unification and complete view of customer data is useful for managers, in particular, who require access to a customer’s purchase history or for customer service representatives who need to update customers on information as it is requested. Blind spots in data are removed when employees have access to a complete view of the information.

3. Straight-through Processing

Straight-through processing enables users of data to initiate complex and multistage transactions which, in turn, automatically trigger the appropriate downstream business processes and pass seamlessly from one application to the next without the need for extensive manual intervention. This is done using workflow management and application integration. The benefit to this is the reduction or removal of the need to rekey information from one system to the next.

Sage CRM upholds these three integration fundamentals. For further information about Sage CRM, visit here.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge.  As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, when it successfully integrates across a business in Toronto, Canada or beyond, brings together customer data to achieve many benefits including integration, productivity, and streamlining. To learn more about the objectives meant to be achieve by CRM and it benefits, visit here.

In order to achieve the intended outcomes and benefits of CRM, a CRM system must be integrated throughout the company’s departments, other software systems, and cycles. This is the cause of many of the challenges for businesses when the integration doesn’t occur. Let’s take a closer look at these challenges:

Challenge #1: Different departments, different applications

It is often the case that different departments use different application types when managing the information they use about customers. In the front office, employees use CRM applications to support the activities that are customer-facing. These include sales, marketing, and customer service. In the back office, employees rely more on ERP applications that support activities that include invoicing, accounts receivable, cash flow management, and financial reporting. ERP software allows them to support transactional, reporting, and compliancy activities without them realizing the need for CRM data as well. Typically, the desire of the front office to integrate applications collaboratively, the back office typically uses more independent applications. The challenge is further complicated by the finance department that often is slow to release data and applications from its department to others.

Challenge #2: Separate CRM and ERP systems                          

Many businesses purchase separate CRM and ERP systems from specialized vendors and don’t even think about the need for these systems to integrate. Without integration, there are many struggles faced in addressing business process needs that cross over sectors of the front and the back office. These require extra steps, time, and often lead to more errors, too. These struggles result in departmental silos of information, unnecessary administrative overhead and inefficiencies, verbal sign-off requirements, and process duplication.

Challenge #3: Interruptions to Quote-to-Cash Cycle

Given the number of potential parties involved in the process of taking an initial quote all the way through to completing and being paid for a transaction, mistakes and omissions can be costly and time consuming regardless of when in the process they occur. The cycle spans across account management, sales order processing, shipping, and accounts receivable. Account managers and customer service representatives in the front office are also impacted. Errors in the cycle may cause them to struggle to provide the information customers are needing including order status updates and transactional information.

The good news is that Sage CRM and Sage ERP integrate with one another to solve these challenges and to introduce exceptions monitoring and mandatory fields that remove the need to recheck information. Learn more about out IWI Consulting’s CRM software offering: Sage CRM. It is an easy to use, fast to deploy, feature-rich CRM system providing enterprise-wide access to vital customer information—anytime, anywhere. With Sage CRM, you can better manage your business by integrating field sales, internal sales, customer care, and marketing information.

Our small and dedicated team specializes in helping small-to-medium size Canadian businesses and non-profits select and adapt Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Human Resource Management (HRMS) and IT services. With IWI’s 15 years in business and 100 plus years of combined experience, IWI has helped hundreds of manufacturing, distribution, and financial service companies gain efficiency, grow, and lower their operating costs.

With the unique combination of industry knowledge and diverse technology expertise, IWI provides cost-effective solutions to help clients gain a competitive edge.  As a Sage business partner, servicing the Greater Toronto Area, we support evaluation and implementation of operations and finance systems to optimize technology, ensuring high return on investment with a quick and painless transition to new software.