eEnterprise Case Study: On-Demand Software Gives Businesses Roadmap to Success   by Kris Nickerson

"You wouldn't drive your car by looking solely in the rear view mirror, yet in effect many business owners do just that

when they make decisions based solely on reports that provide historical data," says Michael Emaus, President and

CEO of eEnterprise (www.eEnterprise.com), a global integrator of NetSuite, the world's leading on-demand business

management software. "Small business owners who don't have real-time, nuanced information about their companies

just can't navigate toward their destination - growth and profit - because they don't have an accurate roadmap of how

to get there."

As an example, Emaus offers a comparison of two companies, both of which know that they have sales of $1 million

and net profits of $122,375. Company A has reports that show its return on sales was 11 percent last year and 12.24

percent this year; the owner is pleased that profits have gone up. "What the owner of Company A doesn't know - and

won't know unless he implements business management software that provides real-time actionable data - is that 80

percent of one segment of his client base brought in $420,000 while the other 20 percent lost $20,000," says

Emaus. "Because he doesn't have this knowledge, Company A's owner may direct his sales staff to sell more to the

20 percent of the client segment that is actually costing him money." Company A's competition, Company B, uses

on-demand, real-time information, so Company B's owner directs his sales staff to find new clients that fit the profile

of the profitable 80 percent. "Because Company B can drill down and analyze any number of variables, Company B

will navigate around and past Company A in a relatively short period of time," says Emaus.

In today's marketplace, the key to success for any small business is having actionable information that allows the

business to nimbly adjust its allocation of resources. In the above example, Company B's Web-based business

management software could easily break down sales by products, client groupings, and geography, allowing the

owner to differentiate the profitable clients from the unprofitable clients. With the click of a mouse, he could, for

instance, determine that a certain client who carried multiple products produced the highest return on sales.

Company B's owner could then direct his sales team to cross sell to that particular client, and watch his returns on

sales rise because of advances in where to target resources."The bottom line for any small business is that

information is power," says Emaus.

If a business owner isn't able to drill down informative data points that go beyond historical or financial reporting, he

ends up targeting obvious areas of improvement instead of delving into the next layer. And, concludes Emaus, the

next layer is what separates successful small businesses of today from those that are stuck looking in their rear

view mirrors. "A business owner who can see his company from a 360-degree vantage point can readily exploit his

competition's inability to do the same."

About the Author

VP - Client Services - ITMG