2. The Cost of Not Knowing
“. . . if only w e had know n . . .”
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3. Consider This . . .
Scenario:
• A customer who normally pays within 30 days
• They currently have $30K that is 45 days old, but . . .
. . . you don’t know it because you run your reports at month-end
• Today you ship out a $25K order to them
• At month-end you recognize the issue and discover the client is
having serious cash flow problems . . .
Cost of not know ing?
• Best case: Carrying $55K in A/R
• Worst case: Writing off $55K when they close shop
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4. If You Are Data-Driven . . .
Solution:
• Alert the account manager about their overdue client
• Notify the finance dept to start collections
• Automatically re-send the client their statement
• Automatically put the client on credit hold
• Set up the A/R Aging report to auto-run whenever a client’s balance
and days overdue exceeds your threshold
The Technology:
Sage Alerts & Workflow
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5. Business Activity Monitoring
Also known as Operational Business Intelligence* or “OBI”
BAM refers to a system of automated processes which analyze and
respond to organization-specific business activities and transactions.
BAM lets organizations automate manual tasks while providing
employees with task-specific, time-sensitive insight, helping them
complete their tasks more efficiently and intelligently.
BAM helps an organization increase daily operational efficiency and
improve their management of transactional “exceptions”.
(*Intelligent Enterprise, Jan 2008)
6. Sage Alerts & W orkflow consists of . . .
Four components:
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Data Mining (Business Intelligence)
Alerts / Notification
Form, Document, & Report Distribution
Workflow
Clients use it to:
•
Monitor business data and . . .
•
•
•
•
•
•
Trigger Alerts
Generate & Deliver Forms
Trigger & Distribute Reports
Trigger Task Creation
Integrate Application Data
Process Incoming Email
(page a technician)
(send a client an invoice)
(send a forecast report to a manager)
(schedule a follow-up phone call)
(create an order from a closed sale)
(create a support ticket)
9. Financial Conditions
Sage Alerts & Workflow identifies conditions such as . . .
Overdue receivables (re-send invoice or dunning notice)
Suppliers with perpetually late deliveries
Terms discounts that are about to expire
Inventory stock approaching re-order level
Receipts against purchase order lines
Orders with unapproved discounts
Overstocks for products that need to be sold or written off
Clients whose monthly sales dropped by at least ‘x’ percent (trend analysis)
Clients put on / taken off credit hold
Clients on credit hold who have open sales opportunities in a CRM system
10. Sales (CRM) Business
Conditions
Sage Alerts & Workflow identifies conditions such as . . .
Opportunities that are overdue for closing or have not been followed-up on
Client contracts that are due to expire
Customers who have changed their buying habits
Missing or erroneous data
A client whose credit rating has changed
Opportunities with unapproved discounts
Sales reps who are “rolling over” their activities from one day to the next
Leads that come in from your website or from an email campaign
New or updated sales literature
Time-sensitive pricing or promotions
Remote sales reps who have not synched in over ‘x’ hours
12. Email Monitoring
Sage Alerts & Workflow monitors and auto-processes incoming
Email, such as . . .
Email messages sent to generic account such as “finance” or “sales”
Order-related emails – such as questions about delivery dates
Emails that are from existing clients, partners or vendors – matching the sender of the
Email with the corresponding contact record in your Accounting database
Emails that are from new clients – automatically creating the appropriate account
record in your Accounting databases
Website requests for information, automatically sending back the requested materials
Website form registrations, automatically updating your applications with the details of
who signed up for what
Web form content, automatically sending a receipt confirmation back to the person
who filled out the form, and notifying your staff about that visitor
14. Cross-Application Analysis
Alerts & Workflow can combine data from multiple applications and analyze it
jointly, such as calculating whether a new lead in a CRM application
would put a client over their credit limit in
their financial application.
Uncompleted activities
Clients put on/off credit hold
Changes to sales opportunities
Overdue receivables/dunning notices
Dips in a salesrep’s pipeline
Sending order confirmations
Prospects not contacted in Stock that is nearing its re-order level
‘x’ days
Limited-time specials
Delayed order/part shipment
Sage
CRM
Changes in buying habits Auto-gen picking lists ERP
Salesreps who don’t synch Orders with un-approved discounts
Overloaded support reps Early payment discounts
Repeat buying incentives Match incoming stock with backorders
Leads not followed-up on Time-sensitive stock
20. Form, Document & Report Generation
Sage Alerts & Workflow generates & delivers Forms, Documents and
Reports either as scheduled, or based on business conditions, such as
...
Delivering Invoices for newly-created orders
Sending out monthly customer statements
Generating Picking tickets / Picking lists
Producing daily, weekly, or monthly reports, such as Stock Status or A/R Aging reports
Auto-sending dunning notices for clients who are behind on their payments
Delivering work orders for mobile service technicians
Generating purchase orders for items nearing their re-order level
Reporting on leases and contracts about to expire
Sending out thank-you letters, surveys, birthday greetings, etc.
Enabling customer self-service reports
22. Triggered Data Updates
Sage Alerts & Workflow can auto-update your applications, such as . . .
Creating a scheduled follow-up call after an order is placed
Copying order details from an ERP system to a CRM system
Updating the status of an “approved” request
Re-assigning a project that has reached a certain stage
Updating a client’s history with the details of an overdue invoice
Exporting financial data to a spreadsheet, Access database, or external file
Updating a client’s records with the details of a received email message
Creating a new client record based on a web inquiry or order
Auto-placing a client “On Hold” based on overdue receivables
Synchronizing data between multiple applications
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23. Customer Testimonials
“Sage KnowledgeSync gave us a unique, competitive edge. Vineyardsoft is 100%
responsive to our business. I recommend them highly.”
“On average Sage KnowledgeSync saves us over 100 hours and $10K – $12K per
month.”
“Sage KnowledgeSync has, in our mind, fully made a profit if we recover one
customer who would otherwise have been lost to us.”
“Sage KnowledgeSync is the equivalent of two full-time employees.”
“Sage KnowledgeSync is our “invisible worker”. We were able to implement it
easily and get our ROI almost immediately.”
“Sage KnowledgeSync makes our job easier and it makes us look great!”
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