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Thriving through Covid-19

How can we thrive not survive through the Covid-19 period

We know this is a challenging time for many businesses and the uncertainty of the situation can make it worse.

As a leading provider of business management and financial software to small-medium business we are right in the middle of it and have seen a variety of responses and impacts. Undoubtedly we have seen a small number of our clients affected and in some cases almost shut down, and on the other side of the spectrum some are booming and happen to be in the right market with high demand. Overall however, most are in the middle and have been making the most of the situation understanding that it’s only temporary.

For many of our clients this has been a time to sit back and review business operations and systems and that’s where we have been involved – helping new clients move to a cloud based ERP that facilitates the current environment and helps future growth. With that in mind we have put together a limited offer to help certain clients move to MYOB Advanced in a previously unheard of low cost way but still with the full support of https://https://https://stratusgroup.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/Matt2-1.jpg.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Business-Preparedness-Report-Cover-1.png.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/MYOB-Exo-Complete-Accounting-Solution-1.jpg to ensure the project is successful. See below for more details.

Working From Home

Working from home will likely remain the new “normal” – maybe not full time like now but possibly as a flexible option when needed from time to time.

Cloud based system offer this flexibility and with MYOB Advanced in particular it support very structured processes that can work even if team members are suburbs or cities apart.

With a powerful ERP solution you can design processes that ensure business operations can continue in an automated way and certain team members can “touch” their part of a process where required but not be solely responsible for an entire process.

This type of flexibility can open your business up to scale effectively, take on new markets, offer flexible employment options and overall reduce costs or outsource some parts of the process. At a worst it can allow you to handle current work loads and spikes without needing more staff in administration.

When is the best time to implement a new system?

If you ask any mid-sized business owner that has just gone through an ERP implementation they would say: “I wish we did this from start and not now when I have a big team and learned set processes”. Implementing an ERP system from the outset would have avoided “workarounds” where you were limited by the system in what you can do. There may be staff that would not have been needed but it was easier to put on an extra person as you got busier rather than stepping back and trying to automate.

Planning

The issue, is that as a small start-up generally most can’t justify the cost of an ERP system and opt for basic off the shelf software. This is a perfectly reasonable decision and you can’t predict how a particular business will go – why throw away $$ when you aren’t yet sure if the business will grow and how large?

Picking the right moment to switch to an ERP can be difficult – do it too early and you risk un-necessary cost and complexity. Too late and you make the whole process harder as now there are more staff to train, embedded processes that don’t make sense but everyone is used to, even customers are un-knowingly making choices and learning how to deal with you to overcome inefficiency.

 

Example:

  • Your business order fulfilment process is inefficient so as a result your clients learn and order early or decide to bulk buy and minimise number of orders.
  • As a result you make higher purchasing decisions or run out of stock for other customers who now can’t buy and go elsewhere.
  • You then purchase stock based on flawed patterns and then end up with stock you need to hold onto tying up cash-flow.
  • These are due to customers not being confident in your systems and making choices to protect their supply chain.

Is the time right

Is now right?

Lets look at the signs and if some of these apply then you know you have a basis to make the change now:

  • The business has been growing at a steady rate prior to 2020
  • You have made staffing or customer decisions due to constraints in our current system
  • You have looked at ERP in the past as you know it would help but the cost was too high at the time

There can be many other reasons such as compliance, having accurate reporting in one place to make decisions and more.

 

Has Business slowed down? Make the best of a bad situation.

The current business climate may not be right for you if it will place significant financial strain on the business but remember we are seeing unprecedented support from government.

Rebates and refunds are being offered to help business and the Job Keeper payment is designed to keep staff in work. If your business is looking to stand down or reduce staff hours then with this supplement you can utilise your team on other projects such as the implementation of an ERP.

The implementation process takes significant time and resources regardless of when you do it and so why not make the best of a bad situation and use this time to tackle the projects you have put off. We have had many successful clients do exactly that and I’m confident that once the business climate goes back to normal these are the businesses that will be best paced to make the most of the boom that follows. This also means you can keep your team employed and busy to keep their mind of the bad news and it’s being at least partially subsidised – it’s unlikely we will ever in our lifetimes be in a situation like this again.

If you are not sure please speak to our team and we can help you put together an ROI analysis to ensure it’s the right move for you.

What’s the offer?

We want to ensure ANY business that is in the right position can take advantage of the timing and implement a system now. To facilitate this we have put together an express implementation plan and costing model that is in most cases HALF of what you would have been looking at previously. The new model uses a shared approach to the implementation so you can utilise your team more and reduce consulting costs. We do not sacrifice any quality and still use our services where it’s most required to ensure a successful project. We also cut back on items that can make the system more complicated or delay the process such as customisation and offer a fast turnaround to go-live and take advantage of the system sooner.

MYOB are also offering unprecedented offers on the software so we will negotiate for you to ensure the software is priced competitively.

Our express implementation package is still tailored for each client so please contact us for a personalised quote. As a guide though an implementation that previously would have cost around $32,000 now starts from $17,500 under the new model.

This new implementation model takes considerable resources from our side to ensure its successful and as a result this will only be a limited offer per state to the first clients that book in.

Call us today on 1300 499 000 or fill out our inquiry form and we will get back to you within 24 hours.