Business as UNusual
18 February 2009

Business as (un)usual…

Last Modified 12/02/2009
Posted 16/01/2009

So here we are, a new year upon us. One that promises to be anything but ordinary.

Whatever the depth and duration of the economic storm that started blowing last year turns out to be, the first priority for owners in 2009 must be to make sure their business is fully competitive in the current business climate.

How can this be done?

We need to understand first of all that while demand for our products and services may appear to fall in a recession, it certainly doesn’t disappear. The reality is, demand really just takes different forms. In some cases, it even rises. Every cloud has a silver lining. Our first task is to find them.

In a nutshell, we need to identify our customers’ current business pains, speak to them clearly and convincingly, and provide the solutions that address them.

Some examples?

One of the major drivers of our current global economic circumstance is poor credit quality. All businesses need credit to operate, and no matter how much liquidity is pumped into economies worldwide by various governments, in the end it is up to individual lenders to decide who they will lend to and who they won’t.

Understandably, these lenders have become very focused on credit quality and so they now demand a far greater level of management controls and ongoing reporting from their business clients. Those businesses who can’t “comply” with these stricter requirements simply find themselves unable to secure the credit they need. For them, it’s a “mission critical” event.

And of course, Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions address this business issue perfectly.

Another significant consequence of generally softening demand for any business is that the ability to accurately forecast revenue becomes paramount. Practically every operational and financial decision a business makes is in the end rooted in a belief about what revenue will be, and getting that wrong in a down economy is especially dangerous.

The need for Microsoft Dynamics CRM solutions that can drive accurate sales forecasts and manage the sales force so that these forecasts are actually achieved has never been greater.

In short, the first step in keeping your own deal pipeline full in a recession is keying in on what you can do to positively impact your customers’ businesses, and in making sure you are constantly getting that message out to your market. That message needs to be “re-tuned” in a down economy, but this is NOT the time to stop marketing. On the contrary, it’s the exact time to increase demand generation activities.

Once you know that you’re telling the right story in your market, it is also critical to make sure you can actually deliver on the promises you make. The right mix of product and service offerings is essential.

Are there opportunities, for instance, to diversify your product line and include other Microsoft Dynamics solutions? If you do not already offer them this might be an ideal time to make Sharepoint and Business Intelligence, and the services that go along with them, part of your core offerings.

We need to also make sure we’re looking at the entire economic forest, and not getting lost in the trees. Yes, these are challenging economic times, but we cannot lose sight of the tremendous wave of demand for ERP solutions that is surely and steadily building, and position ourselves to fully capitalize on it.

We all know that history has a habit of repeating itself, and that no financial and accounting system stays useful forever. In fact, the historical lifecycle of these systems is between 7 and 10 years. The last wave of mass financial system replacement was in preparation for the year 2000, which means that many of those are nearing the end of their useful life, and must soon be changed.

The current global recession may have delayed that replacement wave somewhat, but nothing will remove this fundamental demand. We owe it to ourselves and our businesses to ensure we fully participate in that opportunity, by staying viable in the short term.

A final point that should be stressed is to keep our eye on customer credit ourselves, and to pay close attention to managing receivables. As the saying goes, a rising tide lifts all boats, and collections are less an issue in a strong economy. But in times such as these, we need to pay particular attention to collecting what we bill.

2009 will not be “business as usual”, but it can still be a year of solid profitability and growth. You can control your destiny by taking the steps just outlined in terms of keying in on your customers’ current business issues, providing the solutions that solve them, and being watchful of your customers’ credit quality.

Your reward will be to ride the wave of demand that is building as you read this.

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