Business growth is a good thing – it’s a sign that you’re getting it right. But with this success comes an expectation from your customer for higher level of service. For Advanced Assembly, customers began to expect faster turnaround, more detailed information, consistent improvement on products, and a higher level of customer service. Providing all of these things while staying on top of a higher volume of business became a real challenge. When they found themselves spending more time keeping up with their day to day business operations than focusing on reaching future goals, they realized that they had out-complexed their existing business systems.
Advanced Assembly is not the only manufacturing company that has experienced growth challenges. In fact, over the last 10 years, Vision33 has worked with hundreds of fast growth companies who run into similar issues when their systems no longer provide a stable foundation for business growth. As a growing company, some of the most common symptoms include:
1. Disparate Systems
Your company is running multiple applications to support different business functions. These applications are not integrated and requires manual data entry at several junctures. This results in duplicated or inaccurate data as well as limited reporting abilities.
2. Slow System Performance
With the addition of more and more accounts including customers, inventory, and financial records you are reaching the database limitations of your small business accounting software. Lately you have noticed that opening the system on your desktop is causing the system performance to slow to a crawl.
3. Lack of Transparency with Customers and Vendors
Depending on the requirements of your industry, you may need to provide your customers or vendors with more account information than you are currently able to provide with your small business accounting software. In order to provide data, you need to be able to access it yourself quickly and easily.
4. Unreliable Reporting
Without accurate, real-time information at your disposal, it makes it difficult to get up-to-date reports on your business. This can make it hard for you to understand the status of your products or project and make informed business decisions.
Advanced Assembly overcame these challenges with an integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution. Now, they can manage multiple business divisions from a centralized location with a scalable solution. Their employees can access real-time information and advanced reporting systems. The accessibility of detailed information keeps Advanced Assembly on target and allows them to build stronger relationships with partners and vendors.
For more information about how Advanced Assembly has overcome their growth challenges, read the full case study below.
