Making the Most of KPIs in Distribution

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Acumatica recently published an informative white paper on Key Performance Indicators for Distribution. If you’re in the distribution business, it’s a highly-recommended read. The paper will help you understand KPIs as they apply to a distribution. Here are some highlights.

What is a KPI, anyway?

A Key Performance Indicator (KPI) is a measurement of some aspect of your distribution business’s performance that you consider critical to how the business is doing overall. It could be something as simple as rate of revenue growth. If you’re hitting the number you had in mind, you’re performing the way you want. Other times, KPIs can be more obscure, but no less meaningful. A KPI for distribution might be the rate of product returns or the number of complaint calls handled per hour. KPIs are based on data from the business, typically coming from the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and other enterprise software applications. KPIs compile ERP data into usable forms, e.g. graphical displays that visualize the data.

KPIs as a solution to data overload

KPIs are helpful in managing a wholesale/distribution business because they keep you focused on what’s important. They get you out of the trap of data overload. With modern ERP software, it’s easy to generate literally hundreds of reports at any given time. You can get caught in “analysis paralysis” or focus too much on metrics that don’t matter as much as you might imagine. Worst case, you’ll miss an early warning of an impending problem.

Types of KPIs

There are three main types of KPIs: Historical, real time and predictive. All three tend to feature the same kinds of information. They report financial results such as sales, orders, profit and loss and o forth. They track operational metrics like orders shipped, backorders, route miles driven and customer service calls answered. Depending on how you display your data, i.e. your data visualization dashboard, you might have all three types visible at the same time:

  • Historical KPIs – what happened in the business, showing trends and highlights like peak sales growth over the last 5 years
  • Real time – what’s happening right at the moment (or that day)
  • Predictive – what might happen, if historical trends are any indicator, e.g. anticipating a shortage of certain products during an upcoming peak season

Predictive KPIs are where modern data analytics tools can really shine. Not all solutions have predictive capabilities, however. This is an advanced feature, one that may take some professional help in setting up.

KPIs for Distribution

Distribution businesses have developed their own distinctive KPIs. In addition to basic financial KPIs, a distribution business tends to focus on operational metrics that reflect critical business functions—often tied to profitability. They include:

  • Inventory Turnover Ratio – comparing inventory turns for low-turnover and high-turnover items. This KPI is useful for purchasing managers, as it should inform the volume of future buying.
  • On Time Shipping Ratio – comparing on-time shipping performance for custom orders at multiple warehouses over a period time.
  • Profitability by Item – revealing which customers and products are the most profitable.

It can take some focus and internal research to determine the best KPIs for your distribution business. We can help. We have guided distribution companies through the process of setting up data analytics and KPI dashboards.

To download the Distribution KPI white paper, visit  https://www.ccstechnologygroup.com/resources/kpis-for-distribution/.

Additional Distribution ERP Resources

Finding the Productivity Advantage in Distribution Management

5 Reasons Distributors Need ERP Software

How ERP Software Can Promote a Sustainable Supply Chain

Don’t Improvise Your Way Through Disaster Recovery

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Given the importance of disaster recovery (DR), you don’t want to improvise through the planning—or worse, through the execution. Here are some best practices to make sure your disaster recovery follows an effective script:

1. Assign staff to disaster recovery

It sounds obvious, but if you don’t have staff assigned to disaster recovery, it isn’t anybody’s job, and it won’t get done. You need staff who are dedicated and empowered to make sure disaster recovery is properly planned. This isn’t limited to technology staff either; business employees have roles and responsibility in disaster recovery as well.

2. Develop a detailed plan

If you don’t want to improvise, you need a documented plan. The full contents of a DR plan are beyond the scope of this short blog post, but you need to start by identifying all of your IT resources. Evaluate the impact of an outage on each application and use that to determine your DR priorities. Then assess how much time you can tolerate the application being down and how much data you can afford to lose. Use those numbers to guide you in developing a cost-effective recovery strategy. Document the recovery steps in detail, and make sure the recovery plan will be available in case of a disaster.

3. Test your recovery plan

It’s far better to discover your DR plan won’t work during a test rather than during a disaster. Schedule time to test your plan, at least annually. There are different ways of approaching testing, ranging from a table read-through of the documentation to fully executing the steps to failover and resume operations at a secondary site. The more your test simulates a real disaster, the more reliable results you’ll get. Track the time it takes to recover as well as the accuracy of the documented procedures. After the test, collect feedback from all participants on what worked and what didn’t, and use it to update the document.

4. Update the plan

Changes in your business and your technology mean the plan that worked last year may not work this year. Allocate time to review and update your plan every year—even better, make updating the plan part of your change management process and don’t sign off on deployments until the recovery process is documented.

5. Don’t go it alone

For many businesses, leveraging Disaster Recovery as a Service (DRaaS) is a good choice that makes disaster recovery faster and more reliable. With DRaaS, you get a high level of automation and support from the provider to help guide you through the process of defining and implementing a recovery strategy.

Another way to avoid going it alone is to work with an IT services firm like CCS Technology Group. Our disaster recovery and business continuity services help you protect your data, reduce downtime, and survive a crisis. Contact us to learn how CCS Technology Group can help you write your disaster recovery script.

Additional Disaster Recovery Resources

Craft An Effective Disaster Recovery Plan

5 Changes to Make When You Switch to Disaster Recovery in the Cloud

Backups Are Not A Disaster Recovery Solution

9 Ways to Get Cloud Costs Under Control

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Many companies turn to cloud services in an attempt to control computing costs, but it’s just as easy to rack up high expenses in the cloud. It can be hard to manage cloud costs because the lack of visibility, self-service functionality, and dynamic changes to services make knowing what’s going on in your cloud difficult. Here are 9 things you can do to make sure your cloud computing bill doesn’t grow unexpectedly large:

1. Choose the right size services

With cloud, your costs directly reflect the capacity of your resources, so it’s best to choose the smallest systems that meet your needs. You don’t have to worry about lengthy delays in adding additional capacity, so don’t use larger disks, more memory, or faster CPUs when they aren’t needed. If you’re using cloud for archiving, choose slower, cheaper storage for data you aren’t likely to need fast or frequently.

2. Find the right strategy for paying for cloud

Paying for what you use as you use it, the stereotypical “subscription” model of cloud, may not be the most cost-effective method of purchasing cloud resources. If you can commit to cloud usage, you may get a discount for reserved instances or simply prepaying. If you have great flexibility, you may get a discount when you bid for spot instances.

3. Find the right place for your cloud

Deciding where to put your cloud isn’t just about choosing the cloud vendor. Vendors may have multiple regions where clouds are available, and the costs are not always the same everywhere. If your workload doesn’t need to be in the same region as the users, for performance or data residency reasons, consider deploying applications out of town.

4. Choose higher-level cloud offerings

When you choose Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), you remain responsible for much of the low-level infrastructure maintenance and support. You can reduce your responsibility and your support costs by choosing higher-level cloud services, such as Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS). Using serverless application also eliminates costs associated with instances.

5. Use automation as much as possible

Automation can reduce costs by making your staff more productive as they perform their functions. Automation can also help you save money by enforcing cost-saving policies, such as shutting down instances at end of day.

6. Don’t pay for idle time

Although it’s become a cliché to say business today is 24x7x365, not every application is needed 24x7x365. Since you pay for the resources you use, you’ll save significant money by not keeping resources active when they aren’t needed. Shutdown processes and processors at end of day, and also shutdown test and development systems permanently when the project ends.

7. Don’t use cloud to store data if it won’t be used there

While cloud storage is accessible, be aware that cloud vendors make it much easier and cheaper to put data into the cloud than to take it out.

8. Don’t forget free trials come with end dates

Many cloud services have a free trial period. Just remember you’ll start paying once the trial ends. If you decide you don’t need the service, be sure to shut it down before you’re charged.

9. Use tools to gain visibility

You can’t control costs when you can’t see where your spending is going. Cloud providers offer detailed breakdowns of charges. You can also use third-party tools to consolidate all your billing data and highlight changes to your cloud that result in new charges.

Get help using cloud with support from CCS Technology Group. Contact us to learn how our cloud solutions can help you leverage cloud cost-effectively.

Additional Cloud Resources

6 Ways to Keep Your Cloud Secure

Calculating the ROI of Moving to the Cloud

Why SMBs Should Upgrade to the Cloud

Don’t Let These Obstacles Get in the Way of Your IT Security

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Information security should be a top priority for any business. You don’t make any money by having good information security practices, but you can lose a lot of money if you don’t: this year, the average cost per record of a data breach was $150, according to the Ponemon Institute. Multiply that number by the size of your database and you can see how the costs quickly mount up.

So if a lack of information security can be so costly, why are there so many data breaches? One reason is that it’s impossible for any defense to be 100 percent effective; there’s always the risk that one malware author will get lucky and break through. But more often, it’s because although companies know information security is important, it isn’t really a priority. There are too many obstacles that get in the way of implementing effective security:

  • Manual processes. When processes like patch updates and vulnerability scans need to be performed manually, it’s easy to make errors or neglect to apply them to some systems.
  • Complex infrastructure. Except for a brand-new startup, every business has a jumble of technology. Different hardware, different operating systems, different operating system versions, multiple software products, and cloud systems make it difficult to develop a comprehensive approach to security that can cost-effectively protect all resources.
  • Lack of budget. In most businesses, IT is a cost center, and that means limited budget that needs to be allocated between projects that help the business grow and projects that add security to protect the business.
  • Employees don’t use safe computing practices. How many computers do you walk past with passwords written down on sticky notes? Information security is everybody’s responsibility, but many companies don’t do a good job educating their non-IT employees about safe computing, including strong passwords and recognizing phishing attacks.
  • Overworked, under-trained IT staff. IT staff is often overwhelmed and spends most of its time fighting fires and putting out today’s problems. Getting training on the latest security threats and their defenses isn’t top priority and isn’t always in the budget.
  • Changing threats. The scope and source of security threats is constantly changing. It’s not just about dealing with new variants of existing malware. There are new kinds of malware, such as ransomware, which has been devastatingly effective in numerous instances. There are also new attack vectors, including mobile devices, the internet of things, and the cloud.
  • Lack of business support. Business management is focused on the business, not IT. They sometimes see information security measures, such as preparing and testing an incident response plan, as a distraction.

Security services from CCS Technology Group can help you overcome these challenges. Our proactive approach closes holes that make you vulnerable to current attacks and implements layered security and defense in depth strategies that help guard against future attacks. Contact us to learn more about how CCS Technology Group can help you protect your business.

Additional IT Security Resources

Closing the Most Common Cybersecurity Holes

The Key Features to Look for In Your Firewall

Phishing 101: What it is, how it works and how to avoid it

Give Your Managed Services Provider This Information If You Want Them to Succeed

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After you’ve reviewed the benefits of managed services and completed a careful evaluation to choose the right managed services provider, you’ll want to take steps to make the transition to managed services successful. Gather information about the following topics and be prepared to discuss it in detail with the managed services provider:

Current IT Infrastructure

In order to support your IT effectively, the managed services provider needs to know every detail of the technology you use. They’ll want to see a detailed inventory and diagrams of your network, servers, and desktop systems. They also need to know about the operating systems and applications you use, including version numbers. Don’t forget to include the IT technology you don’t manage directly, including any cloud services and “bring your own device” mobile technology.

Current IT Processes

It’s likely the managed services provider will change the way IT services are performed, but to make changes easier, they’ll want to understand how your team handles things now. Have documentation about the current processes for monitoring, provisioning, and patching IT infrastructure, as well as your backup and disaster recovery processes.

Business Information

Providing the right technology solutions requires understanding business needs. Be ready to speak with your managed services provider about critical business processes, how your business is succeeding now, and the dreams and plans you have for future growth or new lines of business.

Priorities

Managed services providers need to know what your priorities are so they can make sure they focus their efforts on the things that matter to you most. Have details about where you’re experiencing the biggest problems and feeling the most pain. If you’ve identified weaknesses and security vulnerabilities, share that information, too.

Along with knowing the current problems that are your current priorities, let your managed services provider know about your future priorities, too. Share your plans for changes in technology, such as increased use of the cloud. Let the provider know if you anticipate an increase in demand, either from more employees using more online systems or from a larger customer base. If you expect to change core business processes or increase collaboration with outside partners, share those details, too. All of this information will help the managed services provider make better decisions about your infrastructure.

Key Contacts

Your managed services provider can’t succeed on their own. They’ll need information and support from your employees. Be sure you’ve identified a contact for day-to-day questions, as well as a more senior contact for periodic reviews to ensure you’re receiving the services and the quality you expected. It’s also a good idea to designate an employee for knowledge transfer from the provider, too.

Ready to get started with managed services? Find out how CCS Technology Group can help you meet your current IT needs and position you for future growth.

Additional Managed Services Resources

Whatever Your IT Problem, There’s a Managed Services Solution

How Managed Services Make the Difference

Overcome the Challenges of Hybrid IT With Managed Services

Why Acumatica Outpaced NetSuite on the Most Recent G2 Survey

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Prospective buyers of ERP software often compare Acumatica cloud ERP with Oracle NetSuite. The two solutions are broadly comparable, but with some notable differences. In March of this year, a survey by G2 Crowd, the world’s leading business soft­ware review platform, revealed a preference for Acumatica when compared with NetSuite.

What Acumatica and NetSuite have in common

Acumatica and NetSuite have similar features in many function areas. Both solutions offer Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) options in the cloud. They both integrate Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Customer Resource Management (CRM), e-commerce and Business Intelligence (BI). They both enable mobility. Each has several dedicated industry packages, e.g. for manufacturing, distribution and so forth.

Differences between the solutions

What’s different between the two solutions? For one thing, regarding deployment, Acumatica gives its users a choice between on-premises, cloud and hybrid architectures. In contrast, NetSuite is only available in the cloud with a multi-tenant architecture.

Other distinctions include:

  • Scalability—Acumatica enables customers to add users at any time, at no additional cost due its “resource-based” pricing model. Customers pay for resources they consume. NetSuite charges on a per-user basis as well as for additional resources.
  • Relational database export—NetSuite’s ability to directly export data in a relational format is limited. Acumatica offers built-in automated backup service and snapshots. Users can access a fully relational copy of their data whenever they need one.
  • Customization—Acumatica facilitates customization with “point-and-click tools” or coding languages like C# and .NET. NetSuite relies on SuiteScript, a proprietary programming language. It is a not common language. With SuiteScript, it is difficult to find skilled developers who understand how to customize NetSuite.

Understanding the G2 user satisfaction ratings

The G2 user satisfaction ratings reveal some telling comparisons between Acumatica and NetSuite, however. Acumatica outperformed NetSuite in several categories. Acumatica users found the solution easier to use (82% of Acumatica users rated the solution for “Ease of use” vs. 74% for NetSuite.) Acumatica is evidently an easier company to do business with. (84% of Acumatica users cited “Ease of Doing Business With” vs. 71% for NetSuite.)

Other categories where Acumatica found higher satisfaction among G2 reviewers include:

  • Quality of support – 78% of Acumatica vs. 68% for NetSuite
  • Meets requirements – 84% of Acumatica vs. 79% for NetSuite
  • Ease of admin – 78% of Acumatica vs. 71% for NetSuite

Asked “Is the product headed in the right direction,” 88% of Acumatica users agreed, versus 68% of NetSuite users. In terms of Return on Investment (ROI), 30% of Acumatica user predicted they would see ROI with 12 months. For NetSuite, the figure was 23%. The numbers were the same for customers expecting ROI with 13-24 months: 30% for Acumatica vs 23% for NetSuite. For the long term, 5% of Acumatica users felt ROI would come in more than 48 months vs. 11% for NetSuite.

Get the full report here.

The G2 findings are compelling. To figure out if Acumatica is right for your business, you’ll have to see for yourself. Learn more about comparing Acumatica vs. NetSuite. We can help. We have guided many clients in their decision about which ERP solution is the best for their particular business. Contact us to learn more.

What is ERP Software?

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What is ERP software? That’s easy. ERP stands for “Enterprise Resource Planning.” That’s what ERP does. But, what is enterprise resource planning, anyway? The software that bears this name has evolved so much since it was first invented that many people have lost track of what the term actually means.

In the 1970s, when ERP was new, it was super easy to explain what ERP did. Enterprises wanted software to help them plan for the resources they needed to operate. This was mostly in manufacturing contexts. If your company made cars or bulldozers, for instance, your ERP software (which ran on a mainframe computer) guided you in terms of how much steel, how many parts, and so forth to order—and when. The ERP software in those days helped with managing the supply chain. In some cases, they connected with General Ledger accounting software.

Modern ERP functionality

Today, this kind of nuts and bolts functionality is really just one element of ERP. Now, ERP software is a suite of tools that cover almost every area of business operations and finances. Most ERP solutions today are modular. You can buy modules that cover the following functions:

  • Operations management and supply chain, i.e. the traditional ERP workload
  • Manufacturing management
  • Logistics and shipping
  • Financial management, e.g. treasury and financial planning
  • Accounting, including invoicing, accounts payable and accounts receivable
  • Distribution management
  • Field Service management
  • Materials Requirement Planning (MRP)

In addition, most modern ERP packages offer the option of adding modules for Customer Resource management (CRM) and human resource management (HR) as well as industry-specific editions. You can get ERP for the automotive industry, for food manufacturing, transportation, import/export and so forth.

ERP deployment

Deployment options have also proliferated for ERP. Originally, ERP, like most other software on the market, was only for on-premises installation. Today, you can continue to run ERP on premises if you wish. But, you can also get it on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) basis, where you host nothing and get the full software feature set through a browser. You can deploy ERP on a private cloud. You can arrange for hosting through a managed services provider (MSP). Or, you can run ERP on the public cloud. Both Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure now offer sophisticated ERP options on demand.

ERP implementation

ERP has gotten more economical to purchase and a bit easier to install than it once was. The software still represents a commitment of time and resources, however. Given its centrality to running your business, this should make sense. It takes focus and attention to detail to get ERP right.

In some cases, an implementation partner can be helpful in selecting and setting up ERP. We can help in this regard. We work with Acumatica cloud ERP, for instance. We have extensive experience in working with clients in the important pre-implementation discovery and thought process. This work involves looking closely at business processes, structure and strategy to determine the best approach to ERP. It establishes which ERP modules are required initially and which can be purchased later, if at all. Then, we work in collaboration with your IT department and business stakeholders to implement ERP so it becomes the operational and financial core of your business.

Additional ERP Resources

5 Benefits of ERP for Accounting and Financial Management

Qualities to Look for in a Cloud ERP

How to Improve Efficiency with a New ERP Solution

Finding the Productivity Advantage in Distribution Management

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What’s the right Distribution Management System for your business? Obviously, there’s no universally correct answer to this question. Every business has its own unique needs. However, based on our experience working with companies that have adopted the Acumatica Cloud ERP for Distribution Management, we recommend it in most situations. There are many reasons for this, one of which is the productivity advantage inherent in the solution.

The Importance of Productivity in Distribution Management

Productivity, in the context of information work, refers to how many tasks an employee can complete in a given amount of time. In non-structured work like managing a distribution business, it can be difficult to measure productivity accurately. However, it is definitely possible to identity ways that distribution management software can make your team work more productively.

Why does productivity matter in a distribution business? Employee productivity is an important factor in being able to scale a distribution business. To grow without adding a lot of headcount, it’s necessary to make people work more productively. Otherwise, you’ll be increasing Sales, General and Administrative (SG&A) expense at an uncomfortable rate even if revenues are going up.

The Distribution Management Productivity Checklist

Distribution management features make a difference in employee productivity. To help you think about matters in this regard, Acumatica published a checklist of productivity features in their product. Here are some highlights:

  • Is the solution intuitive, meaning is it easy to learn and use? Legacy ERP solutions can be challenging to master and relatively cumbersome to operate. These are drags on productivity that make it difficult to hire and onboard new people.
  • Is it truly universally available? Employees are increasingly mobile—whether they’re on the shop floor, at a vendor location or taking a canoe trip in the mountains. They will want access to the full functionality of the distribution management system regardless of their location or device form factor. A good distribution management solution will enable access from any device, anytime, anywhere.
  • Does it handle multiple languages? You can no longer assume that everyone in your operation speaks English, or any single language. The system should work in the language that best fits your people’s preferences. This includes document printing in multiple languages, i.e. the language your customer speaks.
  • Is it multi-currency? When the system can handle multiple currencies, that relieves your people of the chore (and error-prone process) of manual currency conversion.
  • Does it have automated workflows? – People work much more productively with automated business processes approval workflows, notifications and so forth.
  • Does it support Wikis? Wikis are an easy way for people to share information and documents across any combination of teams, departments, and external users. This makes the team more productive by reducing the need to search for information.
  • Can it handle document management? Separate documents are often part of the distribution management process, e.g. bills of lading, purchase orders, etc. Making documents accessible to all key personnel saves people time.
  • Does it run a single database? People work productively when they are all working off a single version of the truth.
  • How comprehensive is the reporting capability? People make better, quicker decisions and fewer mistakes when they have access to detailed, well-presented information.

We can help you understand your productivity challenges and how they can be addressed by the right distribution management solution. If you want to learn more about how Acumatica can help your distribution management team work more productively, let’s talk.

Additional Distribution Resources

ERP for Distributors: What Matters and What Doesn’t?

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Distribution

5 Reasons Distributors Need ERP Software

The Key Features to Look for In Your Firewall

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Keeping your front door locked is the first step in keeping intruders out of your home. Keeping your network’s front door locked is the first step in keeping intruders out of your systems. A firewall provides that first line of defense for your business; here’s what to look for.

Technical Features

It used to be relatively simple for firewalls to offer protection. They blocked or allowed access based on rules regarding ports, protocols, applications, and IP addresses. It could be administratively challenging to keep track of the reasons behind the rules, making maintenance difficult, but the overall idea was straightforward.

Today the protection offered by firewalls needs to be much more technically robust and flexible. Threats come in so many varieties and are created and modified so frequently that limits based on lists of ports don’t offer enough protection. Instead, firewalls must:

  • protect applications regardless of port. Applications today aren’t always run on standard ports, so application-based controls need to be able to identify applications no matter which port they’re using.
  • control applications at the feature level. The firewall also should offer fine-grained controls to ensure application usage conforms to corporate policies. Many online services offer multiple functions, only some of which may be allowed.
  • identify users appropriately. IP addresses aren’t enough to determine who’s accessing your network. Where possible, user-based policies ensure access is limited appropriately no matter where a user connects from. Remote users need the same access and same limitations as on site users.
  • inspect encrypted traffic. It’s ironic that encryption keeps traffic safe as it travels over external networks but hinders safety once the data reaches your network. SSL inspection is critical to protecting you from dangerous traffic, but needs to be performed rapidly with minimal performance impact on end-users.
  • cope with the unknown. It isn’t enough to scan the traffic you expect; your firewall needs to be able to inspect and manage the traffic you know nothing about, including unknown applications and atypical ports. Blocking unknown traffic may prevent users from accessing needed services, but allowing unknown traffic presents a high risk to your systems.
  • minimal performance impact. We mentioned above that SSL inspection can potentially cause performance issues users notice; that’s not the only possible performance impact. Since all your network traffic goes through your firewall, even if all your firewall did was automatically say yes to everything, it would be a potential bottleneck due to volumes. Firewalls need the appropriate amount of ports, CPU capacity, and network in order to do their job without keeping other systems from doing their own jobs effectively.

Operations Features

Firewalls require oversight, but a solution with an easy to use dashboard and minimal routine administrative work eases the impact on your team. It’s also important that your firewall logs capture detailed information that can flow into analytics programs to identify possible attacks on your network.

Pricing

Finally, the cost of your firewall needs to fit your budget, but balance that investment against the potential costs of doing nothing. The estimated cost of a data breach is $150 per record stolen, according to the latest Ponemon report. With malicious attacks the main cause of breaches, the value of a firewall is obvious.

CCS Technology Group offers security services that guard your sensitive data with firewalls and other protective technology. Contact us to learn more about implementing an effective cybersecurity strategy.

Additional Security Resources

7 Common Mistakes That Place Your Data in Danger

Different Kinds of Malware Need Different Kinds of Defenses

6 Ways to Keep Your Cloud Secure

5 Risks of Poor Collaboration in the Workplace

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Collaboration sometimes comes across as a soft subject. It’s in the “nice to have” category, but somehow removed from serious business matters. If this was ever the case, it no longer is. Collaboration is at the heart of many critical business processes, especially as business grow more virtual and geographically spread out. Strategy execution relies, in large part, on effective collaboration. It’s how earnings grow. Poor collaboration comes with business risks. Solutions like Microsoft Teams help you avoid the consequences of poor collaboration.

Briefly, What is Collaboration in the Modern Business?

In simple terms, collaboration refers to two or more people working cooperatively on the execution of a project or task. It’s a familiar process, something most of us have been doing since nursery school. In the modern business context, however, collaboration is a much richer and involved activity.

Collaboration today means people working closely with one another, regardless of whether they are in the same physical space. It encompasses file sharing, collaborative document editing, task management, project tracking, phone/video/chat and web meetings. It the process that leads to the realization of team- and business-wide objectives.

5 Risks of Poor Collaboration

Poor collaboration can have a number of negative effects on a business. Some are (expensive) nuisances. Others could actually threaten a company with legal problems or security risks. Here are five major risks of poor collaboration, based on our experience working with many clients on collaboration technology projects:

1. Wasting time

This may not seem like such a big deal, but it is. Employees are expensive. Every minute wasted with sub-optimal collaboration tools nips earnings from the bottom line. For example, a few minutes wasted searching for the most recent draft of a document, across every team in the company, hundreds of times a year, can really add up. Microsoft Teams solves this problem by embedding enterprise search right into the collaboration interface.

2. Poor project management

Teams frequently use collaboration tools to manage projects. The better the tool, the more smoothly the project management process will go. The reverse is also true. If task assignments, follow ups, document sharing, scheduling and so forth are difficult, team members may abandon the tool and work through email and chat. This is sub-optimal and may impair project execution. Microsoft Teams provides extensive project management and tracking functionality.

3. Poor execution of strategy

In the aggregate, projects and collaborative work roll up to overall business strategy. Without the right tools, your teams cannot execute on strategies. The negative effects of this collaboration risk will appear in results at the end of the period.

4. Negative impact on morale and team cohesion

Employees may spend a great deal of their time inside the collaboration interface. If the experience is challenging or counter-productive, this can affect morale and team cohesion. People get stressed out when their tools can’t help them get their jobs done or meet their personal career goals.

5. Security risks

Collaboration often involves sharing confidential information and access to internal systems. Hackers may try to exploit vulnerabilities in the collaborative ecosystem to access data and digital assets. Microsoft Teams mitigates this risk with countermeasures like encryption for data in transit and chat.

The right collaboration software can make a difference when it comes to avoiding these risks and related problems in getting teams to work together productively. Get a head start with the Teams Quick Start Program from CCS Technology. In just 2 to 3 weeks we will get you up and running on the Microsoft Teams Platform, which can enhance productivity–translating into more effective meetings, greater revenues, and profits. Click here to learn more.

Learn more in Improving Collaboration With Microsoft Teams.