Growth is what pretty much every business strives for, but how they respond to growing pains can mean the difference between success and failure, or between a step-change and stagnation. If you've been involved with a fast growing business you'll no doubt recognise that dawning realisation that your business software, which seemed fine not so long ago, is no longer fit for purpose.
We often hear stories of companies who were contemplating moving away from Sage 300 as it no longer met all the needs of their growing business, then found that adopting one or more of Orchid's modules was a far less disruptive alternative, not to mention a far less expensive one. Think of it as punching a couple more holes in your belt, rather than investing in a whole new wardrobe.
Many of my clients would have long since outgrown Sage 300 if it weren’t for Orchid's products.
KEVIN GARTLY, SOLIDBIZ SOLUTIONS, EDMONTON, ALBERTA, CANADA
With this in mind we were interested to read a recent blog article by JCurve Solutions, discussing 7 signs that you are outgrowing your accounting software. While their focus was on signs that you need to upgrade from accounting-only software to ERP, many of their criteria apply equally to outgrowing an ERP solution.
We encourage you to read the full JCurve article, but let's take a brief look at the '7 signs' they listed, and see how Orchid products might fit the bill for a Sage 300 user:
1. You’re seeing an overload of paperwork
- Document Management Link: Access to digital copies of key documents where and when they are needed, without leaving Sage 300.
- Notes: Contextual information stored within Sage 300, and displayed where and to whom it is relevant.
- Inter Entity (Transactions and Trade): Balancing entries and reciprocal documents automatically generated.
- EFT Processing: Process payments and receipts electronically. Say goodbye to paper cheques.
2. Too much time and effort spent maintaining data separately
- Optional Tables: Store budgets, KPIs and other custom data within your Sage 300 database rather than externally.
3. Your inventory management is being done by spreadsheets
- Bin Tracking: Track items against multiple bins within a Sage 300 Inventory Control location.
- RMA (Return Material Authorisations & Repair Tracking): Track returns and repairs accurately from within Sage 300
- Extender: Add bespoke business logic to Sage 300, or integrate with external applications.
4. You want to build better customer relationships
- RMA (Return Material Authorisations & Repair Tracking): improve customer service related to returns and repairs through consistent processes supported by configurable workflows, all from within Sage 300.
- Extender: Add bespoke business logic to Sage 300, taking into account the specific requirements of your customers and customer facing staff.
5. Visibility - you can't see what's happening across the business
- Extender: Trigger alerts or execute custom scripts when nominated events occur.
- Notes: All Sage 300 users have access to the same context-sensitive information, where and when it's needed, rather than relying on offline documentation or personal notes.
- Info-Explorer: Affordable and intuitive Business Intelligence.
6. Your reporting doesn't give you what you need
- Info-Explorer: 'Slice & dice' using live Sage 300 data. No more reliance on static, out of date, two-dimensional reports
- Report Runner: Quickly and easily access, launch and distribute vital reports. Create report menus tailored to specific roles.
- Data Views: Create and maintain database views within Sage 300 that turn your Optional Fields into columns, simplifying report writing and making report running faster and more efficient.
- Process Scheduler: Automate the initiation of reports and other key recurring business processes.
7. Your business forecasting and budgeting rely on too much guess work
- Info-Explorer: Review and refine your projections, combining multi-dimensional analysis with instant roll-up/consolidation. Save changes back to your cubes, and optionally to the Sage 300 database using the Info-Explorer Writeback feature.
About the Author:
David Lacey is Communications Manager at Orchid Systems. You can find out more about David and other Orchid staff members at the bottom of our About Us page.
