Consider the following scenarios:
Your largest supplier changed ordering details on its product line and snail-mailed you the new information. You have to place your customer’s order via electronic data interchange (EDI), but don’t have the current data loaded in your EDI system. Of course, the account needs the order ASAP!
It’s 9:15a.m. You have a 9:30 a.m. appointment and are scrambling to try and find the information you need for the new product line. The file is empty; someone threw the needed literature away!
You won the bid! Congratulations are in order—until you find out your bid was based on outdated pricing information—and your customer is holding your feet to the fire to deliver what you quoted!
Scenarios like these are common in our industry today. Each one is an expensive situation that costs you a sale, cuts your margin, or causes your customer to call a competitor. Ouch.
Let’s face it. The jansan industry still operates in a paper/print-based business environment. Consider, for example, if all 6,600 ISSA members spend US$5,000 annually on printing and mailing sell sheets, comparison guides, catalogs, spec sheets, and brochures that is $33 million in expense! While some of the material is certainly used properly, much is wasted or trashed during the process of being snail-mailed to distributors and customers, carried around in car files, thrown away at trade shows, abandoned on customers’ desks….. Eventually virtually all of them wind up in the trash. The U.S. Air Force is complying with Presidential Executive Order 13589 by “moving from an analog world to a digital world using digital document sharing and collaboration.” Maybe there should also be a Profitability Executive Order issued by the CEOs of jansan businesses to go digital by using cloud document sharing to increase productivity, communicate more effectively, and cut down on print/mail/distribution expenses.
In 1898, Edwin Seibels invented the file cabinet, and I think it has had a pretty good run. But it’s the 21st century. People want information now— faster than you can hand-deliver a brochure. Besides, do customers really need a six-color, glossy brochure printed on coated stock that costs $1.40 to produce and another $1.00 to mail? Again, sometimes that is appropriate. But what if there was an alternative that was more expedient and more effective with zero waste and instant communication.
Consider: Specs change Monday at 8:00 a.m., and they’re available to your entire customer base at 8:01 a.m. Full color PDFs, Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, and PowerPoint presentations are accessible on demand 24/7 via any Internet-capable device.
This is not Buck Rogers maybe-in-the-future stuff. It’s here and now. We are all carrying the most powerful communication devices on the planet. They are called smartphones and tablets. They are revolutionizing business. So why haven’t they revolutionized yours?
What’s holding you up might be the fact that your IT department is “still not ready” to roll out smart-device implementation. The vast majority of computer systems that run businesses today are mini-computers from the 1990s and early 2000s. The software most likely does not support smart devices, because they did not exist when the code was written. And newer systems and software are costly.
Cloudy Skies
We are in the midst of a mobile tech revolution. The big software players, such as Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and SAP, try to tie mobile technologies to their operating system so they can keep you hostage to what they choose to offer at their price. This limits your ability to incorporate and take advantage of newly evolving technology with your old computer. Unless you pay to play, you end up with a smartphone that is not so smart. Sigh. So much capability, but alas! Your device handles only phone calls, email, contacts, and calendars.
If this is you, it is time to make a change! It is time to move forward and embrace new technology independent of your current system. Do what many savvy business owners have already done; sign up for a cloud file storage service, such as Box, DropBox, and Google Cloud to digitally collaborate your documents, marketing, and sales information with your sellers and customers. Consider cloud-based accounting systems, such as QuickBooks Online and FreshBooks. They are inexpensive and robust. Cloud-based Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, like Salesforce and SugarCRM, can manage your sales processes. Jobber is an excellent app for quoting and managing your crew in the field. All of these systems offer full integration with smart devices.
You should know that sometime in 2014 or early 2015 it is estimated that more web pages will open by mobile devices than by desktop machines. Your company needs to get on board this mobile express—or you will be left behind.
Choosing Your Cloud
If mobility sounds too tough, it isn’t. But at the very least consider implementing the basics—cloud digital document collaboration, a fancy term for sharing information stored on a remote server using a desktop computer, laptop, smartphone, tablet, Nook, or Kindle. That sell sheet will not be stored on your device. It’s on “the cloud.” Sound scary? Well it should not be. The cloud simply refers to storing information anywhere other than on your computer. Cloud files are located on servers, which also host web sites. In fact, it might well be the same server that hosts your company’s website! The information is quite safe as long as you pick the right cloud partner. So do your research. Some cloud providers are more geared to consumers than business, and the security they offer reflects that.
Imagine just how effective your bid preparers can be standing in front of customers with devices that contain the answers to any question they might ask. Imagine your customer service reps having everything they need at their fingertips while on the phone with customers. Visualize buyers having on-demand access to their own customized price lists and quotes, including up-to-the-minute information. Contemplate the streamlined process of updating internal company information once and sharing it company, including globally wide. Envision every file attachment you normally send via email being more effectively stored, viewed, utilized, and retrieved from a cloud storage account. It is not a dream; it is the reality of the cloud.
Whether you are a manufacturer, distributor, manufacturer representative, building service contractor, or in-house service provider, the cloud can make your business more productive and profitable. Just pick the right set of cloud services and the right person to spearhead the project.
