Happy New Year!
Are Your IT Software Systems Ready for 2021?
Companies who have put off making changes to IT software systems to help cope with what was being referred to in 2020 as our “new normal” and what really is now just “normal”, should act now.
If you haven’t already made sure that your systems are ready for what 2021 has in store for us, you should be looking to make these changes as soon as possible.
As many businesses now face managing their day-to-day operations with some or perhaps all of their team working from home, it’s more important than ever to have a good solid software system/s in place to help your team give the best possible service to your customers.
Some of the areas which really need to be addressed or reviewed might include:
eCommerce Website
Does your eCommerce site offer the same level of service to your customers as the staff in your stores or on the phones would? Suggesting additional products, up-selling and suggesting alternatives if their first choice isn’t available is important when your customers are browsing your site.
A slick Magento eCommerce site will have your customers coming back for more.
It’s also imperative that the stock levels are shown on your site accurately and in real-time to avoid over promising or worse – missing out on sales altogether!
If you sell to the trade, does your website have the ability to allow your trade customers to login and see the prices that apply to them, remind them of multi-buy bulk discounts where applicable and encourage other additional sales?
Integration
Even large companies often still have gaps in the way their systems are integrated, which in turn means information has to be exported from one system, maybe then manipulated before being uploaded or manually keyed into another system. This process causes delays and as it relies on humans is error-prone.
If your business operates on a variety of systems, you will be surprised at how much time is freed up by seamlessly integrating them. By automating your business processes your customers will experience a much-improved shopping experience from your company.
Courier integration is also a key area so that your business is using the most suitable and cost-effective shipping method available.
Companies who sell through multiple sales channels such as Amazon and eBay as well as those trading with large brands who use EDI for ordering and invoicing will also need this process to be as simple and easy to manage as possible.
Reporting
If the information is in your system but you can’t access it quickly and easily, your decision-making will be much more difficult and delayed.
If your system reporting gave you the exact information you need, in real-time and when you want it, with useful alerts – you can react so much quicker.
For example, receiving alerts when your best-selling product’s stock goes below a certain level to enable you to trigger the procurement process or if you are sitting on a lot of a certain product which might need business focus to sell-through.
If your competitors have this information at their fingertips, and you don’t – you will be missing a trick.
Warehouse Barcode Scanning
Where can you make improvements to your pick, pack and despatch process?
KFA’s ScanB1 Barcode Scanning solution for pick, pack and despatch can reduce errors, speed up the despatch process and automatically update your backend system with the despatch information.
The pick process is planned based on where your stock is located in the warehouse to use the most efficient route around the warehouse for the pick teams. You can also set up ‘wave picking’ to pick multiple orders at once and a dashboard will show you exactly what is going on in the warehouse, what stage each order is at and who is working on the order.
No need to print pick notes anymore as the scanner screen becomes the pick note.
Will your 2021 begin with a business review of how your software systems cold work better for you?
If your New Year review of your IT software systems identifies areas you require assistance with, get in touch with our team here.