1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:08,040 Welcome to the Growing EBITDA Podcast, where we unlock the doors to management and technology 2 00:00:08,040 --> 00:00:10,160 insights in the middle market. 3 00:00:10,160 --> 00:00:15,480 Join us as we explore innovative strategies to drive revenue and EBITDA growth, interviewing 4 00:00:15,480 --> 00:00:18,440 industry leaders and technology experts. 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:23,340 Whether you're looking to streamline operations, understand the latest tech trends, or lead 6 00:00:23,340 --> 00:00:27,760 your company towards exponential growth, you're in the right place. 7 00:00:27,760 --> 00:00:31,960 Stay tuned and let's grow together. 8 00:00:31,960 --> 00:00:33,720 Welcome back everybody. 9 00:00:33,720 --> 00:00:39,800 James, you and I just listened to our podcast intro song. 10 00:00:39,800 --> 00:00:41,400 Is that a theme song? 11 00:00:41,400 --> 00:00:42,400 Theme song. 12 00:00:42,400 --> 00:00:44,080 Theme song. 13 00:00:44,080 --> 00:00:46,440 Just to get us into the podcasting zone. 14 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:48,640 It's a pretty good theme song. 15 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:49,640 It's a great theme song. 16 00:00:49,640 --> 00:00:52,080 Great theme song. 17 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:57,680 Are you an expert or a technologist based on that theme song? 18 00:00:57,680 --> 00:00:58,680 Which category do you fall into? 19 00:00:58,680 --> 00:01:01,680 Are you a subject matter expert? 20 00:01:01,680 --> 00:01:03,360 Yeah, I think subject matter expert is great. 21 00:01:03,360 --> 00:01:04,640 I like that. 22 00:01:04,640 --> 00:01:07,560 About the theme song itself, just to consumer of. 23 00:01:07,560 --> 00:01:08,560 Just to consumer of. 24 00:01:08,560 --> 00:01:09,560 Just to consumer of. 25 00:01:09,560 --> 00:01:10,560 On loop. 26 00:01:10,560 --> 00:01:11,560 Yeah. 27 00:01:11,560 --> 00:01:19,200 So today we're talking about benefits of enhancing or changing an ERP system. 28 00:01:19,200 --> 00:01:22,840 And thankfully we do have a technologist and subject matter expert here with us. 29 00:01:22,840 --> 00:01:27,600 I've been a user of ERP systems throughout my career. 30 00:01:27,600 --> 00:01:28,720 Know a little bit about them. 31 00:01:28,720 --> 00:01:30,720 Wouldn't say I know a lot of it about them. 32 00:01:30,720 --> 00:01:35,880 I probably know more about CRM systems than full suite ERP systems, given my sales and 33 00:01:35,880 --> 00:01:38,380 marketing background. 34 00:01:38,380 --> 00:01:42,760 Some interesting stats that I looked up on this topic. 35 00:01:42,760 --> 00:01:52,480 20 to 30% efficiency gains through operational process improvements and optimized access 36 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,160 to data. 37 00:01:55,160 --> 00:02:03,120 As well as 10 to 15% average revenue lifts for organizations that get the right ERP system 38 00:02:03,120 --> 00:02:04,120 installed. 39 00:02:04,120 --> 00:02:05,120 What do you think about those stats? 40 00:02:05,120 --> 00:02:07,760 Ballpark accurate based on your experience? 41 00:02:07,760 --> 00:02:09,160 Yeah, ballpark accurate. 42 00:02:09,160 --> 00:02:13,320 But when I hear those, I think, wow, why are we not doing more of this work for folks when 43 00:02:13,320 --> 00:02:14,960 it's such a great help? 44 00:02:14,960 --> 00:02:20,600 I think when you think of 20 to 30% in efficiency gains and every day we hear I'm understaffed, 45 00:02:20,600 --> 00:02:24,520 I'm struggling to find talent, or I want to go faster. 46 00:02:24,520 --> 00:02:26,080 That's a nice number. 47 00:02:26,080 --> 00:02:29,640 How much do you think people need to invest? 48 00:02:29,640 --> 00:02:31,480 There's got to be a trade off here, right? 49 00:02:31,480 --> 00:02:35,580 Because we know that upgrading an ERP system is challenging. 50 00:02:35,580 --> 00:02:41,960 It's a big distraction for almost every functional department in an organization. 51 00:02:41,960 --> 00:02:44,240 What do you think you have to give up in order to get those gains? 52 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:47,000 Do you have to take a hit for a few years? 53 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:48,560 What do you say? 54 00:02:48,560 --> 00:02:55,080 Yeah, I think a lot of times when you go into these projects, we have this feeling of it's 55 00:02:55,080 --> 00:02:59,840 a hard e-break and I really got to stop it all to kind of move forward. 56 00:02:59,840 --> 00:03:02,520 The beauty of let's stick to enhancing, right? 57 00:03:02,520 --> 00:03:04,240 Enhancing can be more incremental. 58 00:03:04,240 --> 00:03:07,160 So it may take me a little bit longer, but I'll get there. 59 00:03:07,160 --> 00:03:11,800 So I had this mentor who was a CFO and he always told me about the TMR triangle. 60 00:03:11,800 --> 00:03:13,200 It's time money resources. 61 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:17,780 If you want to do it in less time, you need more money and more resources. 62 00:03:17,780 --> 00:03:22,360 If you got less resources, it's going to be less money and it's going to take you more 63 00:03:22,360 --> 00:03:23,360 time. 64 00:03:23,360 --> 00:03:28,440 So that inversion of how do I arrive at that and thinking about that TMR triangle, sure, 65 00:03:28,440 --> 00:03:29,440 you can get to that path. 66 00:03:29,440 --> 00:03:34,800 It may take you a little longer, but I don't think it's a hard stop, pivot and work. 67 00:03:34,800 --> 00:03:35,800 Got it. 68 00:03:35,800 --> 00:03:42,560 So let's also chat for a minute about, you know, I was skeptical about this topic. 69 00:03:42,560 --> 00:03:48,120 I didn't think it was going to be terribly interesting for some of our readers or listeners, 70 00:03:48,120 --> 00:03:51,000 readers, maybe aging myself there. 71 00:03:51,000 --> 00:03:53,200 I don't, well, some may read. 72 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:56,360 I don't know where they'd read a podcast. 73 00:03:56,360 --> 00:03:58,760 Hey, we have transcripts on our podcast. 74 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:00,720 We do have transcripts on our podcast. 75 00:04:00,720 --> 00:04:05,160 I may have dated myself, but I'm not wrong. 76 00:04:05,160 --> 00:04:07,680 So I had my doubts about this topic. 77 00:04:07,680 --> 00:04:10,880 You convinced me that it was worthwhile. 78 00:04:10,880 --> 00:04:12,420 How did you do that? 79 00:04:12,420 --> 00:04:16,440 Same way I helped folks convince other folks they need a new ERP or need to enhance their 80 00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:17,440 ERP. 81 00:04:17,440 --> 00:04:21,520 So a lot of times we get calls and we have a lot of trusted folks we work with. 82 00:04:21,520 --> 00:04:26,800 The typical year we do 150 transactions of that, we probably deal with the same folks 83 00:04:26,800 --> 00:04:33,480 20 times in some businesses where we have those relationships that are richer relationships. 84 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:38,080 And we get calls all the time to ask, we know we need a new ERP. 85 00:04:38,080 --> 00:04:40,440 We know we need to make a change. 86 00:04:40,440 --> 00:04:43,880 And as a side note to that, we feel one of the two most disruptive things you can do 87 00:04:43,880 --> 00:04:47,240 to a business is transact it or implement or change the ERP. 88 00:04:47,240 --> 00:04:48,240 So we know- 89 00:04:48,240 --> 00:04:51,480 And when you say transact it, you mean- 90 00:04:51,480 --> 00:04:52,480 Sell it. 91 00:04:52,480 --> 00:04:53,480 M&A. 92 00:04:53,480 --> 00:04:54,480 M&A. 93 00:04:54,480 --> 00:04:55,480 Okay. 94 00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:58,600 We confirm that ERPs can be a risky thing. 95 00:04:58,600 --> 00:05:00,240 And we respect that and understand it. 96 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,680 So I don't think they're wrong in asking, but we get asked something unique. 97 00:05:03,680 --> 00:05:05,760 I know I need to make the change. 98 00:05:05,760 --> 00:05:08,080 I want to make the change. 99 00:05:08,080 --> 00:05:12,160 How have others been successful in making the change or pitching the need for the change, 100 00:05:12,160 --> 00:05:13,160 better said. 101 00:05:13,160 --> 00:05:18,160 And really that is help me sell this to my leadership team, whether it's a board, CEO, 102 00:05:18,160 --> 00:05:19,160 or some C level. 103 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:22,200 It's really James, help me sell this. 104 00:05:22,200 --> 00:05:26,920 So just like I helped others sell their ERP needs, I tried to say on this today, write 105 00:05:26,920 --> 00:05:33,160 a bit of a playbook to our clients and our listeners on how to move this project along 106 00:05:33,160 --> 00:05:35,160 and bring people on the journey with you. 107 00:05:35,160 --> 00:05:36,160 Yep. 108 00:05:36,160 --> 00:05:37,160 True story. 109 00:05:37,160 --> 00:05:38,160 True story. 110 00:05:38,160 --> 00:05:40,200 I was a skeptic, but it made a lot of sense. 111 00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:44,800 And then we went and did some research and kind of confirmed that with your expertise 112 00:05:44,800 --> 00:05:47,140 on kind of the tangible benefits. 113 00:05:47,140 --> 00:05:50,340 We talked about efficiency gains, revenue growth. 114 00:05:50,340 --> 00:05:51,340 So good. 115 00:05:51,340 --> 00:05:56,120 Let's put some meat on the bone here for some of our listeners. 116 00:05:56,120 --> 00:06:02,820 So let's talk about how an ERP system change can help drive strategic growth. 117 00:06:02,820 --> 00:06:04,760 That's a large topic a lot of times. 118 00:06:04,760 --> 00:06:07,340 So again, let's go back to why we did this episode. 119 00:06:07,340 --> 00:06:10,180 That's one of the main topics, right? 120 00:06:10,180 --> 00:06:11,180 Because growth is easy. 121 00:06:11,180 --> 00:06:13,280 No one's not going to sign up for growth. 122 00:06:13,280 --> 00:06:17,960 So I think it's a good one to start with, Mike, because it allows us to talk about something 123 00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:21,180 that connects with all levels of the organization. 124 00:06:21,180 --> 00:06:26,100 So really, when you look at growth within an organization, we all know the phrase inorganic 125 00:06:26,100 --> 00:06:27,100 and organic growth. 126 00:06:27,100 --> 00:06:31,440 And for the purposes of this, we're talking growth with what you have today, but changing 127 00:06:31,440 --> 00:06:32,440 the ERP. 128 00:06:32,440 --> 00:06:36,720 So the constants of your business, no M&A to your earlier point, changing the ERP. 129 00:06:36,720 --> 00:06:41,940 So improved efficiencies, we know when we go to new systems, we're much more efficient 130 00:06:41,940 --> 00:06:42,940 if it's done correctly. 131 00:06:42,940 --> 00:06:44,160 Let me put an asterisk there. 132 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:48,120 But if you're able to find the right ERP and you're able to do it correctly and you're 133 00:06:48,120 --> 00:06:53,020 able to drive it forward, you'll find efficiency improvements. 134 00:06:53,020 --> 00:06:57,440 And efficiencies can be as simple as getting paper out of the process. 135 00:06:57,440 --> 00:07:01,320 I was on a project one time where I was asked to name the project. 136 00:07:01,320 --> 00:07:02,520 And there was this group. 137 00:07:02,520 --> 00:07:07,220 So it was a sales team in Brazil, and they were taking orders on a clipboard in the field. 138 00:07:07,220 --> 00:07:11,020 And if anybody knows Brazil, traffic is a thing in Brazil. 139 00:07:11,020 --> 00:07:14,700 So they drive all day, take these orders, and then drive back to the office and then 140 00:07:14,700 --> 00:07:16,420 key them in a system. 141 00:07:16,420 --> 00:07:18,980 So we called it project depaperization. 142 00:07:18,980 --> 00:07:23,340 How do we depaperize your processes and drive that efficiency? 143 00:07:23,340 --> 00:07:24,340 Super successful, really cool project. 144 00:07:24,340 --> 00:07:29,100 I'm going to save that one for another podcast because some interesting learnings about that. 145 00:07:29,100 --> 00:07:33,120 Number two, I would say revenue growth. 146 00:07:33,120 --> 00:07:36,260 And someone says, how do you get revenue growth out of that? 147 00:07:36,260 --> 00:07:41,240 Well, if I have better time to market, better customer service, all those softer things 148 00:07:41,240 --> 00:07:45,260 around revenue that allow you to grow revenue, it's not the true sell. 149 00:07:45,260 --> 00:07:47,100 It's not enhancing your product. 150 00:07:47,100 --> 00:07:48,940 It's not coming up with a better product. 151 00:07:48,940 --> 00:07:53,040 It's everything around it that makes it easier for the individual to transact with you. 152 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,500 And I hate to use this, but it's that Amazon effect, right? 153 00:07:55,500 --> 00:07:56,820 Easier to transact, buy more. 154 00:07:56,820 --> 00:08:00,260 I know, Mike, you say your house, true at my house. 155 00:08:00,260 --> 00:08:01,860 Amazon packages arrive daily. 156 00:08:01,860 --> 00:08:04,940 And a lot of times I have no idea what they are in them. 157 00:08:04,940 --> 00:08:06,820 And that's a great revenue growth because they made it easy. 158 00:08:06,820 --> 00:08:10,600 And unfortunately, my family, the bandy family is helping drive revenue growth for them. 159 00:08:10,600 --> 00:08:12,220 You're paying for Bezos yacht. 160 00:08:12,220 --> 00:08:13,220 Correct. 161 00:08:13,220 --> 00:08:14,220 Yes. 162 00:08:14,220 --> 00:08:16,220 Very nice sailboat. 163 00:08:16,220 --> 00:08:18,220 287 meters. 164 00:08:18,220 --> 00:08:19,220 Impressive. 165 00:08:19,220 --> 00:08:20,220 Yeah. 166 00:08:20,220 --> 00:08:21,220 Impressive. 167 00:08:21,220 --> 00:08:22,220 I don't know what you're doing that. 168 00:08:22,220 --> 00:08:23,220 That's impressive. 169 00:08:23,220 --> 00:08:25,500 And the other one is scalable growth, right? 170 00:08:25,500 --> 00:08:27,260 Again, we all want to grow. 171 00:08:27,260 --> 00:08:28,960 We know we need to grow. 172 00:08:28,960 --> 00:08:31,660 Sometimes we're hindered by those ERPs. 173 00:08:31,660 --> 00:08:36,900 I think, Mike, you were talking about today when you try to find a partner to do an activity 174 00:08:36,900 --> 00:08:39,580 and that partner can't hang, I think your example is skiing. 175 00:08:39,580 --> 00:08:44,140 Find that right partner that's at your aptitude and your skill level to be able to ski together. 176 00:08:44,140 --> 00:08:48,980 Did you find the right ERP that can go do those double blacks with you and be successful? 177 00:08:48,980 --> 00:08:50,260 More of a blue guy myself. 178 00:08:50,260 --> 00:08:53,060 But can you find that double black partner that you need like you talked about? 179 00:08:53,060 --> 00:08:56,740 And I think a lot ERPs sometimes aren't able to hang. 180 00:08:56,740 --> 00:08:58,420 And that causes some challenges on growth. 181 00:08:58,420 --> 00:09:00,220 I haven't seen you ski, James. 182 00:09:00,220 --> 00:09:03,540 But from what I've heard, I've heard you're more of a green guy. 183 00:09:03,540 --> 00:09:04,540 Yeah. 184 00:09:04,540 --> 00:09:05,540 I love the za. 185 00:09:05,540 --> 00:09:07,540 I love the pizza on the way down. 186 00:09:07,540 --> 00:09:08,540 The pizza. 187 00:09:08,540 --> 00:09:09,540 So does my six-year-old. 188 00:09:09,540 --> 00:09:10,540 He loves the pizza. 189 00:09:10,540 --> 00:09:11,540 We call it the wedge. 190 00:09:11,540 --> 00:09:12,540 The wedge. 191 00:09:12,540 --> 00:09:13,540 The wedge. 192 00:09:13,540 --> 00:09:15,220 So financial benefits. 193 00:09:15,220 --> 00:09:18,020 Let's talk about that for a few minutes. 194 00:09:18,020 --> 00:09:24,260 What are the tangible financial benefits associated with an ERP system change? 195 00:09:24,260 --> 00:09:31,480 I think we've all heard this in business, but to call it out, complications equal cost. 196 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:36,640 So the more complicated something is, the more cost it incurs. 197 00:09:36,640 --> 00:09:42,700 So if you think about modern ERPs and how well they drive out some of those complications, 198 00:09:42,700 --> 00:09:45,140 there's obviously a cost reduction on that. 199 00:09:45,140 --> 00:09:50,060 Now, the journey from getting to where you are today to that cost reduction, there's 200 00:09:50,060 --> 00:09:51,220 a spend to get there. 201 00:09:51,220 --> 00:09:56,220 But on the other side of that spend, there's the ability to reduce that down. 202 00:09:56,220 --> 00:09:59,780 One of the biggest challenges, so I own my own business and no one told me this when 203 00:09:59,780 --> 00:10:03,860 I started my business, I thought product was going to be my number one challenge. 204 00:10:03,860 --> 00:10:04,860 Cash flow. 205 00:10:04,860 --> 00:10:09,540 The ability to ensure you have cash flow to support growth and drive the things that you 206 00:10:09,540 --> 00:10:14,820 need by having systems that are more aligned, that have better visibility, that are able 207 00:10:14,820 --> 00:10:18,980 to work in a more efficient manner, even on the way that I communicate and do payroll 208 00:10:18,980 --> 00:10:20,940 through my system to understand that. 209 00:10:20,940 --> 00:10:25,820 Having the ability to have that visibility of cash flow and ensure cash flow optimization, 210 00:10:25,820 --> 00:10:27,700 super important to a business. 211 00:10:27,700 --> 00:10:31,120 And the last one, it's a little boring, but I'm going to call it out. 212 00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:33,660 It's that compliance and risk management. 213 00:10:33,660 --> 00:10:38,420 When you look at how much folks spend on outside groups to come in and audit, review your financials 214 00:10:38,420 --> 00:10:42,700 and the cost that's associated with going back and recasting those financials if a mistake 215 00:10:42,700 --> 00:10:47,340 is made, that's a very costly service that most of us outsource. 216 00:10:47,340 --> 00:10:50,520 And so that can add up pretty quickly. 217 00:10:50,520 --> 00:10:56,100 I think maybe one of the things that's good to talk about here, Mike, is, and I think 218 00:10:56,100 --> 00:10:59,820 this is one of the things that you really focus on and one of the things I respect that 219 00:10:59,820 --> 00:11:03,540 you have an eye towards, which is data-driven decision making. 220 00:11:03,540 --> 00:11:05,080 And we hear it all the time. 221 00:11:05,080 --> 00:11:07,300 We hear executives talk about it all the time. 222 00:11:07,300 --> 00:11:10,740 And maybe if it's okay, we flip the script a little bit and ask you, you've been around 223 00:11:10,740 --> 00:11:14,300 a lot of systems, you've been around a lot of technology, you know the systems that are 224 00:11:14,300 --> 00:11:15,380 out there. 225 00:11:15,380 --> 00:11:21,620 What are some of the capabilities from a system you look for, or an executive, whichever way, 226 00:11:21,620 --> 00:11:25,420 to help them make decisions or help you make decisions that come from an ERP? 227 00:11:25,420 --> 00:11:28,340 So kind of that decision making capabilities you look for. 228 00:11:28,340 --> 00:11:30,620 I think you're spot on. 229 00:11:30,620 --> 00:11:36,580 And I think, given that I have spent so much of my career in the private equity ecosystem, 230 00:11:36,580 --> 00:11:43,020 where we see a lot of businesses that maybe, especially in their first round of private 231 00:11:43,020 --> 00:11:48,260 equity ownership, maybe have legacy systems where they need to be upgraded to new systems 232 00:11:48,260 --> 00:11:50,300 for a variety of different reasons. 233 00:11:50,300 --> 00:11:54,200 Lots of what you've, lots of those being what you've already described today. 234 00:11:54,200 --> 00:11:58,140 But one of the reasons why it's so popular to do an ERP system upgrade in the private 235 00:11:58,140 --> 00:12:03,140 equity ecosystem is not just to improve off the legacy system's capabilities, but it's 236 00:12:03,140 --> 00:12:06,540 to get access to things like real-time data, right? 237 00:12:06,540 --> 00:12:13,020 If we want to understand something about a business, whether it's cashflow generation 238 00:12:13,020 --> 00:12:22,460 or profitability or sales per employee or inventory on hand or whatever the metric might 239 00:12:22,460 --> 00:12:28,780 be, getting some of those metrics five weeks after the fact, two weeks after the fact, 240 00:12:28,780 --> 00:12:33,020 three or four months after the fact, if you can believe it, we've seen businesses when 241 00:12:33,020 --> 00:12:39,760 we first invested in them that were still trying to close last year's books in December 242 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:43,940 of the following year, 12 month lag. 243 00:12:43,940 --> 00:12:51,140 Getting data that far in arrears isn't terribly helpful from an executive business decision-making 244 00:12:51,140 --> 00:12:52,140 perspective. 245 00:12:52,140 --> 00:12:58,780 So, first and foremost, you can't really have a top performing executive team if the executive 246 00:12:58,780 --> 00:13:04,100 team and or the board, which could include the investors, don't have the data they need 247 00:13:04,100 --> 00:13:06,060 to make decisions on the fly, right? 248 00:13:06,060 --> 00:13:07,940 You want to be responsive to your customers. 249 00:13:07,940 --> 00:13:10,580 You also want to be responsive to your shareholders. 250 00:13:10,580 --> 00:13:15,500 In order to do that, you need the information at your fingertips, the right information 251 00:13:15,500 --> 00:13:19,980 at your fingertips at the right time to make certain critical business decisions. 252 00:13:19,980 --> 00:13:25,260 So real-time data access is a big thing that certainly I prioritize. 253 00:13:25,260 --> 00:13:30,380 These days, and this is an area that's kind of changed rapidly over the last 10 years 254 00:13:30,380 --> 00:13:35,520 and will, I'm sure, for the next 10 to 15 plus, advanced analytics. 255 00:13:35,520 --> 00:13:42,420 We now have tools like Power BI where if you don't have a upgraded system, good luck using 256 00:13:42,420 --> 00:13:45,380 some of those modern and advanced tools. 257 00:13:45,380 --> 00:13:50,300 Some of the best businesses in the world are the best businesses in the world because not 258 00:13:50,300 --> 00:13:53,860 only do they have access to the real-time data, but they have visualization tools that 259 00:13:53,860 --> 00:13:59,460 allow them to see that data, read that information quickly, distill it to the most important 260 00:13:59,460 --> 00:14:04,060 points and topics and get that in the hands of the right people who can have an immediate 261 00:14:04,060 --> 00:14:06,460 impact on the enterprise. 262 00:14:06,460 --> 00:14:10,520 So real-time data access, like we talked about, advanced analytics. 263 00:14:10,520 --> 00:14:16,780 And then lastly, everyone in our firm at least has, tends to have quite strong operations 264 00:14:16,780 --> 00:14:17,780 backgrounds. 265 00:14:17,780 --> 00:14:22,020 We love process, but not just process for process sake. 266 00:14:22,020 --> 00:14:24,540 Design processes that are technology enabled. 267 00:14:24,540 --> 00:14:29,540 If I can figure out how to do something without anybody having to touch it, that's a big win. 268 00:14:29,540 --> 00:14:30,540 We're reducing costs. 269 00:14:30,540 --> 00:14:32,100 We're reducing complexity. 270 00:14:32,100 --> 00:14:37,080 To your point from earlier, the age-old saying, at least my age-old saying is the simplest 271 00:14:37,080 --> 00:14:43,040 businesses make the most profits every single time. 272 00:14:43,040 --> 00:14:49,420 Having integrated business processes that are enabled by the backbone of a modern ERP 273 00:14:49,420 --> 00:14:50,500 infrastructure is critical. 274 00:14:50,500 --> 00:14:51,500 Right? 275 00:14:51,500 --> 00:14:56,260 So the executive and the board level, real-time data access, advanced analytics, integrated 276 00:14:56,260 --> 00:15:03,040 business processes, all of which are byproducts of a well-functioning, modern and capable 277 00:15:03,040 --> 00:15:08,900 and well-suited ERP system to whatever that current business's environment may be. 278 00:15:08,900 --> 00:15:11,180 And that might look very different, at least in my experience. 279 00:15:11,180 --> 00:15:12,660 I don't know. 280 00:15:12,660 --> 00:15:17,920 I would call somebody like you if I went to go and upgrade a system, but I see very functional 281 00:15:17,920 --> 00:15:20,260 systems that are very different systems. 282 00:15:20,260 --> 00:15:24,620 You may have one business runs SAP quite well and another business runs a system I've never 283 00:15:24,620 --> 00:15:25,620 heard of before. 284 00:15:25,620 --> 00:15:30,540 As long as it's functional for that business and it gives the teams what they need and 285 00:15:30,540 --> 00:15:36,420 it addresses the use cases of all the different stakeholders, it doesn't have to be the brand 286 00:15:36,420 --> 00:15:37,420 name necessarily. 287 00:15:37,420 --> 00:15:41,900 And certainly these days with the proliferation of different vendors in the market, regularly 288 00:15:41,900 --> 00:15:46,220 I'm looking at businesses that have different systems I've never heard of before. 289 00:15:46,220 --> 00:15:47,700 That's fine as long as they work. 290 00:15:47,700 --> 00:15:51,980 And I appreciate that perspective because when we go into these a lot of times and we're 291 00:15:51,980 --> 00:15:57,240 putting together that pitch pack to take to the CEO and the board, folks tend to focus 292 00:15:57,240 --> 00:16:00,700 on the section that we talked about at the beginning, that process side, kind of that 293 00:16:00,700 --> 00:16:02,980 day-to-day, that day-to-day pain. 294 00:16:02,980 --> 00:16:06,020 And I think if you want to take people along on the journey and the vision, some of the 295 00:16:06,020 --> 00:16:11,220 points you hit on and the things you look for, if we have an eye towards the final product 296 00:16:11,220 --> 00:16:16,500 and at the end and what some of those value creation levers are, that's an important piece. 297 00:16:16,500 --> 00:16:21,580 I think it's also important to remember, and you said it, the board doesn't see the day-to-day 298 00:16:21,580 --> 00:16:22,580 operations. 299 00:16:22,580 --> 00:16:25,460 The board doesn't see its 19 clicks to input in order. 300 00:16:25,460 --> 00:16:29,780 The board doesn't see that when you go to receive, you have to print 18 sheets of paper. 301 00:16:29,780 --> 00:16:31,180 The board sees those final numbers. 302 00:16:31,180 --> 00:16:35,180 So if you can take them on that journey to say, we're going to make a thousand changes 303 00:16:35,180 --> 00:16:39,100 you're unaware of, but the final culminating event is that you're going to be able to do 304 00:16:39,100 --> 00:16:43,780 XYZ, real-time visibility, or some of the pieces you mentioned, that's a really nice 305 00:16:43,780 --> 00:16:47,220 journey to take folks on and not worry about all that sits behind. 306 00:16:47,220 --> 00:16:49,180 We're really talking about final products. 307 00:16:49,180 --> 00:16:50,580 So I appreciate that perspective. 308 00:16:50,580 --> 00:16:54,060 That's a good one for folks to keep in mind. 309 00:16:54,060 --> 00:17:00,820 So we've talked about some of the tangible benefits, cost savings, improvements to decision-making 310 00:17:00,820 --> 00:17:07,460 capabilities for the executive team, how a new ERP system might support strategic growth 311 00:17:07,460 --> 00:17:08,460 for the business. 312 00:17:08,460 --> 00:17:13,160 Let's talk about customer and supplier impact. 313 00:17:13,160 --> 00:17:20,220 It's been my experience that if you have a well-functioning, and here's the catch, a 314 00:17:20,220 --> 00:17:24,660 lot of businesses have to operate by using their system. 315 00:17:24,660 --> 00:17:28,780 You can't ship parts without engaging with the system. 316 00:17:28,780 --> 00:17:35,020 You can't release orders to the floor without releasing them in the system. 317 00:17:35,020 --> 00:17:37,740 Sales and marketing, let's stick with sales for a minute. 318 00:17:37,740 --> 00:17:42,200 On the customer side, you can do a lot of things in sales and marketing without touching 319 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:43,200 the system. 320 00:17:43,200 --> 00:17:45,280 You can make sales calls and not log those calls. 321 00:17:45,280 --> 00:17:47,620 You can quote things on the fly. 322 00:17:47,620 --> 00:17:49,580 You can do things verbally. 323 00:17:49,580 --> 00:17:52,380 You can go have lunch with somebody. 324 00:17:52,380 --> 00:17:56,940 So at the end of the day, you do have to have the tieback, which is more of a cultural change 325 00:17:56,940 --> 00:18:00,700 if you don't have that embedded in the culture of the business to come back from those sales, 326 00:18:00,700 --> 00:18:06,340 meaning log those notes, progress things throughout the sales cycle or pipeline that you have 327 00:18:06,340 --> 00:18:08,940 established in the CRM system. 328 00:18:08,940 --> 00:18:12,140 But let's talk about benefits to the customers. 329 00:18:12,140 --> 00:18:14,380 Let's talk about benefits to the suppliers. 330 00:18:14,380 --> 00:18:16,780 Let's spend a few minutes talking about that. 331 00:18:16,780 --> 00:18:19,620 I'm going to start by putting my board hat again on, right? 332 00:18:19,620 --> 00:18:20,620 So I'm at the board level. 333 00:18:20,620 --> 00:18:24,060 I know you sit on some boards yourself. 334 00:18:24,060 --> 00:18:27,700 How important is to you the NPS score? 335 00:18:27,700 --> 00:18:31,380 And maybe, sorry, maybe you can explain what NPS score is as well, but how important is 336 00:18:31,380 --> 00:18:36,500 the NPS score to you as a board member or a business owner? 337 00:18:36,500 --> 00:18:40,300 And then maybe spend a little bit of time helping us understand why that's an important 338 00:18:40,300 --> 00:18:42,300 metric that's tracked. 339 00:18:42,300 --> 00:18:47,460 Well I think there are probably other people who are more well versed in NPS than I am, 340 00:18:47,460 --> 00:18:51,180 but we should probably actually bring one of those people on to an episode about this 341 00:18:51,180 --> 00:18:52,180 at some point. 342 00:18:52,180 --> 00:18:59,860 But NPS stands for Net Promoter Score, which is a, I believe, Bain Consulting, one of the 343 00:18:59,860 --> 00:19:05,860 big consulting firms, created this a few decades ago, wrote a fancy book about it, and it's 344 00:19:05,860 --> 00:19:13,980 become a fairly widely used measurement tool to measure customer satisfaction, right? 345 00:19:13,980 --> 00:19:20,260 And at the board level, certainly the boards I'm involved with, I push hard if businesses 346 00:19:20,260 --> 00:19:24,300 when we invest in them don't have something set up, but what we like to see, that they 347 00:19:24,300 --> 00:19:29,180 do set something like this up, what we like to see is that a business regularly tracks 348 00:19:29,180 --> 00:19:30,180 that NPS score, right? 349 00:19:30,180 --> 00:19:35,780 So there's a mathematical calculation, but to keep it simple for today's discussion, 350 00:19:35,780 --> 00:19:39,100 you ask your customers on a scale of 1 to 10, how do we do, basically? 351 00:19:39,100 --> 00:19:43,940 And there's a little bit of math behind it all, but it produces this score, and you can 352 00:19:43,940 --> 00:19:50,020 benchmark your kind of average score against peers in your industry and peers in other 353 00:19:50,020 --> 00:19:54,340 industries, but you're trying to hit some type of benchmark score. 354 00:19:54,340 --> 00:19:57,860 And if you track that over time, you can gain some really interesting insights, not just 355 00:19:57,860 --> 00:20:03,900 in terms of how you compare to your competition, but how, what your customers feel about the 356 00:20:03,900 --> 00:20:07,860 experience of your business or your service or your product. 357 00:20:07,860 --> 00:20:08,860 So that's NPS score. 358 00:20:08,860 --> 00:20:09,860 Yeah, I appreciate that. 359 00:20:09,860 --> 00:20:14,340 I think it's important for our listeners to kind of understand that for this next section. 360 00:20:14,340 --> 00:20:19,100 That is a numerical value, and folks usually that are on boards can count 1 to 10 and know 361 00:20:19,100 --> 00:20:21,500 if it's a good numerical value, right? 362 00:20:21,500 --> 00:20:23,060 I usually can count to 10. 363 00:20:23,060 --> 00:20:24,060 Yeah. 364 00:20:24,060 --> 00:20:25,060 Everyone's gonna use your toes. 365 00:20:25,060 --> 00:20:26,060 Yeah. 366 00:20:26,060 --> 00:20:28,660 But I think if you can count to 1 to 10, and you know that, that is something that boards 367 00:20:28,660 --> 00:20:30,860 can focus in on and hone in on. 368 00:20:30,860 --> 00:20:33,780 And that's a bit of voice of customer or VOC. 369 00:20:33,780 --> 00:20:37,580 And so we think about how these systems help improve that experience. 370 00:20:37,580 --> 00:20:41,060 How many times have we been frustrated by, I'm trying to use a system or I don't know 371 00:20:41,060 --> 00:20:46,580 where my order is, or it was made incorrectly, or the technician didn't show up on time. 372 00:20:46,580 --> 00:20:50,860 Again, if I'm putting my board hat on, it's easy to go and say, we're gonna set a goal, 373 00:20:50,860 --> 00:20:56,580 and we've done this with others, of a 20% lift in NPS by making the following changes. 374 00:20:56,580 --> 00:21:00,380 That's something folks can hitch to on the customer side. 375 00:21:00,380 --> 00:21:01,580 Supplier side gets focused on a lot. 376 00:21:01,580 --> 00:21:02,700 I'm not gonna touch on as much. 377 00:21:02,700 --> 00:21:04,500 We all know we want our suppliers to like us. 378 00:21:04,500 --> 00:21:06,060 We want to make sure we're getting a fair price. 379 00:21:06,060 --> 00:21:08,180 Mike, you and I deal a lot in M&A. 380 00:21:08,180 --> 00:21:12,900 I've got two people buying from the same supplier, two different prices, two different SLAs, two 381 00:21:12,900 --> 00:21:14,060 different terms. 382 00:21:14,060 --> 00:21:18,620 If I have that visibility and I can harmonize that, I can drive value in the deal that can 383 00:21:18,620 --> 00:21:19,940 be put into the M&A event. 384 00:21:19,940 --> 00:21:23,620 I think we all know a bit about the supplier side, but because it's so common. 385 00:21:23,620 --> 00:21:25,820 But I think customer sometimes gets left behind. 386 00:21:25,820 --> 00:21:27,340 So I'm glad you said it. 387 00:21:27,340 --> 00:21:30,500 And then the last side, I'm gonna pull back what you mentioned. 388 00:21:30,500 --> 00:21:35,580 It's that data-driven decision-making, but using data to drive decisions for both customers 389 00:21:35,580 --> 00:21:37,020 and clients. 390 00:21:37,020 --> 00:21:41,700 The way that we used to make data decisions with clients was when we priced somebody out. 391 00:21:41,700 --> 00:21:45,140 We'd go through price increases, oh, they stopped buying. 392 00:21:45,140 --> 00:21:46,140 Let's lower the price. 393 00:21:46,140 --> 00:21:48,100 Okay, business came back. 394 00:21:48,100 --> 00:21:52,700 There's so many other variables and data points that you can use to drive decision-making 395 00:21:52,700 --> 00:21:55,620 when you have a system that captures those data points. 396 00:21:55,620 --> 00:21:57,780 What does my margin look like by region? 397 00:21:57,780 --> 00:22:00,060 What products are in the ABCD? 398 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:02,180 How we do seasonality look at movement? 399 00:22:02,180 --> 00:22:06,180 What are all those variables that drive me to get the right product to the customer for 400 00:22:06,180 --> 00:22:09,860 their need or go out and procure those things I need to be able to do that? 401 00:22:09,860 --> 00:22:15,180 And so having that data at the hand will drive customer and supplier satisfaction and ultimately 402 00:22:15,180 --> 00:22:19,520 ends up in a very simple numeric value that's a culminating event that you can easily track 403 00:22:19,520 --> 00:22:21,460 and judge yourself on. 404 00:22:21,460 --> 00:22:25,540 What if you don't upgrade an ERP system? 405 00:22:25,540 --> 00:22:27,880 What if you don't have a modern ERP system? 406 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:32,900 What are some of the risks of continuing with your outdated system? 407 00:22:32,900 --> 00:22:34,980 Yeah, and this is a little more technical. 408 00:22:34,980 --> 00:22:39,380 So I'm glad we're covering this because sometimes when you go to have that conversation with 409 00:22:39,380 --> 00:22:45,340 your CEO or someone else, you're just essentially saying it's outdated, it doesn't work. 410 00:22:45,340 --> 00:22:50,180 So in the IT world, everyone always works on projects and you do releases and updates. 411 00:22:50,180 --> 00:22:55,940 And we always say if it's for security, compliance or legal, we make those changes first because 412 00:22:55,940 --> 00:22:57,660 you have to make them. 413 00:22:57,660 --> 00:23:02,060 Sometimes the ERP forces our hand to have to upgrade the ERP. 414 00:23:02,060 --> 00:23:03,420 There's no choice. 415 00:23:03,420 --> 00:23:07,180 So obviously it's inefficient because it's older and has been updated. 416 00:23:07,180 --> 00:23:12,580 And usually if it's out of date, I've had it for a while and thus it's out of date and 417 00:23:12,580 --> 00:23:13,940 it's not up to date to where I am. 418 00:23:13,940 --> 00:23:16,580 So that's a usual thing. 419 00:23:16,580 --> 00:23:20,620 We have another episode that talks about this so I won't go too far into it. 420 00:23:20,620 --> 00:23:25,100 But the cyber security side, just like when you have a phone that you can no longer update, 421 00:23:25,100 --> 00:23:30,500 the exposure and risk, and I know we discussed this term before, threat vector, your ERP becomes 422 00:23:30,500 --> 00:23:32,700 a threat vector to your organization. 423 00:23:32,700 --> 00:23:37,040 And it's at the back end level, it's actually at the system side of it that can create that. 424 00:23:37,040 --> 00:23:40,460 So when I'm running a server, it runs Windows most of the time. 425 00:23:40,460 --> 00:23:44,940 That Windows environment sometimes can't be updated to the newest version of Windows because 426 00:23:44,940 --> 00:23:48,660 it's a legacy version to be able to support the ERP that's running on it. 427 00:23:48,660 --> 00:23:52,820 So it's kind of one system blocking the other and then it all just ends up being a big risk 428 00:23:52,820 --> 00:23:54,660 to the organization. 429 00:23:54,660 --> 00:23:59,420 And then as you can imagine, if I can't do any enhancements and my ERP is stuck where 430 00:23:59,420 --> 00:24:02,520 it is, it's really hard to scale. 431 00:24:02,520 --> 00:24:06,380 So when we go and do diligence, one of the things we do is IT diligence. 432 00:24:06,380 --> 00:24:09,900 And one of the questions I love to ask the management team is, at what point does the 433 00:24:09,900 --> 00:24:10,900 ERP break? 434 00:24:10,900 --> 00:24:13,660 2x, 5x, 10x sales. 435 00:24:13,660 --> 00:24:16,900 If you have an outdated ERP, you know what it breaks? 436 00:24:16,900 --> 00:24:19,040 At 0x, it's broken today. 437 00:24:19,040 --> 00:24:23,660 And so I think that when you look at these systems not staying up to date or letting 438 00:24:23,660 --> 00:24:26,880 it get to out of compliance is a challenge. 439 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:31,580 As a side note, one of the positions we take is if you know an ERP is coming up on being 440 00:24:31,580 --> 00:24:38,860 out of compliance, we suggest you start your ERP selection upgrade process 24 to 36 months 441 00:24:38,860 --> 00:24:40,240 before that compliance runs out. 442 00:24:40,240 --> 00:24:42,580 They give you a long lead to know what's coming. 443 00:24:42,580 --> 00:24:46,260 That gives you time to select your next system, implement the system, and have a bit of buffer. 444 00:24:46,260 --> 00:24:50,260 But we want people to pull that forward, not wait to the ultimate last minute for that. 445 00:24:50,260 --> 00:24:53,500 Because if you wait for the last minute, it can be a really challenge and you're under 446 00:24:53,500 --> 00:24:56,580 the gun to get that done and mistakes are made. 447 00:24:56,580 --> 00:25:03,140 So if you don't make a change, you keep running your outdated system, security risks or security 448 00:25:03,140 --> 00:25:08,500 vulnerabilities, probably a better way to put it, current state inefficiencies probably 449 00:25:08,500 --> 00:25:09,500 aren't going anywhere. 450 00:25:09,500 --> 00:25:14,780 You're going to live with those for a while, more difficult to scale. 451 00:25:14,780 --> 00:25:17,360 Let's go back to a positive topic here. 452 00:25:17,360 --> 00:25:20,960 Let's assume you do make a change. 453 00:25:20,960 --> 00:25:22,620 What else do you get to do? 454 00:25:22,620 --> 00:25:28,180 What else becomes unlocked from a digital transformation perspective? 455 00:25:28,180 --> 00:25:32,860 Which I know is a topic you're always pitching me on digital transformation. 456 00:25:32,860 --> 00:25:35,940 I hear you talk about it all the time. 457 00:25:35,940 --> 00:25:39,220 Still TBD if I really understand what you mean when you say it, but I think I've got 458 00:25:39,220 --> 00:25:41,140 some ideas. 459 00:25:41,140 --> 00:25:44,740 Some of our listeners might have a good understanding of it, maybe some not. 460 00:25:44,740 --> 00:25:46,340 How do you respond to that? 461 00:25:46,340 --> 00:25:47,540 Yeah, you're right. 462 00:25:47,540 --> 00:25:49,500 We should talk about the other side of the coin. 463 00:25:49,500 --> 00:25:52,540 The other side of the coin is really some interesting stuff. 464 00:25:52,540 --> 00:25:57,060 Now this won't apply to all businesses, but let's just generally speak about it. 465 00:25:57,060 --> 00:26:03,420 There's this idea of IOT or IIOT, which is Internet of Things or Industrial Internet 466 00:26:03,420 --> 00:26:04,420 of Things. 467 00:26:04,420 --> 00:26:06,980 It's this automation you see. 468 00:26:06,980 --> 00:26:09,740 Before AI came along that we're going to talk about in a second, it was something that we 469 00:26:09,740 --> 00:26:10,740 were discussing quite a bit. 470 00:26:10,740 --> 00:26:15,180 It's the ability to have these systems that dehumanize processes and allow me to work 471 00:26:15,180 --> 00:26:17,660 in a more automated fashion. 472 00:26:17,660 --> 00:26:19,180 There's tools like AI. 473 00:26:19,180 --> 00:26:24,940 We really haven't seen a lot of AI plays fully integrated to ERPs yet today. 474 00:26:24,940 --> 00:26:30,660 There's not a lot of omni solutions, larger solutions out there, but we know they're coming. 475 00:26:30,660 --> 00:26:35,700 The base to be able to participate in AI is good clean data. 476 00:26:35,700 --> 00:26:40,580 Having a modern system with good clean data allows you the ability to be able to use those 477 00:26:40,580 --> 00:26:41,580 tools. 478 00:26:41,580 --> 00:26:44,940 That's a little more forward thinking, but something that's important. 479 00:26:44,940 --> 00:26:48,540 With that, it allows you the ability to pivot, that flexibility. 480 00:26:48,540 --> 00:26:52,780 Let's say that you're a business today that owns one type of business, and tomorrow you're 481 00:26:52,780 --> 00:26:54,620 going to vertically integrate it with something else. 482 00:26:54,620 --> 00:26:58,700 Today I manufacture something, and tomorrow I'm going to acquire something who makes the 483 00:26:58,700 --> 00:27:01,860 monomers and polymers for me to be able to manufacture that. 484 00:27:01,860 --> 00:27:05,220 When I have a system that's a more modern system, I have the ability to absorb that 485 00:27:05,220 --> 00:27:11,020 system, expand my horizon horizontally, and be able to work within my system without having 486 00:27:11,020 --> 00:27:13,060 to rip it out and replace it. 487 00:27:13,060 --> 00:27:17,940 Then the last one, which I know is something that we talk a lot about at TriVista, is around 488 00:27:17,940 --> 00:27:20,060 the CI and continuous improvement side. 489 00:27:20,060 --> 00:27:24,940 The ability to constantly look for ways to improve, become better and more efficient. 490 00:27:24,940 --> 00:27:27,940 I know that you and I have a lot of conversations in this space. 491 00:27:27,940 --> 00:27:32,420 What are some of those more modern things as you sit at boards and have those board 492 00:27:32,420 --> 00:27:37,220 conversations for our listeners that talk to people about the maybe a few buzz words, 493 00:27:37,220 --> 00:27:41,420 if you don't mind as well, that you're hearing folks talking about or boards really wrestling 494 00:27:41,420 --> 00:27:45,180 with how can they integrate and use? 495 00:27:45,180 --> 00:27:53,860 Well I think one of the areas that we've seen some of the most intriguing advanced tools 496 00:27:53,860 --> 00:27:55,300 is in supply chain management. 497 00:27:55,300 --> 00:28:04,180 There are some really interesting predictive tool sets out there that will help you with 498 00:28:04,180 --> 00:28:11,160 demand and supply planning in ways that would have been unthinkable even five, seven, ten 499 00:28:11,160 --> 00:28:13,340 years ago. 500 00:28:13,340 --> 00:28:18,380 We're also seeing some pretty big advancements in CPQ, right? 501 00:28:18,380 --> 00:28:20,460 Cost price and quote. 502 00:28:20,460 --> 00:28:25,060 We're starting to see tools and I'm not using these tools every day, but we're starting 503 00:28:25,060 --> 00:28:32,100 to see some of our more forward thinking leadership teams implement modules or implement applications 504 00:28:32,100 --> 00:28:38,500 onto some of these newer ERP systems with businesses with fairly clean data sets. 505 00:28:38,500 --> 00:28:42,200 Obviously, that's a journey that companies have to go on to get there. 506 00:28:42,200 --> 00:28:46,940 But once they're there, you're actually able to plug in some of these newer applications 507 00:28:46,940 --> 00:28:53,580 and get really interesting intelligence that wouldn't have been available otherwise that's 508 00:28:53,580 --> 00:28:56,540 enabling them to make more informed business decisions. 509 00:28:56,540 --> 00:29:01,940 Whether that's raising prices to increase profitability or reducing prices to increase 510 00:29:01,940 --> 00:29:06,540 market share or making sure that you've got the right product in the right shelf in the 511 00:29:06,540 --> 00:29:11,560 right geography at the right time so you can take advantage of that selling opportunity. 512 00:29:11,560 --> 00:29:16,740 But really, I'll be honest, you said it when you started this last section here on digital 513 00:29:16,740 --> 00:29:17,740 transformation. 514 00:29:17,740 --> 00:29:22,660 We're only just starting to see some of this stuff, especially in some of the more industrial 515 00:29:22,660 --> 00:29:28,540 environments where we still walk into businesses that are using ERP systems that were built 516 00:29:28,540 --> 00:29:31,380 in the early 90s. 517 00:29:31,380 --> 00:29:35,100 It's not that that's like once a year, we're seeing that a number of times a year still, 518 00:29:35,100 --> 00:29:36,100 right? 519 00:29:36,100 --> 00:29:38,540 So, you know, there's a lot of companies out there, mid-market companies, companies that 520 00:29:38,540 --> 00:29:42,740 people have heard of even who have some pretty antiquated systems. 521 00:29:42,740 --> 00:29:47,100 And I think that a lot of them are going to be falling behind from a competitiveness perspective 522 00:29:47,100 --> 00:29:49,340 as many of them already have. 523 00:29:49,340 --> 00:29:53,500 But I think there's just a lot of change coming the next 10, 15 years. 524 00:29:53,500 --> 00:29:57,580 You know, we've seen more dashboarding certainly with the off-the-shelf BI tools. 525 00:29:57,580 --> 00:30:02,300 We're seeing better custom dashboarding products, which is something, you know, I know our team 526 00:30:02,300 --> 00:30:09,740 has been working on some proprietary solutions to that effect over the last 12 to 18 months. 527 00:30:09,740 --> 00:30:11,820 But yeah, I think we're early days. 528 00:30:11,820 --> 00:30:13,380 Yeah, I agree. 529 00:30:13,380 --> 00:30:18,580 I appreciate those insights again, because I think it's interesting to hear it. 530 00:30:18,580 --> 00:30:22,020 And then obviously the solution starts to kick off in my head about how we've helped 531 00:30:22,020 --> 00:30:24,940 other folks solve those very things. 532 00:30:24,940 --> 00:30:29,700 And hopefully our listeners today are able to take some of these nuggets and really have 533 00:30:29,700 --> 00:30:35,460 those conversations where it's not just presenting the problem, it's presenting a potential solution. 534 00:30:35,460 --> 00:30:39,860 And obviously finding someone to help you work through that solution or present the 535 00:30:39,860 --> 00:30:44,020 numeric or improvement opportunities that we, some of those that we've discussed today 536 00:30:44,020 --> 00:30:46,100 is important as you start to have those conversations. 537 00:30:46,100 --> 00:30:49,920 I know every time we go to a client to have that, you and I partner a lot of times on 538 00:30:49,920 --> 00:30:55,180 thinking through what's that value driver and what does it mean to the client. 539 00:30:55,180 --> 00:30:56,180 So how do we close this out? 540 00:30:56,180 --> 00:30:58,460 How do we close today's episode out, James? 541 00:30:58,460 --> 00:30:59,460 What do you think? 542 00:30:59,460 --> 00:31:03,860 Well, I think we could go back and review, but I think our listeners probably took pretty 543 00:31:03,860 --> 00:31:05,380 good notes throughout the episode. 544 00:31:05,380 --> 00:31:09,220 I can only imagine as you take notes when I'm podcasting in the car. 545 00:31:09,220 --> 00:31:10,220 I'm sure, I'm sure. 546 00:31:10,220 --> 00:31:11,540 Taking the kids to school. 547 00:31:11,540 --> 00:31:17,620 I think, I think a good way to close it out, Mike, is to say when you have an ERP that 548 00:31:17,620 --> 00:31:26,820 is, has its challenges and you know its challenges, it never hurts to think through an approach 549 00:31:26,820 --> 00:31:30,180 or a proposal on how to improve. 550 00:31:30,180 --> 00:31:31,180 And there is always hope. 551 00:31:31,180 --> 00:31:35,060 And that sounds a little bleak when I say that, but there's always hope to make those 552 00:31:35,060 --> 00:31:36,060 improvements. 553 00:31:36,060 --> 00:31:38,900 There is a system out there that can help you on your journey. 554 00:31:38,900 --> 00:31:44,580 Taking the time, having the thoughtful conversation, working through that, and then having those 555 00:31:44,580 --> 00:31:50,420 conversations with others such as ourselves to think through what those value propositions 556 00:31:50,420 --> 00:31:55,260 are is valuable because on the other side can be a lot of great growth. 557 00:31:55,260 --> 00:31:59,580 Well, I'm just glad that you didn't give me a hard time for mentioning another consulting 558 00:31:59,580 --> 00:32:00,580 firm. 559 00:32:00,580 --> 00:32:01,580 Oh yeah. 560 00:32:01,580 --> 00:32:05,060 I thought that might be a nice little plug for you to talk about some of our competitors. 561 00:32:05,060 --> 00:32:09,580 Hey, if I was going to give you a hard time, I would let you know it's configure price 562 00:32:09,580 --> 00:32:14,340 quote and not cost price quote, but I didn't provide that hard time. 563 00:32:14,340 --> 00:32:17,260 Thanks for tuning into this episode of Growing EBITDA. 564 00:32:17,260 --> 00:32:22,340 If you liked this episode, hit subscribe or follow us on LinkedIn for updates. 565 00:32:22,340 --> 00:32:24,540 Got a topic you'd like us to cover? 566 00:32:24,540 --> 00:32:25,540 Drop us a message. 567 00:32:25,540 --> 00:32:54,820 We'd love to hear from you.