Compare Business Products recently produced a document called 5 Steps to Successful ERP Selection in which they offered some great things to consider when choosing an ERP solution.  We have adapted these tips as follows:

Tip 1 – Perform Internal Due Diligence

A company shouldn’t confuse an identified pain with a requirement that’s defined with sufficient particularity for ERP evaluation purposes. For example, a manufacturer might know that it has a problem with cost control. If it were to approach ERP vendors with a general “costing pain”, each vendor would probably say that its software supports costing. Although the answer might appear to be satisfactory, relying on it could lead to an ill-advised ERP investment decision.

Tip 2 – Define Project Feasibility and ERP Requirements

This tip is pretty much self-explanatory -Feasibility assessment is intended to justify investment decision-making. In effect, it is used to support a go/no-go project decision. Of course, assessing your ERP requirements essentially means you need to define the collection of business requirements for your ERP solution.

Tip 3 – Evaluate ERP Alternatives

The third step in successful ERP solution selection involves doing your due diligence as far as evaluating different ERP systems is concerned. This may seem like a no brainer, but it is a good reminder to follow through and complete your research thoroughly.

Tip 4 – Contract Negotiation

When reviewing ERP contracts, companies should consider whether the structure of the deal reflects their interests. In so doing, they should remember that they’re the ones accepting the financial obligations and assuming the ERP-related risks. To the extent that they’re not comfortable with the terms, they should seek negotiated concessions.

Tip 5 – Change Management

Securing project buy-in and managing resistance to change are critical to the success of every ERP project. Companies should initiate organizational change management initiatives at the earliest opportunity.

Here at The Vested Group, we believe NetSuite offers the best ERP solution, particularly for small to medium sized business.  NetSuite ERP is the world's most deployed cloud ERP solution. It provides proven financial management and ERP that easily integrates with your broader sales and service processes. NetSuite ERP takes your business beyond traditional accounting software, streamlining back-office processes and equips you with the visibility you need to make better faster decisions. Key benefits of NetSuite’s ERP solution include:

• Accelerates the order-to cash process by 50%+
• Slashes the financial close with real-time reporting
• Strengthens procurement with approvals and vendor management
• Improves employee management through self-service
• Drives decision making with personalized dashboards
• Improves accountability and compliance with strong traceability
• Reduces IT costs and delivers automated ERP upgrades
• Elevates productivity with anytime, anywhere access

If you are interested in learning more about NetSuite’s ERP solution, contact The Vested Group today.  We can answer all of your questions and even set up a demo of NetSuite’s products. The Vested Group has offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL ready serve all of your ERP and cloud computing needs!

The first infographic we are sharing today, Lessons from the History of Customer Relationship Management, is enormous but definitely worth examining.  This infographic is packed full of interesting information in the form of a timeline that essentially maps out the progression of CRM systems – how they began, improved, and evolved from the early ‘80s to the present day.  This is an excellent read, not just for the interesting content, but to also give yourself an understanding of how CRM systems came to be and where they are headed in the future.

The next infographic we have for you today is also rather long, but again a great source of information.  The Changing Customer explores CRM from the point of view of the actual customers you are looking to engage.  This infographic shares some noteworthy statistics on customer behaviors and how those statistics relate to a CRM solution.  If you or someone in your organization is on the fence about implementing a CRM solution, this infographic would be a great way to supplement your discussions.

As we already stated, if you are looking into CRM solutions, we believe NetSUite is the way to go. NetSuite is the only cloud customer relationship management (CRM) solution that delivers a real-time 360-degree view of your customer experience, from lead and opportunity through to sales order management, upsell, renewals, and service.

In addition to advanced sales force automation (SFA), customer support, and marketing automation, NetSuite CRM+ delivers capabilities well beyond those offered by traditional CRM systems, including quotes, order management, commissions, sales forecasting, and more, all in one comprehensive cloud CRM solution.  Other key features of NetSuite’s CRM solution include:

Customer Service Management Drive service with complete case and escalation management, and accelerate service with knowledge base management, customer self-service and more.

Partner Relationship Management Improve collaboration with partners through partner relationship management (PRM) that delivers joint marketing campaigns, joint lead management, partner commissions and order processing.

Mobile Comprehensive support for mobile devices—iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile—ensures that your employees can access NetSuite when and where they need it.

CRM Analytics and Reporting Fingertip access into sales, marketing and customer service information lets you measure and optimize performance—you even get back-office metrics for total business visibility.

If would like to learn more about NetSuite CRM, The Vested Group is here to help!  We have offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL ready to serve your CRM needs.  Contact The Vested Group to schedule a demo today!

Myth:  You have no idea what cloud computing is.

Truth: Have you heard of Microsoft Office 365 or Dropbox? How about LinkedIn or Facebook? Oh, you have — then you are probably already using cloud-computing facilities!

Myth: Cloud computing makes no sense.

Truth: You can choose a system that works within your limits. Management can be simplified, and there is often little to no change in how your business operates. Remember: by outlining your needs at the beginning of the process, you can get the system that is right for you and that offers a good balance.

Myth: It’s all about saving money.

Truth: Not really. Although, of course, money is a factor, there are other benefits that make just as much business sense, such as scalability, reliability and remote access.

Myth: My critical applications will be gone.

Truth: Not if you outline your critical applications in the early stages of your move and work with your supplier to create a system that allows for transition according to your business needs. Only then can you be safe to take these applications with you on your “next step.”

Myth: I should try virtualization first.

Truth: Though virtualization may improve how existing resources are used, this may be a waste of time if you are just going to move to the cloud in the end. Change can be difficult for any organization, but if you understand the benefits, then you can move forward now.

Myth: Security is standard.

Truth: Not all businesses are going to require the same levels of security, so you need to know what guidelines affect your company and how these can impact you moving forward. By defining your security needs and undertaking a comprehensive analysis of potential risks, you can get the security architecture that fits your needs.

Myth: No downtime.

Truth: Technology hasn’t got quite this far yet. There is still the possibility of downtime, no matter what your supplier says, which is why a service-level agreement is so important. Pick an SLA that makes most sense to your business needs.

If you have questions or concerns about cloud computing, The Vested Group is here to help! We have offices in Tampa, FL and Dallas, TX ready to share the facts with you about the cloud.  Get your organization started on a path to better business by contacting The Vested Group today!

Look for Scalability

While you should definitely take the current needs of your organization into consideration when choosing a CRM solution, it is also important to keep your possible future needs in mind as well.  Make sure you choose a CRM system that can expand as your business grows and your needs evolve. 

Budget for Quality

CRM systems can vary greatly in cost but comparing these systems isn’t always an “apples to apples” equation.  Having a budget in mind is wise, but sure you are examining all of the features of each CRM system under consideration.  The solution with the smallest price tag can end up costing your organization much more than you thought if you have to make costly adjustments and add additional features to make that system work for you.

Research Vendor Options

The vendor you select is as important as the CRM system you choose.  Time spent researching the reputation and experience of vendors you are considering is time well spent.  By investigating references and speaking with past customers, you will get a very clear picture of the vendor you are choosing.  Don’t take this key relationship lightly.

Of course here at The Vested Group, we believe an excellent CRM choice is NetSuite.  NetSuite is the only cloud customer relationship management (CRM) solution that delivers a real-time 360-degree view of your customer experience, from lead and opportunity through to sales order management, upsell, renewals, and service.

In addition to advanced sales force automation (SFA), customer support, and marketing automation, NetSuite CRM+ delivers capabilities well beyond those offered by traditional CRM systems, including quotes, order management, commissions, sales forecasting, and more, all in one comprehensive cloud CRM solution.

The key benefits of NetSuite’s CRM solution speak for themselves: 

▪       Clear visibility into sales, service and marketing performance 

▪       Streamlines quote-to-order processes

▪       Elevates productivity with a 360-degree view of your customers

▪       Improves sales performance through forecasting, upsell and commission management

▪       Drives collaboration with partners

▪       Increases customer service productivity and reduces case resolution times

▪       Manage multinational sales and services organizations, with Global CRM.

If would like to learn more about NetSuite CRM, The Vested Group is here to help!  We have offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL ready to serve your CRM needs.  Contact The Vested Group to schedule a demo today!

Reuven Cohen

Cohen was an early, tireless advocate for the cloud, appearing on panels and as a speaker at industry events. He also performed a peer review of the drafts of the NIST definition of cloud computing. He was the founder of CloudCamp, a cloud computing conference that's taken place in 300 cities and is based on an informal set of procedures that holds elections to set the agenda and elect discussion leaders from among the participants -- after the conference has started. CloudCamp became a great way for people interested in the cloud to get to know one another in the space of a few minutes. Reuven writes the Digital Provocateur column for Forbes Magazine, has co-hosted DigitalNibbles, an Intel-sponsored podcast, and has served as a strategic advisor to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs & International Trade. He was a North American representative on the Sino-European/America Cooperation Roundtable forum held in Beijing in May 2011.

James Urquhart

Urquhart is the former writer of The Wisdom of Clouds blog on CNet, which ran from 2008 to 2011. In his postings and appearances, he made concise, logical arguments for why cloud computing, mistaken as a new technology, was really a new operations model. He dissed the frequently used analogy between cloud and electric utilities, saying using data intelligently and distributing electricity are two different things. He did a five-part series on how cloud and virtualization were forcing a rethinking of the enterprise IT software stack.

Lydia Leong

Leong came into the cloud era with her own hands-on background in technology operation and evolution. She was director of server engineering at Excite@Home and director of product engineering and operations at Digex. She joined Gartner in 2000 and gravitated into becoming its first and still primary analyst focused on IaaS. In 2010, in the midst of a blossoming of enterprise interest in the cloud, her prominence as a spokeswoman on the cloud prompted Gartner to name her analyst of the year.

To read the full Information Week list in its entirety, you may click here.  If you would like to learn more about cloud computing or how a cloud solution could benefit your organization, you can contact The Vested Group.  We have offices in Tampa, FL and Dallas, TX ready to serve all of your cloud computing needs!

Today our infographics are all about Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).  We’ve found a few great infographics that share some great information about ERP software and system implementation.  If you are in the process of choosing an ERP system for your organization, we have an infographic for just about every step in the process. 

Why ERP?

Why do companies choose to implement an ERP system in the first place? We begin our list of infographics with a basic explanation of some of the reasons companies choose to use an ERP system for their business operations.  If you are looking for a quick background for why organizations consider investing in an ERP system, this is a great infographic for you.  If an ERP solution is on your horizon, you will be happy to know that according to this infographic 81% of the companies surveyed responded that they were satisfied with their ERP decision.

The CFO’s Guide to ERP in the Cloud

This is a great infographic that gives some general information about cloud based ERP systems.  Of course not all ERP systems run in the cloud, but here at The Vested Group we believe a cloud solution is definitely the way to go.  The CFO’s Guide to ERP in the Cloud shares some useful information for those of you trying to decide between a cloud based ERP solution and one that is hosted or on-premises.  This infographic gives some data on each option including benefits, costs, and cost of ownership for each type of solution. 

10 Necessary Steps for ERP Selection Success

This clean and simple infographic is essentially a list of 10 things for a project team to keep in mind to insure the success of their ERP selection.  The list includes suggestions such as, “Executive Support: Start at the top. Your executive team needs to set the stage for business transformation.” and “Measurable Goals: Break out key metrics for success and MEASURE.  If it causes pain or is important, it can be measured.”  This could be a great infographic to share with a team that is working on an ERP implementation as a loose outline of action steps.

Maximize the Value of Your ERP Implementation

Our last infographic is a nice little step-by-step guide to an ERP implementation.  This infographic breaks the implementation process into two stages – Requirements Analysis and Solution Design – and offers some advice for each stage. 

If you are looking for an ERP system for your organization, The Vested Group would love to talk to you about the world’s number 1 cloud ERP solution, NetSuite.  We have offices ready to set up a demo for you in Tampa, FL and Dallas, TX so get your organization started on a path to better business by contacting The Vested Group today!

This study was conducted by CDW, a leader in the fields of information technology products, expertise, and services.  The CDW report is based on the views of 1,242 IT professionals surveyed by CDW. It explores what drives the shift to the cloud, what types of applications organizations are taking to the cloud and what benefits (beyond cost savings) they are achieving.

Cloud Adoption

One interesting finding of this survey was the upward trend of cloud adoption rates.  As you can see from the chart below, organizations in the implementation or maintenance stage of a cloud solution has grown from 28% in 2011 to almost 40% in 2012.  The budget expectations for cloud related expenditures is also climbing steadily.

Savings and Expectations

When CDW asked survey respondents “What percentage of your organization’s IT budget do you currently save or expect to save using cloud resources and applications?” they found the current savings had grown from 10% in 2011 to 13% in 2012. And, cloud users consistently projected higher savings in both 2011 and 2012 than did non-cloud users.  While this is positive news, CDW’s survey also found that the cloud does much more than simply reduce costs.  For example, organizations implementing or maintaining cloud computing point to increased efficiency (55 percent), improved employee mobility (49 percent), increased ability to innovate (32 percent) and freeing current IT staff for other projects (31 percent) as the top benefits. Reduced IT operating costs come in fifth on the list of benefits (25 percent).  Below is a slide from the CDW report illustrating this:

Cloud Implementation Roadmap

One final useful feature of the CDW report is the recommendations for organizations that are in the discovery and planning phases of a cloud solution:

• Tap a cross-section of your stakeholders for a thoughtful analysis of benefits and costs, and then select a cloud strategy consistent with your IT service fulfillment model.
• Launch first with services that don't pose unacceptable risks to your organization, aren't business critical and where complexity of implementation is low (storage, unified communications and office productivity apps, for example).
• Leverage your user's familiarity with consumer cloud offerings to maximize the success of cloud adoption.
• Independent software vendors will bring new features to market faster with cloud applications, so follow those changes closely.
• Start planning today; understand your internal "cost to serve" per application, which will help determine ROI for public cloud solutions.
• When working with cloud providers, look for contracts that establish and enforce service levels and security standards.
• Work with a software-licensing expert to clarify and resolve issues affecting applications your organization wants to move to the cloud.

Are you thinking about a cloud solution for your organization? Contact The Vested Group today to schedule a demo or discuss your cloud computing options.  We have offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL ready to work with you!

Cloud computing is steadily gaining in popularity as a beneficial and profitable way to source and deliver IT products and services for many organizations worldwide.  As cloud adoption rates grow, more and more companies take notice and consider cloud solutions for their own business needs.  If you are thinking about taking your business or organization to the cloud, you will be interested to read Thor Olavsrud’s recent article in CIO online, “How Cloud Computing Helps Cut Costs, Boosts Profits.”  In this article Olavsrud compiles information and statistics from a recent study conducted by Rackspace Hosting and Manchester Business School.  Below we share some of the interesting findings of this study.

"The findings were pretty telling in terms of the adoption of cloud computing and the benefits of cloud computing," says John Engates, CTO of Rackspace Hosting. "The bottom line is cloud saves companies money and increases their profits."

Rackspace, in conjunction with the Manchester Business School and Vanson Bourne, recently conducted a survey of 1,300 companies in the U.K. and U.S., supplemented by qualitative telephone interviews by the Manchester Business School with companies that used the cloud during December 2012 and January 2013.

The study found that 88 percent of cloud users pointed to cost savings and 56 percent of respondents agreed that cloud services have helped them boost profits. Additionally, 60 percent of respondents said cloud computing has reduced the need for their IT team to maintain infrastructure, giving them more time to focus on strategy and innovation. And indeed, 62 percent of the companies that have saved money are reinvesting those savings back into the business to increase headcount, boost wages and drive product innovation.

"The study shows just what an important impact cloud computing is having on U.K. and U.S. businesses," Engates says. "It's particularly interesting that, despite the ongoing economic backdrop, half of businesses on both sides of ‘the pond’ are actually increasing profits and growing their business through the use of the cloud. This includes investing in headcount and wages as well as driving further innovation."

CIOs and CFOs alike often put a large emphasis on Return on Investment (ROI) when considering any purchase for an organization.  According to Paul Croteau, an enterprise solution engineer at Rackspace, when organizations set out to calculate your cloud ROI they will need to consider factors that are relevant to their enterprise application portfolio and specific computing needs. For example, Croteau believes an ROI analysis should take into account broad considerations like cost per unit of computing power, the tradeoff of the amount of labor necessary to redesign applications that need to operate in a cloud environment and intangibles like time.

"Cloud computing can create a significant return on investment, affording energy, licensing and administrative costs, and it frees up capital and personnel to innovate on new ideas quickly," Croteau states. "Moving to the cloud is a transformational investment, in every sense of the word—but it's a move that many of today's organizations find compelling."

If you would like to learn more about cloud computing and how it can have a positive impact on your profits, contact The Vested Group today.  We have offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL ready serve all of your cloud computing needs!

Bill Claybrook, a marketing research analyst with over 35 years of experience in the technology field predicts that Software as a Service (SaaS) will see heavy gains as more customers realize the value of renting software. Cloud computing technology will be used to solve problems that require centralized management and centralized security. Two areas where this will happen in 2013 include mobile computing and "big data."

Mr. Claybrook also thinks that mobile cloud computing technology will be big for solving many of the problems of managing and securing multiple mobile devices, especially for corporations with bring your own device (BYOD) strategies. Big data with integrated cloud computing technologies will be helpful in solving some of the problems around managing big data and managing big data security.

Mobile application developer, Mark Eisenberg, expects that Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) will continue to grow. The Platform as a Service (PaaS) conversation will continue to develop with a likely new round of "everyone has their definition of ____ ." If enough people start doing big data in the cloud rather than talking about big data in the cloud, then 2013 will be the year it peaks.

Tech writer, Roger Jennings believes that 2013 will bring continued growth to all primary cloud services segments; SaaS, PaaS and IaaS combined will grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of about 25%. PaaS and Iaas alone will grow from $964 million in 2010 to $3.9 billion in 2013, a CAGR of 60%, according to the 451 Group. Platform-agnostic IaaS will continue to amass the lion's share of revenues, but provider-specific PaaS will gain a larger split of the pie as developers become more comfortable making the transition from on-premises applications.

David Linthicum, self-described cloud computing thought leader, says we should expect to see more cloud-based system implementations in 2013. This will create more focus on what the technology can really do and the value it brings. We'll see some pretty visible failures and successes - and some new best practices - around the proper use of cloud computing.

As you can see, these industry leaders are predicting positive growth in just about all things cloud related for the year 2013.  If this is the year you want to take your organization to a cloud platform, get in touch with The Vested Group today.  We have offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL and we are ready to answer your questions and show you how a web based business management system can take your organization to new heights. 

At the end of 2011, the Nucleus Research Firm conducted a survey that detailed the many benefits implementing a CRM system.  They found that “Customer Relationship Management (CRM) applications continue to deliver high return on investment (ROI), with an average benefit of $5.60 returned for every dollar spent.”  Another research firm, CSO Insight found that there are many key business areas that can be improved with a CRM system.  The graph below gives a great breakdown of these various areas and how they can benefit from choosing a CRM solution:

As you can see, a CRM system can really give your organization some great advantages.  One excellent CRM system to look at is NetSuite.  NetSuite is the only cloud customer relationship management (CRM) solution that delivers a real-time 360-degree view of your customer experience, from lead and opportunity through to sales order management, upsell, renewals, and service.

In addition to advanced sales force automation (SFA), customer support, and marketing automation, NetSuite CRM+ delivers capabilities well beyond those offered by traditional CRM systems, including quotes, order management, commissions, sales forecasting, and more, all in one comprehensive cloud CRM solution.

Sales Force Automation Optimize sales processes with complete opportunity management, and get powerful tools to drive performance including sales forecasting, commission management, upsell management and more.

Customer Service Management Drive service with complete case and escalation management, and accelerate service with knowledge base management, customer self-service and more.

Partner Relationship Management Improve collaboration with partners through partner relationship management (PRM) that delivers joint marketing campaigns, joint lead management, partner commissions and order processing.

Marketing Automation Grow faster with almost unlimited customer segmentation and targeting capabilities, email marketing and true marketing program ROI analysis.

Mobile Comprehensive support for mobile devices—iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry or Windows Mobile—ensures that your employees can access NetSuite when and where they need it.

CRM Analytics and Reporting Fingertip access into sales, marketing and customer service information lets you measure and optimize performance—you even get back-office metrics for total business visibility.

The key benefits of NetSuite’s CRM solution speak for themselves: 

• Clear visibility into sales, service and marketing performance 
• Streamlines quote-to-order processes
• Elevates productivity with a 360-degree view of your customers
• Improves sales performance through forecasting, upsell and commission management
• Drives collaboration with partners
• Increases customer service productivity and reduces case resolution times
• Manage multinational sales and services organizations, with Global CRM.

If would like to learn more about NetSuite CRM, The Vested Group is here to help!  We have offices in Dallas, TX and Tampa, FL ready to serve your CRM needs.  Contact The Vested Group to schedule a demo today!