Friday, September 18, 2009
Web based ERP solution for SMEs in Singapore - the best time to look into cost efficient business automation
After years of hard work developing customized business software solutions for our clients from scratch we are happy to finally offer SME market in Singapore web based ERP solution that automates most important business processes as CRM, sales management, stock management, purchase management, basic human resource management and accounting with important analytical and reporting tools and dashboards. The beauty of course still is a possibility of any level of customization provided by our development team.
Based on our experience we learned that dealing with SMEs requires about 80% of standard ERP features and 20% is a space needed for customization to enable business to create and achieve business miracles. Too much space for customization is sometimes counterproductive for SMEs as we learned so moving forward in our business we are enhancing the offer with what SMEs really need.
And why now and not later ? Cause Singapore government is very supportive of Singapore SMEs and due to economic crisis is now until January 2010 or mid of 2010 providing up to 70% of subsidy for IT projects instead of standard 50%. So while waiting for economy to boost and be ready to kick off immediately after it improves, SMEs should now take their time, automate their businesses and get ready.
The idea of business automation is still very unknown to many business owners but our experience is once they get a taste of it, they will get addicted and won't stop until fully satisfied with the level of the automation of their business. That, however requires a positive experience with IT vendor and successful implementation of the project first. And then at least one year of a little bit of frustration here and there as automating business can sometimes be a frustrating experience. However, if business owners manage, with the tender care of their IT vendor, to go through this painful stage, they will eventually achieve business automation fulfillment manifested in growing sales numbers, better managerial decisions, increased cost savings, in the feeling of being more powerful by knowing so much more about your own business.
Business automation has its range of "standard" benefits like increased productivity and operational efficiency and effectiveness.....but there is so much more that you can learn about your business by simple investing into automating it bit by bit in stages.
The most surprising and sometimes entertaining ones from Nextlogic's experience for example would be:
1. Implementing business software solution many times exposes work of many employees in the company and some of our clients realized that while they quite happily relied on some facts & figures that were provided to them by their employees, they might not necessarily depend on correct numbers & facts (we are all unique and some people have a very unique way of preparing reports manually for example, its not about conscious cheating, it's more innocent belief they are doing a good job not realizing how many problems they might be actually creating for business).
Learning point for business owners: no matter how great is your accountant for example, make sure you learn your part to be able to verify what they feed you with (or eliminate these kind of problems with more transparent ERP software system from Nextlogic :o))
2. Painful experience of "getting to know" your own business - sometimes we can't stop wondering how surprising certain things about business operations are to business owners no matter how many years they have been running the business. Our experience is that often we have to create the state of a real "mess" in the company where many things need to be re-looked, re-thinked & re-evaluated as the whole process of automation requires business owners to define clearly what they want and how they want it. So, while it might look like an easy thing to do, the reality we are faced with every day when we develop & implement customized applications is that it's one of the most difficult thing for businesses and business owners to do.
Learning point for business owners - If you prefer less painful experience, go for more standard or off the shelf application where everything is pre-fixed and you just need to somehow fit your business processes into what these solutions offer. If however, you want to once and for all "clean up" what's not working in your business and replace it with better approaches and you are confident about what you want and how you want it, the freedom of customization is required.
Even if 80% is standard and only 20% needs to be adjusted to your unique business processes, be prepared that those 20% will be most painful one, will require your attention in terms of time, decisions about your business and so on. However, it is a business investment, its worth to go through it if you are serious about your business long term.
BUT....
We recommend NOT TO go into customization earlier than maybe after 2-3 years into business experience, because to be able to customize efficiently you need to have some experience to work with to be able to do it right.
So to sum up, there are few conditions to be met when you want to efficiently go through business automation with some level of customization (20-100%):
1. SME pre-requisites: at least 2-3 years of business experience, business owner serious about the business long term and willing to invest time during development & implementation, time commitment of project manager for at least few hours a week (for testing and providing feedback), budget of at least 2ok (for projects of about 3-4 months)
2. right decision when selecting your IT vendor - this is a very sensitive topic and I am not going to say it must be our company :), actually every IT provider is great for something else so really depends on what you need and what IT vendor can provide, just make sure you check minimum: experience of IT vendor (call their clients and see what is their experience, nothing better than this), check on all and hidden costs involved (development cost, licenses cost, application maintenance cost, server & hosting and server maintenance & user support cost, customization cost, consulting cost, training cost, etc.), ability to deliver what's promised, flexibility (this is very crucial, be careful cause many times if you define your system and sign the requirements document, you will be charged extra for every single change and our experience is that 90% whatever our clients define at the beginning is usually not what they really want but they only realize it much later when they start using the system in real day to day operations - so try to bargain for as much flexibility as possible), ability to help you apply for grant or advise you the best solution for your situation & budget available
(!!! Do not be afraid to share your idea about the budget with your IT vendor, they can advice you better when they know what they can work with - also do not expect to get a "Porsche" software solution at the cost of "Toyota", BE FAIR or you might be disappointed by no fault of IT vendor !!!)
3. right time - when you can allocate your time and time of your key employees to focus on business automation project and when you can get a government subsidy (usually economic downturn is the best time to look at your operations and making sure you smoothen it up so once market is up you can just "run" with full power & back end support).
Hope, it's been helpful,
Thank you
Dasha (blond business automation advisor :o))
Based on our experience we learned that dealing with SMEs requires about 80% of standard ERP features and 20% is a space needed for customization to enable business to create and achieve business miracles. Too much space for customization is sometimes counterproductive for SMEs as we learned so moving forward in our business we are enhancing the offer with what SMEs really need.
And why now and not later ? Cause Singapore government is very supportive of Singapore SMEs and due to economic crisis is now until January 2010 or mid of 2010 providing up to 70% of subsidy for IT projects instead of standard 50%. So while waiting for economy to boost and be ready to kick off immediately after it improves, SMEs should now take their time, automate their businesses and get ready.
The idea of business automation is still very unknown to many business owners but our experience is once they get a taste of it, they will get addicted and won't stop until fully satisfied with the level of the automation of their business. That, however requires a positive experience with IT vendor and successful implementation of the project first. And then at least one year of a little bit of frustration here and there as automating business can sometimes be a frustrating experience. However, if business owners manage, with the tender care of their IT vendor, to go through this painful stage, they will eventually achieve business automation fulfillment manifested in growing sales numbers, better managerial decisions, increased cost savings, in the feeling of being more powerful by knowing so much more about your own business.
Business automation has its range of "standard" benefits like increased productivity and operational efficiency and effectiveness.....but there is so much more that you can learn about your business by simple investing into automating it bit by bit in stages.
The most surprising and sometimes entertaining ones from Nextlogic's experience for example would be:
1. Implementing business software solution many times exposes work of many employees in the company and some of our clients realized that while they quite happily relied on some facts & figures that were provided to them by their employees, they might not necessarily depend on correct numbers & facts (we are all unique and some people have a very unique way of preparing reports manually for example, its not about conscious cheating, it's more innocent belief they are doing a good job not realizing how many problems they might be actually creating for business).
Learning point for business owners: no matter how great is your accountant for example, make sure you learn your part to be able to verify what they feed you with (or eliminate these kind of problems with more transparent ERP software system from Nextlogic :o))
2. Painful experience of "getting to know" your own business - sometimes we can't stop wondering how surprising certain things about business operations are to business owners no matter how many years they have been running the business. Our experience is that often we have to create the state of a real "mess" in the company where many things need to be re-looked, re-thinked & re-evaluated as the whole process of automation requires business owners to define clearly what they want and how they want it. So, while it might look like an easy thing to do, the reality we are faced with every day when we develop & implement customized applications is that it's one of the most difficult thing for businesses and business owners to do.
Learning point for business owners - If you prefer less painful experience, go for more standard or off the shelf application where everything is pre-fixed and you just need to somehow fit your business processes into what these solutions offer. If however, you want to once and for all "clean up" what's not working in your business and replace it with better approaches and you are confident about what you want and how you want it, the freedom of customization is required.
Even if 80% is standard and only 20% needs to be adjusted to your unique business processes, be prepared that those 20% will be most painful one, will require your attention in terms of time, decisions about your business and so on. However, it is a business investment, its worth to go through it if you are serious about your business long term.
BUT....
We recommend NOT TO go into customization earlier than maybe after 2-3 years into business experience, because to be able to customize efficiently you need to have some experience to work with to be able to do it right.
So to sum up, there are few conditions to be met when you want to efficiently go through business automation with some level of customization (20-100%):
1. SME pre-requisites: at least 2-3 years of business experience, business owner serious about the business long term and willing to invest time during development & implementation, time commitment of project manager for at least few hours a week (for testing and providing feedback), budget of at least 2ok (for projects of about 3-4 months)
2. right decision when selecting your IT vendor - this is a very sensitive topic and I am not going to say it must be our company :), actually every IT provider is great for something else so really depends on what you need and what IT vendor can provide, just make sure you check minimum: experience of IT vendor (call their clients and see what is their experience, nothing better than this), check on all and hidden costs involved (development cost, licenses cost, application maintenance cost, server & hosting and server maintenance & user support cost, customization cost, consulting cost, training cost, etc.), ability to deliver what's promised, flexibility (this is very crucial, be careful cause many times if you define your system and sign the requirements document, you will be charged extra for every single change and our experience is that 90% whatever our clients define at the beginning is usually not what they really want but they only realize it much later when they start using the system in real day to day operations - so try to bargain for as much flexibility as possible), ability to help you apply for grant or advise you the best solution for your situation & budget available
(!!! Do not be afraid to share your idea about the budget with your IT vendor, they can advice you better when they know what they can work with - also do not expect to get a "Porsche" software solution at the cost of "Toyota", BE FAIR or you might be disappointed by no fault of IT vendor !!!)
3. right time - when you can allocate your time and time of your key employees to focus on business automation project and when you can get a government subsidy (usually economic downturn is the best time to look at your operations and making sure you smoothen it up so once market is up you can just "run" with full power & back end support).
Hope, it's been helpful,
Thank you
Dasha (blond business automation advisor :o))
