In my last post I talked about what to consider when moving to the cloud – and by the time I finished my first sentence or two I realized that the things you need to consider when deploying cloud applications are much the same as when you make any large technology change in your business.  I also realized I had more to say about this topic than would comfortably fit in one post (or even two!) so let’s chat some more about making large application, architecture or platform decisions, shall we?  Today let’s focus on some more factors that can make a large implementation harder or easier.

Are you adding new functionality?

You may find that adding new capabilities with a new system is somewhat easier than upgrading or replacing functionality that already exists.  Let’s say, for example, if you have a service business like an HVAC company and you decide to implement click to chat functionality on your website for the first time.  You don’t have replace something that already exists and retrain your staff.  You will still have to train them and create new processes but is often easier than changing old habits.  You will likely add interfaces to your other systems but that is almost always easier than mucking around with existing interfaces.  Contrast this click to chat example with swapping out your accounting system.  My head just hurts thinking about all the spaghetti that likely has to be unraveled!

How many other systems does it need to interface with?

If the technology you are adding is standalone then woo hoo!  It sure is nice not to have make sure systems talk to each other.  Oh, wait, this is the real world and I can’t think of anything that is truly standalone.  Let’s use our click to chat example – you’ll certainly have to integrate with your website.  You’ll likely want to interface to your CRM too – at the least the person chatting is a new contact.  They may also be a sales prospect or be trying to open a service ticket.

The more integration points a system has, the harder it likely is to implement.

Is it strategically important?

Are you adding technology that is going to be a game-changer for your business?  Then it will be harder because you absolutely, positively have to get it right.  The system has to work correctly, it has to integrate seamlessly with the rest of your business, and your staff (and possibly your customers) have to understand the implications of the new system and how to use it.  Our click to chat example is one that, while it will add customer service benefits, is likely not to be strategically important.

What are your regulatory constraints?

Is your industry free of regulatory constraints?  Or are you implementing a system that falls outside of these constraints?  Accountants, lawyers and medical professionals have constraints around client records and files.  When they are implementing systems that affect those records or files they have to tread carefully to make sure they remain in compliance.  In these cases technology change is harder.  If however, these same professionals are implementing an online appointment system, they are likely to have an easier time since this is outside the regulated areas.

So why is it so important to know what is easier or harder?  I’m not trying to talk you out of making technology changes – far from it.  Small businesses have a lot to gain by leveraging technology to their advantage.  It is critical to realize, however, what you are getting into and to make sure you plan for enough resources – mostly time and money – to do the job right.

  by  edgeplot

Back in the day, I wrote a lot of custom software.  First of all, that is what I DID and second, finding good software that met the business needs in a flexible way was hard.  Ok, I know I am showing my age now!

As time has passed and technology has advanced we have more and more technology options to support our business and these options have great functional capabilities.  At the same time, access to these technologies has become easier, especially for smaller businesses.  I find it remarkable that I can have, at my fingertips, the same business capabilities of a large corporation.  Gotta love the cloud!

With so much to choose from I would find it hard today to ever recommend “build it for yourself” to a client unless they had a very specific, niche need – a need that was their competitive advantage, something that set them apart.  You can get inexpensive development resources today but you still have fundamental issues with “roll your own” applications:

• you may be using developers inexperienced with building bullet-proof  applications
• you may be building with a technology that it is hard to find developers for
• you will have to do your own maintenance and changes
• you may be using a technology that won’t be supported long term.

by  Lynchburg College Archives

In today’s installment of my series on small business growing plains I am going to talk about the order-to-cash cycle.  When a business is new it is easy to get so excited about the first sale that as soon as an order is received or a contract signed the business owner immediately sends out the associated invoice or statement.  Those simple documents are full of symbolism for the nascent concern – you are for real!  You have real customers and can bring in real money!  Woo hoo!

The Order-to-Cash Conundrum

As you get bigger and busier it is easy to put off creating those all-important documents that a)represent potential income to your company and b) signal your customer to pay you.  Maybe you don’t have time to create them more than once a week, or worse, once a month.  All of a sudden getting paid is taking longer and longer.  Even if you get administrative or bookkeeping help you’ll likely settle on a set schedule for billing, perhaps once a week, that doesn’t jive with when you actually sold the order or the contract.

When you get even bigger and busier it can get worse – let’s say now you have sales people to sell orders or contract work.  Or that you have field service technicians that have to do the work that in turn leads to an order.  These guys have paperwork to get filled out and they may not be in the office every day so it is easy for that paperwork to be delayed and then, when it is finally turned it, it may be incorrect and require a cycle of rework.  Now your invoices and statements are even MORE delayed.  Add that to the fact that your customers aren’t always in a hurry to pay you right away and you suddenly have a cash flow problem.

How can you avoid or rectify this ever-lengthening order-to-cash black hole?

Order or Contract Entry

There are a number of ways to improve the order or contract entry process :

• Keep your sales customer information in sync with your accounting customer information.  This can make it quicker and easier to set up a new account for billing and make sure you apply the order or contract to the correct billing customer.  You can keep them in sync thru manual processes or by integrating your customer relationship management system with your accounting system.  Some applications integrate easily, others may require some help from a technical resource.
• Provide mechanisms to allow your sales or field service folks to enter contracts or sales orders online.  This can be as simple as having them upload a spreadsheet to a specified place to as fancy as an application that they can access remotely, maybe even from a mobile device.  The quicker you can get the contract or order entered into your billing application the faster you can get invoices out.  Where possible cut out paper altogether; if it isn’t possible to go paperless try to change your process to match paper to online records on the back end.
• Incent your sales and field service folks to enter their information online quickly and correctly.  Quite simply, if you can’t bill your customer maybe they shouldn’t get paid.  Hmm, just a thought.

Invoice Creation

• Simplify invoice or statement creation.  Avoid “special” invoices for customers and make sure any invoice or statement can be easily produced from your accounting software.  If your accounting software doesn’t do this you might want to look for a system that does or look for a billing system that integrate with what you have.
• If you can put invoice creation on “auto-pilot” where it runs on a regular schedule all on its own, do so.  If you can’t, adjust the back office processes to create invoices on a regular, frequent basis.  How regular and frequent?  It depends on your cash flow needs but daily, if it isn’t a complicated process, might not be too often.

It is easy for the order, contract and billing processes to get in the way of getting the customer a timely invoice.  Beyond prolonging the time until you get paid, what kind of message does a tardy invoice send your customer?  That you are unorganized?  That their business isn’t important?

If you think there are ways to improve your order-to-cash cycle, contact your technical advisor.  He or she can help you review your current processes and talk about where improvements, both manual and automated, might be in order.

If you thought this post was helpful you may want to check out the rest in this series so far.

• Can you keep up with your customer’s service needs?
• Are you addicted to spreadsheets?
• How long does it take to set up a new customer?