White Paper: How integrated software systems generate more profit

white paper

How Integrated Software
Systems Generate More Profit
Get huge returns by joining up your online and offline processes

© Clarity Software 2012 How Integrated Software Systems Generate More Profit www.clarity-software.com

Contents
Section 1 – Introduction

Section 2 – Your current processes

Section 3 – Integration : more profit

Section 4 – Preparing for deployment

Section 5 – More than just an MIS

Section 6 – Retaining more margin

Section 7 – Playing to your strengths

Section 8 – FAQs

Section 9 – Summary

Call +44 (0)121 248 2448 or email sales@clarity-software.com

02


Section 1: Introduction

Why software systems are crucial
to thriving in the current economic climate
In these tough economic times all business The good news is that with today’s software
processes and costs need to be scrutinised technology it’s simple to do, and the cost is easily
for their contribution to the profit of your calculated to give you return on investment, even
company. in the immediate term.

Margins are being squeezed by the competition In 2012 there are a number of ways to access
and by material suppliers. Pressure is on to business software, making it more convenient to
deliver jobs within the estimated budget, and the use and always there for you.
temptation is there to take on opportunities that
you would normally run a mile from. Some systems are based online, giving you the
option to use handheld devices such as smart
Business software can help. It’s proven to. phones and tablets, whereas others are installed
100% of Clarity customers who responded to a on your personal computer.
survey testified to becoming more efficient after
implementing their MIS system. A perfect score But the real key for generating the most financial
that unquestionably confirms its value. return from your software is to join your systems
together. Get your front-to-back processes
The devil is in the detail in any successful working seamlessly and you will reap the
business and software helps unearth those rewards in margin increases, adding new profits
assumptions, manual tasks, approximations and to your bottom line.
unnecessary overheads that eat away at your
hard-earned profit margins. In this White Paper we will help you
understand how you can integrate and
With the right software you can protect your develop your business systems to win more
profits with traceable automated processes that orders, make more margin from your jobs
improve your accuracy, reduce your costs and and thrive in the current market.
guarantee unrivalled service quality for your
customers.


03


Section 2: Your current processes

Evaluating and assessing
your current online, offline & mobile systems

When you are looking to integrate and
develop your systems the best place to start
is to analyse your current way of working.
- What’s our most profitable product to
manufacture and sell? Do we promote it?
Prior to implementation we speak to our
customers and challenge their processes to
- Do we always secure the target margin on our
prioritise the value they have in their day-to-day
jobs and were our estimates accurate?
operations.
- Is my website updated with the latest product
We call this a Business Process Review
information? Am I capturing leads and following
(BPR), and it forms an essential foundation for
them up immediately?
ensuring our customers’ costs are reduced,
problems are solved and performance targets
- How much information is NOT documented by
are exceeded.
employees, being managed privately on spread
sheets or kept in their heads?
Depending on its size and complexity, there can
be a number of incumbent software systems in a
- If individuals are unavailable can I still access all
business which often do not talk to each other.
of my business information?

They could all be valuable in their own right but
- Can I improve performance by offering online
must now be considered as part of a combined
system access to my sales and onsite staff?
bigger picture to ensure maximum efficiency and
competitiveness in today’s tough market.
- Is the same business information entered into
multiple systems repeatedly?
Here we’ve put together a check list of just a few
example factors to consider when evaluating
- Do my sales team have visibility of key
your current online, offline, cloud and mobile
customer accounting information to help them
processes.
minimise our exposure on deals?

If you find some of these questions uncover an
- Are all our quotations consistent? Can I
issue then you should consider the effectiveness
confidently say that everyone in the sales team
of your workflow and how you can plug the holes
uses the same price list?
using joined up software.
- Can I find the answer to any commercial
You may have satisfactory systems in
question I wish to ask my business?
isolation but simple checks soon reveal that
profit could be leaking from your business.


04


Section 3: Integration : more profit

How joined up software systems
increase your bottom line profit
One of the most powerful innovations at Clarity Fuel
Software that encompasses the cloud is Reduce unnecessary travelling back to the
providing total integration of software systems. office to collect paperwork only to find out
that your next job is around the corner from
Nowadays, sign makers, printers and other job- your current location
based companies need to know exactly what’s
happening right across their business, regardless Phone calls
of where they are or what time of day it is. Eliminate calls to multiple members of staff
for numbers, site locations, documents and
By aligning all online and offline workflow job references
processes and synchronising them together
through the cloud, Clarity is able to give Workflow
companies business-critical visibility of their Save on inspection, error rework and
operations in real time and with access from their monitoring resources using an automated
smart phone, tablet and PC devices. artwork and production workflow

Labour
Eradicate repeat entry tasks and save hours
by logging information outside of the office
using smart, cloud-based connections

Risk
Take the worry out of your cash flow
One projections by producing accurate credit data
so you can sell to customers who pay on time
System
Sales
Furnish your sales team with up-to-date
prices, qualified customer criteria and
multiple ways to close higher margin deals
faster than ever before

Time
Get cash into the business quicker through
seamless order processing and reduced
But the ultimate benefit is not returned in the work in progress times
ability to access information. It’s delivered in
hard cash. It’s clear to see that businesses can make more
profit on their jobs by integrating online and
offline workflows using real-time synchronisation.


05


Section 4: Preparing for deployment

Getting your business ready
for an integrated way of working
Any proposed changes to your business However, a minority may see it as an
workflow will understandably generate a encroachment of trust and an attempt to expose
mixture of comments and feedback from your any personal performance issues.
employees, depending on their job roles.
But they will soon realise this isn’t the agenda.
Don’t be put off - these will be essential to the Before implementing and joining your website,
success of your plan and should be considered software systems and other applications,
carefully, even if they appear to be negative. everyone in the company needs to be aware
of the big picture so a seamless and smooth
transition can be made.

Being able to share data is critical
Times have changed. We are now in a modern
age where sharing information across multiple
media platforms is essential for making real-time
business decisions. And if you’re not making
fast decisions, you’re losing opportunities.

Your business must adopt the ‘unified’ mindset.
No longer can your teams work in isolation, they
are each a component of an all-powerful engine
with one common objective of business growth.
Integrating your employees is the key
With the best will in the world, no owner or Once that mindset is established, your systems
manager can expect to know every square will glue it all together, with information pushing
millimetre of their business. and pulling in all directions using online and
offline technology. Just think about the radical
One of the immediate benefits of installing MIS improvements you can immediately make:
and CRM software is to give 360 degree visibility.
- New website visitors feeding into your MIS
Departments that have historically worked - Marketing campaigns based on targeted criteria
autonomously can now be included in group - Sales teams processing their orders out on site
plans and results, increasing overall accuracy in - Customer emails triggered by shop floor activity
measuring true costs and profit margins. - Customers seeing the progress of orders online
- Site photos & sign-off signatures arriving instantly
Most employees rightfully react positively to this - Sales notified of all new enquiries as they happen
change, welcoming a reliable foothold to work
from and being able to see the influence their All of this is easy with an integrated business.
hard work has to the company’s success. And the possibilities are endless...


06


Section 5: More than just an MIS

Embrace the opportunity
of a modern CRM, MIS and workflow system
Make no mistake, the core principles of Just take a look at this list of web and digital lead
making a business more profitable will sources which are standard in many companies
always apply. They just evolve in the way these days (which is not exhaustive):
they present themselves.
- Display advertising (banners)
In 2012, a business that relies solely on offline - Pay Per Click advertising (e.g. AdWords)
processes simply cannot compete on service - Website remarketing
with companies who can respond to enquiries - Referral links
instantly. - Search engine optimisation (SEO)
- Blogsites
Similarly, a business that has no visibility of - Forums
whether their deliveries have been made, their - Site sponsorships
installations have been completed or their - Mobile phone adverts
products have been despatched are operating - Email marketing
more on assumption rather than assurance. - Webinars
- Content and news website articles
A modern business system can eliminate fear, - Video advertising (e.g. YouTube)
uncertainty and doubt in all customer-facing - Apple and Android mobile apps
and back office processes. It joins up each - Facebook and Twitter
department and the specialist tools they use to - Surveys
make one, all-powerful infrastructure that drives - Reciprocal website links
efficiency and profits. - Podcasts
- Competitions

How many of these do you understand? How
many of these are you doing? And can you
track the results in your MIS system, knowing
whether they are returning a profit or not?

When you stop for a few minutes and absorb
these campaign activities, you’ll probably realise
how often you respond to these yourself in your
The importance of integrated web marketing personal life.
Can you remember where your customers were
originally sourced from? That means they work - and it’s a massive part of
the marketing mix for any business with serious
Just a few years ago the list of lead sources growth ambitions.
might have contained a few primary campaigns
that were mainly offline activities. In 2012, it’s a If you aren’t marketing online already, you
completely different story. really need to start doing it now. And the right
software makes it a whole lot easier.


07


Section 5: More than just an MIS (cont.)

Building & linking website stores
to add new sales revenue streams
It’s fair to say that a major proportion of One point of data entry is the winning formula
customers now expect to be able to browse, Depending on your business type or product
order and purchase commodity goods online. focus, you may have a few, many or thousands
of items that you are selling on a regular basis.
For you, it’s about giving them a choice.
To operate at maximum efficiency and minimise
If they are busy and miss your office hours, or staff intervention you need to be entering price
don’t have your catalogue to hand, they can jump and product information in just one place.
on your website from wherever they are and
place orders through your web store. Imagine the time you would expense adding and
updating products in your MIS and then repeating
By offering this online product placement choice the whole process in your website CMS (content
you’re now: management system). Not ideal at all.

- Opening up a new sales channel Connecting your website with your core MIS,
- Retaining customer business CRM and Marketing systems gives you the
- Fighting off competitors who have web stores potential to synchronise all your price list items
- Creating a fast mechanism for closing orders in real time. It’s a huge step forward and will add
- Competing with the best retailers on the market significant gains to your bottom line, both in sales
- Capturing targeted new leads into your database profit and efficiency savings.
- Able to roll out targeted online promotions
- Implementing more automated processes

Being able to showcase and sell online is an
essential component for ongoing growth


08



Cloud-based CRM and quoting
means you can win business anywhere, anytime
No longer do estimators, quoters and direct measurable business results:
sales people need to constantly go back to
the office to carry out their tasks. - Receiving leads as they come in
- Following up enquiries faster
It’s time to work on the move. - Eliminating the competition
- Being smarter with site visits and sales activity
Internet-based or ‘cloud’ software is accessible - Having up-to-date information at your fingertips
using a secured https web browser such as - Confirming deals at the customer site
Google Chrome, Safari or Internet Explorer. - Getting payment straight away

It’s normally hosted on a remote server and gives
access to authorised users by requesting an
email address and password to log in.

This means as long as you have a good
broadband, 3G or Wi-Fi connection you can
access your contacts, log activities and close
deals from wherever you are in the world, and at
whatever time of day or week that suits you.

The power of quoting alongside customers
Being able to quote and confirm jobs whilst
you’re sat next to a customer is invaluable. It’s a
win:win situation.

Once you produce your initial quote you can
discuss it openly there and then, creating new
revisions if required, checking that all job items
iPad? Laptop? Android phone? No problem are in stock and delivery is feasible on time.
As cloud software is accessed via an internet
browser, you can log in to the system using smart For you, this saves in time, admin and potentially
phones, tablets, laptops and netbooks, giving you fuel, as it often removes the need to revisit the
total personal flexibility in your working life. customer to re-present and confirm the quote.

On implementing cloud-based software you For your customers, they receive a
see immediate investment returns that have a personalised and efficient service from a
completely unlimited timescale for delivering company that is transparent and willing to
commit face-to-face. This wins business.


09



Using Apple & Android mobile apps
to capture and sync critical field-based data
Over the last 3 years in particular there has
been an explosion in applications for mobile
devices such as smart phones and tablets.

With a huge proportion of workers now owning
a compatible mobile device, using native apps is
an efficient and convenient way to carry out your
daily tasks, and there’s no sign of it letting up.

Can an app change my working life?
As with any business product or service, an app
must have clear, tangible benefits for the user;
otherwise, it becomes a ‘looks nice’ product that
will just sit in a web store without any downloads.

But build an app with a distinct purpose, a
measurable return and an abiity to share data
with your central system and suddenly you have
the opportunity to increase your bottom line.

Managing site deliveries and installations
Many printers, sign makers and other businesses
that perform site operations should spot this
potential and adopt it as early as possible for their They can take photographs of the job using the
field-based team. on-board camera and capture sign-off signatures
on the device once jobs are completed, sending
Using a mobile app, workers can record and everything back to the office instantly.
track their progress at the customer site and feed
back the data via 3G or Wi-Fi to the central MIS Imagine the savings this will make in fuel,
in the office. time, administration and labour alone.

App users automatically receive information And that’s not taking into account the incredible
relating to the job in their to-do list. These can enhancements to your customer service, which
include contact details, PDF documents and drives new referrals and repeat business.
location details, with the ability to navigate to
the site using the device’s maps app with geo- Selected and integrated carefully, mobile
location features enabled. apps can reduce variable costs, increase staff
morale and make you more profitable.


10


Section 6: Retaining more margin

Take short, simple steps forward
and retain even more profit in your jobs
Marginal gains. Just by looking at it in this way you can see the
obvious improvements that can be made here
Never has this phrase been more significant using an integrated system.
than in relation to MIS and integrated
software systems. Release your workflow
Imagine the immediate release in workflow if you
Just the smallest enhancements can make all knocked down the two brick walls and joined up
the difference to your bottom line. They could your front and back-end processes. It will breathe
make more your workflow more efficient, improve fresh air into your business and remove the
your delivery turnaround time or speed up your mundane activities that create a bottleneck.
quoting and estimating processes, which all
contribute to a leaner operation. Consider the marginal gains you can make
through saving on daily direct and indirect costs:
But where do you find them? How do you
know if something can be improved? - Time and resource re-entering data
- Time delays in following up enquiries
There are a number of ways to spot a potential - Human errors made through manual entry
modification and a good place to start is by - Material costs through accurate quoting
mapping out your basic processes. - Time spent creating job cards and schedules
- Fuel, admin and time costs out in the field
The simple image below illustrates a business
which is doing all the right things but is hitting And don’t forget, your cash flow improves due to
brick walls in process automation: a much quicker overall turnaround time.

WEBSITE ACCOUNTS
ESTIMATING
VISITORS SOFTWARE

EMAIL PRODUCTION
SALES
MARKETING SCHEDULING

SEMINAR ORDER DELIVERY &
LEADS PROCESSING INSTALLATION

BRICK WALL 1 BRICK WALL 2


11


Section 7: Playing to your strengths

Why you should aim higher
as soon as your integration is in place
Confidence spreads right from the directors their bread and butter might realise that the
and management team through to the percentage growth returns are greater in the
workforce once you know that all your pull-up display volume business.
systems are connected.

Suddenly, decisions that were previously
conjectured - or at least came with an element
of guesswork - can now be made based on the
latest true facts from all reaches of the business.

Having total integration empowers all team
members to analyse their collective results
and combine them to formulate new growth
objectives that propel the business to a new level.

Analyse business-wide data and build more profitable strategies

This doesn’t mean they will scrap their wide-
format services but it could point to a greater
investment in pull-up display marketing.

To thrive in the current market you need to be
selling the products that your customers are
interested in buying and are prepared to pay the
right price for.

No more fingers in the wind. Now you can make accurate predictions. It’s no good selling the ones you enjoy doing.
That’s not going to make you successful.
Are we focusing on the right products?
Customers of Clarity often re-position or even Everybody is in business to make a profit and if
diversify once they are able to analyse their you see a trigger for earning more, you would be
integrated data. foolish to ignore it. Follow the money!

For instance, companies that have historically
relied on specialised wide-format print jobs as


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Section 8: FAQs

The most common questions
asked by our customers
Q1: How many providers should I approach easier to refresh and update with new versions,
at when building an integrated system? giving access from anywhere with an internet
A: The ideal scenario for any business is to have connection and incredible flexibility for users.
as few providers as possible. If you need support, It’s also essential for online marketing and sales
you only have one number to call, rather than activity. Installed software using local servers and
being passed on by each provider you speak to desktop PCs on your premises arguably provides
as they deny personal responsibility for issues. more security, as it requires full network access to
However, getting your business issues solved is be granted first rather than just an email address
the most important driver and ultimately governs and password on the internet. At Clarity Software
your decision. we offer a choice depending on the customer
preference, with a hybrid solution often proving
Q2: What about products? the most appropriate but once again it depends
A: MIS and CRM systems are constantly on your individual solution.
evolving, providing new ways of working and
meeting the demands of industries as they
develop. You could spend weeks - sometimes
months - researching, viewing and discussing
how many and what systems would be ideal for
you. But the secret is to stick to your key priorities
and consider it as an all-in-one solution.

- Is the core MIS system right for my industry type
- Can the integrated systems technically
synchronise data with my MIS
- Does each of my departments get the detail
they need without huge compromises
- Does it make my team mobile and flexible
- Do they work on my existing IT equipment or do Q4: I’m not the greatest when it comes to
I need to change or buy more computers. How will I cope with all these
- Do they give me the scalability to develop as my systems working around me?
business grows The simple answer is good training. Never
underestimate the rewards of investing in a solid
Q3: Should I go for online or offline software? grounding for all your staff. It yields a faster return
A: There are a number of different languages on investment and a happier workforce. And
and platforms used in software and web to make life easier, good systems should have
development, with each provider having their tutorial videos and in-built help topics available to
own preference. Online web-based software is guide you.


13


Section 8: FAQs (cont.)

The most common questions
asked by our customers
Q5: I’m concerned about the level of support BUT without taking steps forward such as these,
I’m going to receive from my providers. I’ve you will restrict the opportunity for growth in
got a business to run! your business and see your competitors go past
A: It’s so important to ensure your provider will you as the introduce modern, business-winning
give you the hand-holding support you need as systems that make their working lives so much
you skill up on your systems. You can’t be left easier. It is a leap of faith but one which pays
alone and have your provider move onto the next huge dividends if planned correctly.
customer once you’ve signed off your training.
Make enquiries regarding their telephone and
online support services. Ask if you have an
account manager allocated to you and whether
there are any Webinars or customer workshops
you can be involved in. Good providers will have
these in place so you are always being contacted
with useful, educational information.

Q6: Once I’ve had training, can I just switch
on and start using my new system?
A: On top of your initial training we strongly
recommend that you invest in phase 2 and
maybe even phase 3 workshop sessions so
that you are really getting the most from your
investment. In our experience, once customers
have their phase 2 training their skills advance
to a whole new level and are able to deploy new
efficiencies in their business which makes the
cost of training a no-brainer.

Q8: Significant change - isn’t this a bit risky?
A: Implementing change in a business must be
well planned and taken seriously. There will be an
impact on your staff in particular, with a minority
seeing it as negative, especially if they have been
working in the same role using the same system
day in, day out for a considerable length of time.


14


Section 9: Summary

Low costs, high margins
and a stress-free working life
Every business needs to find new ways to Then consider their financial impact on your
generate more sales and retain more profit. overall business profit:

Integrated software systems are proven to play a - Increased sales
massive role in making this happen. - Paperless office
- Time savings
Take a moment to evaluate just some of the - Lower costs
fundamental benefits of installing software, - Less wastage
mobile and web systems and how they empower - Higher margins
you to grow: - Streamlined service
- Accurate quotes
- Visibility - Easy decisions
- Organisation
- Speed With over 23 established years in the MIS, CRM
- Accuracy and business software industry Clarity Software
- Efficiency can help make these financial returns a reality.
- Communication
- Automation Call +44 (0) 121 248 2448 for an impartial chat
- Professionalism or visit www.clarity-software.com to find out more.


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