The most effective way to package analytics with ERP solutions; key questions to ask clients (by ERP module)
Don’t sell analytics . . . include them as a de facto part of every ERP solution you offer.
Analytics are as essential to successful ERP implementation as sales tax processing, document management, and e-commerce. Every ERP developer uses an analytics solution for their own internal business (Acumatica uses DataSelf), and if (for example), you are selling to an Acumatica client, the following logic is hard to refute:
“Acumatica evaluated various Analytics solutions to enable them to make the best business decisions. They selected DataSelf. As an Acumatica customer – wanting to make the best business decisions, it makes sense to follow their lead.”
It always helps to relate the potential benefit of analytics to a client’s potential pain points – and the best way to do that is to first identify the ERP module that they spend the most time in – AR, AP, GL, et cetera. Once you know that, you can expose their needs by asking key questions like the following:
- Do you ever incur late fees paying your vendors? How often and how much?
- Do you ever miss out on early pay discounts?
- Do you ever have cutbacks because of unexpected AP expenditures?
What would it be worth to your organization if you could . . .
- . . . avoid AP late fees? (How much would that save?)
- . . . not miss a single payment discount? (How much would this save?)
- . . . know instantly – and exactly – what you owe each vendor today and in the future?
- Do you ever have to write off bad debt? How often and how much?
- What percentage of your receivables are over 60 days? Over 90 days? Over 120?
- What is your current DSO (days sales outstanding)?
- Who are your highest-risk debt customers?
What would it be worth to your organization if you could . . .
- . . . reduce your bad debt by 25%? By 50%
- . . . reduce your over 90 days receivables by 25%? By 50%
- . . . improve the forecast your next 3 – 6 month incoming cash flow?
- Do you ever have stock outages? How often?
- How long does it take to get it replenished?
- Do you ever have to cancel or turn down orders because you’re out of stock? What does that cost you?
- Do you have ‘stuck’ items restricting your cash flow and preventing investment in profitable initiatives?
What would it be worth to your organization if you could . . .
- . . . predict, anticipate, and prevent potential stock shortages based on historical activities?
- . . . reduce stock outages by 15% . . . 25% . . . or even 35%?
- . . . reduce the number of backorders (and cancelled orders) by even one a month?
- Do vendor price increases ever catch you by surprise?
- How often do your vendors miss their delivery deadlines?
- How often do you have to look for alternate suppliers if your primary vendor is out of stock?
What would it be worth to your organization if you could . . .
- . . . be alerted to profit margin reductions?
- . . . dynamically evaluate vendor performance based on issues like shipping and quality?
- . . . immediately know which vendors could supply critical parts at a moment’s notice?
- Do your CEO/CFO have instant access to key figures and details from your P&L, Cash Flow, and Balance Sheets?
- Do you have to wait for someone in IT to run ad-hoc analyses, such as specialized gross profit analysis?
- How long does it take to create and receive a custom budget-to-actual reconciliation?
What would it be worth to your organization if you could . . .
- . . . give your CEO/CFO instant access to all the reports they need?
- . . . your CEO/CFO were enabled to drill-down into the details behind their reports?
- . . . your CEO/CFO could use plain English commands to request the precise analysis they require?