Email becoming counterproductive leading to information overload

Office workers are being overwhelmed by a deluge of unwanted data and are largely becoming less effective as a result of their companies' email practices says research.

In a poll of 1,000 workers conducted by market researcher OnePoll, 70 per cent of employees complained about being sent irrelevant emails or being copied on emails of no interest.

More than a third (38 per cent) of respondents said they now suffer from information overload at work.

Office workers now face the choice of trawling through countless irrelevant emails or ignoring them and potentially missing out on vital messages.

Tim Barker, vice president of EMEA strategy for CRM solutions company Salesforce says: ‘The habit of “blasting out” emails to a large group of people to ensure that there is no chance of leaving anyone out of a message has created a situation where email is now becoming counterproductive.’

BECOME A FILTER NINJA

Outlook and other email software lets you set up filters that show you only the messages that meet your selected criteria.

When you filter your emails by contact or by those which are direct to you the ones which are likely to deserve a faster reply too can be brought to your attention. Filters can be as customised as you like depending on the content or contact of most interest or relevance to you.

REDUCE YOUR CARBON COPY FOOTPRINT

Many of us use the cc line too liberally, copying everyone in our organization who has recently expressed an opinion on the subject we're writing about.

While there are legitimate reasons for using the cc line to keep people in the loop, abuse of the electronic "carbon copy" is a big factor behind inbox bloat.

You can dissuade persistent offenders by politely explaining to them what you need to know. But good etiquette is always best taught through example. Cut down on the cc'ing and trust that others will follow your lead.

GRAB A TECHNICAL ASSIST

Filters are okay, but my email software really ought to be able to do the hard work for me. After all, it has all the information it needs to figure out who are my most important contacts based on the frequency with which we exchange email.

That's the theory behind Gmail Priority Inbox, a feature Google introduced on August 30. This optional way of organizing your Gmail puts your important messages at the top of your inbox.

Original Sources: Computerworld.com, Salesforce.com and Smallbusiness.co.uk, Reuters.com

Be a best run business with SAP

Are You a Best-Run Business?

What is a best-run business?

•Optimises every aspect of operations
•Maximises revenue and minimises costs
•Fully utilises resources and leverages partners
•Beats the competition by consistently delighting customers

Being a best run business is about turning inefficiencies in to opportunities.

Four Steps to becoming a best run business from SAP…

See the Whole Picture to Make Faster, Smarter Decisions
With the right solutions in place to produce meaningful, company-wide data, you can act decisively to align resources and investments with the best opportunities; prioritise both short- and long-term goals; increase productivity throughout the organisation; and generate remediation plans to minimise risks.

Control Your Cost Structure End to End
Setting up an environment that automates and integrates processes can help you unify the day-to-day operations of the business. By solving an immediate need in the business, say integrating sales and marketing activities, and then centralising the company’s fundamentals – financials and supply chain operations – you can establish a collaborative, optimised team across your company.

Minimise Risk and LiabilityThe third step to optimise your business is to embed metrics and reporting into your end-to-end processes – whether you are being measured on financial performance, product quality, delivery standards, service level agreements, regulatory compliance, or technical support and service.

Anticipate Change
The fourth step in becoming a best-run business is to build a flexible business model to manage and embrace changes that will invariably come. When you open a new line of business, expand into a new geography, or decide to offer services in addition to products, your business model must be agile.
You must be able to roll out new processes or adapt existing business processes to suit a global account or new supplier – or extend these processes to new regions. You may also need to change your organisational structure, shifting people’s goals or roles quickly to adjust to new opportunities so the company can quickly support them.

See how you compare in just two minutes by visiting www.sapsmebestrunbusinessprofile.com . See how you can become a best run business or improve your current operations.

As an SME, SAP Business One has been designed specifically by SAP to meet your business needs. To find out more about SAP Business One visit: www.beabetterbusiness.com

SAP worth more than Oracle and has greater market share

SAP (NYSE:SAP) and Oracle (NASDAQ:ORCL) are the two biggest players in the enterprise application software market.

SAP has a greater share of the Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence, and Supply Chain Management markets. They are the clear world leaders in the provision of business software solutions offering applications and services that enable companies of all sizes and in more than 25 industries to become best-run businesses.
SAP leads Oracle in terms of market share

Market Share (2016 projections) ERP CRM BI SCM
Oracle 15% 17% 18% 17%
SAP 24% 19% 24% 25%

A Trefis Forecast estimates that SAP’s applications software business is worth about $62 billion, versus $45 billion for Oracle’s application software business. (Trefis is a US based financial community helping us to understand how a company’s products impact on their stock price.)

To see how you can join SAP's 102,500 customers, 77% of which are SMEs, visit
www.beabetterbusiness.com

Dairyglen - innovation driving this best run business!

“Innovation is the central issue in economic prosperity”

Michael Porter

Wicklow based ice cream supplier Dairyglen continue to achieve success with innovative products in timely response to customer demand.

"The whipped ice-cream market has changed in the last four years," said Philip Delaney, a director of the family run business.

"Consumers wanted more, so we introduced our Smooch brand, which is similar to a McFlurry but comes with a huge range of fresh toppings that are blended with the artisan ice-cream flavours."

He said the best way to get products to retailers was to offer them a retail solution: a branded Smooch unit "which gives the retailer an instant ice-cream parlour".

"We’re introducing our newest products at Shop - which will fill a gap we noticed in the milkshake market - as well as highlighting some of our other brands, including Hawaiian Ice, a sort of posh slushy, Frutina Slush, and our full range of accessories and machinery."

Smooch was first to the market with the mini ice cream parlour and was first again with the introduction of the luxury soft-serve ice cream, the Smooch Deluxe. Dairyglen continues to develop new products, brands, menus, and promotions to stay ahead of the curve.

Shop is Irelands largest three day food and drink trade only event, which takes place in the RDS Simmonscourt in Dublin from September 28 to 30. Advice on how retailers can tap in the now cited upswing will be given at Shop. The event will also be a chance to display the latest products and innovations coming on stream in the Irish market.

"Some 150 exhibitors will be showcasing the latest innovations and products that the Irish market has to offer to about 5,000 visitors, including those from supermarkets, convenience outlets, independent chains and high-end delicatessens," said Leyla Mulvihill, show manager for Easyfairs, the event organiser of Shop.

Some 90 per cent of the exhibitors are Irish.

Dairyglen are an IIS customer who have been utilising SAP Business One since 2004.

Managing Director Philip Delaney on SAP Business One – “I would recommend SAP Business One to any business of our size. People shy away from it, thinking it’s for bigger companies, but it’s not expensive and it’s a comprehensive business tool for any company that really wants to understand how it is operating.”

To find out more about Dairyglen visit: www.dairyglen.ie

See how you can make your business even better with SAP Business One by visiting www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Original Source: The Post.ie 19th September 2010

Intelligent Essentials - Licensing

Find out more about Intelligent Essentials Licensing.You can readily access information with regard to the licenses you possess with regard to the different elements of Intelligent Essentials and allocate these to specific users within your organisation.

Intelligent Essentials - Making SAP Business One even Better!



Visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie to find out more about Intelligent Essentials and SAP Business One!

SMEs need to realise that success and sustainability are not mutually exclusive.

SME managers across the UK have traditionally skirted around energy management and sustainability in favour of focus on short-term profit.
But rising energy bills and new carbon reduction legislation are now conspiring to force their hand.

SMEs need to realise that success and sustainability are not mutually exclusive, says Adrian Newton of Energy Solutions by bringing sustainability into the boardroom, companies can not only slash energy costs; they can also boost their bottom line, build their brand equity and reinforce their reputation.

Despite growing interest in corporate and social responsibility (CSR) issues, the UK’s business leaders have, until recently, neatly managed to sidestep any real strategic approach to energy management and sustainability. A recent survey by O2 of senior leaders in the private and public sectors revealed a divergence of views on this issue.

While 46 per cent of respondents said they planned to prioritise sustainability over the next two years, 36 per cent acknowledged that they would move away from it. But the report also showed an emerging consensus that sustainability is good for business, with almost 60 percent of the senior executives questioned saying it would increase market share over the next ten years and 44 percent thought it would boost profits by underpinning a more efficient operating model.
According to Peter Graf, chief sustainability officer at SAP, sustainability is a trend that is “really powered by IT”, especially as SAP provides software that supports all different enterprise areas, from supply chains and logistics to distribution and HR.

“Software is key because software can measure, optimise and improve how business is run."

“IT creates transparency. With software, you can find the areas where you can have the biggest impact [on the carbon footprint.”

To Find out More about SAP Business One, designed specifically to meet the needs to small to midsize companies, visit www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Original Article: SME Web

Drop in UK Business Failures; SAP Business One can help!

Equifax Business Failures Report: 13.2% drop recorded year on year.

Equifax has released its latest figures on business failures across the UK, showing that despite continuing difficult trading conditions, businesses are doing their best to reverse the negative trend.

In August 2010, there was a reduction in the number of businesses that went bust across every sector compared to the same period last year. Overall there was a 13.2%drop year on year.

There was also an 8.2% decline for August compared to July. Only the Retail sector saw a small increase in failures in August compared to July at 3.2%.

“As was the case at the end of Quarter 2, our Business Failures tracking shows the very close control businesses continue to put on cash flow and costs” explained Nic Beishon, Head of Equifax Commercial Information Solutions.

“Our numbers also seem to suggest that the banks might have been responding to calls to free up their lending criteria to provide new funds to businesses. This could have played a part in helping businesses struggling with cash flow as they chase late payments. More often than not these are good healthy businesses – they just need a helping hand when late payments make it hard to balance the books at the end of the month.”

“Headlines continue to report cuts in headcount as well as some fairly high profile failures. But a close control on debts and cash flow management certainly appears to be working for many businesses. The trend that we saw throughout all of 2009 for failures to increase has definitely been reversed – which has to be positive news for businesses and their employees."

“The speculation has continued about whether we are heading for a double-dip recession, but our Business Failures Report seems to indicate that all the right actions are being taken by UK businesses – and the organisations that support them - to survive in the continuing difficult trading conditions.”

SAP Business One can help support small to midsize companies through the recession allowing them to work smarter, turn downtime into productive time, enhance efficiency and improve visibility across the organisation which can support the maintenance of crucial cash flow. Flourish during the recession with SAP Business One.

To find out more visit: www.beabetterbusiness.co.uk or www.beabetterbusiness.ie

Original Article: SME Web