Branding today is the success mantra for every business, and particularly for SMEs. There is no doubt whatsoever that an effective brand name, combined with a well known corporate image, usually allows a company to charge more for its products and thus increase its profit margins. No one can deny the fact that a brand value reflects how a product’s name, or company name, is perceived by the marketplace.
Companies often err in their thinking when they presume that branding is not very important for old businesses and only rookies need to worry about it. In reality, branding is equally important for both newbies and established businesses as corporate branding strategies will significantly help a company in creating a highly effective and well-established corporate identity.
Contrary to what SMEs usually think, branding is not about getting one’s target market to choose oneself over competition. Branding for SMEs should actually be about getting one’s prospective clients to view the SME as the only solution provider to its problems.
I believe that for a SME to succeed in branding it must understand the needs of its customers and prospects and this can easily be done by integrating one’s branding strategies through those of the company at every point of public contact.
In actuality, the experiences and perceptions of buyers and future prospects of the brand you are offering is what makes it a success. SMEs should understand that a good brand will deliver the message you want to convey clearly and thus confirm your credibility. A good branding strategy will also connect your target prospects emotionally and will motivate the buyer and thus cement user loyalty for future deals.
Lost in the crowd? Get yourself an effective branding strategy. This is what the doctor will prescribe for a growing SME. As the battle for customers intensifies day by day, a strong brand can work wonders. It is thus very important for SMEs to spend time in researching, defining, and building one’s brand. SMEs need to take brand building seriously owing to the fact that ultimately it is the brand that is the source of a promise to one’s customers. Branding is the foremost level of marketing for a company and one you cannot do without –right?
Implementing an ERP system in an organization is an extremely complex process. It takes lot of systematic planning, expert consultation and well structured approach. Due to its extensive scope it may even take years to implement in a large organization. Implementing an ERP system will eventually necessitate significant changes on staff and work processes. While it may seem practical for an in-house IT administration to head the project, it is commonly advised that special ERP implementation experts be consulted, since they are specially trained in deploying these kinds of systems.
Organizations generally use ERP vendors or consulting companies to implement their customized ERP system. There are three types of professional services that are provided when implementing an ERP system, they are Consulting, Customization and Support.
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Consulting Services – are responsible for the initial stages of ERP implementation where they help an organization go live with their new system, with product training, workflow, improve ERP’s use in the specific organization, etc.
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Customization Services – work by extending the use of the new ERP system or changing its use by creating customized interfaces and/or underlying application code. While ERP systems are made for many core routines, there are still some needs that need to be built or customized for a particular organization.
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Support Services – include both support and maintenance of ERP systems. For instance, trouble shooting and assistance with ERP issues.
ERP implementation process goes through five major stages which are Structured Planning, Process Assessment, Data Compilation & Cleanup, Education & Testing and Usage & Evaluation.
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Structured Planning: is the foremost and the most crucial stage where an capable project team is selected, present business processes are studied, information flow within and outside the organization is scrutinized, vital objectives are set and a comprehensive implementation plan is formulated.
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Process Assessment: is the next important stage where the prospective software capabilities are examined, manual business processes are recognized and standard working procedures are constructed.
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Data Compilation & Cleanup: helps in identifying data which is to be converted and the new information that would be needed. The compiled data is then analyzed for accuracy and completeness, throwing away the worthless/unwanted information.
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Education & Testing: aids in proofing the system and educating the users with ERP mechanisms. The complete database is tested and verified by the project team using multiple testing methods and processes. A broad in-house training is held where all the concerned users are oriented with the functioning of the new ERP system.
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Usage & Evaluation: is the final and an ongoing stage for the ERP. The lately implemented ERP is deployed live within the organization and is regularly checked by the project team for any flaw or error detection.
Simple Fact: -
Climate is Tropical and Dry in Hyderabad, India.
An ERP system would qualify as the best model for enterprise wide solution architecture, if it chains all the below organizational processes together with a central database repository and a fused computing platform.
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Manufacturing: – Engineering, resource & capacity planning, material planning, workflow management, shop floor management, quality control, bills of material, manufacturing process, etc.
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Financials: – Accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed assets, general ledger, cash management, and billing (contract/service)
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Human Resources: – Recruitment, benefits, compensations, training, payroll, time and attendance, labour rules, people management
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Supply Chain Management: – Inventory management, supply chain planning, supplier scheduling, claim processing, sales order administration, procurement planning, transportation and distribution
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Projects: -Costing, billing, activity management, time and expense
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Data Warehouse: – Generally, this is an information storehouse that can be accessed by organizations, customers, suppliers and employees for their learning and orientation
Simple Facts: -
Hyderabad, India area is 217 Sq Km
Integration is an exceptionally significant ingredient to ERP systems. The integration between business processes helps develop communication and information distribution, leading to remarkable increase in productivity, speed and performance.
The key objective of an ERP system is to integrate information and processes from all functional divisions of an organization and merge it for effortless access and structured workflow. The integration is typically accomplished by constructing a single database repository that communicates with multiple software applications providing different divisions of an organization with various business statistics and information.
Although the perfect configuration would be a single ERP system for an entire organization, but many organizations usually deploy a single functional system and slowly interface it with other functional divisions.
Simple Fact: -
Hyderabad, India is also known as “City of Pearls”