Maximize Your Financial Investment in Dynamics During Uncertain Economic Times

You don't need a sophisticated computer application to tell you that economic conditions are deteriorating: customers not paying on time, vendors demanding payments sooner than usual, sales targets not being met, higher freight charges due to gas prices, inventory piling up, and so on.

On top of all those issues, you purchased your Microsoft Dynamics system and paid top consulting dollars, with the hope of better management and insight into your company's business activities, as well as to alleviate some transaction processing pains experienced prior to the implementation. Yet everything seems to be moving at about the same pace as it was before you made your investment.

The underlying problem may be that you are not taking full advantage of your Microsoft Dynamics system to help your organization thrive during these economic times. In fact, many organizations embark on the expensive and time-consuming task of implementing ERP systems without understanding the benefits of doing so. But, what to do now that you have the systems up and running? How can you leverage your investment to move your business forward? Here are three suggestions:

1. Invest smart in user training. It's hard to tell business owners to spend more money on top of the original investment that seems not to be paying off. However, there are inexpensive ways of improving your staff's skills without breaking the bank. Computer Based Training (CBT) has become an effective tool across many organizations. It allows employees to "attend" classes online and at their own pace, while still being able to perform their daily activities - all without leaving the office!

A survey conducted at one of my customers showed that, on average after the initial systems training, users retained 65% of the content presented, but substantially ...