The mining industry’s biggest partner – ERP systems

I have been doing a lot of research lately on the mining industry and how beneficial and actually crucial it is the have the proper ERP system in place to assist in the everyday running of a mine and eventually to grow your business and to show a return on your investment. Mining is one of the most demanding industries out there and if not run properly it can leave communities devastated and thousands of people with no income.

ERP systems have been designed out of necessity as there was a need for a system to assist in the planning and running of big organisations such as the mining industry. Even as early as the 70’s was there a need for an enterprise resource planning system. Obviously have there been a lot of systems designed that made the processes of running a business easier, but only a mere ten years ago did the concept of ERP systems arise.

When starting your business are there a lot of factors to take into account such as financials, production, human resources and customer relationship management. All these departments play a crucial part in any business.  

Following will be some of my findings of what to look for in the perfect ERP system specifically aimed at the mining industry. Disclaimer: findings of a blogger, researcher and sometimes a mad man and not that of a mining mogul.

FINANCIALS

The most important factor when starting a business is the financials. A lot of money has been injected and probably a lot of investors took the leap of faith of investing in you and your mining venture. It is important that an ERP system can handle your mine’s financials. Financial accounting, creditor’s accounting, payment management, cost accounting and investment accounting are just some of the functions that an ERP system should be capable of handling.

PRODUCTION PLANNING AND PRODUCTION

After year one when the mine is up and running it is important to start looking at production to increase the revenue of the mine and also keep the investors happy. Work schedule management, technical data configuration, linking to weighing scales, cost calculation, quality assurance and capacity planning should be on top of your production wish list.

MATERIAL REQUIREMENT

All ERP systems should consist of a material requirement module that can assist in the categorising, arrangement and rearrangement of materials for certain production lines, a benefit is that these modules can be set up well into the future, this will be beneficial for companies to plan a whole years production in advance and even further if the need arises. These requirement modules can be customised in any way the user sees fit for him or her to execute the task efficiently.

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION

At this stage things are looking up and it shows that the mine is starting to show a return on investment and that the mine is ready to start selling its produce. ERP systems have sales and distribution software included that can assist in the managing of sales and taking care of distribution schedules to ensure these products get delivered to the promised destinations. Also look out for capabilities such as setting up of contracts, offers, order entries, delivery and shipping planning and invoicing.

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT

Warehouse management goes hand in hand with a mine’s production planning. Warehouses need to communicate with the production department in setting up inventories to keep track of what stock enters and leaves the warehouses. This in turn will trigger certain production notifications. Management of locations, workload analysis, preparing of orders and tracking of operations will be key functions that will help in running your warehouses successfully.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)

CRM is a complete customer management system that will ensure open communication channels between all your clients and suppliers. And for the more adventurous people out there can CRM systems be used to run marketing campaigns and drip marketing campaigns.

HR

Human resources are essential in any major corporation, this will help you keep tabs on all your employees and also take the stress out of managing their pay rolls. Clocking in and out of staff is easily manageable. Training schedules can be set up and talent management can be tracked.

There you have it, a complete system that ensures transparency throughout all of your business processes. Most importantly, the right ERP system can and should show a return on your investment and this system itself is an investment as it can grow with your business.

I can safely say that I know a bit more about the mining industry and how crucial it is to have an ERP system tailor made to you and your company’s specific needs. Luckily do I not know enough yet to start my own mining company, but I am willing to offer my consulting services to any unsuspecting victim.

What CFO’s need to know about ERP systems

As a financial director it is your job to take care of a business’s financial well-being. In essence it is your task to make sure your business survives and that everyone within the company can keep their jobs. Each company is different and each company will need a tailor made business solution to help manage and run the business successfully.

Talking about business solutions, it is always wise to look for an ERP system that can show return on investment (ROI) and that can assist in producing a transparent view of your company’s financial situation. When a company gets started a few key factors should play a big part in the future of your business.

We at Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd have been studying the demand for a proper business solution package and we would like to share with you what we as a service provider think are the crucial factors to look out for while searching for that ERP system that will best suit your company’s needs.

Following will be the indicating factors that the CFO can’t over-look when searching for the right ERP system.

Financial accounting

Accounting should be made simple with a complete system that can do all the mundane accounting tasks like; recording, summarising and the communication of business transactions and formulating these processes in formal financial statements.

Receivables and creditor accounting

Essential to the successful running of your business, you will need ERP software that can regulate your creditors department.  Transparency throughout this department will ensure you know exactly who owes you what.

Payment management

Necessary tools within your ERP system will allow you to manage your accounts and monitor which transactions have been finalised. Real-time ERP systems will simplify the process of searching the history of your accounts, payments of these accounts and checking the statuses of payments.

Cost accounting

Cost accounting is a helpful tool that should be present in a proper ERP system.  It can assist in the management of your company’s budget and the setting up of cost control programs.  

Investment accounting

Managing of your accounts that are directly linked to investments can easily be executed through the proper ERP software.

Controlling

Systems must easily be set up where a company’s cost expenses can be managed in relation to the company’s budget for the financial year.

Consolidation

Consolidation or merging of all your financial statements should be an easy and uncomplicated task with the help of the right software.

Always ensure that you choose a system that will fit your company’s profile and take care when making your decision. Shop around and take part in a few free trial ERP systems to help you simplify your decision. Click here for a White Paper on the perfect ERP system.

Who run the world…..Girls

For a while I wanted to write about the gender ratio between men and women in executive positions of companies in our country. You couldn’t imagine my excitement when I came across an article that was exactly about this very subject. Before I start this article I just need to point out that I have no intensions to stir anything up or make waves.

It has been the age old debate of where the woman’s place is in the world. It has always been a blurred vision, somewhere between a house, kids and the work place. I grew up with both parents working, I was never fortunate enough to have a stay at home mom. And that is the reality of today’s times, only a few fortunate families can afford for the wife to stay at home and take care of the household.

Women are seen as the softer, more beautiful and more fragile of the two genders. This I think is the reason that so many people in the world have the idea of only men being the go getters and the ones bringing home the bacon. History has shown this. Men were the gatherers and hunters of our time. This is easily understandable then that this has been how we are meant to think. I beg to differ though, I know a few women that can sling a gun or a fishing rod just as well as any strong burly man I know, heck, even better than me. That said, my fishing skills leave much to be desired.

Okay, so back to the issue of women in the corporate world. Think about it clearly, how many men that you know of have higher positions in the corporate world than women, take it further, have you seen any male receptionists or male PA’s lately, my point exactly.

 Let’s look at the IT industry, Sarita Visser, CIO of FNB Commercial Bank claims that the world is lagging the gender equality curve. This is great news. According to her there is a lot of progress made in breaching the gender equality gap. Even in her work environment they are doing their part towards promoting women. Specific strategies were set in place to attract women in terms of equity targets and targeted development. The right candidates with the right potential are identified and enabled accordingly. They are making a concerted effort to develop and promote these women.

Palesa Sepanya, IS Operations manager for PetroSA, on the other hand claims that decision makers still don’t trust women to be technically capable of leading. She believes that woman should desperately start marketing themselves and to acknowledge their technical abilities. She strongly believes that women should start making noise about their achievements. I strongly agree with her. Well said lady.

From personal experience, one of the founding members of our company is a woman and 19 years on she is still going strong. My mentor and the person that I look up to for advice and guidance also happen to be a woman.  And for the record, I am a man.

Well done to the women who are making their mark in the business world, long live the power of women and thank you for bringing kindness, compassion and beauty to the business world.

How to choose an ERP system 

A lot of time and effort were put into taking the leap of faith in starting your own business, and like your child you will nurture and take care of this business. You would like to see your business grow, develop and show success and of course a return on your investment.

When starting your own business we can safely say that you have asked all the necessary questions and probably the most asked question of all, what is an ERP system and do I need it?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the beating heart of any business, don’t have an ERP system? We suggest you look no further. Welcome to the world of ERP and what it can do and mean for you and your business.

This question gets asked more than what we care to count, following will be the necessary information, all you will ever need to know about ERP software.

ERP systems are the complete business solution for your company handling all aspects of your business, from financials, manufacturing, distribution and customer relationship management. ERP software, designed for the sole purpose of growing and developing your business. ERP systems need to be transparent in all areas of your business, this will be key in tracking your business’ growth and success rate.

Businesses and business strategies are forever changing and improving. That is why choosing the right ERP system with the necessary ERP software should be the driving force when choosing an ERP system. These systems should be tailor made to your specific needs. Never has it been more clear that these systems should have almost ‘artificial intelligent’ like capabilities. Having the peace of mind that your money spent will be beneficial in the long run.

 For a company that has been providing business solutions for the past 20years we can put our stamp of approval on this ERP systems software.

ERP systems - what you need to know

ERP systems – what you need to know

The other day, while researching ERP systems and to see what our competitors are up to I came across a very interesting article. As we all know, ERP is a concept that serves as a benchmark for businesses to assist in the planning and maintaining of their business strategies. The implementation costs of these systems are normally astronomical. This said, when you have a system tailor made to suit your specific needs, this system can show a return on your investment and all the money spent on this can be seen as money well spent.

So back to this article I read: A gentleman by the name Dennis Gaughan did a bit of research on four major ERP and IT solutions vendors and his findings were quite bleak, to say the least. A lot of time and effort goes into finding the right ERP system. This system should be easily integrated into your business. A lot of time, manpower and care should be invested while implementing this system into your business. Following below are some of his findings. This might just be the tips you need before you decide on the right ERP system for your business.

Products that can’t work together.

Some service providers’ products do not work well together. Some companies push for their ERP systems to get implemented, only to discover later that this system has minimal integration capabilities which in the long run cannibalise all your other existing systems. Some companies do not disclose the roadmap of their implementation either, resulting in more than three quarters of the profits being earned by maintenance work alone.

Some companies might want to take over your IT strategy.

Some companies’ main business is to sell consulting services. Account managers try to take control over your company’s IT strategy so that they can push more of their own products into your business. Dennis suggests that a shared or partner approach should be taken between the service provider and the business.

Confusing pricing strategies.

A lot of companies struggle with figuring out the billing and licensing of their service provider’s products and services. The major catch is unusual billing methods that confuse the customer. A simple example of this is when an upgrade gets done on an existing system, no new policies get drawn up and customers still pay full price for an add on product where it could have been offered at a discounted price. What is recommended is that you as a client demand clear project plans, timelines and methodologies. This will ensure no nasty surprises come month-end.

I never saw the ERP market as so competitive, well maybe not competitive, but unclear when it comes to helping prospective buyers choose the right system for their business. I have always been of the mind-set that people and feelings come first when doing any business transaction. And this is no different. It is, after all, people that will be working on these systems. It is essential that account managers or the sales people be honest in their dealings when trying to sell their products to prospective clients. After all, honesty is the best policy. 

ERP - Invention?

Inventions: cars, telephones, radios, cell phones and computers these inventions happened in a time of need or necessity to make the lives easier for everybody using them. I can’t imagine my life without my phone or my laptop and I can’t comprehend how I ever managed without them. No wonder that inventors throughout history still gets celebrated today for what they discovered and invented even centuries ago. I wonder if the people that designed the 1^st ERP system also have a “Newton moment”, I don’t think they had an apple fall on their head though, but I can imagine that the breakthrough moment could have felt as amazing as realising how the apple fell.

If you look at it logically, ERP systems were developed for the simple purpose of running your company and running it successfully. ERP = Enterprise Resource Planning; it explains exactly what it does. It is a complete system that can assist in every aspect of your business. Sadly, a lot of businesses fail very soon after being established. This is almost always due to bad planning or not having the proper management or controlling helplines in place. This is the reason for ERP systems being ‘invented’. A bunch of smart people, through the process of trial and error, created a system that can possibly save a company from bankruptcy. I’m not saying that each and every business needs an ERP system to run successfully, but it sure makes the process a whole lot easier.

I did a little study of my own on how ERP systems can be implemented into a business to ensure productivity and agility from the beginning.

Following below, is the natural history and indication of how a business gets started and how an ERP system can assist a business from day one:

Year one

Year one of your business is probably the infantile year where a lot of your business is based on financials and ensuring your company shows rapid growth. A lot of businesses make the mistake of only buying and implementing an accounting package. This is fine and this package can and does work, but what of year two?

Year two

So after year one, your business is starting to take off and you can see some growth on your revenue. Now that your business is making money you might consider a manufacturing your own products. For this, you will need a manufacturing software package, but you only have an accounting package. So what happens? You scrap your accounting package and you move on to software that has the ability to handle both your financials as well as the manufacturing side of your business.

Year three

By year three you can already see a huge difference in your business and how your business is run. Workflows that got implemented in year one may not necessarily be of importance now. So now that your business is financially strong and manufacturing its own products you need to look at a system than can handle warehousing, managing of deliveries and controlling of your stock. So, once again, you scrap your previous system and implement a system that can handle this function as well.

Year five

This is the time where the business is doing really well and you have already reached your five year plan. You can see your business flourishing, but you need a system that will help you manage your client relationships more effectively. All your systems that you implemented are showing results. But a system to track clients, keep their records and who knows maybe even run successful marketing campaigns are now inevitable. But, surprise! Surprise! You need another system that can handle this aspect of your business as well. So your previous system gets scrapped once again and a system with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) capabilities gets implemented.

The future

Finally, you have a successful business and an ERP system that can manage all aspects of your business. Would it not have been easier to implement an ERP system in year one that could have handled all these aspects of your business and that could have saved your company millions? That is the beauty of ERP systems that are designed to assist in all aspects of your business from the start; they consist of all these functions, not necessarily activated, but readily available when needed.

Gone are the dark days where businesses are run without any proper helplines. What a breath of fresh air to know that an ‘invention’ as great and powerful as the right ERP system can improve your business and help it grow. Who knows, we might be celebrating this system in a 100 years from now; not that I will be around to see it, but here’s to hoping I will.

What to look for in Sales software

The more we write about the perfect CRM system, the more I appreciate what this type of system can do for a business. We can actually see this system as the perfect PR person for your business, if it had to be a person, I would imagine them to be charismatic, good looking and someone that gets along with everybody. A person who has all your needs as their top priority and can make any job possible with their good looks and charm, everybody just loves this person.

So if this charismatic person (CRM system), claims to have your business’ best interest at heart, surely at the top of his list will be to see that your business generates a healthy revenue.  

The only way to ensure the survival of your business is with a constant cash flow to pay the bills, pay salaries and have a little something stored away for your retirement.  And, if your business does really well, thanks to your CRM system, maybe even early retirement.

Let’s have a quick 101 on some important features of what to look for in sales software:

What should the key sales software capabilities be?

Sales software should be equipped with helplines and guidelines to ensure your sales people do their work effectively. What this also means is that this software should be easy to use and even easier to customise to the sales people’s specific needs, because as we all know everyone is different and do things in different ways.

Interactive dashboards

Like I said: Customisation is king. Dashboards can be customised to the sales person’s specific needs to display the information relevant to what he or she needs to do their jobs properly. These dashboards all work in real-time and is completely interactive to assist the sales people in being on top of their game, to help them track the status of the sales process and to determine what steps to take next. This is an excellent tool to boost productivity as all information is always available.

Opportunity and leads management

The ideal sales software should assist in the management of leads and opportunities from the first contact.  This enables the sales people to track the status of each lead and to determine if a lead will end up in a sale and if not to seek out new opportunities. Because of this wonderful capability, it can easily be seen which person will be the best candidate to handle the sale, lead or specific task.

Forecasting and reporting

Graphs should be a functionality that can be set in place to track the status of a certain deal or sale to determine what strategy should be followed to close the deal. Analyses of the statuses on these graphs make it easier to determine the next steps to follow.

Quote and order generation

If a CRM system is seen as a person it should be able to generate personalised quotes to be sent to your clients in a speedy manner ensuring no time is wasted in getting the deal and showing the client that you are truly invested in giving them the best service and your expertise.

Managing your communications

Probably one of the most important features should be to manage appointments, specifically managing your sales people’s appointments. Sales software should give the CEO peace of mind: All relevant calendars must be available for view to ensure complete transparency throughout your business. This can also assist in appointment-making as all calendars can be seen for availability.

The future is mobile

It doesn’t get any better than this, software that allows all staff members with smartphones to access all their information from their mobile phones. This is the future, people do not even have to be at work to actually do their work, amazing! Productivity is shooting through the roof. Sales-automation software is playing a big part in this by allowing all information to be mobile and available and ready with just a few clicks.

This is it

We always talk about intelligent software that can do just about anything, even make coffee for you, but I’m pretty sure this software can do more than that; it can make you money and lots of it! I think it is time that business owners start investing more time and effort to research and find sales software that resonates with their business and their beliefs and what they stand for.

 In the end, it is all about sales and money. But, keep in mind to find software that will be easy to customise and integrate with your current software and hardware and human resources, of course ;)