And let’s ignore “big data” for a moment. There are enough articles and blogs on that topic!
Master data (customers, vendors, products, items) and transactional data (quotes, sales orders, purchase orders, invoices) must be accurate. Period. When this is not the case, then let the waste counter begin.
A hidden cost of IT is the cost of integration. Seldom will you see a budget line item called “integration”, but there will be IT and business costs associated with integrating multiple systems. While software can have bugs, IT support needs are typically caused by infrastructure problems, user training issues, or reconciling data integration issues. There will be employee or contractor costs associated with integrating multiple systems.
Additionally, business resources spend extra time entering data into multiple systems or trying to reconcile data differences between systems. This results in increased overhead costs and less profitability.
When most of your data from quotes or sales orders should flow to your purchase orders, receiving transactions, invoices, payables and general ledger transactions, then you should be looking for an integrated system that encompasses all of this functionality.
What’s the source for your data? Is there a single source of truth or do you have multiple versions of the same data in different systems? Are any integrated or do your employees re-enter data in each system? Do they ever make mistakes? Transpose numbers? Omit something? Duplicate something?
It often comes down to a “could you / should you” question about the systems you use. Could you maintain multiple systems and support the integration between them? Sure. But should you? What better options are out there to take the data problem out of your organization?
Contact us to help assess your data and system challenges and suggest a path forward that will support both bottom-line and top-line growth.
Photo by Patrick Amoy on Unsplash
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