The Successful Execution of CRM: Part 2
September 2006
By Dr. Nancy Rauseo

This is the second of a series of articles focused on the execution of CRM, directed primarily to software resellers, vendors, and consultants. In our last article, we discussed ways in which the design and implementation phases of CRM could be more effective if you took on a more proactive role in the sales process. One of the main problems, if not the most prevalent, is inadequate analysis and planning during the software evaluation process. We also pointed out that at minimum during the sales cycle, you should help your customer develop an Organizational Readiness GAP Analysis, a CRM Strategy, and Critical Success Factors for CRM.

Prior to developing a CRM strategy critical success factors, it is critical to assess the current state of the company in relation to CRM, both internally and externally. The focus of an organizational readiness GAP analysis is on the internal state of the company. In this article, we will begin addressing the external environment and its effect on how you design a CRM strategy, specifically the Voice of the Customer.

Let’s first define the external environment. It is made up of the industry in which you and your client do business in: its customers, its products, and the competition’s capabilities, strengths, weaknesses and position. Why is this environment important? The goal of a CRM strategy is to establish a differentiated position for your company by creating and delivering value to your customers. To do this, you must know what your customers want, what the market needs, and what your competition is doing to fulfill these wants and needs. Otherwise, you are a ship without a rudder.

The Voice of the Customer or VOC is the single, most important part of analyzing the external environment. The VOC is a disciplined approach that aids in identifying, understanding and prioritizing customer needs and improves communications with customers. It ensures that customer requirements, needs and behaviors are embedded into the CRM processes.

The VOC is a process of gathering customer information and feedback, formally or informally. The VOC can originate from several sources: surveys, interviews, focus groups, research studies, complaints, service calls, observations, returns, etc. It is always a good idea to create a unified plan for gathering this information during the planning stage of CRM as well as going forward. Ownership of the VOC process must also be clear and assigned to a manager that is well-respected. This allows for faster identification and resolution of issues.

Analyzing the VOC should result in the identification of points of pain, i.e. what areas or processes cause frustration, confusion, or little value for customers? For example, if there are continuous complaints about a company’s website always being down, then a point of pain is the use of the website and an action should be taken to gather internal data on website usage through the IT area. External feedback can then be validated against internal quality data to ensure that this is a valid point of pain so improvements can be justified and made to the website.

Once the VOC data and information have been gathered and points of pain have been identified, it’s important to answer the following questions:

• How do the customers come into contact with your company?
• How well do you know your customers? What do you kow about them? Don’t just limit this to contact information. Focus on demographic information, behavioral data, potential for growth, etc.
• What don’t you know about your customers? Ask yourselves if you know what your customers want to feel and remember.
• • Where does the voice of customer exist within the departments, people, processes, and areas of the company?

To learn more about developing a CRM strategy and listening to the voice of the customer, you may want to look into training and professional development courses focusing on the voice of the customer. There are many techniques that can be used to obtain the VOC and incorporate it as part of your CRM strategy.

In the next article, we will cover the analysis of an industry and the competitive environments and its role in a CRM strategy.

Dr. Nancy Rauseo is on the faculty of Florida International University’s College of Business Administration where she teaches marketing and CRM. Nancy holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Purdue University and an M.B.A and Ph.D. from Nova Southeastern University. Prior to her teaching career, she held various senior management positions for over 20 years in the areas of sales, marketing and technology implementation. Visit us at CRM On-Line Education Program and learn how you can become the trusted advisor your clients are seeking.

Building Sarbanes-Oxley Compliance Into Accpac With Purchasing Workflow

While most people associate the Sarbanes-Oxley Act solely with e-mail retention and document storage, SOX’s real focus is on the management of internal financial controls. That requires detailing the accuracy and scope of accounting procedures and certifying that the controls are helping prevent fraud, theft and inadequate disclosure.

Well publicized business failures and the introduction of the Sarbanes Oxley Act was the beginning of a recent trend to place much more emphasis on managing risk throughout an organization. Given the concern of governments, investors, regulators and the public at large, public companies have been forced by new laws to adopt a much more proactive approach to risk management and internal control processes. Although initially forced to implement an enterprise risk management framework to comply with these new laws, public companies are now realizing many other benefits from these initiatives that are increasing shareholder value.

Although not mandatory for privately held companies and small public companies, who can argue with an initiative that will increase shareholder value? Consequently, enterprise risk management frameworks are being adopted by non-publicly traded businesses as “best practices” that provide a structured approach to help them develop their own unique risk management systems and strategies.

To help businesses meet those needs, software companies and their Solution Provider Partners are offering tools to manage and monitor documents and workflows, handle electronic signatures and automate manual processes. To date, many companies have relied on dedicated SOX applications to accomplish these goals and paid a heavy price for doing so. These companies and many others are now realizing that standard workflow process and audit logging tools can do the trick at much less cost to the organization.

Unfortunately, navigating the internal processes of an organization can be tough. Companies have been focusing on what they have to do in order to be compliant, rather than automating the process and making it repeatable. As a result, many businesses are far behind where they should be in terms of compliance or “best practices”.

Compliance with Sections 302 and 404 of the Sarbanes Oxley Act requires companies to:

1. Document the design and methodology of the financial reporting process
2. Assess the risks and effectiveness of those processes, which include:
   1. processes’ speed to completion, flexibility, reliability and timing
   2. Patterns of internal fraud/theft
   3. Corporate management structure
   4. Data complexity, volumes, predictability, value and privacy concerns
   5. Process complexity, number of databases
3. Monitor and track processes
4. Evaluate processes’ effectiveness and vulnerability to risks
5. Identify the causes of weaknesses and problems
6. Fix problems
7. Automate manual processes
8. Repeat every year

Most companies now agree that automating internal processes is the key to addressing compliance with Sarbanes Oxley. One of the most important internal processes a company can automate is the purchasing process. By automating the creation, management and approval of Purchase Orders you make it less costly to perform and easier to test for violations of company policy and SOX non-compliance.

The Purchasing Workflow Suite from Pacific Technology facilitates compliance with Sarbanes Oxley by ensuring that:

• all purchase orders are authorized at the appropriate level of responsibility based on job function, budget and dollar value limits;
• new suppliers are reviewed and/or approved by management and that purchases can only be procured from “approved” vendors;
• each purchase process is documented, automated and repeatable;
• every purchase requisition is monitored for compliance with company policies and verified with supporting documentation where necessary;
• any weaknesses or omissions in the purchase approval process can be quickly identified and corrected.

Some of the key features of Purchasing Workflow include: Multi-Step Approvals, an Approval Console with drill-down to source transactions for Cost Center Managers, an Event Log to record all transaction processes and different Management Authority levels with different dollar value limits stored against each of these levels. Purchasing Workflow also supports Vendor Catalogues to track “Approved” Vendors with different pricing configurations and lead times.

The workflow engine uses configurable rules to set transaction minimum value thresholds, checking of a user’s own authority levels and multiple authorizations on each transaction. Each action can trigger a user-defined notification email to one or more personnel in your company.

When Approver staff are not available for periods of time, they can set up a substitution entry so that any transactions routed to them are redirected to the person they have specified as their substitute approver. Substitutions are date-based so they can be set up in advance if necessary.

Purchasing Workflow also maintains a log for all events initiated within the system so it is possible to see who requested and who approved a specific requisition. A completion date can be tracked and if this date is not met then escalation processes can be initiated. Reports are available to show overdue actions and who is responsible for acting on the requisition.

A centralized purchasing function allows Purchase Orders to be created in bulk from Approved Purchase Requisitions by range of vendor numbers or range of requisition numbers and can consolidate items from the same vendor on one Purchase Order.

There are several other modules from Pacific Technology which add functionality to the core workflow system. Funds Availability tracks budget availability for proposed purchases. Funds Availability operates in two modes: 1) providing a Check that is carried out as a Workflow Step to route “for approval” PO’s being raised against a GL account that has had its budget consumed and 2) providing an enquiry screen that shows funds availability (Budget Amount Less Actual Expenses, Commitments and Unapproved Transactions) for all GL accounts within a Cost Centre.

Funds Availability also provides budget overrun value limits that each authorization level can approve. The Workflow Engine will escalate the Source Document to the appropriate person with Budget Override authority. Once approved, the requisition can continue through the workflow.

Internal Issues primary purpose is to process transactions where inventory is consumed within an organization. Workflow Documents allows a user to attach any document to the PO Requisition.

Businesses should be taking advantage of what their ERP systems offer to automate manual controls. The Purchasing Workflow suite for Accpac ERP provides a cost effective method of streamlining and managing the purchase process to save time, eliminate mistakes and reduce the risk of fraud. These benefits can increase shareholder value in your company by providing productivity improvements and reduced audit and compliance costs.

Could Streamlining your Warehouse Win You More Satisfied Customers? – Basic Steps in Implementing a WMS Solution that Your Clients Can Appreciate

As business managers, we are always looking for better ways of responding to our clients. Delivering quality products in a timely and accurate manner is imperative in increasing customer loyalty. Solving issues such as inventory shortages, improper shipments, customer returns and stock overages, keep business owners and warehouse managers up at night. How can some of these problems be resolved? One solution is to implement a warehouse management software solution. But what does that mean?

Warehouse management software generally tracks data within the warehouse, providing information on movement of goods by personnel assigned to handle such tasks. Often integrated with shipping systems, this software provides discipline and structure to an otherwise unstructured, frantic environment.

Any warehouse management software (WMS) has common components necessary for implementation. Let’s take a brief overview of an implementation with an integrated ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution.

First, for an integrated solution to be effective, the ERP solution must be in place and stabilized (no longer being revised or modified to an extent that would disrupt an implementation in the warehouse), with products, customers and vendor master lists established.

The warehouse needs to be configured for the hardware components to set up an infrastructure to run a WMS. This infrastructure will need to be connected to the enterprise’s overall network framework. Hardware considerations include printers and barcode handheld scanners that communicate via RF with wireless access points throughout the warehouse. The wireless access points communicate with the main network structure to connect with an ERP.

With the basic infrastructure in place, consideration must then be given to special needs of the warehouse. Are there remote locations to consider? Do special hardships (large freezer space, perishable goods) exist? What about customer returns? Will current growth rates cause expansion of the existing warehouse space within the next business cycle?

Discussions and meetings are held to document the business processes currently in place so that the initial configuration of the WMS solution can be done to handle the business flow. They often uncover inefficiencies or obsolete processes that need to be revised, discarded or replaced. This is also a time when forgotten processes come to light.

Many of these questions are addressed during the prototype phase of the project, when the initial configuration of the WMS solution takes place and is further refined by developments discovered. Once the system configuration changes have been completed, then the actual training takes place.

After a brief training period, the system is turned on in the production environment and additional support is provided during a “go live” phase.

While this summary is brief in nature, we hope it provides an insight into the process as a whole. Implementing a WMS solution is often set aside because the costs or benefits aren’t as obvious as projects in other areas of the enterprise. Contact us and we’ll walk you through a 15 minute ROI questionnaire to provide some immediate feedback on how WMS can help your enterprise. For more information, e-mail us at info@axisintegratedsolutions.com.

EFT Processing with ACCPAC – A “New” Solution in Demand

Isn’t it funny how old things become new again? We see it all the time in consumer products – the new and improved laundry detergent, great new taste in a soft drink, more crunch in a cereal, low fat, low carb food items. In traditional marketing theory changes to product formulas or food recipes are designed to extend the life cycle of these products by making an old product appear to be something new.

Electronic funds transfer is definitely not new. It has been around for over 40 years and has not changed much but lately it seems to be enjoying a renaissance of sorts as banks and credit unions encourage businesses to pay their vendors and employees electronically rather than write checks. What is the driving force behind this phenomena?

Technology has made it easier to commit check fraud and identity theft. New color printers and scanners make near perfect copies of check stock. Banks and credit unions process millions of checks everyday through automated clearing houses. As a result, numerous studies have shown that payor signatures are not able to be verified so it is possible to cash checks in bogus accounts and disappear with the money before the bank is alerted to the fraud because of the time it takes for paper based checks to clear.

Email communication and large centralized databases with confidential data have raised concerns about privacy and the need to safeguard business and personal information. Consequently, new Privacy Acts are now in place in Canada and the United States.

Well publicized business frauds have increased the scrutiny of businesses and how well they are managed. This has resulted in new legislation such as the Sarbanes Oxley Act in the United States. While most people associate the Sarbanes Oxley Act solely with email retention and document storage, SOX’s real focus is on the management of internal financial controls. That requires detailing the accuracy and scope of accounting procedures and certifying that the controls are helping to prevent fraud, theft and inadequate disclosure.

In addition to legislative changes for better corporate governance, payment associations in Canada and the United States have been pushing the use of check imaging technology to reduce the time it takes for checks to clear and limit the opportunity to cash fraudulent checks. The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act (Check 21) went into effect in the United States on October, 28, 2004. In Canada, implementation of the check imaging initiative, formally referred to as “Truncation and Electronic Check Presentment” is targeted to begin in early 2008.

This shift to image based processing of checks in both countries is supposed to not only improve efficiency, but also allow financial institutions to introduce new services that provide faster and more convenient access to check images for customers than the common practice of enclosing cancelled checks with customer statements.

Ironically banks are re-introducing “new” EFT based services to their business customers to encourage them to send electronic payment files and not bother with the new check imaging solutions. If you find yourself in this situation read on.

EFT Processing is for any SAGE ACCPAC ERP customer who wants to streamline the payment process in their business and tighten control over bank transfers by sending electronic files to their bank instead of mailing and receiving paper-based checks. You can pay a group of suppliers easily and cost effectively in Canadian or U.S. Dollars. You save the time and cost associated with creating, distributing and reconciling paper checks and your cash flow becomes more predictable.

EFT Processing for AP Payments transfers ACCPAC AP Payments to the electronic funds transfer functionality of your banking software. Remittance advices can be emailed using standard ACCPAC functionality. Because EFT Processing is written in the ACCPAC SDK (Software Development Kit) it holds all Vendor banking details. It is also possible to support more than one file format for the same bank

The use of EFT Processing can result in several benefits to your business: reduced Bank transaction fees, elimination of redundant data entry and errors caused by manual entries, increased efficiency by processing payments electronically and avoiding the use of expensive check stationary.

Your customers will appreciate receiving their money on time, every time without waiting in a bank line to cash a check. Because a deposit can be made directly to their accounts, the payment is safer and more private than a check.

So if you are looking for a “new” EFT solution for ACCPAC, consider EFT Processing for AP Payments.

Can Your Company Benefit from an HR Strategic Partner?

Job Duties of traditional HR managers and personnel have included writing job descriptions, recruiting, new employee orientation and management of personnel files, among others. Today’s HR managers are being asked to become strategic partners in their organizations by justifying their department’s worth and value. As these roles continue to evolve, HR job duties and functions are also changing.

HR managers are being tasked with reducing the HR costs of an organization. They have to statistically show improvement in such metrics as improved timelines, reduction of absences and tardiness, successful defense against unemployment claims, improved workplace safety, and other key performance indicators that demonstrate value to their organizations. Like any other department, HR managers are now being forced to align HR goals with the company’s strategic goals.

With this increase in responsibility and measurement requirements, HR managers need to focus on results and providing them to management in a timely an almost instantaneous fashion. As a result, many companies are implementing HR software solutions that automate many of the functions being currently maintained manually and in spreadsheets. HR systems are “more” costly than the old manual cards and the “free” excel spreadsheets but the strategic HR manager will justify the investment and the return on investment (ROI) of an integrated HR system. Some of these benefits include, reduction of personnel, improving the management of benefits, gained efficiencies, and the avoidance of costly mistakes (such as missed insurance enrollments), and overpaid leave to name a few.

Switching from the traditional role to becoming at strategic partner of an organization as an HR manager won’t happen overnight. It can be accomplished by improving internal systems and keeping a “Can Do” attitude. As a trusted advisor for your business, Axis Integrated Solutions can provide guidance on becoming a strategic HR manager, provide advice on integrated system selection, and provide turn-key integrated HR systems. If you are a HR manager and are looking to become and integral strategic partner to your corporation, please contact us at your earliest convenience to discuss how we can assist you and your organization.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q - Can I search for Optional Field values when using the finders within any of the modules?

A - Yes. In Sage Accpac ERP version 5.4 you can now add the Optional field values so they will be displayed in the finders.

In order to add the Optional Fields to the finders you will use the same method you use adding any field to a finder. Click Settings in the Finder and then click Columns to open the Columns selection box (shown below). You would then “Include” your defined optional fields in the Selected list.

The following displays two optional fields (Cash Flow Type and Account Class) in the Finder after the Columns selection box is closed:

Values assigned to these optional fields are also displayed.

Q - Is it possible to enter a customer refund within the Accounts Receivable module?

A - Yes. In Sage Accpac ERP version 5.4 the new Customer Refunds form lets you refund customers for unapplied transactions such as credit notes, prepayments, unapplied cash, and receipts.

In the example below a refund is entered for a credit note in the new Refund Entry screen.

The Refund Batch List is very similar to the Account Payable Payment Batch List. Once the Batch Listing Report is reviewed and you are ready to print the check, you click the Print/Post button and the Print Check screen is brought up and you are ready to print the refund check.

Q - Can I have more than one dashboard?

A - Yes. You can change around the content of your existing dashboard at any time, or you can create new dashboards. For example, you could have one suited to the type of information you want to see on a day-to-day basis, and another one which shows you information you like to view on a weekly basis.

1. Select My CRM | Dashboard | New Dashboard, and create a new Dashboard, for example, Weekly Overview. Select the content and save. The new dashboard is displayed on the Dashboard page.
2. Use the drop-down at the top of the page to switch between different dashboards.
3. Use the Modify Dashboard button to change the content of an existing dashboard.

Note: You can also customize the content of existing standard dashboards, set up by your System Administrator. If the dashboard you are editing is a standard dashboard, which you have modified, a Reset Standard Dashboard button is displayed on the Edit Dashboard Details page. Selecting this button restores the content of the standard dashboard.

Changes made to Standard Dashboards do not affect the standard dashboards of other users. When you modify a standard dashboard, you are effectively making your own personal version of the standard dashboard.

Q - How do I create a New Report Category?

A - There are a number of standard report categories in Sage CRM, for example, Sales, Marketing, and Customer Care. A user in CRM v5.8, who has rights to create new reports (a System Administrator or Info Manager), can create new report categories.

1. Select the Reports menu button. The page of existing report categories is displayed.
2. Click on the New Report Category action button. The New Report Category page is displayed. Type in a name and description, and select the Save button.
3. The new report category is displayed.

Q - How do I set up a Custom Dashboard?

A - To create your own Dashboard with all the content you need for your day-to-day work:

1. Select My CRM | Dashboard. Type in a Name for the Dashboard, for example, Daily Overview, and click on the Continue button.
2. Select the content you want displayed on the dashboard by clicking on the Add buttons next to the items you want.
3. You can use the Filter By drop-down at the top of the screen to drill down on content areas.
4. Click on the Save button to save the dashboard. You are returned to the Dashboard tab, where your custom dashboard is displayed.

Q - How can I edit Unposted Batches in General Ledger?

A - When trying to edit unposted batches in General Ledger (GL) it may appear that the detail line items cannot be edited and only the header section of the batch is editable.

1. To edit unposted batches in GL follow these steps:
2. Select Transactions from the menu bar and then Edit Unposted Batches.
3. Select the Batch Number that needs to be edited.
4. Go to the Line Item Detail tab.
5. Choose the Select Line button on the left side of the screen and select the line item that needs to be edited. Click Enter on the keyboard.
6. If only the header section of the batch needs to be edited, select the Batch Number and choose the Edit Batch button at the top of the Edit Unposted batches screen. Select Save from the top right corner of the screen.

Q - HOW TO: Print Bins on a Work Order Traveler?

A - Bins must be assigned to Bill of Material (BOM) component items for them to print on the Work Order Traveler. The following steps demonstrate the process to assign Bins to component items.
These steps may vary depending on the work flow used in a particular business environment.

1. For Bins to be enabled in Accpac Pro Series 7.3, the option must be selected in the Inventory Control (IC) module. In IC, go to the File menu and choose Change Setup Information. In the IC System Setup screen select the Proceed button and save the next screen (Default GL Accounts). In the Multi Location tab, select Use 'Bins' and save the changes.
   
   Note: The company must be setup as a multi-location company (in IC Setup), for stores and bins to be available.
   
2. In Production Entry (PE), select the Maintain menu and choose Bill of Materials.
3. Select the BOM and component to Edit. Enter the default Bin location, to be used for that component, in the Store/Bin field. Repeat this process for all appropriate components and subassemblies.
4. Save the changes.
5. Note: Bins may also be assigned or edited during WO creation.
6. In the WO module under the Transaction menu, select Change Work Orders. Select the pick list button and when prompted to List work orders in what order? Select WO. Choose the work order to be edited.
7. In the Change Work Orders screen, select the Lines button. In the Change Component Details
8. for Work Orders screen, select the Edit button and highlight the component that will have a
9. Bin location added.
10. Enter the Bin into the Bin field. Repeat steps 5 and 6 for any additional components.
11. Save the work order.
12. The Work Order Traveler will now print the Bin for the component, as part of the description.

TOOL OF THE MONTH

Sage Accpac ERP Data Integrity

Data can be damaged for a number of reasons. You can physically damage your hard disk when moving your computer. Power fluctuations or interference from an electric source (for example, a thunderstorm) can cause the computer to write data inaccurately. Files can also be deleted accidentally.

In order to detect data integrity issues early and to minimize their impact we recommend that you run data integrity at least weekly. For large or more critical databases you may wish to increase the frequency. There are also various 3rd Party utilities available that allow you to schedule running data integrity to run unattended or to run their own integrity checker; please contact your consultant for more information on these products.

We recommend that you run the integrity check once without the “Fix Minor Errors” option. If errors are reported, back up the data before running the integrity check again to fix the errors. If the errors cannot be fixed, then you must restore the data from backup. Creating a backup is discussed later in this article.

When running Data Integrity you can choose which applications to check, the order in which to check the applications, and whether or not to fix minor errors. Since there are dependencies in the data from one application to another, unless you have a valid reason, you should leave the Order that the applications are checked in the default order.

To begin the integrity check, choose the Check button. When the check is completed, choose the OK button to acknowledge the results message. The results message will either confirm the applications checked pass the integrity check or identify the numbers of errors found. If errors are found, print and review the list of errors.

Some of the errors that might be reported can be fixed by modifying the indicated records in the database, other errors can be fixed by running data integrity with the Fix Minor Errors option selected, and other errors may indicate a corrupted database. Please contact your consultant to assist you with interpreting any errors reported.

Prior to running Data Integrity with the Fix Minor Errors option selected you need to make sure that you have a current backup of your site, company, and user data. Your company, site, and user data is typically found in the corresponding folders located on your server in the \Program Files\ACCPAC folder. Depending on your database, your Company data and System data will be located in the \Program Files\ACCPAC\Data\companydatabaseID and \Program Files\ACCPAC\Data\systemdatabaseID folders or in the default location of your particular database software (i.e. MS-SQL, Oracle, or DB2). If you have any questions regarding backing up your Accpac data and shared data folders, please contact your consultant to assist you.

After your data has been properly backed up run data integrity with the Fix Minor Errors option selected, and re-examine the results of the error log.