Lack of Training Can Lead to Lack of Value for Sage 100
Doug Clark has been a business analyst, a Certified Master Developer for Sage, and a Chief Financial Officer during his career. Today, he interacts with most of the Ardent Consulting customer base and, as a result, has unique perspectives on the accounting and inventory control needs of growing businesses.
I would like to tell you a story about two different clients. In fact, there is no need to make up these stories. They are real and help to underscore how much additional value your organization can see with the right Sage 100 consulting team assisting you.
“We encourage all customers to start with the question, “What are you trying to accomplish with Sage 100?””
A Tale of Two Companies
One of the client stories involves the use of work order processing. They have probably been using this feature for 10+ years. However, they were not aware of how the system stores work orders and what happens when you complete a work order. In other words, they weren't trained on the end-to-end process regarding how Sage 100 handles work orders. They were using it more as a calculator and a way to record transactions. There was no real flow the transactions to help them manage their company better. As a result, they were running out of stock all the time. This is a classic example of how a lack of training can lead to a lack of value or, even worse, mistakes that affect your customers.
The second story is about a company that was using Sage 100 in a similar fashion and were also in the middle of being acquired. They were telling the acquiring company how great Sage 100 had been over the last 20 years or so. One of the first questions from the acquiring company was, “Can you get a gross profit report on your sales each day?” Based on their lack of training about Sage 100, their answer was no. However, this is one of the basic reports within Sage 100 which is generated each time you update a sales journal. So for the last 20 years they didn’t realize that sales numbers and profit on a daily basis where available because this feature was turned off. As opposed to a lack of training, what they suffered from was a configuration that didn’t meet their business needs.
Our Focus Is On What You Want To Accomplish
One of the things we do when we work with clients is to take a step back and ask…
What are you trying to accomplish with Sage 100?
What outputs are you looking for from the system?
As a result, we spend time understanding the culture of the company and how business is processed. We look at things from the end result and move backwards from there. Once we understand your endgame, we can design Sage 100 to fit your business perfectly. If approached another way, you could get lost in the tens of thousands of configurations, options, buttons, knobs, and levers that exist to the point where there is no value at all.
Getting the Details Right Every Time
If you think about the complexity of setup, it’s important that we spend time inside of each module and talk through your business process. Of those tens of thousands of options which ones need to be available and, more importantly, which ones should be turned off?
One of the prime offenders we see here is the way that companies have setup their purchase clearing account. In some instances, this can be a disaster to the tune of millions of dollars. That’s not the fault of any one person. It’s the result of being left on your own to configure large parts of Sage 100 correctly.
The General Ledger is another great example of misconfigurations and lack of training we we see. However, we will save that for another article...
“Our past business experience is one of the most beneficial things our clients see as a value add.”
Using Our Experience to Your Advantage
Our past business experience is one of the most beneficial things our clients see as a value add. We can spot duplicity in process or help you run the business more efficiently through Sage 100. Why? We have sat on both sides of the desk. We understand the software side and have held various roles in large organizations, up to and including the CFO role. We understand the significance of getting your financials out on time and closing your month in a proper way.
Most importantly, we understand that communication is critical to success. When we make changes to your system or put a new process in place, we want to be absolutely certain that the feedback coming in tells us things are working correctly. As a trainer, we crave this positive feedback because it either tells us we are on the right track or we need to re-adjust. Most of the time we use YOUR data when we are running training sessions so that we do not have to talk in hypotheticals.
Training, configuration, and understanding of Sage 100 leads to a higher level of value for your organization. Without it, you might end up with an improperly configured system, a lack of understanding across the staff, and poorer business insight as a result.