How realistic is it to have a rock solid single application for direct and retail? Are there ERP systems being installed in direct? What progress are Order Motion and ProfitCenter Systems making in developing and installing their SaaS models? How do you know about the stability of the vendors and the management changes that are taking place? How do you stay current, make sense of it all and know which option is most suitable for your business?

There are three essentials. One, it comes back to adopting a solid methodology and strategy for evaluating and selecting the solutions that are best for your company. The first task at hand is to have the right expectations. This means having realistic expectations for the time frames, tasks, responsibilities and level of investment necessary. This comes from experience. Are you better off continuing to develop your own application or moving to a commercial system?

Two, it’s important to have the right expectations and understanding of the capabilities and limitations of various software applications. In order to do this, a company must develop highly detailed business requirements as well as integrations to outside applications and service bureaus. It is nearly impossible to compare applications and to know if your expectations can be met, if you have not clearly defined what it is you are looking for in a software solution.

And essential number three, consider using an experienced consultant to temporarily augment your staff’s knowledge about the applications that are installed in this rapidly changing marketplace, and the most reliable vendors.

The vendors’ job is to sell. Your’s is to match up the applications against your requirements and to aquire or develop the best application strategy. For help with evaluating your application strategy, vendor application knowledge and determining the steps and tasks necessary to select your next order management system, call us today.

Here are the 10 major mistakes that we see companies make:

• Not having the right team in place to select and implement the system;
• Failure to write requirements and develop a gap analysis between vendor applications;
• Limiting the search to a few vendors too early in the process;
• Not conducting a competitive bid process;
• Picking technology over application function;
• Planning too many modifications versus adopting the application’s business process;
• Superficial demos that aren’t scripted to critical functionality;
• Incomplete reference checks;
• Signing vendor contracts before the total investment for hardware, software, services and maintenance are identified;
• Not having an intellectual property lawyer review the agreements before signing.

After 23 years of helping clients select and implement order management and warehouse management systems, we have put together a seminar to help shut down these potential problems. The seminar - “Selecting the Right Order Management and Warehouse Management System For Your Business” will be held in Richmond, VA on May 5 and 6, 2008. The seminar will be conducted by Paul Sobota and Brian Barry – two guys who have selected and implemented more order management systems than any other consultants.

Call Jeff Barry at 804-740-8743 or email him at jbarry@fcbco.com for details.

Take, for instance, two of our clients: Coldwater Creek and Norm Thompson.

Coldwater Creek has recently converted to company-wide use of wind energy to power its corporate headquarters, distribution center, and call centers, as well as a number of its retail stores.

Norm Thompson built one of the country’s first “green buildings”, using recycled materials and sustainably harvested wood, and is highly energy efficient.

Other firms are engaged in equally environmentally-conscious practices, such as using soy ink for catalog printing, using paper that has a higher recycled fiber content and using packaging fill that can be recycled.

Average environmentally conscious Americans and businesses know that what they are doing is making a positive impact on the environment, and that is its own reward. They should be our real role models.

Let us know what your company is doing to reduce your impact on the environment by clicking on “Leave A Comment” link below.