Hello Again Sage 500 Customers,
I was reminded this week how important it is to be able to feel that one has a measure of control in life
and in business. One of the worst feelings for anyone, and for a business owner in particular, is the feeling of being out of control. Perhaps you’ve experienced that feeling; the sense that someone somewhere is pulling strings that impact your ability to be successful – and you have lost control. Many times there are in fact powers beyond our control: regulatory changes, economic challenges, or acts of nature to name a few.
On the bright side, as Sir Francis Bacon reminded us, “Knowledge is Power” and with power comes the ability to control. With the right knowledge at the right time you can alter the course of your business and take back control. The important point here is to know what information you need, when you need to have access to that information, and how to get it.
The Information You Need
Chances are the information you need is already available in one or more data repositories in your business today. If you use Sage 500 ERP to manage your business, there is wealth of information in those data tables. Data is stored there about your customers, their buying habits, preferences, and payment patterns. Data is also there about your vendors or suppliers, their delivery performance, the quality of their goods, and the costs associated with their goods. If you are a manufacturer, there is data about the efficiency of your production line, the quality of the goods you produce, and the costs associated with production compared to the prices you charge for those goods.
An analysis of the data in your ERP for customer intelligence and buying habits could lead to an increase in sales. You want to reduce costs and improve margins? Start with the information you already have about what you spend today.
Access to the Right Data
Once you’ve identified the areas where you want to have more control, you can then use the reports and analytics in those
areas to “mine” that data. Traditionally, reports and analytics give us a historical picture of what has already happened. By mining this data we can begin to see patterns and trends that previously led to upturns or downturns in the state of the business.
- Are there a few key customers who can significantly impact your bottom line based on their buying habits? Are there others that you consistently lose money on?
- Are there products you carry that are consistent money makers for you? Are there others that you inevitably end up selling at a loss?
- Is there a group of vendors whose deliveries are always on time and high quality? Is there another group whose merchandise is perhaps low cost but after delivery delays and returns due to quality end up costing you money?
Good. Now you know what to watch for. But this is still just historic data.
The Move from Reactive to Pro-active
Today that just isn’t good enough. In order to take control of your business, you need actionable information. You need to know about potential concerns before they become concerns … in time to do something to head them off and prevent the problem. A crystal ball would be helpful, but since that is not practical for most of us mortals we need to find another way to predict the future. Sage 500 ERP includes a number of tools such as Business Insights Explorer (now with WYSIWYG export capability[1]), Business Insights Analyzer, and Sage Intelligence Reporting to help you identify the trends and conditions that signal a potential concern … then build the tools needed to focus on those triggers.
Dashboards, Alerts and Workflows
Yes, you can build the tools needed to focus on the triggers you’ve identified. Really, you can. The hard part was identifying the triggers. Now that you know what you’re looking for, you can use the export function in Business Insights Explorer to export to HTML and a web service to put a filtered list of accounts or vendors or items that need attention on a dashboard that gets sent to the appropriate people every morning. Or, you can use the Business Insights Dashboard to do the same thing.
If a dashboard seems too daunting, how about creating an alert? It’s as simple as defining the conditions and identifying 
the people who should receive the e-mail. And it’s just a task on a menu in Sage 500 ERP. There is also a third-party tool that does more complex alerts and can generate more involved steps based on the identified condition, called Sage Alerts and Workflows[2]
Alerts or Alerts and Workflows provide the ability to pro-actively address critical conditions before they get “out of control”.
As you can see, it is possible to take back control of your business leveraging the power of Sage 500 ERP, your data, and the tools at hand. Once you have control, you can drive to success despite those external factors and overcome that helpless feeling. Knowledge is Power … and it’s at your fingertips in Sage 500 ERP.
Sage500Users 