Businessmen across the world are looking to gain Operational efficiency or operational excellence, however, very few do understand the complexity and the extent of changes required to achieve it. Achieving operational efficiency entails the implementation of various elements into the existing system and processes. Interestingly, 9 out of ten businessmen will have their interpretation and definition of operational efficiency. For most, it’s all about getting the process quality right every time or about eliminating waste by the implementation of lean tools across the operational process.
However, one of the simplest and perhaps one of the most characteristic definition of operational efficiency is when all employees of the company are able to relate to the flow of operational value to the customers, with the capacity to reinstate the flow when/if it breaks.
Now, no matter which way you define the operating efficiency, the key to achieve it lies in the implementation of a solid strategy and rigorous discipline across all business departments to achieve excellence in quality, pricing, and ease of purchase.
Below, we will be looking at ways to improve the operating efficiency across various business functions using microsoft dynamics, so as to achieve operational excellence across all necessary business departments.
How to Leverage Operating Efficiencies in the E-Commerce Industry?
The ecommerce industry is abuzz with investors and entrepreneurs looking to break into this high potential market and claim their share. However, to be able to gain in-roads into the e-commerce industry and compete with the industry giants, businesses needs to have the right tools and systems to maximize their operational efficiencies. Here are some tools that can assist e-commerce businesses to succeed by leveraging the highest operating efficiencies in this highly competitive industry.
Dynamics Shopify Integration with 365, AX & NAV Connector
With the Shopify integration with Microsoft Dynamic 365, AX & NAV connector, ecommerce businesses can improve their operational efficiency by automating the transactions. The Integration enables synchronization of all data from Shopify store to Dynamic ERP; thus enabling stores to deliver orders precisely to customers every time.
Some of the benefits of the Integration between Shopify Store with Dynamic ERP Solution includes:
- Real-time synchronization of orders
- Real-time synchronization of customers
- Real-time synchronization of billing data
- Automated inventory management
- Real-time synchronization of order fulfillment
- Real-time sync of product information
- Support for matric items
- Support for recurring orders
- Support for canceled orders and refunds
NAV Shopify Dynamics Integration
By integrating your Shopify ecommerce store with the Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP, ecommerce businesses get to leverage easy management of data through a unified platform. The integration enables real-time integration of customers, items, orders, shipping, and payment data. The integration also assists in managing offline and online activities at your online store, giving you key insights to proficiently manage your store’s workflow processes and systems.
Some of the benefits of Shopify store integration with Microsoft Dynamics NAV ERP include:
- Seamless integration of data
- Lower the fulfillment cycle period for your store
- Access real-time data
- Access real-time inventory updates
- Eliminate manual data entry needs
- Eliminate data redundancies or duplication errors
- Automate financial entries
- Lower time to replenish inventory by getting stock updates
- Improve customer service
- Track visitors to your store for remarketing purposes
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Microsoft Dynamics 365 Manufacturing ERP
Magento Dynamics 365 and Dynamics AX Magento Integration (ComAX)
Integration of Dynamics AX and Dynamics 365 with Magento Solution gives ecommerce businesses completely automated data synchronization, empowering them to core business activities like fulfillment orders to increase sales.
Some benefits of Magento Dynamics 365 and Dynamics AX Magento integration includes:
- Easy order management
- Automated product synchronization
- Streamline inventory management
- Automated export of billing info
- Support matrix items
- Sync product information
- Support recurring orders
Dynamics NAV Magento Integration
Some benefits of NAV Magento Integration for ecommerce stores include:
- Automated sync of orders
- Automated synch customers
- Automated sync of billing data
- Sync of product information
- Support matrix items
- Sync product information
- Support recurring orders
- Support for order cancellation and refunds
Dynamics AX Amazon Connector
By integrating Dynamics Ax and Amazon, sellers get to enjoy automated product entry, improve on order fulfillment to achieve greater operational efficiency. The connector also helps stores to identify returning customers, track visitors for remarketing, supports order cancellation, and Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) functionality, thereby greatly improving the overall efficiency of the store with more sales and higher customer service.
How to Improve Operational Efficiency in Finance and Operations?
To be able to achieve operating efficiency in finance and operations, you can implement the following steps:
Eliminate redundant processes
A common operational mode of the company is to carry on with things as they have always been done, without questioning their efficiency of any value they add to the systems and processes. By keeping the redundant activities, businesses tend to compromise their operational efficiency, subsequently losing their objective to achieve the organization’s bottom lines. Thereby, it is important to eliminate any unnecessary or redundant processes or activities to keep up with operating efficiency.
Lowers the Operations Inventory
Unnecessary or unmanaged inventory simply leads to increased costs for businesses spent on storage and management of the inventory. To add salt to the wound, the inventory doesn’t always appreciate, rather with time, the value of unnecessary inventory gets depreciated thus making business lose even more money. It’s a golden rule for businesses to lower their unnecessary inventory to lower the operational cost. In fact, many businesses have adopted an extreme approach towards achieving operational efficiencies which are typically referred to as Zero Inventory. As can be taken by name, the approach calls for zero inventory other than the components which are exactly required to keep the operations running.
Lowering Transport Times
This is a more complex step which required lowering the walking distance not just between the different operational teams working on different floors, but also to lower the transportation times between various physical locations. To achieve higher operational efficiencies, many businesses implement tools like “Spaghetti Charts” that enable businesses to have detailed insights into the efficiency levers.
Bundle Activities
Another way to achieve operational efficiencies in finance and operations is to bundle together similar activities. Bundling is widely seen as an efficient approach that leads to increased leads and decreased costs for businesses. For instance, car insurance businesses can bundle together activities like data entry, first-level support, and simple processing to achieve higher operational efficiencies and lower operational costs.
Detach specific activities
Ok, you might think we have lost it because just above we asked to bundle the activities to increase the operational costs and now we are asking to detach the activities. Well, interestingly there are some activities like creating multiple teams trained for customer support for specific issues that not just save much time but also help businesses to improve operational efficiencies. However, as a general business rule, you do need to cross-train the teams to accommodate any unforeseen bottlenecks appearing in the future.
How to Enhance Operating Efficiency in the Technology Industry?
Operational efficiency is almost synonymous with the technology industry, which in fact is leading the automation and efficiency across all industries. Here are some steps that can help the technology industry to enhance operational efficiency:
Digitalization of Paper Documents
There are many businesses still using paper excessively. Not only this is a significant failure towards environmental conservation, but it also seriously reduce their chances of improving operational efficiency. This is especially a big failure concerning customer service because, without digitization of your systems and process, your customers would have to fill in the frustrating paperwork; which itself won’t easily be available at their disposal. All of these are a huge turn-off for today’s customers who are increasingly looking for automated processes and digital paperwork for easy access and filing of any required service. And since most companies are already into business intelligence, losing here means not only losing the chance of improving operational efficiency but actually losing the majority of tech-savvy customers.
Reinforcing the IT Applications
Another large lay-off for the tech industry is the fragmented application landscape for operations for various reasons. This only increases the overheads for the company resulting in increased maintenance cost and loss of operational efficiency across various business functions. The key here is to have a unified and integrated core system that enables easy and instant access of relevant information to permitted employees; thus not just improving the operational efficiency but also enhancing the customer servicing and lowering the IT maintenance costs.
Reinforcing Hardware Assets
Just like you need a consolidated and unified IT system to maintain synchronization and integration of all business functions, you need to have a consolidated hardware landscape to implement best practices and share solutions amongst all hardware. In anyways, having a zoo of hardware devices like laptops of different brands, a different brand of printer and scanner and others won’t help you to easily integrate all the hardware which won’t just compromise the operational efficiency but also increase the integration and maintenance cost of hardware.
Crate Lean Infrastructure
A common mistake made by many companies is to neglect to invest in the IT infrastructure like data backups, centralized servers, cloud solutions, and others. However, there are companies at other extremes who overinvest in IT infrastructure with too bulky and unnecessary data centers, costly servers, and others. Both cases lead to lowering operational efficiency and the key is to find the middle-point and invest in lean infrastructure that’s just adequate to meet the IT needs of the company.
Standardize data
Most business startups don’t invest in the standardization of data at the beginning, which is understandable given the lack of data. However, over time businesses are loaded with various types of data and it becomes a challenging task to manage and standardize the complexity of data. Thereby, to ensure smooth operations and achieve higher operational efficiency, businesses need to invest in data normalization and the standardization activity.
How to Increase Operational Efficiencies in Agriculture Workforce Management?
Next, let’s see how businesses can improve operational efficiency in agriculture workforce management
Putting in place the right WFM Solution
Agriculture workforce management is a complex task and to ensure the efficient running of operations, businesses need to implement the right Agriculture ERP solution which can help in strategizing the workforce forecasting, planning, and scheduling. By implementing the right WFM solutions, businesses also get access to monitor workforce performance, and any potential bottlenecks hindering the performance.
Putting in Place the right LMS Solution
To extract the most out of your agriculture workforce, you need to implement the right LMS solutions, which will assist you to equip employees with the right training tools and skills required to optimize their performance. In fact, the LMS solutions aren’t just about equipping employees with the right tools and training to optimize their performance, rather it also offers businessmen the tools to verify existing knowledge and strategize new plans accordingly.
Cross-Training Employees
Another important step for agriculture workforce management to achieve higher operational efficiency is to cross-train employees. This will ensure an adequate level of knowledge and skills for the entire team to be able to move in and out of each other roles; as and when required.
Have adequate skill levels and mixes
It would be a waste of money to have an exclusive team of experts for your agricultural business. A better approach is to create a team of mixed skills with few experts and a bunch of junior folks who can work their way up to the level of experts with time and take on the responsibility of seniors to train new juniors in the coming years. This way, you won’t just save tons of money, but also achieve better efficiency because younger folks with the willingness to learn tend to work more efficiently than experts; who are more suited to train and strategize business success.
Balance the workloads across teams
Lastly, business leaders have an important responsibility to manage and balance the workload across different teams. This not only helps teams stay motivated but also ensures seamless operations across different business functions. Another approach that can be taken in this step is to temporarily transfer employees from one team to another given the higher volume of workload. Remember, unbalanced workloads on different teams may lead to employees’ dissatisfaction which isn’t just unfair & unethical but also lethal for the operational efficiency of your business.
Folio3 Is Your Best Tech Partner for Enhancing Operational Efficiency
Folio3 is one of the leading technology partners with a global footprint. The company offers advanced reliable robust technology solutions that aim to automate the workflow processes and systems for businesses across all sectors; helping them to achieve higher operational efficiency.
FAQs:
How to measure operational efficiency?
While there are various ways to estimate or define the operational efficiency, the technical approach is to estimate the ratio of output gained to the input expended.
Why is operational efficiency important for enterprise?
The operational efficiency remains an important bottom line for enterprises to maximize effective use of resources and achieve greater productivity from operations with higher quality and increased customer service.
