5 Signs Your Systems are Failing You

In this blog we look at the key signs your business systems are holding your business back.

Complex business processes cannot be handled using multiple patched-together systems. Find out how switching to a single, integrated cloud-based system will help you achieve success.

The Indicators of System Failure

Complex business processes involving financial management, revenue management, fixed assets, procurement, order management, billing, inventory management, and services delivery cannot be efficiently handled using multiple systems and applications patched together. Even if you combine a simple general ledger solution with a web store, warehouse management application, and a customer support system, it won’t effectively support your growing company and its processes.

To improve the situation, it’s advisable to switch to a single, integrated cloud-based system. This solution is better suited for handling these complex processes, as indicated by various quotes. However, many companies might not realise that their current application setup is hindering their business. Issues like manual processes, errors, and lack of real-time data and visibility can prevent companies from making critical business decisions effectively.

It’s hard to get real-time insights

Boosting inventory management is a core ERP goal. Measure the success by calculating the inventory turnover ratio or the percent reduction from historical turnover numbers.

Difficulty in obtaining real-time insights across the business is a common problem in many companies. Most systems were designed for a time when waiting until the end of the month for data was acceptable. However, in today’s fast-paced business environment, having consolidated views and up-to-the-minute reporting can be the key to success.

Smaller teams at a single location may manage with manual processes, but as a company expands or opens new locations, the complexity increases exponentially. Valuable data for making timely and accurate business decisions gets buried within multiple systems, ranging from sales force automation to inventory management and customer service.

Here are some signs that your current management reporting setup might not be meeting your needs:

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Employees Waste Time Searching for Data

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Error-Prone and Out-of-Date Reports

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Reports Take Too Long to Generate

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Lack of Comprehensive Business View

To address these challenges, businesses should consider implementing a single, integrated cloud-based system that allows real-time data access and reporting. This can significantly improve decision-making, streamline processes, and lead to better overall business performance.

You have to enter data manually across multiple systems

Having to manually transfer data between systems causes frustrations for suppliers, customers, and business managers in today’s fast-paced world. Incompatibilities between systems and imperfect integration result in employees copying data, leading to inefficiencies and errors. If this sounds familiar to you, now may be the time to consider transitioning to a cloud-based solution like MYOB Advanced. Especially if you notice the following symptoms:

– Sales orders, order entry, and invoicing rely on paper-based processes, leading to data entry errors and delays in resolving invoice queries.

– Customer information scattered across different systems results in outdated or inaccurate data, leading to dissatisfaction among customers due to incorrect bills or contact details.

– Approval processes are slow and disjointed due to paperwork and manual matching of information, causing delays in tasks like expense claim approvals and contract signatures.

– Financial consolidation takes a long time due to the time-consuming crossposting of transactional data between systems, causing delays in generating monthly reports.

– Sales forecasting and budgeting processes rely on guesswork rather than factual data, as historic information is difficult to access and analyse in a timely manner.

Transitioning to a cloud solution can streamline these processes, eliminate manual data entry, and provide real-time access to critical information, enabling your business to thrive in the fast-paced digital world.

Lost sales because your team can’t get data fast enough

Limited or multiple systems are causing businesses to lose sales due to the inability to provide real-time information to where it is needed. In the age of e-commerce, customers expect instant access to stock levels, delivery schedules, and quick customer service response times. Here are some warning signs that reliance on multiple systems may be costing you sales:

– Customer service failures: Agents lack up-to-date information, leading to frustrating experiences for customers when placing orders or checking order status. This can result in higher churn rates as customers seek more efficient vendors.

– Inconsistent stock levels: Stockouts in some outlets while excess stock in others indicate a lack of real-time updates and trend analysis, resulting in missed sales opportunities.

– Limited self-service options: Customers and vendors desire the ability to access information on the website, such as stock availability, order placement, and order status. The absence of 24×7 operations and concerns about online security hinder providing such services.

– Ineffective sales campaigns: The inability to collect and filter customer information for sales campaigns leads to low response rates and challenges in clearing unsold inventory.

To address these issues and improve sales performance, businesses should consider adopting an integrated cloud-based system that facilitates real-time data sharing and seamless customer interactions. This will help meet customer expectations and enhance the overall efficiency and effectiveness of sales processes.

You spend more time

When more accounting work is being done outside of the financial system than within it, it indicates that your financial system can no longer handle the complexities of your growing business.

These systems are designed to automate only core accounting functions, making it challenging to accommodate the expansion of operations as a company scales.

The pressure of greater transaction volumes and speed can overwhelm many financial systems, leading to the need for constant short-term fixes and the addition of multiple applications to fill the gaps. Standalone financial systems struggle to support stronger financial controls, effective SKU management, and more complex financial processes like recurring billing and invoicing.

Here are some signs that your business has reached the limits of its financial system:

– Finance staff must use multiple applications: As finance needs become more complex, employees resort to using various software packages like Excel spreadsheets or custom-built applications. This creates a risky environment with a higher chance of errors.

– Difficulty in adapting to changes: Adding new sales channels, product lines, or locations becomes cumbersome, requiring overtime work to find workarounds. Standalone financial systems lack built-in support for everyday functions, and processes that could benefit from automation are often done manually or through spreadsheets.

– Inability to respond quickly to changing business conditions: Companies are unable to upgrade operations or respond to market opportunities and competitive threats promptly. The lack of robust and specialised functions hinders their progress. Certain specialised requirements, like contracts and prepayments, manufacturing inventory, or warehouse distribution, can only be handled through separate external packages that have limited integration with the financial system.

To overcome these limitations and improve overall efficiency, businesses should consider adopting an integrated financial system that can scale with their growth, handle complex processes, and provide comprehensive functionalities to support their evolving needs.

You should be spending your time on results, not technology

Excessive focus on technology rather than business results can hinder growth and efficiency. Adding new layers of business software can lead to complicated and inflexible systems, making it challenging to keep up with technological advancements. The costs associated with maintaining earlier hardware and software investments can be burdensome.

To address these issues, our team suggests you consider adopting a modern cloud-based business solution like MYOB Advanced. Why? For all its benefits, the most compelling is that it offers native flexibility and agility without the overhead of maintaining an underlying technology layer. Which is probably just what your business needs.

Another point, with MYOB Advanced, you can ensure your business is always up-to-date with the latest business automation advancements. This allows your business to be nimble and capitalise on new opportunities as they arise. By leveraging this innovative solution, the focus of your business can shift back to achieving meaningful business results and overall success.

And that’s what Businesshub is all about. Want to know more? Click the button below and see how we can help you with a personalised MYOB Advanced demo.

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