Business Management Solutions are designed to ease the administrative burden of running a business, which is important at a time when all businesses are being squeezed to deliver more. To get the most out of your solution, it needs to be a single solution that facilitates growth, accelerates core functions, is device agnostic and has the ability to provide instant data and analytics.

I’ve seen many instances where the impact on cost reduction and revenue generation is not maximized. For a business to truly reap the benefits that a Business Management Solution has to offer, it needs to review its internal processes.

Here are six key points you should consider to ensure that your solution is able to offer the results for which it was designed:

1. Discourage the use of old software

For a solution to be successful, it needs to become the de facto solution within a business. Legacy reporting software that was used prior to the implementation of the solution needs to be abolished.

2. Be vigilant with data integrity

The data from which the business intelligence is being sourced needs to be as accurate as possible. While automation assists with this, there needs to be a concerted effort within the business that every data entry is correct to ensure that the information reported provides an opportunity for informed decisions to be made.

3. Use all the functions that the solution offers

Many Business Management Solutions include functionalities that are often not used. As an example, data is captured and then exported to the legacy solution, such as an Excel spreadsheet, which defeats the objective of the new solution. Well-orchestrated solutions also offer add on modules to provide more functionality for a business as and when it requires.

4. Encourage employee engagement with the solution

The introduction of a new solution often comes with a standard training programme – it may be of value to offer training workshops after employees have become more accustomed to the system.

5. Trust the value the solution is able to deliver

Many Cloud based automated Business Management Solutions require business owners to relinquish control of the system to allow it to do what is was designed to do. This means that the decision maker needs to trust that the data being provided is accurate.

6. Managing the Change with all stakeholders

The success of any Business Management Solution relies on stakeholder engagement. It is vital that all stakeholders are informed about solutions throughout and that any expectations regarding the solutions are managed.

Keith Fenner is the Vice President at Sage X3 International.