Archive for March, 2009
Something to Think About
An article in the March 15th Richmond Times-Dispatch caught my eye. “Values Sustain Immigrant Businesses in Downturn” talks about the fact that many of the businesses best positioned to weather a troubled economy are those started and run by immigrants. Why? Because they tend to rely on traditional values: being thrifty, avoiding excessive debt, relying [...]
Retail Pro, Page-Digital File for Bankruptcy Update
It has been brought to my attention that there are a few inaccuracies in our original blog on this subject that I would like to amend/correct as follows:
Retail Pro product sales have not in fact been declining over the past several years, nor have their annual maintenance renewals. Further review of the of the documents [...]
Marketing, Merchandising, Inventory Control: Gaining a Single Version of the Truth
I was sitting in a client meeting for business intelligence (BI) and dashboard planning this past week, and the Merchandising, Marketing and Inventory Control people were squaring off over why Merchandising’s results never tie back to Marketing and Inventory Control. Some of it was argumentative, but when you step back and look at it objectively, [...]
From the Dark Side of Productivity
I’m with a firm that spends much of its time helping clients improve productivity and reduce costs. We are ever mindful of the negative side—the “dark side”—of productivity projects. What is the dark side? It’s what happens if we don’t take the human factor into account. As someone with 30 years of experience in industrial [...]
Managing Customer Call Center Costs in an Uncertain Economy
Today’s call center mantra is, “Do more with what you have.” In this uncertain economy there is even more pressure to perform miracles by increasing productivity while lowering costs, yet still continuing to provide expected customer service levels. In our consulting engagements with direct call centers and through our F. Curtis Barry & Company Best [...]
Top Ways to Cut Costs and Improve Customer Satisfaction
Every smart business manager is constantly looking for ways to reduce costs and make the operation more productive. In today’s challenging economic climate, such efforts become even more crucial. Small steps that can help to save money may make a big difference. Our experience in the fulfillment and call center has been that often the [...]
How to Make Vendor Compliance Programs Work For You
Of all the strategies for reducing costs in your catalog business, vendor compliance programs may be the most underdeveloped. A well-thought-out, formal vendor compliance policy can reduce warehousing and freight costs, speed up order processing, and lead directly to increased customer satisfaction. In order to achieve this it must spell out your requirements and the charge-backs [...]
The Changing Software Vendor Landscape
How the Order Management Systems Landscape is Changing
For a long time, many prospective buyers of direct order management software and retail management systems have complained that there were not very many choices in terms of vendors and their offerings. The good news is that over the last couple of years, some truly new and good [...]
