Do you know where 80% of your company's best ideas come from?
TRANSFORMATION HEROES ARE EVERYWHERE!
Supply Chain & Logistics
Are you fully utilizing your ERP to address current supply chain issues? Are your reports and communication streamlined for helping you make the best decisions?
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Staffing Shortages
Are your staff spending time on things that could be automated? Are you rekeying data into systems that could be integrated?
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Training Issues
Are you teaching your team to become Transformation heroes? Do you have systems in place to train new staff and develop existing staff?
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Waste & Inefficiencies
Are you wasting time, dollars, knowledge, or skills? Do you have processes that need to be streamlined?
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Interested in finding your transformation heroes?
Fill out the form for a complimentary two-hour advisory session with our Digital Transformation team to learn how to find and engage transformation heroes in your organization.
Fill out the form for a complimentary two-hour advisory session with our Digital Transformation team.
SUPPLY CHAIN SOLUTIONS
“Supply Chain” was undoubtedly a word of the year for 2021 and we have seen how it has affected our everyday life firsthand. Supply chain is the backbone of many businesses and managing supply chain is imperative. Managing it effectively creates a competitive advantage. The transformation heroes at your organization need solutions for supply chain planning and data insights. Whether it is determining current inventory levels or estimating shipping dates, we can help you get the right information to the right people at the right time.
A medical supply distributor in Kentucky needed to assure they had items in the warehouse when their key customers needed them. By reporting on average quantities ordered by key customers by month along with the typical lead time required for each supplier, we were able to help them optimize their stock levels so products could be shipped right away when customers needed them.
Now more than ever it is important to be sure you are utilizing your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to its fullest. When purchasing materials for manufacturing or distribution, one of our clients sought to eliminate single points of failure in their supply chain. We worked with them to begin utilizing the alternative supplier/part capabilities in their ERP software. Having these fields populated and processes built around them gives them a solid Plan B when their supply chain experiences delays.
We have worked with companies who did not utilize an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software at all, some who had the wrong ERP for them, some who had an unsupported or outdated ERP, and some who were not using it to its full potential. Others needed to customize their ERP or chose to develop an entirely new one from scratch. By helping a client through an upgrade process recently, we were able to check ten process improvement features off their wish list because they were included in the latest release of their ERP software. The transformation heroes at your organization seek to utilize systems to their full potential.
Sometimes it makes more sense to focus on the challenges you can control rather than the ones you cannot. Your downstream supply chain is a good example of that. We have helped clients optimize their production schedules and shipments based on delivery routes and complex business rules involving Service Level Agreements with their key customers. Getting the right products on the right dock at the right time is an effective way to counteract the driver shortage, rising costs, and other logistical issues.
Speed and awareness play a vital role in supply chain management. Using Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) or Application Programming Interfaces (API), you can instantly exchange information with your customers and suppliers such as order acknowledgements, inventory levels, shipment notifications, order status updates, etc. You can optimize cash flow by sending and receiving payments electronically.
Quality products and services influence customer loyalty. To build a successful and sustainable business, your goods and services should consistently meet your customers’ standards. We help our clients take a closer look at their processes and procedures to ensure quality standards are met and continuous improvement is a priority. Transformation heroes drive positive impacts through continuous improvement and digital transformation in the forms of sustainable growth and competitive advantage, even in uncertain times.
E-commerce is increasing in popularity even as physical stores remain vitally important. Most businesses are looking for innovative ways to keep their doors open and serve their clients in safe and reliable ways in the face of uncertainty. Omnichannel supply chain allows for consumers to seamlessly shop from multiple channels. They will be able to purchase from your brick-and-mortar store as well as your online space while having the same shopping experience. Transformation heroes achieve this by incorporating systems and processes to seamlessly manage their inventory across all channels.
STAFF SHORTAGE SOLUTIONS
A task that takes an employee just 10 minutes per day will consume over one workweek of that employee’s time in a year. Whether the task is rekeying data from one system to another, taking orders by phone, or taking payments by phone, automating these processes can lead to an exponential Return on Investment (ROI). Your customer service employees and order entry operators have firsthand knowledge of which calls take the most time and should be prioritized for digital transformation.
Let’s face it, some customers are not going to fully integrate with your systems using Business-to-Business (B2B) technology because it is more convenient for them to email purchase orders to you utilizing automations they already have in place. At one of our distribution clients, staffing shortages were slowing down order processing. An order entry clerk suggested the company invest in software that would automate the extraction of purchase orders from email attachments and convert them into orders within the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Once implemented, the resulting automation allowed more orders to be processed per day without the need to increase staff.
A Human Resources (HR) generalist at a utility company commented to her supervisor that she was distracted from some of her responsibilities due to time spent repetitively answering similar questions in a day for different people. As a result, an internal HR search engine was deployed on the corporate intranet (dubbed “Ask HR”) to address commonly asked questions. Modern technology including chatbots and mobile applications takes employee self-service to a new level, saving both HR and employees considerable time and frustration while making a positive impact on your bottom line. Transformation heroes recognize the opportunity that automation presents in serving your employees.
A Customer Service supervisor at a manufacturing client recognized that order status inquiry calls on the toll-free phone lines cost the company significantly more than the estimated cost of implementing a customer self-service portal. In addition, high call volumes and long hold times negatively impacted customer satisfaction. Partnering with this transformation hero, we implemented a customer self-service portal and automated emails to inform customers of order status and shipping updates. As a result, our client was able to reassign some customer service representatives to the order entry department to assist in boosting the performance of that department.
Integration can flow upstream in the supply chain as well. The proliferation of Business-to-Business (B2B) integration has made information more readily available from your vendors’ systems, allowing you insights into inventory levels and schedules, as well as options for automating the purchasing process. Your transformation heroes can help you identify the vendors and scenarios that require most of their time so you can advance integration opportunities with those key vendors.
Sales and marketing automation are rarely utilized to their full potential. In addition to tracking opportunities in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, automating internal sales processes such as updating price lists, creating and sending quotes, releasing purchase orders, and streamlining approval workflows are huge time savers for the entire sales team. Your sales and marketing teams are often rich in transformation heroes whose ideas can help you address staff shortages and scale your business in these crucial areas.
TRAINING SOLUTIONS
With remote work becoming normal and high turnover rates becoming more common, training roadmaps have become even more important. What do your staff, suppliers, and even customers need to know to remain relevant, challenged, empowered, and equipped to do business with you? The most important thing you can do for your business right now is to train your employees to become transformation heroes aligned with your corporate mission and values.
Next-level business leaders know they need to create a culture where employees demonstrate Digital Transformation, Data-Driven, and Continuous Improvement mindsets. Change is occurring at a record pace affecting the way organizations function operationally, socially, and economically. It is important that your employees learn to identify and prioritize transformational initiatives and make data-driven decisions to thrive in the new economy.
Two common gaps that are often overlooked in an organization are knowledge and utilization gaps. Some companies have highly capable people who simply need to be retooled in new areas. Others have systems and tools that are not being utilized to their full potential. When looking at people, processes, and technology, it often helps to have an external entity help you identify and address gaps that you may have overlooked. Once we teach your transformation heroes to identify opportunities for improvement, you will start to realize 4x the improvement potential in your organization (1).
(1) Robinson, Alan G., and Dean M. Schroeder. The Idea-Driven Organization: Unlocking the Power in Bottom-up Ideas. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., 2020.
How can you ensure everyone in your organization is working as efficiently as possible? By having clear and detailed processes and work instructions! Processes are essential for every organization to minimize rework and make better use of each person’s time. Even organizations where processes and work instructions exist will benefit from reviewing and revising their documentation on a regular basis. We train your transformation heroes and help them streamline your processes and develop work instructions with the appropriate amount of detail to better serve current and future employees.
An increasing number of clients recently have asked us for creative ways to deliver staff training and customer-focused educational products for their remote staff or customer base. Learning Management Systems (LMS) provide an immersive learning environment that can be used to elevate an onboarding process, train staff, or monetize your expertise on a subject matter. Onboarding new clients and employees should be a well-planned and tailored process for every organization. The onboarding process is the first look at how an organization manages itself, so participants will develop their first lasting impressions from it. We utilize LMS platforms to create a seamless extension of your organization and improve the flow of complex onboarding and training processes. We build a structure that will grow with your organization by allowing the ability for content to be added and maintained over time. There is a range of learning styles, and we integrate all forms of media and feedback techniques that best suit your learning management needs.
WASTE & INEFFICIENCY SOLUTIONS
Nobody knows better than your staff how their time is being used, and at times how it is being wasted. Time and money are not the only resources companies tend to waste. Knowledge and skills may be wasted as well. Your best employees will lack fulfillment if they feel their time, skills, or knowledge is undervalued or altogether wasted. Doing repetitious work that could be automated or performing tasks that are not challenging to them are two common complaints in the workplace. We work with your transformation heroes to help them learn to identify and eliminate waste throughout the organization.
One of our clients had customers who found their billing statements hard to understand and reconcile their invoices. The result was frustration and often non-payment. The calls coming into customer service were a source of frustration for the call center staff who responded to similar questions over and over. A transformation hero in the customer service department suggested that the statement format be revamped to resemble the format of customer invoices more closely. Once implemented, payment rates increased dramatically because customers could more easily reconcile statements with invoices.
Shipping clerks at a client were weighing packages on scales and manually entering the weights into the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. Package weights were often typed incorrectly resulting in significant chargebacks from the freight carriers. A transformation hero recognized an opportunity to integrate the scales with the ERP system. Once implemented, the package weights were automatically populated in the ERP, eliminating chargebacks resulting in significant cost savings for the company.
An office worker at a client was asked to come up with a plan for streamlining the delivery of statements to their customers. The plan was to purchase an expensive machine to process the mailing of thousands of statements. After an in-depth dive into their current systems, this transformation hero determined the process could be automated and that most statements could be configured to automatically be sent via email. The savings on postage alone was over $50,000 annually once implemented.
Rekeying data is not only one of the biggest time wasters in an organization, but also contributes in a big way to invalid data in your databases. Whether you are receiving faxes or emails, rekeying data from physical paper, or rekeying data from one screen to another, we can help you explore ways to automate the process using data integration. A transformation hero at one of our clients recognized an opportunity for digital transformation in their organization’s Accounts Payable processes. The resulting custom solution saved time, eliminated keying errors, and reduced expenses.