Case management functionality is critical to the operation of many of Tensoft’s customers.  Because we’re also in the software industry, case management is also critical to Tensoft’s internal processes for supporting our customers.   For that reason, I thought it might be of interest to describe how we handle case management here at Tensoft, for our customers.  Keep in mind that the two main goals of the case management system are: 1) tracking cases and assigning them to the appropriate resources; and, 2) visibility into the case management process for both Tensoft and our customers.

The process is usually initiated when one of Tensoft’s customers sends an email to support@tensoft.com, or any of our product-specific email addresses.   The first thing that happens is that the email automatically creates a case number in Tensoft’s Microsoft CRM system.   This case number will be used to track and resolve the question or issue that’s been submitted, throughout the time that this takes.  At the same time, an email notification is automatically sent to the email sender, informing them that their information has been received and providing them with the appropriate case number.   

Next, the case is assigned to the appropriate support queue for response and resolution.   Whether the question/issue concerns Microsoft Dynamics, one of Tensoft’s products, or platform services, it will be assigned to a support team member who has training and experience handling that type of concern, and who will follow the case through to resolution.    

At Tensoft, each member of the support team receives a daily email with a list of any open cases that have been assigned to them.   In addition, managers are notified of any cases that haven’t been responded to, or that haven’t been resolved.  So it allows us to manage cases by exception.  Customers also receive a weekly email of all support case activity for the prior week, so they can review all open and closed cases, giving them visibility into the process.

By streamlining our case management process using Microsoft CRM, Tensoft is better able to support our customers.  We’ve adapted case creation and management to our required processes, and we use the resulting visibility to supply our team and our customers with the information needed to provide great support.

 At times the question arises of how to best manage inventory cost.  In manufacturing operations, the role of finance is usually a partnership with operations related to inventory – cost reduction and management, inventory valuation, and appropriate inventory levels to maintain.  The partnership works best where each team’s feedback matches responsibility in the partnership.

At Tensoft, we are strong believers in the benefits of standard costing (compared to actual costing).  Standard cost is commonly associated with a swift inventory value that streamlines transaction processing and at times is viewed as ignoring the reality of inventory value as it changes.  However, we believe this is the result of a lower level of engagement that is required in any organization actively trying to manage inventory value.

When manufacturing and finance partner over inventory costing (and cost reduction) using a standard cost model, you can think of standard cost as a plan.  You are setting goals for what inventory cost should be based on the inputs and manufacturing requirements.  Variances identify reasons for moving away from the plan – such as yield hits, productivity (units absorbed for throughput), PPV variances, rework variances, and so on.  Correctly identifying and categorizing the variances allows manufacturing operations and finance to review why the goals were not met, and what the specific variances tell you about not meeting the goals.  Approached in this way, standard costing plus variance analysis actually requires the most active engagement in cost modeling and results management – setting a plan and measuring performance against the plan. 

Years ago I met with the VP of Operations of a high volume electronics component company who told me their inventory cost reduction committee met weekly – a finance and operations partnership.  Their stated goal was to reduce the cost of inventory value by $.01 each week, which achieved a $0.52 cost per unit reduction annually.  For them this amounted to millions of dollars in additional margin each year.  Results like that aren't possible unless you have an active engagement through standards (plan) and measurement (partnership review).

Since most of Tensoft’s customers are technology companies - and because we’re a technology company ourselves - we follow news about the tech industry with a great deal of interest.   The past year has seen a significant bump in tech IPOs, accompanied by a great deal of speculation about whether or not this presages another dot-com bubble.   Rampant overvaluation heads the list of the symptoms cited most often, although there are plenty of other  voices arguing that the recent tech IPOs are companies with solid businesses, not Webvan or Pets.com. 

Thanks to this infographic by KISSmetrics and FeeFighters, it’s a little easier to see what’s been happening and how it looks compared to the dot-com bubble in the late 90’s.  And, thanks, The Atlantic’s Associate Editor Nicholas Jackson, you don’t even need to sort through the data – he’s provided a pretty concise analysis, which I’ll quote herein full:

• Although it may seem that recently (2009-2011) startups haven't had problems raising capital, the level of venture investment currently pales in comparison to levels during the .com bubble. A lot of people are talking about an early stage bubble, but even in early stage deals, we're nowhere near the .com bubble.
• Even with the seemingly high number of recent tech IPOs, historical data suggests that the number of current tech IPOs is drastically smaller than during the .com bubble.
• When most people think of the .com bubble of the '90s, they think of the giant run-up in tech stocks. The pace at which the Nasdaq 100 index shot up (10x in four years) was impressive and every individual investor wanted a piece of the action. Fortunately, we don't seem to be approaching the craziness of that time.
• Today, tech companies have access to a relatively large pool of potential customers -- something that the tech companies of the .com bubble didn't have. In 2010, there were 10 times the number of Internet users there were in 2000. The current number of active Facebook users is equal to the number of total Internet users there were in 2002.  (from “Infographic: Are We in the Middle of Another Tech Bubble?,” Nicholas Jackson, The Atlantic, 7/19/11).

What do you think?

  After two days at keynotes, meetings and more meetings at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC), we’re feeling better than ever about Tensoft’s focus these days.  Between our long-time vertical industry focus, our commitment to the cloud, and our Gold ERP Competency, almost everything that we’re hearing here supports and validates our goals.

During Monday’s keynote session, Steve Ballmer cited a 20% compound annual growth rate over the past 10 years for the Dynamics product line.  In the National Strategic Partner FY12 Kickoff meeting that we attended today, nationally managed partners were credited with driving a substantial portion of this growth. 

In another meeting, a Microsoft executive noted that 25% of this year’s 15,000 WPC attendees are Dynamics partners - remarkably high considering all of Microsoft’s other product lines that partners represent. 

As expected, there has been a lot of focus on the cloud this year.  But, we’ve been pleasantly surprised by the focus on Dynamics, and glad that we made the effort to be at both WPC and Convergence in 2011!  

For those who are willing and able to invest the time and effort, there are an astounding number of ERP selection guides.  Additionally, there are online and consulting services that specialize in helping you make an informed decision.  These options are intended to provide users with a "bullet- proof" Request For Proposal (RFP) - one that will "guarantee" an objective outcome.  However, many companies ultimately find these methods to be either expensive or unsatisfactory - or both - and to be designed more to validate a decision or to support company political necessity.

 Despite the use of ERP selection guides and services, anecdotal evidence often plays a significant part in ERP software selections.  It's human nature.  Colleagues in your professional associations, Board members, golf partners: anyone who's been at a company that's implemented an ERP system, or knows of a company that's implemented an ERP system is happy to pass along what they know, or what they have heard.  Most of us take anecdotal evidence with a grain of salt, of course, but how do companies make a good decision about which ERP solution to chose?

 First, look for solutions - and solution providers - with deep experience in your industry.  With a really close fit, you won't need to invest a day or more educating each candidate about your needs - they'll already know, and will have more than a few customers who look pretty much like you.   

Second, I'd recommend taking a look at the vendor rankings in The Accounting Library (www.accountinglibrary.com).  This provides an objective measure of the depth, breadth and maturity of core financials, based on a third party review.  And, if a well-known vendor is not included in the rankings, you should probably explore why they've chosen not to participate.   

Third, follow the time-tested advice in "Keep It Simple When Buying Enterprise Apps," attached below.  The basic idea is to pick 2-3 specific issues that your company needs to address, and ask your short-listed vendors to show you how they address those issues.  You'd be surprised at how often the key reasons that started your search for a better way can get lost in the most seemingly thorough RFP.   

Finally, look for a team that you're comfortable working with.  You'll be spending some time together - might as well enjoy it as much as possible!

With Tensoft’s FSM User Conference approaching and Microsoft’s User Conference just past, I’ve had user conferences on my mind lately.  These events are rarely money-makers for the vendors and are often inconvenient for the customers, so it’s easy to wonder if all the trouble is worthwhile for anyone.  My experience on both sides has been that it is, but not for the reasons that you might think. 

You might think, for example, that all of the amassed conference content would provide the key benefit to attendees.  However, over the years that Tensoft has been hosting an annual User Conference, we’ve learned that our customers may benefit from the in-depth discussions and presentations that we’ve put together for them, but they’re really more interested in learning how other customers are managing their businesses.  As a result, we’ve shifted to our agenda to accommodate this. 

You might also think that these conferences primarily benefit vendors by giving them a forum to promote additional products.  On the contrary, Tensoft quickly discovered that the group discussions with customers provided a product roadmap for the next year, allowing us to add enhancements that our customers not only wanted, but had discussed with each other and reached some consensus about exactly what would be most useful to the majority of end users, based on industry best practices. 

This process of discovery through discussion with - and among – our customers has proven to be a powerful tool for improving our products and increasing customer satisfaction.  But it should not be confused with giving each customer what they ask for individually.  Early in Tensoft FSM’s development, one of our advisors cautioned us to avoid being overly influenced by any one customer’s needs and wants, which can sometimes simply be a reflection of the way that one company does business, not an  industry best practice.   Good advice, which our User Conference has helped us follow. 

So, why wouldn’t every software company take the time and effort to hold an annual User Conference?  There’s the time and expense involved, of course, but I suspect that most could find some way to overcome that.   The bigger issue to overcome is the one faced by companies who didn’t follow the advice that we were given, or who provide highly customized solutions to their customers – there’s less common ground for discussion among end users, and little hope of delivering enhancements that will benefit the majority.  And, to me, that means the loss of the special alchemy that’s created through discussion, listening and taking action. 

Maybe it’s force of habit, since I’m so used to starting every implementation project with a “kick-off meeting” where we set expectations and discuss logistics, but it seems important to do something similar here.   So, I’ll share a little about what you can expect to find here and who’ll be involved.

Starting with who’ll be involved, we plan to include a variety of perspectives from Tensoft ‘s team, including myself and Tensoft’s other co-founder, William White, as well as others.  In addition, we plan to include entries from occasional guest bloggers.

As a company, what we do is business systems for tech companies.  Within that specialization, we focus on execution.  Our focus isn’t on helping our customers build a better product or on building a market. Our focus is on how well our customers do as a company and how well we can enable them to track, manage, bill, and get information to make timely, decisive action possible. 

Our perspective for this blog comes from our experience working with hundreds of tech companies.  What works and what doesn’t?  What are best practices for our customers?  What are the challenges they face?  What are the areas of tech execution – like revenue management, supply chain integration, multi-national operations at an early stage, and the nature of the workforce,  for example – that are important as tech companies grow and re-structure?    

It also comes from our experience and evolution as a tech vendor ourselves – starting as a systems integrator and Value Added Re-seller, transitioning to a software product company, and then adding  hosted ERP to our core offerings.   What industry trends influence us, and how do we stay ahead of them?  How do we innovate and continue to improve on our fabless semiconductor software, our revenue management software, and our ERP solutions?

Finally, I’d like to encourage you to comment on the posts here – we want to hear from you.  And while we’d prefer to have open discussions on the topics here, please contact us directly by clicking on our name at the end of the article, if you’d prefer to send a private email.

-          Bob Scarborough, CEO and Co-founder, Tensoft