We hear a lot about the need for making dynamic and quick business decisions to keep ahead of the curve. However, what we must first consider is if our business decisions are based on accurate data collated by our enterprise. Next we need to determine what the optimum outcome(s) we are trying to achieve based on the collected data. In this post, we walk you through some of the areas to think about when making a decision about decision-making in your business!

Start at the end…

Or, at least with the end in mind. Think about the state of your business today and where you want it to improve in the next 6 months, 1 year, 5 years.

• Which business areas will you expand or decrease?
• Will you offer a greater or a smaller range of products/services?
• What are your plans for growth and profitability?
• How many employees, offices, warehouses will you need to achieve this?

Then, find the missing piece(s)…

Identify what’s holding your organisation back from achieving these goals.

• Does your organisation need to merge with or acquire another company?

• Does your company need to invest a lot of money to achieve higher profitability? Are you in a financial position to do this yet? When will you be?

• Do all of your stakeholders share the same vision and goal? Are they even aware of your plans? Do you have an effective communications plan to deliver key information?

• Do you have the right systems, processes and people in place to make this vision a reality?

• Are you able to see the current state of your business at all levels and trust the data to be accurate?

• Can you set automated and ad hoc report requests and see the results instantly?

Take the first step…

Your Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system will guide you through not only the first step, but every stage of your decision making process. Here are some of the ways your ERP can help drive dynamic decision-making within your organisation;

Finances

You and assigned employees can easily access up-to-the-moment accurate cash flow reports, credit status, vendor payment details and outstanding invoice information.

Decision making power:

• Extend/retract credit terms instantly to manage vendor/customer relationships
• Purchase reduced price inventory from suppliers without waiting for layers of approval
• Prevent further consignments to non-paying customers
• Extract visual insights in seconds to present to board members on latest merger

Supply chain management

Without inventory or stocks, your customer is left out in the cold, and very unhappy. Predict their purchasing patterns and ensure your stock levels never see them heading for your competitor’s fully stocked warehouse again.

Decision making power:

• Sync multiple warehouse data to redistribute stock before supplies reach critical levels
• Set automatic reordering limits on high demand stock or during seasonal peaks
• Link marketing and social media analysis of customer buying trends to stock ordering activity
• Connect the warehouse with sales reps to complete fulfillment on day of ordering

Sales and Marketing

The forefront of your business, the sales reps on the road rely on their reputation to keep promises and grow the business. That reputation is only as good as the orders they can fulfill. The sales team needs to know that while they are out trying to extend profits, the data and technology needed is available to them.

Decision making power:

• Accurate insights into customer behaviour, business requirements and their own growth plan will empower your sales team to build rapport with new and existing customers
• Prices can be negotiated with customers on the go with pre-defined limits, avoiding the need for multiple levels of lengthy approval
• Technology to enable the sales team to answer product queries, obtain accurate stock levels and make informed promises on fulfillment and deliveries

The insights available from modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems combine all of your business functions onto one platform and then provide you with trustworthy data and information to make all the big (and small) decisions.

Consider the questions below and if you don’t already know the accurate answer for your company (or be able to easily access it), it’s probably about time you spoke to a business advisor about revving up your organisation’s decision making capabilities!

• What is the current total amount of outstanding vendor invoices owed by your organisation?
• Who is your best customer based on money spent in the past 12 months?
• How much does it take to hire and train a junior, an executive and a C-level employee in your organisation?
• How much does your head office spend on entertainment annually?

Good quality decision making is essential for business success for enterprises of all sizes. Decision making based on high quality data from an ERP system that offers 'one version of the truth', assists decision making at all levels of your business. Good quality decisions usually leads to great business outcomes. Poor quality decisions based on poor quality data and hunches may lead to the demise of your business. Strive to get the right strategy, tactics and tools to support your decision making processes .

Image Credit: Photo by Brendan Church on Unsplash

A version of this post has been published in my blog