Achieving the balance between the different priorities of a company is a complex task if the operating software it uses does not meet the required standards or, worse still if it has grown up with isolated systems for its different functional areas.
What was enough in the past will not necessarily meet the demands of a company’s present, much less the future it envisions?
The manufacturing sector naturally demands a list of very specific priorities that must be precisely addressed in order to compete in the marketplace.
It is not only about getting customers but about taking care of the total administration of the company: hiring trained personnel, interacting with good suppliers, installing standardized quality processes, having first-rate equipment, maintaining healthy finances, as well as adapting the product to the market and achieve good sales and marketing mechanisms.
Nor is it enough to create something and assume that the product will have an outlet; It also depends on how your system operates and supports all processes, from the contact with the customer who places the order to the supplier that provides the raw material, through the departments that work so that the materials and the accounts are on time to fulfill with the expectations of delivery.
Faced with such a scenario, a business management solution integrated with ERP, CRM, and an e-commerce platform can support the key processes of a manufacturing company and become a differentiator that positions it in the market.
Here we explore a few reasons why Oracle NetSuite can become your right hand in undertaking such a mission.
The importance of the first contact
Without customers there are no orders or production, much less inventory to sell; Thus, since there are no profits, there is no possibility of subsisting either. For this reason, the first contact deserves all the attention of a company.
Having a CRM system that encompasses all the processes of a sale —including the ideal follow-up of clients, from their first approach to completing the order— is an excellent first step to meet the needs of our customers.
The first contact is important because future production requests can be derived from a satisfied customer. They are not looking to sell you once, but to establish a deeper relationship as your primary supplier. This loyalty is key in the manufacturing industry.
Clear accounts
How long should you wait to know the financial status of your company? The uncertainty about the capital available to invest, acquire better raw materials, or assume strategic risks ends up robbing organizations of the possibility of accessing new challenges and streamlining their decision-making process.
Regaining awareness of your finances is one of the significant benefits that an integrated business management suite such as implementation of NetSuite brings to a business. Any procedure, new payment, deposit, purchase or credit note edits the ledger in real-time, with changes that are instantly reflected in the financial reports that the tool can generate.
With clear accounts, opportunities don’t need waiting times.
Preproduction
An operating software not only plays a vital role in production but also in the processes leading up to it.
If in itself it is complex to deal simultaneously with the many facets that the sector demands – dealing with suppliers, negotiating prices, generating purchase orders, making invoice payments, receiving material, putting it into inventory, placing it in the warehouse, and putting it into production -, doing it with a poor system makes it an impossible task.
For this, there is no such thing as simplicity. You don’t need a system for every task; rather, one that is capable of covering and integrating all processes at the time.
NetSuite mobile app solves this and other problems for a manufacturing company. A clear example is how the platform is in charge of automating tasks such as making suggestions for purchases of materials required by the production area, thus avoiding delays and helping to meet delivery times.
Control of operating costs
How long does it take you to identify your costs and get results from your income compared to your expenses?
To speak of operating costs is to speak of the combination of many processes. Thus, to make a company profitable, there must be effective integration of aspects such as the control of the finished product, the realization of sales, and the entry of cash. But, how to control that these costs do not increase if you do not have all this information in a timely manner?
An integrated business management platform such as Oracle NetSuite records and provides accurate data and key reports instantly.
This system even allows you to automatically calculate dead periods between operations and extract a comparison of real operating times to check against the estimated ones.
All this has a direct positive impact on operating costs since it means the possibility of preventing and correcting any leakage and inefficiency in the processes.
In short, adopting a world-class system like Oracle NetSuite in your company is to regain control of your company, which translates into better practices, better times, and better costs in an industry as competitive as manufacturing