5 Surefire Ways to Bring Your Business Objectives Full Circle with Technology

All small to mid-sized company owners want to know where their dollar is being spent when it comes to computer technology in their organization. The challenge is for them to get the information they need to make the right purchasing decisions. 'Tell me in English why you think we need this technology in our company?' That question goes through every company owner's mind and mouth. Getting the answer that makes sense to them is another story. How can the people in charge of your company understand what the value is of specific technology if their computer support people cannot articulate why it is so important?

This guide will assist every company owner in understanding how to communicate with your technical consultant so technical recommendations are applied, understood and the full potential of technology is realized throughout the company. After all, your technical consultant wants you to appreciate what they do. And you will not be able to appreciate it until you understand how it effectively applies to you.

Company Objectives- Understanding your company objectives is not a one way street. This information cannot be kept with upper management. Share it with your technical consultant. "Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime."

Big picture- Your technical consultant must understand how the company functions as a whole. They must understand the duties of the different departments. How else will the company be able to apply technology to the business's everyday processes if those processes are never articulated?

Changing with the times- Just because a technical consultant has worked in an environment for 'a couple years' does not automatically mean they are aware of changes to the intricacies of the company's business functions. Just like technology, business strategies change. It's important to consistently keep them in the know when these changes occur at the business level.

A picture is worth a thousand words- Tell you're technical consultant to chart out why they recommend a specific technology. Managers love colors and charts. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right?

Define; Measure; Analyze; Improve; Control. As long as every project is measurably articulated in the following order, upper management will have no issues understanding what is being recommended and how to proceed in the future. None of the steps above should be skipped. This is very important. The clearer the projects are defined quantitatively, the easier it will be to control processes going forward.

Addison Lee deploys SAP business intelligence platform - ComputerworldUK

Addison Lee, London's largest minicab service, is rolling out a new SAP business intelligence system to improve its operations.

Addison Lee will work with IT systems provider Maxima to implement the SAP BusinessObjects EDGE business intelligence platform. The system will provide account teams and sales management staff at Addison Lee with real time visibility of the company's fleet of 3,000 vehicles, and allow them to see the performance levels being achieved for its 10,000 corporate account customers.

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The system is aimed at helping improve core business processes, as well as providing access to self service tools, business intelligence dashboards and web analytics.

It will be implemented at Addison Lee's London headquarters, with the aim of providing executives and operational managers with role-based real-time dashboards. It will allow them to drill-down for further details, carry out root-cause analysis and generate daily information and alerts on specific operational performance issues.

Peter Ingram, Addison Lee IT Director, said, "Our business is growing rapidly so we needed an enterprise-class business intelligence solution."

Ingram said, "When Maxima introduced us to SAP BusinessObjects Edge we immediately saw that it would be possible for us to secure all the benefits of SAP BusinessObjects in a cost-effective package that was backed by Maxima's own specialist expertise."

As part of the deal Maxima will provide full consultancy, training and support services.

Earlier this month, SAP released a set of real time analytics products that are customised for use in various industry sectors and business functions. The products are based on technologies from the company's 2007 purchase of Business Objects.

They include new tools designed to let enterprises enable mobile access to business intelligence (BI) applications. The new products are customised for companies in the healthcare, consumer products, public sector, financial services, retail and telecommunication sectors.

They are designed to deliver real time analytics capabilities for line of business functions, such as finance, sales, marketing, planning, risk assessment and customer satisfaction.

What is a Marketing Strategy and Why Your Business Should Have One

In this article I will cover off the basics of developing your marketing strategy and how you can regularly check back on it to make sure you are on track.

Ideally a marketing strategy runs annually but you can start this process at any point in time. Firstly make a realistic set of business objectives based on past performance, budget constraints and competitor analysis. What are you hoping to achieve in the upcoming twelve months. How much can you afford to invest and what resources do you have in place to achieve them.

The best way to get your staff to buy into your strategy is to involve them in developing it. Have a specific time set aside to brainstorm new ways to market to your customers and bring along customer research to the session. It's really important that you are listening to what your customers are saying as they are your business effectively.

Once you have your business objectives try and come up with up to five key strategic objectives. These should be measurable, time bound and ultimately focus on your customers or prospects. For example one business objective might be to increase sales by 10%. One strategy could therefore be to focus more energy on a specific niche which you know is profitable. Another might be to launch a new marketing channel to acquire new customers through. At this point you should not be thinking tactically and trying to implement solutions. Try and think more high level than executing campaigns.

Work through your objectives until you have agreed an overall strategy of how you will achieve them. Bear in mind that this should be a plan to keep you on track so try not to have too many objectives. All your activity going forward should link directly into one of these strategic objectives.

The next stage will be to build a marketing plan which will link into the marketing strategy. The marketing plan lays down the tactical activity which you will carry out in order to achieve the business objectives and that link into the marketing strategy. For example if you have agreed to launch a new sales channel, you need to document the launch date, the marketing mix and budget. It is beneficial to have an annual marketing plan but you can start this at any point in time.

Spend time developing your marketing strategy and build a solid document for everyone to refer to. This way everyone knows what you are trying to achieve as a business and how you are going to achieve it. It should ensure that you innovate and stay in line or ahead of your competition rather than being reactive. Present the marketing strategy to all the staff within your business so they know where you are heading and they can buy into it. Make sure everyone has a copy to refer back to through the year.

Developing a Plan For Your Home Business Blog

A home business blog can earn you a very good income provided you have taken the time to develop an effective strategy for marketing your business. The blogging business can be very demanding therefore it is essential that you establish your business objectives and marketing strategy early on.

The planning process when creating a blog for income earning purposes is extremely important and can be broken down into 5 simple steps. Let's have a look at the 5 steps you will need to take when planning your money making blog.

Determine Your Objectives

Here is where you 'get the ball rolling' and decide what it is you want to blog about and how you intend to get paid for your efforts. These are two HUGE decisions that could be the basis for several articles alone and should not be taken lightly. You must be sure that whatever you choose to blog about is something that will maintain your interest and enthusiasm while also being something people are willing to pay for.

You will also have several choices as to how you will want to set up your blogging business in order to be compensated for your efforts. You can promote affiliate products, create your own products and/or use AdSense on your site. You can even introduce a combination of any of these strategies. The list grows as to your selection possibilities and seems to be limited anymore only by your own imagination.

Reality Check

After you have established your objectives you will need to take an honest look at your decisions. You must determine if you have got the resources of time, skill, resolve and finances to move comfortably forward with your business objectives as they are.

Theme or Layout

When creating a blog this is probably the most enjoyable aspect for most people. This is where you will create the look and feel of your site. You will want to select an appropriate theme in accordance with your intended content. You will also want to arrange your site in a way that is comfortable to the visitor but yet reflects a certain professionalism for your business.

Content Development Strategy

To be successful in the blogging business you will need to frequently update the content on your site. This is what will attract new visitors to your blog while encouraging current subscribers to return. How will you manage or develop the content you will need to be successful at keeping your blog updated frequently? Will you author all your own content and from where will you get your information? If you intend to outsource this task do you have the reliable means and resources to do this?

What will be the 'tone' of your delivery, or the objective of your content? Do you plan to maintain a consistent 'angle' or perspective when presenting your content or is spontaneity more preferable for your style. These are all questions you will want to ask yourself and plan for ahead of time.

Posting Schedule

Oh yeah, remember that your content is what makes your blog successful and the more you update it the better for you and the readers. You need to decide the frequency of your updates and if you have got the resource of time to maintain the schedule that will be needed. This is very important so be realistic when considering this particular but very important aspect of your blog.

Planning your home business blog requires careful consideration in order to develop an effective strategy for marketing your business. Establishing your business objectives and marketing strategy is essential when creating a blog to give it a clearly defined purpose and direction. By carefully focusing on each of the 5 steps we reviewed above you will be giving yourself a solid foundation upon which to build your money making blog.

ERP Integration For the Attainment of Your Business Objectives

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) business solution packages are proving to be great business tools in the attainment of business objectives. They provide a simple strategic platform for ensuring that all the basic functions of the business are carried out in accordance with the predefined goals and objectives.

Nowadays, organizations worldwide have started to integrate their available ERP systems with numerous resources like Legacy and web applications. Any organization, which is keen on ERP integration, must first carefully make a detailed analysis and assessment of its objectives and requirements. Thereafter realistic deadlines can be formulated for ERP integration and then the capital and manpower resources can be effectively allocated. One thing that needs to be remembered is that both the qualitative and quantitative metrics must be utilized to their optimal levels to accurately measure the degree of ERP implementation.

What are the benefits of ERP integration? There are numerous benefits, which are associated with ERP integration in an organization, namely:

1. Data in a single source system saves the costs of reproduction on obsolete traveling spreadsheets.

2. It ensures high levels of synchronization and every user using real-time data is at the same platform.

3. Data when entered once is accessible throughout the system and anyone desirous of using it can utilize it.

4. External interfaces, which previously used to exist between various systems in non-ERP operations, are eliminated.

5. It helps in raising the level of inventory turnover and also in lowering the inventory cycle time level.

6. Integrated recording systems can be utilized to lower the direct labor costs.

7. It is also beneficial in lowering of the break down and machine setup occasions.

8. Early anticipation of production contingencies because of continuous flow of vital data.

Many ERP providers previously used to feel that the formulation of developmental plans to ensure the utilization of APIs (application programming interfaces) for the purpose of accessing data and meta-data concerned with ERP was a great idea and it provides an effective solution for the integration of the ERP system. But in A real and practical sense this is time-consuming, uneconomical and a complex process.

Problems in ERP integration

There are certain problems, which are regularly faced by the organizations in the integration of ERP, such as:

1. Creation of multiple low-levels APIs.

2. Communication protocols.

3. Types of Data.

4. Presence of multiple operating systems.

To survive in the competitive business world ERP vendors are nowadays providing beneficial business solutions, which are specifically meant for the problem-prone domains. The integration market is redefined to provide a link between all of the sources of data and object models. ERP integration is slowly but steadily evolving; this has led to the broadening of the programming environments scope by several ERP vendors, with an aim to address the requirements of organization application integration.