Use SAP Business Solutions for B2B to Offer the Convenience of B2C

Nowadays, an effective ERP strategy is largely dependent on the timeliness and quality of information that you receive from suppliers, trading partners, and clients. An even bigger challenge is faced by organizations attempting to create a holistic, real-time view of all their enterprise information by combining multiple ERP systems and instances domestically and/or globally. Your ability to effectively integrate your business solutions and systems is critical to implementing business strategies. Why should you consider SAP integration in your B2B operations? Below are key drivers why forward-thinking organizations are integrating their ERP and B2B systems using SAP business solutions:

        ·         SAP data come from internal and external sources. These systems gather and use information from a wide variety of sources and channels, including but not limited to customers, distributors, suppliers, service and logistics providers, financial institutions, and so on.

       ·         SAP ensures high-quality of data. Poor data quality corrupts the value of an ERP system. This is why it is not enough to collect data from a wide variety of sources. This information must also be filtered for quality and relevance, which is what SAP enables. This allows you to make sense of data in a more efficient and useful manner, thus resulting in better ERP management.

      ·         Good B2B integration ensures excellent data visibility. Real-time availability of efficiently filtered data leads to better and more informed business decisions. This kind of rapid decision making simply isn’t possible when data collected constantly has to be re-worked and re-entered into systems. Constant availability of data is also critical for ensuring smooth business operations. B2B platforms must maintain information availability through SAP systems so that processing of related information can also go smoothly, such as receiving shipment and delivery notices from suppliers, which are often critical to decisions made on production line levels. Uninterrupted flow of information between your business and external business partners is critical for interruption-free operations.

    Source URL: http://knacksystems.com/blog/use-sap-business-solutions-for-b2b-to-offer-the-convenience-of-b2c/

Opt for a CPQ Solution for Clarity in Your Sales Cycle

Configure Price Quote or CPQ solutions drive better revenue, profit, and overall customer satisfaction ratings by means of automating a business’ quote to order processes. Sales teams that use CPQ can rest assured that they are making the right pricing quotes for the right products and producing high-quality, professional branded contracts and proposals throughout each working cycle. CPQ’s benefits and impact go well beyond improving the performance of individual sales reps and teams, as its positive results resonate in all areas of business. Below are only some of the main benefits of implementing CPQ in your sales cycle:

       ·         CPQ streamlines your sales processes, making it easier to do business with your company. When sales processes are too complex and convoluted, consumers tend to go elsewhere and choose competing businesses because of their better streamlined processes. CPQ makes your business more responsive and allows faster speed of delivery. A fast and easy process leads to a fast and easy decision for clients.

        ·         CPQ shortens the sales cycle, allowing you to provide clients what they need when they need it. When customers ask for a quote, they usually mean now—not later. You’ve probably heard it before: time kills deals. The longer you make your client wait for a quote, the more opportunity you give for your rivals to snatch the deal out of your hands.

        ·         CPQ increases deal values by giving you more opportunities to upsell. A faster quoting process also allows you more opportunities to make upsell suggestions throughout your quoting process, whether it is through the inclusion of higher margin items or additional recommendations and suggestions.

       ·         CPQ solution improves productivity by enabling your sales reps and partners to make quotations on their own. The fewer people involved in the quoting process, the more efficient your team will be. CPQ gives your reps all the information they need to make correct quotations and shorten the approval process.

   

   Source URL: http://knacksystems.com/blog/opt-for-a-cpq-solution-for-clarity-in-your-sales-cycle/

Hybris E-commerce Platform: A Popular E-commerce Solution for B2B & B2C Businesses

SAP Hybris continues to lead the market for e-commerce platforms for both B2B and B2C companies. With every new version comerobust enhancements that make the suite’s core commerce capabilities even better equipped to ensure customer engagement and improve dialog between business and customer. With these kinds of innovations, consumers and clients are empowered to manage their own purchases, orders, and subscriptions with definite visibility of each stage of the fulfilment process. Below are just some of the functionalities and features you are missing out on by not getting SAP Hybris:

•    Customer 360 View – SAP’s Assisted Service Module provides relevant and real-time customer information to customer service agents. This results in highly optimized andpersonalized support to customers and their real-time needs in the form of quick customer snapshots, customer overviews, activity feeds, profiling, preferences, and recommendations.

•    Commerce Quotes – SAP Hybris also features commerce quote capabilities, allowing for richer user experiences that simulate the complex reality of various business-to-business transactions. The quotes feature is made available across all SAP Accelerators, which means it can be used by all businesses wishing to offer quotes and estimates to customers.

•    Order Management – The Hybris e-commerce platform also features order management capabilities, which provides superior benefits for both consumers and vendors. Customers are empowered to view and manage their returns, thus allowing customer service representatives to reallocate time to actions and activities that add more value to customers. This also results in businesses having better capabilities to fine-tune sourcing logic through dynamic ranking of fulfillment locations, which ultimately optimizes sourcing strategy and helps cut down delivery times and expenses.

•    Efficient Architecture –Hybris also supports containerization, which allows for simpler, more organized, and more reliable configuration as well as deployment. This results in better consistency and speed of processes across various environments.

4 Tips to Choose the Best E-commerce Platform Provider

Retailers operating in today’s fast paced, tech-driven environment have to work through all kinds of challenges in order to stay relevant and competitive, especially with the consumers’ increasingly high expectations. Nowadays, it is not enough that you always keep stock of the right products. You also need to keep customers satisfied by filling their orders faster and making the whole process more affordable for the customer. Add to this the fact that savvy shoppers use multiple devices and channels all throughout their customer journey and the magnitude of the work you need to do becomes even more evident. This is why you need to invest in the most efficient and reliable e-commerce platform provider to help you overcome the rapidly moving online retail environment and thrive despite the pressure of high expectations from modern consumers. Here are useful tips on choosing the right e-commerce platform provider for your business:

•    First things first, list down and specify your requirements and prioritize them in terms of front-end-needs and back office integrations. Assess the solutions you need and think about features like customer management and catalog requirements. Look for exceptional qualities like flexible architecture, security, high performance, mobility, and scalability.

•    Clarify your expectations and make sure that everyone is on board with them. Specify tasks for your consultant or service provider and the results you expect, as well as the actual cost of their services.

•    Know your prospect partner’s work and experience. A strong portfolio is an excellent indication of quality, but make sure that their credentials hold value and are relevant to your own line of business. Look for a provider that has worked with companies of the same size and similar business model.

•    Finally, look for compatibility. Expertise, skill level, and technology offerings are not enough to ensure partnership success. Look for a company that is the right cultural fit and can adjust well with your team. Study how they operate and how they interact with your own people.

An Overview of the Hybris Ecommerce Platform

The SAP-owned Hybris e-commerce platform is hard to ignore as a leading e-commerce system. Because it’s been built on Java Spring, Hybris is an easily accessible platform. A pioneer in digital commerce, Hybris was first founded in 1997 and later acquired by the German giant SAP, giving the platform an even stronger hand in the industry. Huge names in business use Hybris including internationally renowned and recognized brands and businesses, such as Samsung, Vodafone, Audi, and O2, making Hybris one of the most popular systems in the market. 

Hybris offers a wealth of benefits to B2B businesses in that it provides practical solutions to common problems in modern B2B e-commerce. In fact, only Hybris can deliver B2B user experiences that are at par with the most efficient B2C websites, with its strong emphasis on the practice of omnichannel commerce. This ensures that customer experience is consistent across all possible channels, from desktops to mobiles, tablets, and even in-store and collection point transaction interactions. Hybris is ideal because it does not limit businesses to only a single channel, thus broadening your profit opportunities.

Hybris is a single system that consolidates everything, from the management of various business models and multiple channels to integrating different markets. The system has been receiving great reviews and above average ratings regarding important features and functions, such as usability and integration, upgrade speed, and the management and creation of various mobile applications, which is something that has become incredibly vital in today’s modern market. 

Usability is also among the main selling points of the Hybris platform. It is unlike most other platforms out there that require additional education as the majority of developers will already have a solid background and understanding of Java, in turn requiring less training and attracting a greater talent pool from existing, as well as newly hired, developers.

3 Reasons to Choose a Cloud-Based CRM Solution

Customer Relationship Management tools are becoming more and more integral to the success of companies, regardless of the type of clients or customer base they serve. CRM solutions are now a major key to managing the sales funnel and enhancing customer relations. Customer relationship management tools are beneficial in helping company representatives and associates to track different details of a prospect’s sales process and provide a single place where relevant files and notes can be stored. Cloud-based CRM solutions are all the rage these days because of their incredible business advantages, among which are:

• Accessibility anytime and anywhere: The cloud-based nature of these CRM systems allows associates to log-in and access information from anywhere with an internet connection. This way, they can have authorized access to important client and account information, which can be extremely helpful in initiating last minute sales calls, finding contact information on the fly, and closing sales from remote locations.

• Mobility: In line with accessibility is cloud-based CRM’s mobility aspect, enabling users to download integrated mobile applications onto their own devices so information can be readily available once activated. This means having the ability to acquire required information quickly and at any time of the day, when running from one client meeting to the next.

• Scalability: Finally, cloud-based CRM enables great flexibility and scalability, allowing companies to scale up or scale down, depending on their current business situation. This means only ever having to pay for resources that you need at the time and the opportunity to expand on an as-needed basis. Increasing capacity also doesn’t have to mean waiting for a lengthy upgrade or for a new program to be written specifically for you.

Marketo Integration Improves Marketing Strategies

Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the last decade you would know that lead generation and inbound marketing are now the go-to breakthrough tactics businesses and marketing departments use to get in front of customers and take their business to the next level. In fact, more and more companies are looking at inbound marketing as a fundamental digital business strategy, as a result of their search for more creative and efficient ways to grow and progress online.

The modern era of online marketing relies greatly on lead generation and inbound marketing. Both processes work to stimulate and capture customer interest in a business, product, or service, in turn developing a definite sales pipeline. Inbound marketing makes use of various digital channels, while leveraging different types of social and online/digital techniques as well as the abundance of readily available information on the World Wide Web. All these are keys to unlocking, developing, and qualifying potential leads out of today’s self-directed-buyers—which the majority of the consumer public are.

Consumers’ typical buying process has undergone a major change since the internet. Marketers are now in need of new and creative ways to tap into buyer interest and be heard through all the noise that the information age creates. Savvy marketers now know to focus their efforts on inbound marketing strategies and building continuous and meaningful relationships with customers instead of shooting the moon with email blasts and mass advertising efforts.

Marketo is a lead-nurturing platform that allows businesses to cultivate and maintain long-term relationships with their customers by first turning them into prospects and eventually converting them into willing advocates. Lead-nurturing is a tried-and-tested tactic that effectively moves prospects through the marketing funnel and, at the same time, provides more meaningful and valuable customer engagement. Lead generation and lead nurturing are critical components of inbound marketing strategy that can effectively turn your prospects into loyal, paying customers.