WBSRocks: Scaling Growth with AI, Enterprise Software, and Digital Transformation

Send us Fan Mail Each industry has its own nuances. The chemicals industry is particularly very challenging because of its supply chain issues. The black swan events, such as winter storms or macroeconomic changes, can shake any model, regardless of how sophisticated it might be. But the more information you have about your operations, regardless of whether internal or external supply chain, the m...

Send us Fan Mail The innovation projects could be perceived as risky. It might also be harder for operational and financial executives to assess the ROI of such initiatives. But done right, companies can not only improve the customer experience while converting them into digitally native culture, they could also increase the enterprise value of such companies by 2x. In today's episode, our gu...

Send us Fan Mail The inventory manager's role is very interesting. Sometimes it might be clubbed with an operations manager. Other times it might be the responsibility of an S&OP or materials manager. But without a solid inventory manager, your customer experience is likely to be fragmented. Or they would be overstocking to eat up all your margins and cash. So what are the KPIs relevant f...

Send us Fan Mail Once positioned to reduce the overall software spend, SaaS has become one of the highest spend categories for companies. A company could use as many as 1600 apps across the software categories. The spend might even be more for software companies that are buying someone else’s software to manage their own infrastructure. Industrial companies might struggle to understand why buildin...

Send us Fan Mail Most companies may not have a dedicated role for a production manager, and sometimes that might be shared with the business or operations manager. The role might also differ in various industries, where most manufacturing companies are likely to have a dedicated production manager role. The production manager might also overlap with quality managers, with their primary responsibil...

Send us Fan Mail Planning and forecasting software is not meant to be an ERP. Also, the software designed for the internal supply chain might not be the best fit for tracking the external supply chain. The scope of planning and forecasting and ERP might differ in various industries. Retail is especially a unique beast. Due to the transaction volume, the OMS, WMS, TMS, and S&OP layer does the m...

Send us Fan Mail Some entrepreneurs might not choose to hire help just because they might make less. Also, their ego might prevent building a business with the exit strategy in mind. But the others already have their game figured out. They know when to delegate and how to decouple the business from them to ensure that the business is completely decoupled from the founders. In today's episode,...

Send us Fan Mail The KPIs for operations managers would differ based on their responsibilities, the size of the org, and the industry. The role of ops management could be as diverse as managing tactical roles such as logistics to strategic roles such as procurement. Weak operations management leads to weak sales and operations planning, which might, in turn, lead to operational disruptions and inf...

Send us Fan Mail While most people might want to put ERP into generic categories such as make-to-order vs. make-to-stock, you need a much deeper analysis to identify the right software packages. Even inside the engineer and make-to-order verticals, there could be nuances such as program management and contract compliance for the automotive verticals. Also, the companies that own the software might...

Send us Fan Mail There will always be confusion about the role of MES vs. ERP because of so many different feature sets that are common in both systems. The role of MES is limited to the shop floor, while the ERP is responsible for the enterprise workflows. Also, the MES systems come in many different shapes and sizes, some with very deep capabilities for a specific industry, while others may be t...

Send us Fan Mail Most people understand why unit economics is critical as that drives profit margins. They might use different names for it. Some might call it cost accounting. Depending on the industry, different terms may be used. But the intent is very similar. To understand the cost to produce a product. Cost accounting is also a unique profession, as it sits at the intersection of finance and...

Send us Fan Mail The add-ons come in various shapes and sizes. Some of them were so well done (and tightly embedded with some of the most popular packages) that they became gold standards. The process industry is particularly unique, with each micro-vertical having its nuanced needs. And there aren't a ton of solutions out there that are particularly suited for the process industries, especia...

Send us Fan Mail B2B companies have very different needs for eCommerce than B2C. In some B2B verticals that might be slightly service-oriented, even the product model might not be defined. But to be successful with B2B eCommerce initiatives, having a refined product model is essential. By the way, that’s not the only challenge. The bigger challenge would be the integration of eCommerce with ERP. A...

Send us Fan Mail There will always be a divide in opinions about who should lead the design of business software. ERP platforms designed by CPAs argue that CPAs design the best software. The manufacturing packages designed by shop floor owners tend to argue that they design the best manufacturing packages. The firms started by software engineers and architects might be perceived as disconnected fr...

Send us Fan Mail How different could electrical and HVAC industries be? Shouldn’t their processes be as simple as distribution and field services? What is so complex about their eCommerce processes? Well, electrical and HVAC industries are unique as their products need to be aligned with the trade associations. If they don’t follow the same coding standards, there might be issues in integrating wi...

Send us Fan Mail The debate between what's an add-on vs. what's an ERP is not new. The add-ons will never have the traceability requirements that regulated industries such as Med Device and Pharma require. But unfortunately, due to the limited technical background of auditors, they can't distinguish whether a record is traceable inside the system. Or would it require manual steps to...

Send us Fan Mail While ERP systems have done a wonderful job in providing the traceability of transactions in the four walls of the factory, the traceability across the industry is limited. The limitation exists because of so many factors, such as technology limitations, disparate datasets, political control, and data-sharing agreements. Technical concepts such as digital material and blockchain t...

Send us Fan Mail If there are any departments that have seen the majority of automation, they are AR and AP. Most companies, even QuickBooks, would use some form of automation to manage their AR and AP. The automation could be auto-parsing and capturing the PDF documents to manage their entire workflow. The experience around AR and AP processes has changed as well because now, even the customers e...

Send us Fan Mail Buying software is hard, especially business software. There might be companies that might appear to be rated relatively well by the affiliate sites. But when you look under the hood, they might be completely different. Affiliate sites are not necessarily looking at the demo of the product or are experts at reviewing the ERPs. Software companies are also really smart at not postin...

Send us Fan Mail AI is changing the world. You have an infusion of AI at every step in the process, whether you talk about the first mile or the last mile. Whether you talk about AI being used to intelligently and automatically capture paper-based invoices or to enrich, augment, and predict incomplete data. But you can’t get results from AI if you have data silos. In fact, AI initiatives might fir...

Send us Fan Mail The hate of ERP systems is not new. Every time a new kid in the town challenges how they are making the ERP systems easier. There are some companies that have approached this in the right fashion, such as Odoo or Acumatica, by understanding how ERP systems work and why they need to have layered complexity. The others have simply eliminated the necessary details for them to have a...

Send us Fan Mail Which spend categories should procurement control would always be debatable. Most companies may have a budget threshold where they might dictate the involvement of procurement. But this approach might not be suitable for every category. Some categories may be so strategic, even if the budget threshold may not be as high, that the business might want to take over because of the cro...

Send us Fan Mail While there are several process manufacturing solutions out there, they all differ in their capabilities. Some are designed for growers and processors, while others are friendlier for distributors and DTC companies. The process manufacturing verticals have unique nuances, such as the hierarchy of serial and lot numbers. The serial numbers need to be managed at the UoM, case, and l...

Send us Fan Mail The needs of the services industry might differ substantially, especially when you think of subscription, revenue recognition, and ASC 606 compliance capabilities. The ERP systems designed for the service industry might be very deep with grant and fund accounting, having payment terms and multi-element allocation at the line item level on the contract, and HIPAA compliance capabil...

Send us Fan Mail Is the controller a lead accountant? Are they responsible for preparing financial reporting for a business unit? Are they responsible for planning, budgeting, and spending? Do they work with the CFOs to manage both strategic and tactical activities? Are they also responsible for IT projects such as ERP implementation? Are they also responsible for FP&A? Is there a difference b...