This white paper examines how small and medium sized business can grow their businesses by streamlining their processes, creating employee empowerment, reducing IT costs, increasing productivity and improving their customers experience by implementing an integrated, real-time software solution.
INTEGRATED SOFTWARE
FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES Evaluation Criteria and Decision Factors
A WHITE PAPER BY
Ali Jani Chief Technology Officer Everest Software January, 2008
PAGE 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................4
THE ROAD TO INTEGRATION.....................................................................................4
"MANAGING THE MULTI'S"........................................................................................5
OPERATING IN REAL-TIME........................................................................................6
SCALABILITY OF SYSTEMS........................................................................................7
PRODUCTIVITY THROUGH EMPLOYEE EMPOWERMENT..........................................7
CONSTANTLY CHANGING REGULATIONS..................................................................8
THE CONVERGENCE OF E-TAIL AND RETAIL......................................................9
CONFIGURATION.............................................................................................................9
WHAT TO LOOK FOR IN INTEGRATED BUSINESS SOFTWARE........................10 FINANCIALS..................................................................................................................10 SALES...........................................................................................................................10 CUSTOMER SERVICE......................................................................................................11 FULFILLMENT................................................................................................................11 ANALYTICS....................................................................................................................11 THE ADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATED BUSINESS SOFTWARE.............................12 . INCREASED REVENUE AND PROFITS...................................................................12 . SMARTER AND FASTER DECISIONS.....................................................................12 . GREATER COMPETITIVENESS.................................................................................12 . INCREASED PRODUCTIVITY...................................................................................12
WHY MULTI-VENDOR INTEGRATION ISN'T THE ANSWER...............................12
EVEREST SOFTWARE WHITE PAPER: INTEGRATED SOFTWARE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES PAGE 3
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Collections of standalone, single-purpose software products - even when loosely integrated on an ad hoc basis - cannot adequately address the proliferating needs of small and medium-sized businesses. As they grow, these companies need more sophisticated, integrated solutions that unify a wide range of business functionality into a cohesive, centralized systems to: . streamlines processes . create appropriate employee empowerment . eliminate decision-making bottlenecks at the top of the organization . reduce IT costs, increase productivity and improve the customer experience. Integrated software eliminates the challenges of learning and maintaining multiple versions of multiple products. It supports real-time sharing of information at every level of the organization and can provide the basis for converging e-tail/retail business models. The paper also provides a proposed list of appropriate evaluation criteria for selectors of integrated software, a list that includes financials, sales, customer service, fulfillment, and business analytics.
EVEREST SOFTWARE WHITE PAPER: INTEGRATED SOFTWARE FOR SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED BUSINESSES PAGE 4
INTRODUCTION Few companies - of any size - disagree with or ignore the value that business management software can provide. Whether basic accounting functions, inventory management, e... [download for more]
