Cloud 9 ERP Solutions Blog

2020. It feels so weird to say. Even weirder to write (or type). While we’ve all probably made the mistake of writing 2019 a few times, the turn of the year and the decade is an exciting time. With winter (or trade show season) upon us, many of you may be busy setting up booths, panels, and more for clients. Others may be looking at the books and trying to plan for the year ahead, and others may be sitting down for much needed education.

No matter how you slice it, you know it’s busy, and if the growth in the economy continues, you can only expect it to get busier. However, you also need to know what’s going on in the industry.

It’s odd that one may think a software decision could be an emotional one. It’s software, after all. It’s a tool. You’re looking for something within your budget designed to make your employees’ lives easier. You might think, “it’s hard enough to find a product that delivers functionality, usability, or time and cost savings, now I have to factor subjective measurements too?” Yes.

The audio/visual industry is in a constant state of evolution. Knowing this, you’ve probably heard the term recurring revenue being bandied about recently, and maybe you have questions. 2020 will be another year for this, and at Cloud 9 ERP Solutions would like to explore why this is so important, as well as discuss the benefits of embracing this model.

When it comes to ERP, tiny differences matter, because after three, five, or ten years, everything adds up. Especially in today’s ERP market, where products appear similar, being able to uncover some minute difference before you sign could save you thousands or tens of thousands of dollars—if not more.

The service technician will be there between two and four. Uh huh… We’ve all been there. Sometimes, the tech arrives at 4:30, or the next day. It seems unavoidable, but it isn’t. Plus, it’s one thing to wait for your fridge to get fixed. It’s another when a multi-million-dollar piece of equipment is down. You want to know when that tech is coming. In fact, you may even have a contract that specifies how quickly he or she is going to arrive with the repair kit.

Predictions for the coming year are a staple of the blogging-industrial complex. You’ll surely see a lot of them around this time of year. The challenge, though, with prognosticating about manufacturing for the coming year is to differentiate between common trends and truly new forces that will affect how manufacturers function and make money. Competition is a given. Changing customer expectations are a given. What’s coming in 2020 that will have an impact? Where will cloud ERP make a difference? At Cloud 9 ERP Solutions, we understand the challenges that manufacturers face, so here are some of our thoughts on 2020 manufacturing industry trends.

During Thanksgiving, many of you will have gathered with family and friends and considered what you are thankful for in your own life. However, the holiday is great a opportunity for the business community to count its blessings too. 

For some businesses, the end of the year is the busy season. For the rest of us, the closing weeks of 2019 will probably be pretty quiet. It’s a great moment to think about what you want to achieve in 2020. You can get your 2020 plans organized before taking a little well-deserved time off. This period of time also offers an opportunity to take a clear-eyed look at your current Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system and ask yourself if it is not, at long last, time to make a change.

Like the popular credit card commercials that ask, “What’s in your wallet?” a good ERP solution provider should ask, “What’s in your factory?” Having worked with many manufacturing customers over the years, we can confidently say that no two are quite alike. Some produce millions of items that cost a few cents each. Others produce a single product, like a locomotive or a jet engine that sells for millions of dollars. There’s make-to-order, make-to-inventory and project shops. Some manufacturers only make one thing over and over, like companies who produce thousands of miles of copper wire every day.

Drop shipping is an important part of the supply chain process for eCommerce businesses. The retailer does not need to have a product in its inventory. Instead, they can transfer customer orders to another retailer, the manufacturer or wholesaler, which then ships the order directly to its destination.