We are very lucky to live in a world where we have countless options and platforms available to our businesses, however this can also have a negative impact as there are just so many to choose from. It goes without saying but nowadays we cannot live without technology in our day to day lives. It is almost certainly the case where we have to use several different systems for different parts of the business which often slows down the overall efficiency of a business as well as its processes.
The biggest problem associated with using different platforms from different providers is the fact that they don’t always work hand in hand which can cause problems and lead to time being wasted. Why not calculate how much time is lost due to having separate systems in your business? As well as time being wasted, it can also cause problems further down the line.
The best place to start is to find out exactly how many systems you are using across your business? If you find that your team are collaborating on the same project at the same time, different parts will need to use different systems which aren’t connected or on the same page as you require. During the project it will require your team to know exactly which tasks have been completed and those that are outstanding, where would all this information be held? You will find that countless problems will occur during this process.
Some of these problems that you could encounter during the above process are duplication, communication, compatibility as well as increased costs. Furthermore, you also need to take into account the practical nature of this as this will be helping your business to run more efficiently.
Communication
Do you know how long you will be spending communicating with your colleagues to learn exactly where and what your peers are working on? If this was in one single system where action plans could be accessed this would save you so much time on meetings as well as help to improve the overall work efficiency as all the people on that project would be able to access all the information they need.
Compatibility
Given that the other software you are using is one of your competitors, they won't make it easy for it to work alongside the other products in the same market. You may find that certain parts of the system could work fine, however certain parts may be almost impossible to integrate. Therefore, if all your work is completed in one system, you wouldn’t have to worry about this issue as it would all work seamlessly.
Duplication
If you and your colleagues are all making use of different systems, how will you know if work is being crossed over or not? Valuable time could be lost if your colleagues are working on a task that has already been done with differing results in addition to time being wasted that could have been used to complete other tasks on the project.
Practicality
To keep productivity at high levels it makes perfect sense to use a system that they understand and know how to use it effectively. The proof of the effectiveness of this is in the results achieved in terms of overall efficiency and time saved over the course of a project. Whereas if you use multiple systems, you will end up having to allocate extra resources and time as well as having to deal with a potentially difficult system to use.
Costings
It goes without saying but using multiple systems can be extremely costly. Wouldn’t it be so much easier for you to have all your software from one provider such as Advantage? This may seem like stating the obvious but reducing the number of systems, you are using will ultimately lead to cost savings almost immediately.
From the above, we’ve outlined some of the core reasons of what sort of impact using multiple systems can have on your business. The whole point of using a single software reseller is to make your life easier not harder. Furthermore, advanced technology is on hand to help support the entire running of your business and if you find that this is not the case, you need to consider using an all-in-one system such as Dynamics 365 which will enable you to manage all your business functions effectively and efficiently.
Next Steps?
If you are a business that is using multiple systems and want to make the transition to a single system with Advantage then please talk to our team of experts today who will be able to discuss our Advantage Edge offering through one of our Business Starter Kits where we can consolidate all your ERP, CRM and Managed Services needs within a single system.
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