Taller warehouses, more racking, narrow aisles.... 

Warehouse efficiency is a critical success factor to effectively managing your supply chain and achieving peak performance. It's not just a matter of "racks and aisles", it's also a matter of recruiting, training and retaining quality labor, managing transport and fuel costs, eliminating fines for non-compliance - no wonder many organizations today seek to reduce the costs associated with operations and customer service.

To accomplish this, companies are evaluating process improvement along their entire supply chain.  

If you manage your inventory through manual processes in receiving, pick-and-pack and shipping, or if you have a assortment of standalone applications, then you should reasonably expect reductions in both labor costs and time spent processing your products.  How much depends on several factors, here are some of the most crucial ones:

1) do you know what each transaction is costing you today? If you cannot quantify the cost of your entire supply chain operations, then you won't be able to measure your savings. 

2) are you willing to set aside the time it will take to review each of your current processes in order to redefine them in an automated environment?

3) have your current operations caused you to lose customers and can you quantify those losses?

With over 20 years experience working with customers who wanted to improve their inventory management processes, we can safely say that there is no challenge we have not faced. And that's exactly the type of experience you want on your side when you contemplate an investment in an effective and integrated supply chain.

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17 rules of the road for customer relationship management

When it comes to choosing the right customer relationship management (CRM)
system for your business, it’s important to understand all the benefits of an
integrated CRM system before beginning your selection process.

If you do, the choices you made that will impact nearly everyone in your company will have a greater rate of acceptance, and ultimately, success rate. That’s why we are offering this booklet, the "17 rules of the road" to share the experiences of executives, managers and employees who have first hand knowledge of both pitfalls and opportunities.

Even if just  two or three of the rules give you pause, give yourself a few minutes to download the booklet, you'll be glad you did.

• CRM is more than a product, it's a philosophy.
• Customers are everywhere: clients, vendors, employees, mentors.
• Don't confuse CRM with contact management.
• CRM solutions are different for midsized companies.
• Planning pays.
• Prepare for product demos.
• Implement current technology.
• CRM is not a point solution.
• Speed ROI through back-office integration.
• Multi-channel access is the only way to go.
• Look for true platform flexibility.
• High cost does not necessarily mean high value.
• CRM is not for any single department, it's for the whole company
• Implementation method is an important as product choice.
• Training can't be "on the job".
• Test, or crash and burn.
• Focus on CRM goals: improve customer satisfaction, shorten sales cycles, and increase revenue.

Here's the link again to download the booklet.

Standing up to unpredictable market conditions

The Yankee Group completed a survey of 722 small and mid-sized businesses a little over a year ago, and we'd like to share with you some of their findings.

The top concern is: reacting quickly to market dynamics. Fast-changing and unpredictable market conditions along with growing revenue and attracting new customers are the key priorities. As a result, companies must become more agile and achieve better business insights quicker to alleviate these concerns, which will ultimately result in increased revenue.

How to use this information: assuming that 722 businesses are representative of the small and mid-sized businesses market place, we suggest that your peers, having recognized their top challenges, are going to put plans in place to overcome them. How well will your company stand up to market conditions and competitions?

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With the first quarter of 2008 almost over, what better time than the next two weeks to contact your technology partner and schedule a strategic review to get answers to some of the following questions:

• Are we allocating the right resources to the right opportunities?
• What marketing campaigns generated revenue and why?
• What are the current opportunities that our sales team and partner network are working on, and when are they expected to close?
• Who are my most profitable customers, and what have they purchased?
• Is the information necessary to complete the order available efficiently and accurately?

Many executives make important business decisions based on batches of information from various departments, such as sales, manufacturing, finance and other sources. This information is usually days—if not weeks—old. – How fresh is your data? As you are reacting to market conditions and considering that the business world is constantly changing, old information is unacceptable.

Learn how a business can transform itself to a connected company with value added applications and strategic guidance by contacting your technology partner at WAC Consulting