Is it Worthwhile to Set Up a Merchant Account?

People in online business want to be able to quickly process their online payments. They also want to appear professional and secure for their clients otherwise people won’t be confident enough to trust them. For this reason, it’s often wise to set up a merchant account quickly. There are a lot of reasons to get a merchant account including:

- You can increase your customer base by demonstrating professionalism with a professional looking online payment solution

- You’ll have the ability to accept major credit cards such as Visa, MasterCard, Amex and Discover payments on a secure connection right from your website. Your customers need to feel secure in buying from you!

- You could get the ability to rent a terminal for credit card payments that need to be processed manually. The terminals are often included with your monthly membership fee and this can save you a several hundred dollar expense. This can help you with online and offline business.

- Have your online payments transferred to you by wire securely, quickly and safely.

- Included software enabling you to set up price lists and shopping carts on your website

- Transaction reporting and statements making your bookkeeping management much more seamless

- Fraud screening protection. A lot of online retailers have been the victims of credit card chargeback fraud where someone buys something from a site and then claims fraud later so that you are automatically deducted money but still out of pocket for the product provided. A merchant account could help you avoid this problem with fraud screening services included in the cost of having the account.

- Low fees. Compared to some services such as PayPal, a merchant account has much lower fees that enable you to have greater profit margin. While some have monthly fees, the low transaction cost and value added services can make the fees negligible in contrast to PayPal.

- 24/7 support is included in some cases which can help you with payment gateway problems that could happen. An open source program won’t offer you any help so a merchant solution could be a better alternative, especially if you have (or want to expand to) a borderless business with many customers ordering in various time zones. If you’re looking at several options, you’ll want to take the amount of included support into serious consideration!

- Speaking of borderless businesses, a solid merchant service will give you the ability to accept payments in multiple currencies which can extend your ability to service more customers.

How do you set up a merchant account?

There are a lot of companies to choose from when you get ready to embark on finding a suitable merchant services company. Once you’ve done your due diligence and found someone suitable, you’ll likely have to provide completed paperwork and an application form. Many high end merchant accounts now work to approve applicants quickly.

The account approval process will likely include request for a financial statement, banking information, a signed merchant agreement and copies of your photo ID.

Merchant accounts can be set up and software can typically be easily integrated into your existing website.

Looking at merchant account options? It might be time for you to set up a merchant account for your online business. Visit TheWebReviewer for a vast amount of free information and online product reviews pertaining to online payments and making money online.

EFT For Business Growth

Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) has been referred to as a revolutionary method of psychological therapy that allows a person to take personal responsibility in improving his current life situation. It is said to give you the power to eliminate fear, trauma and stress and other negative emotions from your daily routine without resorting to surgery or other extensive medical procedures. Due in large part to the fact that it does not involve any surgical procedure, pill intake or needle-pricking –hence minimizing negative side effects — as well as to its one-size-fits-all appeal, EFT is now being promoted for use in all aspects of an average individual’s life.

Among the things we consider most important towards achieving personal satisfaction and fulfillment is professional development or success in business. And this part of our life has not escaped the notice of EFT enthusiasts around the world. They believe that the Emotional Freedom Techniques originally devised by Gary Craig can spell the big difference between being a business washout or an economic genius.

Taking into consideration the fact that Craig’s intention in developing EFT was to help people remove stress and cope with anxiety disorders, we have to concede that they could be right. For how can one be successful in business if he lives in a constant state of emotional stress? And how can one move forward in the business world if all his best intentions and ideas are overshadowed by an inherent fear of rejection and failure?

By employing the Emotional Freedom Techniques, we are able to slowly let go of all the negative feelings and memories that have burdened us all these years. In a way, we are making our personal “Declaration of Independence” — independence from stress, from fear, from envy, from anything and everything that hinders us from reaching our full potential as individuals. As a result of this independence, we become more positive in our outlook; thus allowing wealth, success and well-being to flow freely into our lives.

As you begin to make the technique a habit, you will notice its effects in subtle changes in your character. You begin to relax a bit while preparing for an important business presentation and become more confident in public speaking engagements. After a while, other people will see these changes as well and they will realize that you have become less irritable — generally, you shout less and smile more often. And because EFT does not only address money-making issues, but is primarily geared towards creating balance and total development in the individual, you get the bonus of feeling good and looking better than you have looked for years.

What’s best is that this method enables us to use our own healing energies in the privacy of our own home to relieve ourselves of psychological and emotional burdens. We do not have to go through the embarrassment of having to share our failures with others, as in an AA-type therapy session. Nor do we have to make a nuisance of ourselves by having to consult a professional every once in a while just to complain about imaginary aches and pains. EFT has, indeed, given us the chance to take matters into our own hands and take the necessary steps towards turning our business failures into shining success stories.

Want to Grow Your Business and Reach Your Core?Apply EFTto rejuvenate yourself and get relax from business-related tensions,activate new sensations,rebalancing physical and mental emotions,unlocking energies,just do visiteft dvd and get guidance from your eft practitioner

Customer Focus is a Strategic Choice

The road to Customer Focus Land is paved with great intentions. As the CMC/HRI Magnifying Customer Focus survey indicates, respondents know what needs to be done. They are fully aware of the need for executive sponsorship, ongoing contact with customers and fast complaint resolution. But somehow, due to lack of time, budget or resources, the required actions are not executed at all or are not executed to the extent that they should be. The importance of the customer and the need to become a customer-centric organization is not disputed. The serious challenge is in the execution.

The Missing Ingredient

Why is it that these seemingly self-evident actions do not reach full execution? Why is it that despite a clear awareness of what needs to be done, companies aren’t making it happen? Why is it that despite their constant rhetoric about the need to become customer focused, companies do not actually execute?

The problem lies in one critical step that most executives and organizations skip or are not even aware of. At the core of the failure to become customer centric is the lack of a strategic choice to become a customer-centric organization. Most organizations treat customer centricity as an incremental shift where they merely add icing to the current strategic cake. It is perceived as a matter of simply smiling nicely and adjusting the overall attitude of the employees. A few T-shirts and motivational posters will do the trick. In reality, most companies require a more fundamental effort to become truly customer centric. They need to make a strategic choice.

The essence of strategic choice is accepting the need to make trade-offs. By making a choice to turn right, you make a choice not to turn left. Without trade-offs, the decision is not strategic and therefore is unlikely to be fully implemented and deliver meaningful results. Most organizations were built on a model of product or service centricity. These products and services were at the core of their businesses, and their ecosystems focused on managing the products and selling the same product to as many customers as possible, regardless of how different those customers were. The product-centric model was run on an efficiency methodology where one size fits all. The different ways customers interacted with the products or services were of little concern to the organization. Its main objective was to maximize its own revenues.

A Different Approach

A customer-focused approach runs the opposite course. It is fully focused on the customers and is geared to maximize revenues from customers rather than products. A customer-focused strategy delivers different services to different customers based on how unique the customers are. While product-centric organizations focus on selling the same products to as many customers as possible, customer-centric organizations focus on selling more products to the same customers. At the core of the customer-centric strategy is not efficiency but growth. The difference between the two strategies is the originthe product versus the customer. Do we start with a product and find as many customers as we can for it? Or, do we start with the customers needs and find as many solutions as we can for that customer? This difference is not merely semantics. It is rooted in a different definition of value proposition, a different organizational structure, a different pricing model and different methods of connecting with the customers. Customer-centric companies do things completely differently and not marginally differently, as is the case with product-centric companies.

Take a Stand

The overall results indicated in the CMC/HRI survey illustrate a nonstrategic approach to customer focus. Although respondents know what needs to be done, the results indicate that many organizations have not taken the stand to choose the strategic approach and make the leap.

Lip-service advertising about loving the customers and excessive customer surveys without meaningful change as follow-up are the wrong ways to approach customer centricity. These might be easy to implement, but they are not going to make your organization customer-centric. Such hollow efforts raise customers expectations without delivering anything tangible in terms of an improved customer experience. The economics of customer relationships are quite potent and the financial justifications for making the leap to customer centricity quite powerful. To support making that leap, executives need to benchmark and assess the costs and financial benefits of becoming customer centric (as opposed to remaining product/service centric) and then prepare to make the strategic decision.

The road to customer focus is paved with great intentions. But only those who have made the strategic choice, fully recognizing and accepting the trade-offs, will be able to embrace the new strategic direction and maximize its financial potential.

Management Career Training Centre provides professional development, motivational seminar, management and sales training, leadership and executive training programs for HR professionals, supervisors and employers.

How to Select Answering Services For Your Business

Integrating an answering service to a company can be expensive and risky. Thus, companies prefer to outsource such works to organizations capable of performing the task and meeting the requirements. For company integrated centers, there are several things that need to be done and maintained for a competent and reliable center. Maintenance for software and hardware components, site maintenance and repairs, and man power to run the service are just few of the basic things needed for quality delivery of requirements. All these things when combined can spend the company more than outsourcing the job.

As a cost efficient alternative, if a company or private organization prefers to outsource answering services, then it is very important to consider the receiving organizations capability. When we mention “capability”, we are referring to the quality and guarantee an organization can offer. Any organization can claim to be the best in class, but many are using this sensitive phrase for advertisements and not for results they deliver.

Quality calls and responses are crucial for a business to succeed. This will judge how a company handles and values its customers. So when choosing an organization to handle these calls, quality should be the first in line. Prior to outsourcing the job, a company should check for the receiving company’s commitment to every call. Employees should be reliable and dedicated to offering quality calls and responses to the company’s client. These employees do not represent the receiving organization, but the company that outsourced the job.

Company background is also an essential element that must be considered when outsourcing such task. This may sound odd for newly established organizations willing to handle answering services or call center functionalities, but as a company with a reputation to protect and maintain, you cannot afford to give the job just to anyone as they claim to be capable of doing so.

Requirements should be met. This is another important factor to consider when choosing an answering service. The organization you choose should be able to meet the requirements of your companies. An answering service organization can handle calls for technical support, billing inquiry, product information, package tracking, and a lot more. These services differ from each other and may not be what your company needs. Even with this, the organization you outsource the job to should be able to meet what your company needs to deliver to your clients.

Agreeable “Terms and Conditions” is a must. Some organizations are willing to take the risk of paying its clients for quality services undelivered. This should be among the valuable details included with the terms of service an organization can provide. These companies are reliable and dedicated to providing you and your company’s clients with superior quality service. By failing to deliver the required service your company needs, the organization you choose could end there business.

If you are looking for an Answering Service then feel free to visit http://www.mapcommunications.com

If you are looking for an Answering Service then feel free to visit Answering Services.

7 Golden Rules For Recession Survival

During good times in ancient China, surplus food and wealth was stored in great strong houses to provide succour for future famines and droughts. Are you one of many business people left wondering what will happen next, now that the Celtic Tiger has passed on and the winter of recession and customers with tight wallets is upon us?

If you want to know 7 key business survival techniques, which should be applied to any business who wants to be around next year, then read the rest of this article now.

Read 7 Golden Rules for Recession Survival here.

Many business owners are now painfully aware that getting new clients and selling more to existing clients is far more challenging in today’s environment. Unfortunately anyone who tells you that they have a quick fix for your marketing worries is either a magician or a con-man!

Just because we have been working with businesses for years now, doesn’t mean that what always worked will work today. We have had to radically adapt the strategies that our best customers use, so that they can continue to get resounding, measurable results using field tested strategies and marketing plans.

So here are 7 Golden Rules, that if you start to apply now, could not only ensure your survival, they could actually signal some serious growth.

1. Assess Your Sales: If you have one or more sales people it makes sense to know what they are doing well, so that you can create repeatable success. Now is not the time to waste valuable sales time on things that are wasteful and don’t work. Take stock today, and either assess your sales department and processes or ask a trusted advisor like 3R to do it for you.

2. Assess Your Margins: Everyone should know their most profitable lines. But do you know which products consistently sell well, with great margins and to which type of customer they sell to? After Cash, Profit should drive your business forward. Remember it also drives your clients as well!

3. Assess Your Marketing: So where have you spent your marketing budget over the last 12-24 months? Do you know precisely what worked, and what return you got for every Euro spent by campaign? Now that times are tougher, rather than cutting out marketing, trim the fat from the marketing that doesn’t work and focus on what does. You first must take stock of where you are.

4. Monitor Your Cash-Flow: Most companies in today’s climate will leave their bills till the very last minute before paying them, if at all! So what policies do you have in place to ensure you have enough working capital? Today is the best time to take a long hard look at your cash position and forecast, because without adequate liquidity, you may fail to be around to take advantage of the huge opportunities that recessions offer to the well prepared.

5. Create a Strategic Plan: The rules of the game have changed, so have you prepared for how you will play the new game? The old saying “failing to plan is planning to fail” holds truer than ever in today’s turbulent economy. Once you have taken stock, through honest, and possibly external professional assistance, you need to craft a plan to steer you though the current storm.

6. Survey Your Clients: OK, so you have taken stock and assessed what you feel you need to do – now go check it out in the marketplace, with people who have trusted you in the past: your customers. As well as double checking you plan, if done the correct way, you will uncover cross-sell opportunities as well as obtaining testimonials and referrals.

7. Execute and Monitor your Plan: A vision, without corresponding action is a mirage! Now take action and measure everything you do, as you will make mistakes. These mistakes only become failures, however, if you fail to learn from them!

What we have touched upon here are some vital ingredients for continued survival. Each company is unique, as are your customers, and how you apply these, with or without professional help, will vary depending on your circumstances.

Banks will not tolerate late payments or missed repayments of loans and for companies that find themselves in cash-flow difficulty, the only solution, other than going under is to seek professional help that the bank will approve of.

If you are interested in how 3R can help you with your banks, and you feel that our proven track record of success with our clients will also serve you well, just fill out our Business Health Check form. A 30 minute call, will signal if we think we can help you not just survive, but perhaps grow as well.

This article was written by Peter Lawless of 3R sales and Marketing. The 7 Golden Rules are steps taken from the 3R? Success Framework, which have been used successfully with small and medium sized businesses for years, helping them survive and grow.

This article is one of many sales and marketing articles written by Peter Lawless of http://www.3r.ie - Marketing Consultant delivering Marketing Strategy & Online Marketing, Sales Trainer, and Public Speaker..

Recession Sparks Innovation and New Product Development

At a recent San Francisco conference, John Doerr, one of America’s most famous venture capitalist called the recession “the greatest economic opportunity of our lifetime.”

Drastic changes create great opportunities for those with vision and grit. Whether its developing a totally new industry, solving a problem that’s plagued mankind for centuries or decades, or developing a business model that blows your competitors right into the annals of history – this is the time of change that welcomes innovators and inventors.

This is the time when the status quo is challenged. Our transportation industry is undergoing massive challenges that threaten the very survival of household names. More efficient fuel burning systems are being developed at the same time that alternative energy vehicles – such as electric, natural gas and bio-fuels are being developed. This industry is ripe for the type of innovation and new product development that has led the world from one type of economy to another (agrarian based to industrial based to information based).

The energy industry is being turned upside down. We all remember the ultra-high gas costs of a few months ago. The crisis spurred a renewed interest in alternative energy including solar, wind and wave technologies.

Concerns about the environment are forcing several industries, including both the transportation and the energy industries, to name a few, to look at ways that they operate and provide goods and services to their customers. The “green” economy is more than just a buzzword. It will bring innovation and new product development to everything that we do – from the way that will construct new buildings and facilities to the way that we dispose of all of our waste. It will impact the entire supply chain.

There is no doubt that the changing economic landscape will force businesses to explore the full advantage of the technological tools that they have been playing with for years. Too many of our businesses – large and small – operate the same basic way that they did in the 1980s or earlier.

There are so many tools, such as Blackberry, online meetings, Google apps, etc… that allow a business to get more productivity out of its team members. These tools really shine when they allow the team members to work from remote locations. Technology allows teams to work on different continents and accomplish more than if they were in the same office.

Changing a business model to exploit these tools may be enough to move the income statement from red to black and the balance sheet from weak and full of debt to strong and relatively debt free. This may help your business thrive in a recession. The way the world works is definitely going to change as a result of this economic upheaval.

We live in a unique time of rapid societal change. We are entering an era where globalization is the norm and regionalization and localization are coming en vogue. We have new national leadership that signals a handing off of the baton of power from one generation to another. We have economic challenges the likes of which have not been seen since before the first baby boomer was born. This change has created a chaotic storm and innovation and new product development is the ship that will steer us to safety.

Art Espey helps entrepreneurs grow business in a recession. Art can be reached at www.4steps2.com.

Eleven Reasons An Employer MUST Have A Medical Policy

A clearly defined and properly implemented medical policy is part of a comprehensive program to monitor and control workers’ compensation claims and costs. Like all policies, the terms may need to be varied to comply with different state and federal laws. Make sure to have your corporate legal counsel review any policy before implementing it.

1. Pre-Employment Medical Exam. As a condition of employment, applicants may be required to pass a mental and physical examination. This exam may include drug and/or alcohol screening. It is administered by a physician designated by the company.

2. Transfer/Promotion Medical Exams. Employees may be required to have a physical examination on other occasions, such as a transfer or promotion, or whenever management determines the interests of the company or the employee is served by having an exam.

3. Confidentiality. Medical examinations paid for by the company are the property of the company and any record are available to the employee, the employee’s agent, public agencies and the employee’s doctor, only if required by law.

4. Confirmation of Injury/Illness. When an employee is absent due to illness or injury, the company may take whatever steps are reasonably necessary to confirm the nature and extent of such illness or injury. In the case of work-related illnesses or injuries, the company may investigate the circumstances and otherwise verify whether the illness or injury was work-related. Giving false information to obtain workers’ compensation results in dismissal.

5. Payment for Medical Examinations. When the company requires an employee to be examined by a physician, the examination is at the expense of the company and performed by a physician selected by the company.

6. Reporting On-The-Job Injuries. Employees who become ill on the job or suffer any work-related injury, no matter how minor, and any other employees who observes such illness or injury must immediately report the incident to the employee’s supervisor, who shall report it to the plant manager and the safety officer. Employees must notify their supervisor before leaving their workstation for medical reasons.

7. Transportation to a Medical Facility. The company arranges transportation of the injured employee to the company physician, if it appears necessary. In the event an employee is seriously injured, his/her immediate supervisor, the safety officer or any other member of management has the authority to have the injured employee transferred to an outside medical facility for treatment.

8. Employee Responsibilities. When a work-related injury takes place, the employee must:

• Complete the required workers’ compensation and department reports in a timely manner.

• Be available for medical appointments during normal working hours.

• Keep appointments with medical providers.

• Return to work as soon as he is certified to do so by the company physician.

9. Return To Work. An employee who fails to return to work at the end of an approved medical absence may be disciplined up to and including dismissal from employment.

10. Return-to-Work Certification. Employees returning from a medical absence leave may be required to provide certification from a physician designated by the company who will certify their ability to perform regular work safely and satisfactorily without endangering themselves or their fellow employees.

11. Transitional Duty (Modified Duty.) The company may offer employees injured at work job-modified duty on an interim basis. In the event the company elects to offer the employee modified duty and the company physician releases the employee to return to work in the modified position, the employee must report for work at the time specified. Any employee who refuses to return to modified duty is subject to discipline up to and including dismissal for violating company policy.

When rolling out a new workers’ comp cost containment program, have employees read and sign an Acknowledgement Form that they have read the policy. Keep the signed form in their personnel file. The policy should be given to all new hires also.

Robert Elliott,senior vice president,Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. for 20 years,works with clients reducing Workers? Compensation costs–airlines,healthcare,manufacturing, printing/publishing,pharmaceuticals,retail,hospitality & manufacturing. Robert_Elliot@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com or 860-553-6604.
For more information and tools, see: http://reduceyourworkerscomp.com/
There are many free forms and tools.

Explode Your Business by Promoting Yourself

The network marketing is very popular nowadays. Many people get into it hoping to make loads of cash just by using the Internet and possibilities it offers.

However not many of them realize that in order to make really decent income online some work will have to be involved.

This work involves many aspects that put together will guarantee successful home business.

When it comes to network marketing there is one common trend noticeable – too many marketers focus on promoting and pitching their products, their services or their business opportunities forgetting about one very important factor which is promoting themselves first in order to build their business.

Yes, promoting yourself is a way more important than promoting your product especially a the first stage.

Why?

It’s simple, the nature of marketing is that people rather join people not businesses.

If you establish your own authority and put yourself in front of people as an expert in your field, you will explode your business as people will be more likely to join your opportunity, because they will believe in value and knowledge you provide them with not being discouraged by your attempts to sell them yet another product or drag them into your business opportunity.

And here we come to important aspect of promoting yourself which is value you serve to people. They are looking for information, for the knowledge that will help them get started off a successful online business or continue to grow up the one they already have and this is a chance for you to take action and start building your authority by providing them with information and help they need. You need to know that to promote yourself to grow your business you need to educate yourself first to have what it takes to assist people. That’s why you learning curve never ends.

Another thing is that promoting yourself to build your business not always translates into immediate income. Sometimes it’s non profitable activity at the time but it will pay you huge dividends in the future.

What I mean here is that many times you would rather like to make money non stop instead creating some free content for the others. However this is the way the self-promotion should be done.

Now notice why the top network marketers and income earners are so successful. The answer is simple, because they are well known and they positioned themselves as the experts and authorities in their field. People join them because they feel safe under their wing and they know they can expect a great level of assistance, knowledge and help from them.

This is a simple psychological game. People don’t join business, people join people, they join successful people who completed successfully their self-promotion process.

That’s why promoting yourself should always be something you do along with promoting your products, or even should be done first.

People don’t like to be sold right away, they want to be sure that they deal with right person who has what it takes to help them.

Becoming a content provider, coming up with solutions for people’s problems, you promote yourself and position yourself as an expert, so that you can expect more people joining your business, buying your products or using your services due to high level of trust they put on you in thanks to the help and free assistance you’ve been providing them with.

Daniel Gebura is an experienced network marketer who helps ordinary people build a successful home business. Visit Daniel’s Internet Business Opportunities website for the best legitimate business opportunities and hundreds of free money making tips and tricks. Do you want to make money just by giving away a link to free education? Visit Success University.

5 Keys For Maximising Your ROI Through Optimal ERP Performance: Key 4 - Six Critical Failure Factors

Key No. 4 – ERP Implementations: Critical Failure Factors, Classic Mistakes And Best Practices

The complexity and wide encompassing nature of ERP means that there are inherent challenges in any ERP implementation. The issue is to ensure that these challenges enhance the project and final outcome rather than become problems or disasters that undermine the project’s viability.

According to Carol Ptak, failure is “an implementation that does not achieve a sufficient return on investment identified in the project approval phase. Using this definition, it has been found that failure rates are in the range of 60-90 per cent.”

This is a fairly uncompromising definition of failure. The industry and the media are rife with stories of more dramatic IT project failures, and sometimes even disasters, and these are occasionally even backed up with reliable information and data. The Standish Group’s oft-quoted and on-going CHAOS study suggests that two out of every three IT projects fail – ie succumb to total failure and cancellation, or suffer cost overruns, time overruns, or a rollout with fewer features or functions than promised. Sometimes these failures have disastrous consequences beyond time and budget, and can seriously impact on the continued existence of the organisation itself.

But every IT implementation need not end in disaster. In fact, by studying the nature of past failures and finding common elements, mistakes and problems can be avoided.

R. Ryan Nelson (MIS Quarterly Executive, June 2007) investigated a number of ‘infamous’ IT project failures that in some instances involved sums in the billions of dollars. A post-mortem of these projects revealed that “While some of the projects experienced contractor failure, others cite poor requirements determination, ineffective stakeholder management, [over-extended] research-oriented development, poor estimation, insufficient risk management and a host of other issues.”

And what is our reaction when something does go wrong? Nelson says that “We tend to make some mistakes more often than others. In some cases, these mistakes have a seductive appeal. Faced with a project that is behind schedule? Add more people! Want to speed up development? Cut testing! A new version of the operating system becomes available during the project? Time for an upgrade! Is one of your key contributors aggravating the rest of the team? Wait until the end of the project to fire him!”

Nelson cites an on-going study at the University of Virginia into the reasons for project failure. During 2006, the students in the Master of Science degree in the Management of IT program studied 99 projects to elicit any common lessons, regardless of whether or not the project was ultimately considered a success.

“The first major finding,” he reports, “was that the vast majority of the classic mistakes were categorised as either process mistakes (45 per cent) or people mistakes (43 per cent). The remaining 12 per cent were categorised as either product mistakes (8 per cent) or technology mistakes (4 per cent). None of the top 10 mistakes was a technology mistake, which confirms that technology is seldom the chief cause of project failure. Therefore, technical expertise will rarely be enough to bring a project in on-schedule, while meeting requirements. Instead, the finding suggests that project managers should be, first and foremost, experts in managing processes and people.”

He goes on to add that, while scope creep did not make the top 10 mistakes, “the fact that roughly one out of four projects experienced scope creep suggests that project managers should pay attention to it, along with its closely connected problems of requirements and developer ‘gold plating’”.

“Two other surprising findings were contractor failure, which was lower than expected at #13 but has been climbing in frequency in recent years., and adding people to a late project, which was #22, also lower than expected.

“The third interesting finding is that the top three mistakes occurred in approximately one-half of the projects examined. This finding clearly shows that if the project managers in the studied projects had focused their attention on better estimation and scheduling, stakeholder management and risk management, they could have significantly improved the success of the majority of the projects studied.”

Recognising problems and potential problems is one thing; doing something about them, preferably before they occur or incur great harm, is another.

Below is a summary of “six fatal mistakes” in ERP implementations, along with methods that can be employed to avoid or, at worst, rectify them.

The failures and methods to avoid them are:

1. Ineffective project leadership

There are many different aspects to this and they are by no means all controlled by the Project Sponsor and the Project Manager.

Leaders in all areas affected by the project need to have a clear understanding and commitment to the reasons for the project and its end goals. Without their support, the project team will often be side tracked on insignificant issues by end users with their own personal agenda. Commitment starts with the Project Charter which should clearly articulate key aspects of the project. Project Charter approval should not be taken lightly in an effort to achieve an early milestone. Many Project Managers have been frustrated by people who have signed off a Project Charter without fully understanding what they have committed to. This always manifests itself during the tough times when it is least helpful.

Leadership also embraces the management of risks both from a project perspective and the management of the on-going business during the implementation. The company cannot afford for either to fail, yet it is often key resources who are forced to make priority decisions instead of the company leaders who should understand the overall picture.

Modifications to the standard system are at the forefront of potential mistakes. The leadership has an important role to play. Any modification that is proposed should be endorsed by the business leader most affected by the modification. This endorsement should incorporate clear reasons why the standard solution cannot be used and what benefits will be achieved. Where possible the benefits should be built into operational budgets to ensure they are realised.

2. Lack of frequent and realistic milestones throughout the implementation project.

In developing your project plan, you should always have the ability, at any time, to answer three critical questions – where are we? are we there yet? and how do we confidently know we are there?

By setting frequent milestones at key points along the project timeframe, you will be able to quickly measure your progress and more importantly celebrate achievements with the team. Of course, this is also the time to make adjustments if, for whatever reason, the project is not going to plan.

The important thing is to ensure that any milestones set are simple and realistic.

3. Having no dedicated, high quality people in your implementation team and no compensation scheme in place for them.

The reality is that the people you really need in your implementation team are undoubtedly your best people, and it is almost guaranteed that they are also the busiest and least able to find additional time for the project in hand.

The best thing you can do is to offload some of their daily workload onto junior staff. And by giving junior staff the chance to prove themselves at a higher level, you also gain a wider spread of skills in the business and identify potential promotions at the same time.

The many different ways of rewarding project staff for their achievements range from revised job descriptions and salary scale to higher duty payments. The most effective, is a double bonus scheme, made up of a financial bonus against achieving major milestones and a public recognition or even celebration at each relevant stage. An extended leave at the end of the project may also be effective.

In the overall scope and cost of your project, the additional bonus and public recognition will pay dividends well past the life of the project. Bonuses should be significant enough so that recipients feel proud and respected rather than cheated.

4. Lack of adequate budget for training users on the new system.

Almost every organisation approaching systems implementation fails to budget sufficient dollars and time for training and the end result is that uptake on new systems, processes, policies is slow and the immediate effect is longer time to benefit.

It is normally true that whatever figure you have budgeted for training, you should double.

5. Making modifications to the standard system without carefully weighing benefits against risks.

There is a tendency in many organisations to quickly modify the system in areas where it does not match present business processes. The end result of this is a system where future upgrades become extremely difficult to apply and any help desk support is always compromised because of the need to know the modifications as well as the standard system before any help can be offered.

The approach is to apply three “whys”:

• Why are we considering this request for a modification and what is the proven measurable benefit?

• Why haven’t we looked at all the alternatives and their risk/benefit first before choosing to modify?

• Why don’t we see what other companies have done in this area? Unless we are the first, there must be lessons out there that we can learn from.

6. Failing to protect and insure the most critical parts of your business.

As an example of this is a managing director of a large pharmaceutical firm who wanted three guarantees before signing a contract for a new system:

• That his system would never, never put him in a position where he couldn’t take orders from customers,

• That his new system would never, never prevent him from dispatching customer orders from his warehouse, and

• That his new system would never, never put him in a position where he couldn’t accept his customers’ payments and put their money in his bank account.

The lesson of this is to take a hard look at your business and identify the critical areas that you need to have available 24/7 and then talk to your hardware and software vendors to make sure they can provide adequate backup/recovery options to keep you operational when the unexpected happens.

Even with so many catastrophic examples of companies going bankrupt due to failed software implementations, many companies still don’t pay enough attention to the risks involved. Adequate planning and preparation is essential to help you identify and manage potential risks.

Previewing is just as important than reviewing, certainly when it comes to avoiding potential disasters. By previewing your current business practices, goals, risks and articulating a solid implementation plan, you can go some way (at least) to making the life of your ERP project that much less risky.

References:

•Nelson, R. Ryan, “IT project management: Infamous failures, classic mistakes, and best practices”, MIS Quarterly Executive, June 2007

•Ptak, C., “ERP: Tools, techniques and applications for integrating the supply chain”, 2000, St Lucie Press (as cited in Wong et al)

•Wong, A., Scarbrough, H., Chau, P.Y.K., and Davidson, R., “Critical failure factors in ERP implementation”.

Peter Clarke, Chief Technology Officer IBS Asia Pacific has over 20 years experience in ERP Software, ERP Systems, Supply Chain Management Software and EAI.

5 Keys For Maximising Your ROI Through Optimal ERP Performance: Key 3 - Selecting Your ERP Solution

Key No. 3 - 7 essential criteria for selecting your ERP solution and technology partner

Once you’ve made your decision as to why you are considering an ERP implementation (covered in article #1 in this series) and investigated the total cost of ownership (article #2), there are several aspects you should consider in detail when selecting a specific system for your situation.

The seven most important of these are

• Functional compatibility with current and future business requirements

• Total cost of ownership

• Operational Metrics

• Flexibility

• Time and ease of implementation

• Vendor support and relationships

• Industry expertise and customer references

A survey by the Aberdeen Group (June 2007) found when it asked respondents what criteria were most important in selecting an ERP vendor, “remarkably little variation was visible across company size … functionality is the clear top priority for all companies, followed by total cost of ownership”.

1. Functional compatibility

The first question you need to ask is: what applications can accommodate your business needs?

As Christina Soh and Siew Kien Sia point out (MIS Quarterly, 2005), vendors create enterprise systems based around a number of common structures – “ES packages are not custom-built for each implementing organisation”.

“Vendors must make many assumptions about organisational requirements in such areas as organisational policies, structures, standard operating procedures, user knowledge, and interfaces. These assumptions manifest themselves in the processes and features in the ES package”, which the authors refer to as ‘package-embedded structures’.

“ES vendors claim that their package-embedded structures reflect best practice, However, many customers have found that these configuration options do not meet all their specific needs, and many question whether the ‘best practices’ truly do apply to all organisations.

“Developers’ context – that is, their reference organisations – may differ from potential implementers’ contexts, particularly those located in different countries or industries. Even within the same country and industry, contextual differences can exist.”

The system should be able to provide functionality for all of your current and future business processes. To ascertain that this is the case, you first need to define and prioritise your company’s processes, identifying the core business functions and developing a comprehensive requirements list based on input from all stakeholders.

This means that, as Soh et al recommend, “implementing organisations identify, as early as possible, misfits between the package and their organisation. They should create a basis for ascertaining when to align through organisational adaptation and when to align through package customisation.”

‘Misfits’, missing critical features or unsupported business processes, could be the elements that transform an otherwise great fit into a complete mismatch. Very often, these only surface upon implementation.

Buyers should be very wary of future promises from software vendors. If the system does not have the necessary functionality right now in the current release, then you should discount any claims of functionality being available in the future.

The Aberdeen survey warns that, while functionality may be the top selection criterion, “ERP is often considered a commodity today. Don’t assume the functionality you need is available. Take a ‘show me’ attitude in demonstration.”

One who has documented this ‘road test’ guide to assess the suitability of a specific solution is Esref Akpinar (2005), who describes a software selection process for a liner shipping company using fuzzy logic decision making. This entailed five scripted scenarios to understand how software packages would handle specific key operational situations. A demonstration evaluation document was prepared, with every question in the document given a weighting according to their importance. An evaluation table was prepared of the results of the demonstrations which clearly indicated which product best fitted the company’s operations and requirements.

2. Total cost of ownership

Prospective buyers should ensure they fully understand the true cost of ownership beyond the initial software licence fees and hardware cost. These may include costs such as those for integration, interfaces, systems communications , extra staff required, upgrades and helpline support. This topic is so important that it has been covered in great detail by the second article in this series, “Managing The Total Cost Of Ownership – What You Need To Know”.

3. Operational Metrics

It is imperative to ensure that not only the costs, but also the benefits of an ERP system are controlled and measured during the implementation project. The benefits generally come in the form of cost savings and operational improvements (e.g. lead time reduction). Cost savings should be built into budgets and operation measures progressively tracked.

Legacy systems often do not support the operational metrics and these have to be assessed manually. A key selection criterion for the new system is thus also the ability to support these operational metrics.

4. Flexibility

Can the application be modified and scaled according to the changing needs of a dynamic and growing business?

Look for an ERP solution that will accommodate new operating protocols, future business growth, market expansion and any other initiatives that might arise.

Things to consider when evaluating flexibility:

• System parameters and default settings;

• Customer screen and menu options;

• Tools for modifying standard forms;

• Data access options and custom reporting; and modular format.

5. Time and ease of implementation

Key questions you should ask regarding the implementation process itself include:

• How long will it take to implement the ERP system?

• Will it cause any major disruptions to your normal business operations?

• Is there an implementation control process (ICP) in place to manage this?

• What sort of business process re-engineering will be required in order to implement the system?

• How long will it take to train staff to use the system?

6. Vendor support and relationships

Your software vendor decision is one that, hopefully, continues well beyond the normal, five-year decision cycle. To that end, three questions are important:

• Does the vendor have a sustainable presence backed up by experience in your industry and a proven track record on installations to similar sized organisations as your own?

• Will you and your management team have a comfortable working relationship that extends to their knowing you and your business intimately? Do they show a sense of responsibility and accountability for making your system choice a success?

• Do you have ‘one throat to choke’? In the event that issues need to be resolved, do you have a direct executive contact who is accountable for making sure your customer service experience is consistently at the highest level?

• How many total vendors will you deal with on your ERP package? Sustaining multiple vendors is cumbersome.

7.I ndustry expertise and customer references

Key questions that will determine the reliability of the vendor include:

• Does the vendor have a proven track record in your specific industry?

• Can the vendor point to a number of companies in your industry who are already using the software and who will confirm that they made a sound decision.

One issue that cuts across many of these selection criteria is the issue of customisation of the software, so it is worth briefly flagging the topic in this context. As Aberdeen Group points out (July 2007), only 11 per cent of respondents to one of its surveys got away with zero customisation.

According to Soh et al, the simplest form of implementation – so-called ‘vanilla’ implementation – requires the organisation to bend to accommodate the software package. “[Vanilla] promotes organisational adaptation, either by conscious redesign and substantial change management, or by piecemeal, evolutionary workarounds, such as individuals and groups adapting. Their adapted practices lead to new organisational structures. Package [software] modification can range from customising the package code to interfacing with custom-developed modules or modules from other vendors.

“Users tend to push for package modification to minimise the amount of change they will have to make. Consultants and project managers tend to advocate organisational adaptation, to simplify package implementation and avoid the tangible costs (time, resources and risks) of package modification.”

The playoff between these two apparently conflicting viewpoints can be a key ingredient to the success of the ERP project, particularly the total cost of ownership, and should therefore be a prime consideration among your selection criteria.

References:

•Akpinar, E., “Software selection for a liner shipping company using fuzzy logic decision making”, paper submitted to the Institute for Graduate Studies in Science & Engineering, Systems and Control Engineering, Bogazici University, 2005

•IBS, “6 Essential considerations when selecting an ERP system”, IBS Australia, February 2008

•Jutras, C., and Dalle Tezze, H., “When relacing ERP – Size matters”, Aberdeen Group, June 2007

•Jutras, C., Trost, J., and Dalle Tezze, H., “Taking the ERP plunge for the first time”, July 2007

•Soh, C., and Siew Kien Sia, “The challenges of implementing ‘vanilla’ versions of enterprise software”, MIS Quarterly Executive, September 2005

Peter Clarke, Chief Technology Officer IBS Asia Pacific has over 20 years experience in ERP Software, ERP Systems, Supply Chain Management Software and EAI. http://www.supplychainsecrets.com.au

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