It's All About Collaboration
It's All
about Collaboration
It's a theme heard all too often in businesses about
having to cope with a "frustratingly disconnected" working environment. This is
the result of multiple software applications and users operating independently
with no existing network or using a network dependent system that is inadequate
for your business needs. To date software solutions have not been able to keep
up with the evolving needs of businesses by offering them a solution to allow
their internal operations to collaborate in a productive manner.
Business managers often have only two choices to make
when choosing a solution for your business
- A system that allows all users to share information
through a dedicated network or internet connection (at the risk of loosing the
connection). For example: Act Databases, Gold Mine, SAP etc.
- Have a system that allows all staff to reference their
material in an offline manner (making collaboration far more complicated and
difficult to perform). For example: Microsoft Outlook, Intuit QuickBooks.
Until recently there hasn't been a 'third alternative'
outside of the aforementioned choices available to business. Tradepoint
software provides a third alternative to industry standards and
completely outdates the need for both types of solutions,
giving businesses a choice that steps outside of this paradigm
altogether. Before we move on, let us briefly explore the benefits and
difficulties of both "old type" systems.
Antiquated and Expensive
The first type of system we mentioned was a network
dependant type solution. This is the same system running almost every medium and
large business across our nation and the world. The advantage of this system is
that it is possible to easily share information with other "connected" users in
an integrated fashion; however there are many downfalls to this type of
solution:
- If the main communication hub went down for any
reason, the whole company would go down with it. Obviously there is huge risk
here.
- If one of the satellite main servers went down, the
entire division would be paralyzed until the connection was re-established.
- Expensive to create because of the demand of high
powered servers.
- Expensive to maintain because of high bandwidth
connections needed to communicate information between locations and often
ecommerce sites.
- IT staffing costs are often a drain on profits.
- Off-site users such as sales personnel are
disconnected from the system unless they have some sort of connection to the
system such as in a hotel room or at a customer's location. Tele-workers are
also left out in the cold or have to use complex systems such as VPN's or
other difficult to administer gate-ways to the central database.
Not to mention this system type
is:
- Costly to create and expand.
- Time consuming to administer.
- Always frustrating and productivity draining when
things go wrong.
Frustratingly
Disconnected
The second type of system allows users to work
autonomously in a "disconnected" state having no dependency on a central server
connection. This type of solution is still being used heavily for small and
growing businesses. It is cost effective to setup and allows users to freely
work offline. This type of architecture does however have severe limitations as
a company expands:
- Sharing of data and managing data gets exponentially
more complex as more users try to "integrate" and share information with one
another.
- Constantly CC'ing emails quickly becomes time
consuming and a drain on resources.
- Sharing data and keeping information up to date at
multiple locations is also extremely frustrating and often confusing.
There is a far better way to manage your information and
data than the two aforementioned types of system integration. A new way that is
not only cost effective for even the smallest of businesses, but scalable,
flexible, powerful and fast.
Common scenarios often echo these
frustrations:
- The Productions
department cannot communicate to the sales people directly to ensure accurate
and timely quotes for orders.
- Customer Service
is not able to communicate directly with sales people regarding orders, the
status of accounts and in some cases does not have a complete list of who the
company's clients are. As a
result the sales people often have to do more account maintenance instead of
sales.
- The affiliate
network of a busy website often cannot track and communicate directly with the
company that owns and operates the website creating a situation in which
tracking affiliate sales causes delays and mistakes in commissions
payments.
- The accounting
department utilizes their own accounting software separate from the
other applications employed in a company. They cannot communicate directly
with sales, customer service or production resulting in duplicity of efforts,
adjustments in incorrect invoices, and a great deal of frustration for small
errors that should not have to happen in the first
place.
- Contact with customers happens through multiple points and with
multiple applications employed within a single company that can mean duplicity
of efforts, increased data entry, overlap in communication and errors in
customer service.
These are just several situations that often come to the
surface when addressing customers' needs for a software solution. Tradepoint Business Management
Software allows the different aspects within their business to collaborate
rather than frustrate the daily operational processes for their businesses.
One such situation can be seen with one company that has
multiple software applications utilized in accounting, customer service,
manufacturing and sales. The internal processes are very well developed to adapt
to the differences however, a considerable impact can be seen in sales since it
drives the business. All of the sales people use their own contact management
and email management applications therefore even multiple software applications
are used within the sales force.
Several situations are a result of this. The first being
there is no master list of existing clients or new clients. As a result, follow
up customer service and future marketing endeavors is very difficult without the
customer information being in one place. The customer service staff is dependent
on the sales people to follow up on additional efforts and consistency in
communication with customer support is often hard to achieve. The most
detrimental effect is the efforts of the sales people focusing on additional
responsibilities as well as sales.
Tradepoint Business
Management Software offers a
comprehensive solution addressing every aspect of this particular situation.
- The Customer
Relationship Management component within Tradepoint is linked to every aspect
of the software including email, schedule, document management,
manufacturing and conatins built in accounting software.
- The
node synchronization allows for remote users to access all of their
information without an internet connection and then when an Internet
connection is available synchronizes and updates all of their work so others
have access to and communications and changes throughout the software. This
gives Tradepoint the ability to be an internal collboration tool for employees
and also provide an online collaboration tool for businesses that utilize any
one of our Web modules
- Productivity can be taken to a new level when all of this information
is shared. Different people in different capacities of a company can do the
job they were meant to do instead of their job plus additional
responsibilities as a result of a disparate software environment within a
company.
Another instance can be seen with a high volume website
that has a well established affiliate network for sales in addition to the
direct sales through the website. They currently have several different software
applications implemented to address accounting software needs, email, database
management, Ecommerce and customer relationship management needs. In addition to
this, each affiliate has their own software separate from each other. The
biggest issue with this scenario includes tracking sales, commissions and
providing adequate customer service to people who have purchased their services.
The result is a situation where tracking revenue has become a big questions
mark.
The Tradepoint Business Management
Software solution embodies a complete solution to this specific set
of issues as well as addressing additional collaborative issues. Aspects of
functionality that provide a specific solution to this scenario
include:
- The Online Business Edition Web Module includes a
login section that can be used by affiliates (and customers) by allowing only
pertinent information specific to the affiliate or customer such as orders,
invoices, customer information and sales.
- This rich interface allows online collaboration and
affiliate sales can now be tracked in a timely manner and updates
customer information to provide continuity in customer service.
- This also maximizes sales efforts by providing a
venue for current information that can be used for future marketing
efforts.
The effects of a software environment with little or no
collaborative functionality are stressful, frustrating, and most of all
expensive. These are just two examples of companies struggling with the process
of how to have the different aspects of their business collaborate in a more
thorough, unified manner.
Tradepoint Business
Management Software offers a
software solution embodying a comprehensive intuitive approach to collaboration.
Tradepoint Business Management
Software allows all of those specific situations where something
"couldn't" be done to be situations where something "can" be
done.
If you or your company would like to find out more how
your organization can benefit from the collaborative functionality in Tradepoint
Business Software, please contact us! Ask for a free Needs Evaluation and
demonstration today!
Jennifer Pardee
Business Consultant
jpardee@tradepoint360.com
918-708-1768 direct