Business Automation and Software Blog

Did you know that if you don’t have a comprehensive picture of the mechanics of inventory optimization, you could end up with a sizable amount of wasted effort? Inventory optimization is a delicate balance between maintaining the minimum cost of inventory while keeping the desired fill rates for optimized items with the least cost reorder frequency and using technology to establish predictive control over inventory performance. All that? It’s no wonder that efforts are often diverted from one effort to another.

Now into the second quarter of 2019, businesses are looking at the successes of Q1 and evaluating what worked and what might need some redirection to gear up for the second half of the year. While you’re evaluating, it’s smart to consider the factors and challenges that are impacting today’s economy. Five key areas for this year include: the economy and funding, healthcare costs, engaging employees in payroll and tax changes, scaling for growth, and harnessing the power of integrated technology.

Who doesn’t want to work more efficiently? However you define efficiency—whether it’s how you help your customers, staying compliant with regulations, or doing both at the same time—you know you can’t achieve business success without it. Unfortunately, some companies might be slowed down by inefficiencies and not even know it.

We’ve all heard the term “lean manufacturing.” Some have ventured down the road already while others are making plans to implement. For those of you trying to figure out where to start, you’re in a good place to ensure lean is started the right way for maximum effectiveness. Automation is a great boon to lean manufacturing, but it can also result in massive waste if not properly addressed from the beginning.

Common logic would suggest that if a new business is successful in its first year, it has cleared the most difficult hurdle. However, the failure percentages for small businesses actually increase as time passes: 70 percent of small business owners fail in their tenth year.

As we close in on April 15, taxes are high on most peoples’ minds, but businesses have been thinking about sales taxes—and how they’ll be affected—for a long time.

As you might recall, 2018 was the year the Supreme Court of the United States overruled the physical presence rule that for decades kept states from taxing remote sales. The court’s decision in South Dakota v. Wayfair, Inc. (June 21, 2018) allows states to now require a remote seller with “economic and virtual contacts” in the state (economic nexus) to collect and remit sales tax, even if it has no physical presence in the state.

According to one study, U.S. adults spend an average of 11 hours per day staring at screens, watching videos, browsing social media, and swiping left and right. It should come as no surprise then that business systems have followed social media platforms, creating instant messaging programs and real-time feed sites full of work chatter and collaboration.

While the end of the first quarter may not seem like the time to be preparing for year-end cycle count, it’s actually one of the better times to get going with inventory control. In fact, we recommend scheduling it as often as possible: The more often you perform cycle counting, the better inventory accuracy and lower inventory write-offs you’ll have. Cycle counts should be done at least once per quarter, putting you in good position to have a quick and easy inventory count at year-end.

The future seems to come sooner than we expect: It was only twenty years ago that we were singing “Party like it’s 1999” and reminding each other to shut our computers down before midnight on December 31, 1999 in advance of Y2K. Now we’re staring down the barrel of 2020, trying to figure out what that means for the future of technology and how that affects our businesses.

Knowledge has long been quoted as a vital form of power. From Francis Bacon’s writings to NBC’s “The More You Know” public service announcements, knowledge is referred to as a form of power currency. This is especially evident in business leadership, as leaders need knowledge for informed decision-making to direct the future of the company. That power to drive forward, then, is fueled by knowledge.