ERP Strategies Focused on Customer Needs

Want to immediately limit a Customer Success team's impact with customers? Keep designing processes, strategies, and engagement rhythms based on what YOU need and on YOUR timelines, rather than what customers need. Keep using inside out thinking that starts from your existing capabilities when deciding how to approach customers. In an era where customers are working with more SaaS vendors than ever before, they don't care about your internal timetables and how often you think certain milestones should happen (i.e. EBRs, etc). Between the rise in AI, pricing models based on consumption, and switching costs often being in the customers' favor, their concern isn't primarily how often their vendor thinks they should meet. If you want to maintain customer influence, try this instead: Anchor on the CUSTOMERS' lifecycle and business need, using this outside in thinking when designing a strategy. Rather than starting with what you need, start with understanding what your customer needs and what they're experiencing in their business. Are they in a phase where they're hyper focused on reducing costs and increasing efficiency? Are they building new AI strategies to get a competitive edge? Are they in a planning cycle, determining their next priorities? Start with questions like these, and then articulate how your product helps them accomplish whatever their priorities are. And set your engagement model to drive their priorities forward. You'll get way more buy in this way from customers, and paradoxically you'll also be more effective at achieving those milestones you think are important. Especially if you leverage your org's unique POV to advise on how customers can improve their business. Consider one example: EBRs. Option 1: you can dictate EBRs based on when you think they should happen in relation to renewal. Option 2: you trigger EBRs to occur after the completion of large project milestones, anchoring them on celebrating your champions' successes with their executive. Option 2 is significantly more likely to get your customers engaged. So let's commit to ending inside out thinking this year. Let's commit to anchoring on our customers' lifecycle and using outside in thinking. How do you guard against the drift we all feel to being inward looking? #SaaS #CustomerSuccess #GrowthMindset #Leadership

A customer once told me: 'We're not just buying your product —we're betting on your ability to help us succeed and grow over time.'" That comment challenged me to think differently, and it still does each today. It came up during one of my regular customer check-ins. The kind where we’re not solving fires — but stepping back and asking, “What's working well? What's not? What’s next for you?” And the answer surprised me (but shouldn't have!) They of course had some concerns about today’s pain points. But more importantly, with how fast the world is changing and the level of embedded uncertainty, they were even more thinking 6–12 months ahead: ➡ How will our strategy evolve? ➡ What help do we need today that sets us up for more wins in the future? ➡ What will we need from you then that we’re not even asking for now? It was a wake-up call and a great reminder of that quote from years ago. Our current onboarding (and broader post-sales motion) focused too much on narrow current needs — not on future ones. And in today’s pace of change, that’s not enough. So we shifted: ✅ Start every engagement (for more customer segments) by co-creating a future-state vision ✅ Build our roadmap around where they’re going, not just where they are ✅ Check in on that vision — regularly The impact? Stronger partnerships. Stickier outcomes. More trust. How are you helping your customers grow into the future, not just succeed in the present?

Be inspired by Monitor ERP to rethink of R&D stands for. Unless you work in manufacturing you will be forgiven if you have not heard of Monitor, but you really should know about them. And learn from them. When it comes to ERP companies and their revenue Monitor EPR is not the biggest - actually, far from it. But Monitor has been awarded best ERP system in Sweden 7 years in a row (!) and when it comes to the market of ERP system for small and medium manufacturing companies Monitor has an almost 50% (!) market share in Sweden.Their Net Promotor Score (how happy customers are with a supplier) is off the charts. Monitor has a NPS of 30. SAP is at MINUS 40… In other words, they are the David in a world of ERP Goliath’s,- and they punch well above their weight. So how can they be so extremely successful with their clients? One reason is how they approach product development. Monitor work very close to their customers and monitors (sic!) their needs and suggestions. Instead of traditional R&D, as in "Research and Development”, Monitor applies what can be called R&D as in “Receptive and Deploying.” Receptive to what the clients wants and needs, and then a quick and responsive way of deploying these requests. Unlike other ERP providers who work with partners, Monitor deals with their clients directly, making it much easier for them to pick up suggestions from their clients. And while partners are keen on selling “customisations” of standard ERP systems (because that is how they make money) Monitor is more keen on developing standard solutions that are functional and effective for the clients from the start. Being “Receptive & Deploying” means to have a laser focus on being efficient on supplying solutions that the clients are asking for, or will be asking for soon. It is a mindset of relentless focus on the needs of the customer. Be honest: Do you have a relentless focus on your customers needs? A surprisingly large number of companies actually seem to have lost that as they focus on things like “research” and “development” and “innovation”. No, the focus should be on being receptive of the needs of the customer. The key here is “receptive” as in “being willing to consider or accept new suggestions and ideas” and to then be nimble and quick enough to deploy these ideas. In short, invest in R&D: "Receptive & Deploying" This text was written after an interview with Daniel Häggmark, CEO at Monitor ERP Asia. By applying the mindset of Receptive & Deploying they have grown in Asia from just a few people a few years ago to now accounting for 20% of all of Monitor’s staff.

Notes from the field. Part III When the Customer takes charge of their ERP and their future. Ok, so that took a minute but here we are with part III. And the name of the customer is revealed: ALICO S.A.S | BIC from Medellin, Colombia, through the voice of Elias Jaramillo, Director of Supply Chain and one of the main players that directed the ERP selection and the roll out of the solution. After successfully implementing Epicor Kinetic for the entire business, all modules all functions which is to be expected as the bare minimum for an ERP investment, Alico knew already what was next. No ERP, at least none of the world class generally considered leaders, was capable to manage the functional gap in job sequencing for Alico, that was the gap also for Epicor. Their genius was that, understanding this, they focused on the technology and flexibility of the new system so they could bend it to their needs. Instead of settling on the shortcomings they went on and developed a solution themselves, collaborating with experts from universities in the US and ultimately with the University of Medellin: an ad hoc job sequencing algorithm connected to Epicor's belly. The ERP feeds the algorithm with the engineering and job specifications, and the algorithm feeds back the best sequencing scenario into Epicor planning capabilities, solving the very core of their secret sauce. They did this on their own with minimal support from us. But that wasn’t the end. Once they achieved operational excellence and streamlined their business for maximum performance they moved on to the next level of integration. Their precise manufacturing execution data allowed them to anticipate their growth needs down to capital equipment investments. Buying the kinds of machines they need takes about 18 months between searching, contracting, importing and installation, so knowing when to buy them so as not to miss business opportunities and keeping customers happy is key to sustained growth without sacrificing profitability. And that is what they did. Based on operations data today they can predict with precision when to buy new machinery to have it ready and functioning when increased demand hits, at least 18 months in advance... How is that for future capacity planning? Yes, this can be accomplished in many ways and tools exist for it, but in this case the customer took control and made it happen starting with the way they selected their ERP at the very beginning. They knew from day one. Pure unfiltered genius. Hear directly from Elias in the clip below and for the full formal case study visit https://lnkd.in/e953F-ze Gonzalo F. Nuñez, Christian Wettre, Ron Canty, Gonzalo B. Nuñez, Angel Ruiz, Verónica Carolina Rodriguez Moega, Ricardo Trejo, Rodrigo Rebolledo Kanter, Isa Núñez, Ingrid Cárdenas, Jennifer Gostisha, Brenda Nobleza, Pedro Javier Garza Arias, Jose Antonio Lopez Chauvet, John Martese, Edward Torres, Tommy C.