2017 is fast approaching and we all know what that means

2021-02-23

2017 is fast approaching and we all know what that means: new year’s resolutions! Aside from getting more sleep, cutting back on the carbs and other personal resolutions, allow me to suggest a few resolutions to promote healthy business management habits this year (in case I sound preachy, I also plan to follow at least a few of these resolution ideas):

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION SUGGESTION #1: TAKE A LONG HARD LOOK AT YOUR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT PROCESSES AND WORK OUT WHAT NEEDS TO BE CHANGED (THERE’S ALWAYS SOMETHING).

New year’s resolutions are often about mending bad habits. Like people, businesses can get into bad habits too, including:

1. Unnecessary and time consuming manual work,

2. Enforcing business processes that no longer serve your businesses effectively and cause inefficiencies among your team,

3. Relying on processes that work today but won’t help you grow tomorrow,

Business processes are followed every day and are basically organizational habits. Like personal habits, they can be good or bad, and the longer you keep them up, the more difficult they are to break and the more long term damage they can do. On the other hand, establishing good business habits and mapping them effectively to a robust business management system can help you reap dividends for many years to come!

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION SUGGESTION #2: TAKE A LONG HARD LOOK AT YOUR ERP SYSTEM AND DECIDE WHETHER IT’S TIME TO SWITCH, OR TO COMMIT TO THE SYSTEM FOR SEVERAL YEARS.

Whether you have been using your ERP system for almost a decade or are just about to finish rolling out a new system, 2017 is a fantastic time to re-evaluate where you stand with business management systems! More and more industries are getting disrupted, technological and business model innovation is accelerating, and cloud-based ERP products are gaining more and more traction. In an increasingly turbulent world, there has never been a better time to ask: is the system I'm using now going to serve my business well for the next 5 years?

Of course, ERP systems are at the very core of business and are arguably the hardest part of your business to retire and replace. But you may want to consider other options if any of the following apply:

1. Your current system is based on outdated technology and software architecture developed in the 1990s that is increasingly painful to maintain and upgrade

2. It is difficult to customize your ERP in ways that allow you to map new business models and processes to the system to increase your competitiveness.

3. Your system is architected in a way that makes efficiency bottlenecks and manual work unavoidable and makes it extremely difficult to grow and scale your business over the next few years

We all want to kick bad habits, especially when it comes to business management. It may be that your ERP system is the root cause of these bad habits, in which case, 2017 may be an excellent time to make the transition to a future-proof all-in-one business management system that lives in the cloud.

NEW YEAR RESOLUTION #3: MAKE SURE YOUR STAFF IS USING YOUR BUSINESS MANAGEMENT SYSTEM IN THE WAY YOU ENVISAGED WITH TOUGHER ENFORCEMENT MEASURES, TRAINING AND INCENTIVES

You may already have the best designed processes and system imaginable, but your staff still aren’t using it. Resolve to make a change!

For ERP systems to be effective, they require good usage habits among all your individual members of staff. Is your sales team entering all the info for each of the opportunities they are working on? Is your project team updating their time sheets on time and accurately? If the answer is no, you probably aren’t getting the maximum value from your system as the data your company is putting in is not complete or fully accurate.

Admittedly this resolution presents challenges, particularly if your team has not been using the system properly for an extended period. The first step should be to make it clear that using the system is not optional and is a basic role requirement for each of your team. Beyond that, executives can encourage correct behaviors by revising training programs, holding workshops and implementing performance bonuses related to correct system usage.

Incentivizing good usage habits among your staff can be an excellent opportunity for new ERP user companies to get into a good groove early on and make the system work effectively for their business for many years to come. For businesses that have used an ERP system for a while, next year may be an excellent time to review whether the team is using the system as they should be, and if not, set a new years resolution to start doing things right this year!

So there you have it: three new years resolution suggestions for your business. Whatever resolution, or resolutions you choose, let me wish you a happy and prosperous 2017. May you fulfill your resolutions and goals for the new year and take advantage of all the exciting opportunities that 2017 will bring!

- Ron Efron