Automation for Business Growth
Blue Link ERP
All-in-one inventory management and accounting ERP software for wholesale and distribution businesses.
Automation goes hand in hand with digitalization and in this era of information technology nowadays everything around us is getting automated from cars to watches to factories to business.
For example, an autonomous car is a vehicle capable of sensing its environment and getting from point A to B without human involvement. Smartwatches are convenient and useful, offering an appealing combination of features such as providing weather details, tracking health, and some can even make phone calls.
Automation isn’t reserved for large and established businesses only. If you own and operate a small-scale business, then you should know the benefits of automation and how it might affect your business. Automation can save money, increase your company’s efficacy, and encourage business growth.
Why Should You Automate Your Business?
Automation is key to small business growth and success as the management and employees don’t need to worry about the little details but rather focus on the bigger picture. Automation helps tasks such as delivering invoices on time or having the process be completely digital where no human intervention is needed. Thus, one has more time to plan for the future and do what is needed for business growth.
Small businesses have discovered that making the switch to automation, whether they are automating accounting, employee onboarding, or inventory management, helps them save money in the long run. Automation also cuts down on the number of errors or mistakes made, which also saves your company money. Whether you automate everything or just a few aspects of your business’s processes, you’ll see several benefits.?
Automation for Distribution Companies
Automation allows distributors and wholesalers to refocus their time on high-value tasks to increase productivity and efficiency across the entire organization. Automation eliminates the use of paper in workflows, increases visibility, and accelerates processing time for purchases, A/P and A/R processes, team onboarding, and more.
Small business automation uses software, applications, or other technology to create an automatic process for tasks. It can streamline many day-to-day operations by implementing a fully or partially automated workflow, whether it be accounting processes or sales processes. Spending time completing operational tasks manually such as manual data entry tasks, searching for files, and utilizing paper processes is making your employees lose time, energy, and resources.
Many business owners believe automation is only for bigger companies. However, small business owners can use it to focus on higher-level tasks, freeing up time to grow their business or improve their processes.
Type of Automation for Small Businesses
There are many versions of automation, for example, business process automation, looks at a business as a whole and seeks to find ways to streamline and improve operational processes. Other types of automation are designed to replace specific tasks that would otherwise be performed by a person manually. Some examples of automation that your company might use include:
SaaS Opportunities
As a growing business, it becomes difficult to find the right software that has all the functionality, plus additional tools to help the business continue to grow. An ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning Software provides an all-in-one solution. There are quite a few types of ERP software options out there that could be confusing. Let us see the different types of ERP software and their benefits and differences so you can make the right decision for your business.
Web-Based ERP Software
Web-based software is accessed via an internet browser anywhere, anytime with a reliable Wi-Fi connection such as a smartphone, tablet, or laptop. Web-based software will have different purchasing options and is sold using a one-time payment for a specific period of time. The data is stored either at your business and is the responsibility of your IT department or on the vendors’ servers in third-party data centers.
Cloud-Based ERP Software
Cloud-based software is?accessed via Remote Desktop Protocol. It allows you to connect from your device to another computer over the internet. The RDP client software or application must be installed on the device. The data is stored on the cloud and managed by the vendors’ in-house professionals in multiple secure data centers. Cloud ERP systems provide comparable functionalities at a much lower cost, especially those using the public cloud model as the costs could be divided among multi-tenant users. In SaaS models, the servers are deployed on the cloud which is designed so that users connect over the internet and pay an ongoing fee to use the system. With cloud software, the software vendor is responsible for managing the physical hardware and servers.
On-Premises System
On-Premises systems refer to software that you manage on your equipment which means that the business is responsible for purchasing the server equipment and hardware, then configuring the server to run the software and programs. This also includes the management of security, back-ups, and data privacy which requires the business to hire and entire IT team.
How to Increase Business Growth with Automation
1.????Increasing Warehouse efficiency?
Barcode Scanning
Automation with Barcode scanning makes it easy for you to quickly scan and look up inventory items while walking your warehouse. You can retrieve information on product in stock and on backorder, product available at other locations, product ready to be picked, descriptions, categories, pricing and images all at once, which saves a lot of effort and time. It also helps in :
FIFO
Inventory costing methods vary from business to business and from product to product. In the wholesale distribution business assigning the right dollar value to the inventory items is quite important, especially where large quantities of products are sold at a time.
The FIFO costing method requires the oldest items in the inventory be sold first and corresponds to the actual physical flow of goods in your warehouse. This method is useful for companies selling dairy products or fresh?fruits and vegetables,?who want to avoid large losses?due to spoilage. As in the FIFO method the items are sold according to the?earliest expiration date. The right software will tell you the right place the item is and provide you with all the details about the products based on its timeline and hence automation will help your business grow and so FIFO is preferred by many wholesale distribution businesses.
Freightsnap?
Freight snap used by our client Kroeger is a perfect example of automation in the warehouse. The AI automatically picks up the dimensions of the item placed on it and feeds it to the Blue Link software. This has helped Kroeger save time and money with their shipments.
Inventory?
Automation in inventory helps you avoid understocking or overstocking which can really affect your business. For automation,?Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software?is designed to help a business manage inventory along with accounting, warehousing, contact management, sales analysis and more. ERP software is important for businesses looking to grow, wanting to automate manual processes, or simply wanting to invest in their business efficiencies. There are few inventory management tasks that can be easily automated including?automatically updating pricing or?automating purchase orders.?Automating purchasing orders doesn’t only speed up the process for your employees but always reduces mistakes prone to human error.
2.???eCommerce Integration
Currently eCommerce has led to easy purchasing, fast shipping, and delivery as competition in the market has heightened. Corporate giants such as Amazon have conditioned consumers to expect the utmost out of an eCommerce transaction. In 2022 it is recorded that?the number of Amazon Prime users in the US has increased by 49% since 2017. As the expectation of consumers increases, so does the workload and hence automation is the answer for everyone within the eCommerce space. ERP integration provides your employees with the tools necessary to complete tasks faster, and with more accuracy minimizing stress and allowing business to grow.
Email Marketing
?Email marketing automation?is one of the most popular types of automation, as well as it's one of the most accessible. With email automation you can trigger emails based on actions, such as webinar sign up confirmations or abandoned basket notifications and segment groups based on data. This helps increase reach and customer interaction solidifying loyalty within your customers.
Build Strong Customer Relationships
Automation in customer relationship is about making more time for interaction between customer and business while providing the best experience for your customers. It is not about removing the human element from 1-1 interactions. Automation enables you to manage a higher volume of customers more effectively. For example, you can automate notifications and make notes on the ERP contact management whenever you connect with the customer so you can spend the right amount of time on your clients and be efficient. Automation would update order portal so the team knows whenever the purchase takes place. In your business you can introduce chatbots that quickly answer simple questions or route a customer to the best support representatives for their inquiries, which saves your and customers’ time.?
Blue Link ERP Can Help with Automation?
Blue Link Associates?is a Canadian-based company located In Vaughan, Ontario. It provides enterprise level inventory and accounting ERP software to businesses across North America and the Caribbean. Blue Link is an owner managed company, Microsoft Gold Partner and have been in business since 1992.
Blue Link can help automate your business with its ERP software which frees you up from the tedious, everyday tasks and allows you and your team to focus on more value-added work that supports the specific and unique goals of your organization. Some of the application Blue Link provides to businesses:
Why do Some Businesses Resist Automation?
Automating routines, tedious manual processes should be a priority for any business, no matter the size. Automating a business process is not nearly as difficult as many seem to think. Small business tend to ignore automation changes because they have a lack of awareness about automation and its implications. Some businesses have this fear that automation will be complex and therefore expensive. In some businesses there is a cultural resistance as some employees don't like changes in the organization. There is also a fear of job loss as many employees doing the manual work are concerned about being replaced by automation and many business owners don’t want to lose their old staff.
Working with the right tools and professionals with the appropriate experience, nowadays it is relatively simple and not necessarily at all costly to automate these processes. Automating a tedious work simply enables and empowers the business to perform more valuable, and more stimulating and rewarding, work.