Three financial statements explained to the non-financial savvy

It has been said before that financials and financial reporting are the pillars of a business. We all know that financial management is a crucial part of any business, not only for it to succeed, but also to show growth and profit. When we start throwing around terms such as balance statements, income statements and cash flow statements most of us, including me break out in a cold sweat. But what does this all mean and why should I [non-financial people] know what this means?

As within any business process, reports are implemented to give the business leader insight into that particular process. Project leaders rely on reports to provide clarity on all projects they are working on. It helps the project leaders in working out time frames, keeping an eye on technicians and to ensure that deadlines and SLA’s are met.

Delivery or fleet services rely on reports to streamline delivery routes, delivery times and to manage drivers. HR professionals also use various reports to assist them in the management of a company’s employees. Staff progress, disciplinary protocol and leave day management ensure that HR keeps a company’s workforce happy.

It is safe to say that financial reporting is equally important in any business environment. Clear and concise reporting on a company’s financial well-being allows for decision makers to make well thought out decisions for the company’s future. Financial reporting aids in successful budgeting and forecasting. Valuable information equals Valuable decision making.

Financial reporting pinpoints certain relationships between financial areas within a company.   A Balance sheet indicates the financial situation of a business. Plainly put, it indicates the relation between what a company owns and what it owes. Balance sheets gauge the interactions between assets, liabilities and equity.

At some point business owners have to ask how well their business is doing. Is it showing a healthy profit or are they losing money? Income statements report on a business’ profits against its expenditures. Often you will hear people talk about cash flow issues. Cash flow statements report on where a business gets its money against where it is spending that money.  

Knowing what balance sheets, income statements and cash flow statements mean won’t qualify you as a CFO, but it will help you in knowing what goes on in the mind of finance professionals. To know a little about something empowers you to explore more and broaden your horizons.  

 

How to create the nearly perfect Marketing and Sales unison Part 2

Previously we ended our article on HOW to successfully marry your sales and marketing departments. To recap, we have established that for these two departments to successfully work in unison, they have to realise the different aspects of each department.

The three key areas where the most progress can be made: defining of goals, communication and the involvement in the departments respectively.

So where do we go from here?

As each department have their own goals and strategies to ensure the growth of their company, their goals are very different. The sales department are concentrated on bringing in as many new sales orders as they can. More often than not the sales guys are ruthless in their sales strategies. At the end of the day all is fair in love and war. The marketing people on the other hand normally take a milder approach in their goal game plan. Be that as it may their main focus is to get as many new leads as possible. Their tireless efforts know no bounds and many hours are spent researching new marketing trends.

A great way to over-come this hurdle is to a have notice boards in all the common areas of the office where marketing and sales can write their goals on. Comparing goals will also give insight into their respective departments. This will also help them understand just how different they are, but yet so important.

Communication is important, but not always feasible seeing that the sales guys are mostly out of the office seeing clients. This is where the right CRM solution might make a difference. Marketing creates the leads that they post a CRM solution where the sales guys can easily access this information. The sales guys in turn will give feedback within this solution on which deals were won or not. This means back to the drawing board for the marketing department to work on drip campaigns for the deals that the company has lost. Opportunities that are created in a CRM solution by marketing will automatically alert the sales department so that immediate action can be taken. Sales appointments can be done immediately that will assist the marketing department to monitor proposals that are sent to the clients. Feedback can be created in the system as well, helping the marketing department with their campaigns.

While communication will always be a challenge, automated communication will not, CRM functionalities allows for sales and marketing to communicate anywhere, anytime.

While the two departments are busy doing their own thing is it important for these two departments to know the ins and outs of both departments. If the two departments are more involved in each other’s work, they will understand what it takes to keep that department afloat. The company’s ROI will be a group effort in a sense.  

Sales and marketing should be encouraged to sit in on each other’s meetings, to share their views and to possibly help working on new strategies and game plans. Sales and marketing might even be as daring as to share responsibilities within the two departments.

As mentioned earlier, no two businesses are the same. Each business has specialised game plans and strategies tailor made to their specific needs. Individuality is great it should be encouraged, especially within different departments of a company. The secret to harmonious cooperation within your sales and marketing departments is to realise the different ways these two departments do business. While realising these differences you need to encourage open and free communication within these departments. Open communication breaks down barriers and encourages the need to explore different opportunities.

The marrying of your sales and marketing departments will and should be an on-going effort, just like a real marriage. It is about give and take, tolerance and team work.

Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd, part of the green revolution in partnership with Sage ERP Africa.

Receiving recognition for a job well done is the driving force behind companies and employees striving for excellence.

Misty Hills in Muldersdrift was the venue for the Sage Insights 2013 hosted by Sage ERP Africa. Throw into the mix the theme Green Revolution and you are sure to have an event that will go down in the history of corporate events.

The Sage CRM, Sage 300 ERP and Sage ERP X3 roadmaps were revealed as well as a magnitude of revised add-on products within the Sage product portfolio. The way forward for Sage ERP Africa was the highlight of the event. Sage Insights 2013 hosted to delegates from around the globe, with delegates from France, Australia, England, Ireland, Africa and of course South Africa sharing their insights and expertise.  

“As the Marketing Manager for Synergy Group, I have a renewed passion for the Sage product line. What inspires me is their vision and continuous effort to always keep the users’ needs a top priority. It is an absolute privilege to be associated with Sage.” Said Elsjene’ Burger, Marketing Manager for Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd who attended the Sage Insights 2013.

Saturday night was the gala event to rival even the red carpets of Hollywood. Ursula Chikane was the MC for the evening and kept all the guests entertained. The Corporate dancers enthralled the guests with their superb dancing skills that kept them on the edge of their seats while the Beatboxer, Jed left them all speechless.

The awards ceremony to honour and thank all of Sage ERP Africa’s business partners was led by Sage ERP Africa’s Managing Director, Jeremy Waterman. It truly was an exceptional evening for all at Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd as the company walked away with 3 prestigious awards.

Awards won by Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd:

1.       Recognition as one of only five premier business partners for Sage ERP Africa.

2.       Best achiever Sage ERP X3 2012. (This accolade is shared with Datacentrix.)

3.       IDU Sage ERP partner 2013.

 

 

Jonathan Smart, Sales Director at Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd comments: “Recognition is always good and even more so in a year where business has been tough and the competition vigorous – an absolute team effort and a testament to our passion and commitment.  Thank you to each and every team member for doing their part in making Synergy one of the top Sage Business Partners in Africa. Thanks also to Sage for providing a product range that we can have faith in, we are proud to be associated with Sage [the third biggest ERP software house in the world*]. We move into 2013 with renewed vigour and the belief that we will achieve even greater heights this year”

*Gartner, Market Share Analysis: ERP Software Worldwide, 2010, by total Software revenue, published April 2011.

 

 

 

How to create the nearly perfect Marketing and Sales unison.

The age old question of how to successfully marry a business’ sales and marketing departments has come to light again.

For most, the biggest problem is the pre-conceived idea that deems these two departments as complete opposites, therefore the absolute disregard of these two departments’ “feelings” towards each other. More often than not we tend to discriminate against that which we do not know or don’t care to learn more about. The same can be said about marketing and sales trying to do what they do best within a company.

We have thought it best to do a two part investigation on this to better understand the pain points of these two departments. We will leave you to ponder these findings and for you to understand your company’s own sales and marketing departments. On a later stage we will look at ways of marrying these two departments.

If you work in a business environment you might be aware of the fact that there has always been an underlying animosity between the marketing and sales departments. The sales department see marketing as a bunch of loose heads that come as they please no organisational skills and definitely no respect for the sales guys that stick to strict deadlines and sales targets.  The sales guys will do whatever it takes to track down a new opportunity and to eventually close the deal.

The marketing department on the other hand are constantly complaining about the sales department who can never give insightful feedback on the outcome of their marketing campaigns. Were any leads successful? Was the marketing content relatable to the target market? Was the information sufficient or not? Do you need more content on a certain product?

For the most part the sales guys are constantly on the road. Meeting after meeting and numerous conferences keep them away from the office. This doesn’t necessarily mean that they are not working, but this is definitely how the marketing folk see it.

It is and always will be a challenge for all departments to work in synergy with each other. Even more so for sales and marketing departments; they are the driving force of any business, they generate leads and awareness of a brand or product that eventually end up in a sale or a business deal won.

We are leaving you with these three crucial pain points that when executed correctly might just be the saving grace between your company’s sales and marketing departments:

·         Each department has their own goals, the key is for sales and marketing to realise this. If and when they can do this can they work towards accepting and realising each other’s goals.

·         Communication is paramount. When sales and marketing know what is expected of each other can strategies be implemented that can benefit both departments and the business as a whole.

·         Departments should be more involved in each other’s work and whereabouts. This only strengthens the bond between them and might just lead to a better understanding of each other.

In Part 2 we will focus on the all important HOW?

What went wrong?

What went wrong? Whether it is about a failed relationship, a missed career opportunity or a rocky business venture, each one of us has asked ourselves that question at least once.

Diving in without a plan

A few years ago I was given the opportunity to take over a well-known, but failing local deli. Being a young, but aspiring business man I welcomed the request with open arms. Imagine my devastation when we had to close the deli’s doors after only six months. My dreams and that of my employees were shattered and with that, my life-long passion for the industry.

Years later, I plucked up the courage to investigate what exactly went wrong and what I could have done differently. Within five minutes down memory lane the answer hit me right between the eyes. I never did an in-depth business process audit before taking over the business.

Essential missed steps

We all know what a business process audit is, but here is a Wikipedia type definition anyway: “Business process audits (BPA) are the controlled and carefully executed study on all the critical processes within a business to establish their functionality in correlation to their importance within the business structure.” Blah Blah Blah. No wonder that as a young man, this was the furthest thing from my mind. This also is not only a reflection on me, but I have found that a lot of business owners, divisional managers etcetera usually just dive in without a plan and hope that they will be able to swim forever.

Sure, having a vision and some goals for your business is great, but goals without a good business process audit are unrealistic compared to what is usually needed for the business. In the deli, I did not asses what my strategy would be or what my brand identity would consist of. But most of all, If I looked carefully at my business’ past performance, I would have seen a lot of clues on how to turn it all around.

Of course, this is not only pertinent in the food industry, but across the board in all industries. Even an initial BPA can help you go in with a better strategy. Or at least with a strategy. Consistent auditing is important to ensure that you are on the right track and if you are not, you can see it and change the track for the better.

A good starting point

These are the three questions I should have asked initially

·         What worked yesterday? What didn’t work?

You need to know in all aspects of the business what was profitable yesterday and what wasn’t. Gather all your employees, especially the ones with a long history with the company and brainstorm and discuss like there is no tomorrow.

You’ll be surprised at the inherent wisdom of “old” hands.

 

 

·         How can I increase productivity?

While your company does everything to save money, it is important to determine whether the tasks you perform can be done in ways that can save time as well. Be “waste wise”; unnecessary waste can hamper a business’ productivity. With a little investigation you will learn that some processes might be completely irrelevant to your current processes and by eliminating them you can increase productivity.

 

·         Will this WOW my customers?

A big part of a business’ success is its customers. Word of mouth can be a blessing, but also a curse. It is wise to include the interests of your customers into your business audit process. A company needs to have the interests of its customers at heart, not only while you deal with them, but in the years to come as well.

The lessons I have learnt?

A business is ever-changing and there is never a ‘perfect’ plan. To keep it almost perfect, it is imperative to always be assessing your position. Take chances, make mistakes, but always take a step back, asses, plan, re-plan. In the end, it might just be worth it. Chances are, with proper process audits in place, it will be.

 

 

 

What constitutes a great managed services service provider?

I have been meaning to write about IT managed services for some time now. The concept of IT managed services is almost as important as the internet itself or as important as a mechanic is to the motor industry.

Just as mechanics are put on this earth to insure the “well-being” of our cars: oil checks, shock checks and wheel alignment, the same can be said about managed services taking care of all IT infrastructure. Yes, IT infrastructure also needs taking care of. Servers can crash, machines can break and data can get lost or compromised. This is why the concept of managed services came about.

The concept of managing data, making sure data is secure and machines are in optimal working order insures businesses can carry on with their normal daily tasks and in the end bring in the money. High demand for work that needs to be done quickly and efficiently creates the issue that needs to guarantee that your data centres can’t be down for any given period. This is where a good and reliable service provider comes in to play.

With this said, what constitutes a great service provider?

The first thing that needs to be assessed is the redundancy of your data. What does data redundancy mean? Redundancy is the duplication or re-writing of data, this enables systems to continue operations when parts of a system fail or when data is lost.

Secondly, you need to look at the security of your servers. The security of your servers is a company’s first line of defence in protecting that company’s IT infrastructure. It is essential that security procedures are set in place to safe guard said infrastructure, even at the slightest indication of third party interference. 

This brings me to firewalls. Firewalls can be software or hardware (depending on how much you are willing to spend, software being the more affordable option) installed into servers to keep all data secure. Firewalls are designed to breach the gap between an internal network deemed secure with an external network normally seen not to be secure.    

There are a lot of service providers out there, and the credibility of them should be considered when shopping around for the perfect one. When looking for the ideal service provider it is wise to choose one that resonates with your company’s ideals and values. Success stories, case studies, press releases and blogs on them is essential in helping you choose the right service provider with the appropriate credentials. 

It’s all good and well to look for a service provider that you are comfortable with using, but employing technicians with the highest level of qualifications is almost as important as the service provider itself. These technicians manage the overall well-being of any organisation’s IT infrastructure. Maintenance duties such as maintaining of servers, security issues and network connectivity are only a few of the services these technicians should be able to handle.

SLA’s or service level agreements, as with any other business transaction should be drawn up with commencement of the work these technicians will be undertaking. These SLA’s normally set the benchmark of what needs to be done and what is expected. 

Not all of us speak “NERD”, so it is very important for me, and I think for a lot of people when I phone my service provider for assistance that they speak a language I can understand.

What is vendor relationship management?

By now everyone has heard of the concept CRM (Customer Relationship Management), this is a complete process where you manage all your customer management needs. But what about managing your vendors?

As with a CRM system that is completely customer driven, VRM is a concept solely geared for the management of a business’ vendors or suppliers. Is there really a need for such a system? And will a system such as VRM guarantee cost savings to a company.

VRM can also be seen as supplier management, it is a help line designed to manage all your vendor or supplier issues, data and correspondence. VRM is not a stand-alone system but can be customised within a CRM system. VRM is a great helpline in setting up workflow systems customised to your specific business needs.

Order generation can be simplified and stream-lined to ensure better ordering processes and payment plans. Seeing that VRM is not a financial system, all data that gets generated from VRM can be exported to a business’ financial system for easy payment and accounting generation. Price negotiation can be set up according to the various vendors according to credibility or delivery time frames. Purchase orders can be set up to be generated automatically and systematically by the user’s specifications.

Escalation rules can be set up to automatically trigger and send emails or on-screen notifications to ensure follow ups, advanced warnings and certain processes that should be followed. All meetings with vendors and suppliers can be logged and reported on. Calendar based management for tasks such as phone calls, emails and documentation simplifies the user’s tasks even further. Any field or task that gets created in the CRM system can be reported on in VRM.

The great thing about VRM is BEE management, specifically aimed at the South African market. Vendors can be rated according to their BEE status, this rating gets done when creating the supplier details and is automatically part of the purchasing and ordering workflows. This workflow manages all preferred BEE vendors. 

This brings me back to the issue of whether VRM has the capabilities of saving businesses money. Yes it can and it will.  As explained, it is easy to set up price negotiation capabilities within VRM the price negotiation capabilities can be customised to suit the supplier and the customer.

If you are a business owner that already has a successful CRM system installed, why not take the plunge and customise your system to handle VRM capabilities? You have nothing to lose really, only greater ordering workflows and vendor relationships to gain.