You’ll enjoy this information if you’re convinced of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central’s (BC) advantages as a top-tier business management tool. There are numerous improvements in Microsoft’s Dynamics 365 Business Central Release 2023 Wave 2 to expand on what you already appreciate and what supports you in boosting your productivity and earnings.

Small- and medium-sized businesses already have the freedom and resources Business Central provides to manage their finances, supply chains, production, shipping, projects, and other areas. It is easy to set up and configure, and simplicity is the driving force behind advances in product creation, design, usability, and execution.

Wave 2 of the Business Central Release Plan for 2023: What do you stand to gain?

• Microsoft strengthened its commitment to Copilot with this version. Customers may optimize their workflows and complete tasks more quickly with the help of Copilot’s coaching services. There will be additional advancements in the developer-friendly Copilot in Visual Studio Code and the AL experience.
• Consolidating financial data and creating cross-company partnerships are now more straightforward for several companies operating in distinct Business Central contexts.
• It now takes less time to onboard new customers. It’s easier to understand why some errors occur, and the messages give instructions on resolving the issue so you can continue working. Microsoft helps firms concentrate on their core businesses while complying with multiple governmental requirements by automating regulatory activities. 
• Usability is always a top focus, and with this version, helpful keyboard shortcuts for working with lines in documents boost efficiency. Additionally, you may rapidly access editable fields without going down.
• The Business Central web client’s productivity-focused design enables consultants and developers to easily access the Visual Studio Code editor or a debugger linked to the source code in the GitHub repository.

Business Central Release Wave 2 includes the following updates:

Quick adaptation with Microsoft Power Platform: Workflows in Business Central now require less setup time. With the use of templates, you may automate more processes and boost productivity right away. The Business Central Power Automate connector can also consume business events.

Application: Thanks to intercompany and consolidation functions, you may leverage multi-company capabilities more broadly. To help manage inventory and warehouse operations more successfully, Business Central’s supply chain capabilities have undergone several optimizations and improvements. These include a more precise warehouse setup for production and jobs, an improved picking process, fulfillment suggestions, and SKU management.

Country and regional: Microsoft has improved the service’s accessibility internationally. You can now find Business Central from over 130 countries and territories.

Development: A complete switch to Visual Studio Code, where Microsoft keeps spending money on initiatives that boost developers’ productivity. There are techniques for testing dependent extensions without manual intervention by ensuring that AL GO can manage these tests for clients, VARs, and independent software suppliers (ISVs) who maintain dependencies.

Governance and management: To help administrators handle granular administrative rights, Business Central provides a wealth of additional self-service choices.

Regulations: New audit formats improve digital reporting and compatibility with regional rules.

Onboarding: Field tooltips, such as “Learn More,” provide more beneficial linkages to material that explains values that are too complex for a quick paragraph to cover.

Productivity with Microsoft 365: The efficiency of collaborative business operations in Microsoft Teams has increased thanks to the ability to unfold a card without downloading the Business Central Teams app.

Data analysis and reporting improvements include the Analysis mode and an overview that lets you look at all Business Central reports.

Platform and service: These fundamental elements remain crucial, focusing on performance, stability, resource governance, security, and compliance.

Where Microsoft is focusing its Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central investments

User interactions

Business Central offers various user interfaces to access data from any place or device at any time. It includes many powerful and straightforward capabilities, whether you need to enter data fast, casually edit records, or analyze relational data.

Development

The groundwork is laid to make it easier and more effective for AL developers to add namespace support to the platform and application. Developers can also hide individual variable data to secure internal data and prevent unauthorized access while debugging.

The analysis and reporting of data are more in the hands of developers. You may decide how to use content from Power BI, for instance, and you can turn off Analysis mode on pages.

Support for CSP channel-based ISV app transactions now enters the private preview stage. The possibility for ISVs to do direct business through AppSource using credit card payments also enters the general availability stage. 

Application

This edition’s new supply chain capabilities will improve the efficiency, adaptability, and accuracy of managing items in your warehouse. You can get complete availability information for inventory levels, locations, processing stages, and other factors affecting available amounts. 

Additionally, you can independently determine the proper amount of warehouse handling for external, internal, and inbound flows. 

Some new features include intercompany transactions, financial data consolidations, approval workflows, and automatic general ledger allocations. You can merge financial data for businesses from several Business Central settings without maintaining files. 

Regional and National

Partners’ localization efforts facilitate expansion into other regions. Relevant localization apps are created by Microsoft partners and published to AppSource. With built-in language options, Business Central is accessible to serve clients in numerous countries and areas worldwide. 

Data analysis and reporting

Obtain insightful data on how your company is operating owing to report discoverability. With more tools for Analysis mode, you can execute embedded data analysis on the fly, and the Power BI experience has improved reports. 

You’ll be more productive if you don’t have to open another app to find the data you need.

Governance and administration

Administrators of Business Central now have new tools for controlling environments, apps, and data migrations. The goal is for administrators to be independent, able to serve their client’s needs, and able to handle a variety of administrative circumstances.

Two crucial areas for faster adaptation with Power Platform

• How users and decision-makers view Power Automate approval workflows, including the expanded connector’s actions, the addition of assistance for external business events, and more templates for Teams-based automated flows.
• The Power BI embed experience provides end users exploring the BI features in Business Central with more control tools and partners who provide in-context dashboards and reports.

Additionally, based on partner input, dynamic possibilities exist for linking Power Platform with Business Central online.

AI Copilot and Innovation

Until recently, only a few SMBs could afford to invest in AI as a commodity. Companies are now embracing AI to eliminate tedious tasks from their jobs.

Thanks to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Copilot, experts can complete routine activities using cutting-edge AI. Without becoming a data scientist, you can equip your staff with Copilot in Business Central to accomplish more tasks with less effort.

Platform and service

Thanks to this version, users should see fewer interruptions, which makes Business Central feel faster overall and significantly speeds up some scenarios and web services. By putting a strong emphasis on performance, stability, resource governance, security, and compliance, Microsoft continues to invest in the service’s foundations. 

Users now experience fewer session interruptions and more dependable interactive user sign-ins, which enhances the overall user experience. Through an optimized language (AL) runtime, users will notice less database locking and an increase in the performance impact of table expansions.

Microsoft 365 Business Central is your pass to increased productivity and higher performance

When you combine business and productivity apps, people and teams operate more effectively. 

Business Central seamlessly integrates with top-tier Microsoft 365 applications and services (Outlook, Excel, Word, OneDrive, and Teams) to bring data into the workflow, giving you up-to-the-minute visibility into your business operations and helping you compete more effectively.

Are you leveraging all the power of MS Business Central?

Liberty Grove can help you use all the tools in the Microsoft suite to help you improve your organization’s productivity, efficiency, and profitability.

Contact Liberty Grove for a complimentary consultation on how its experts can help you identify what you need to optimize your market position.

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

You know the adage “time is money.” It’s true. Every process within your business requires employee time to execute, and some cumbersome manual tasks consume a great deal of company resources. And simply put, that means saving time makes good business sense.

It’s why Business Process Automation (BPA) is one of the hottest concepts in business today.

You can automate operations using the cloud-based service Power Automate, which automates repetitive PC chores and helps streamline your business. One of Power Automate’s distinctive features is its ability to handle itself and other Microsoft Power Platform components.

Power Automate allows you to construct three types of workflows: Button Workflows, Scheduled Workflows, and Automated Workflows triggered by clicking a button or when a particular event occurs. You can automate a wide range of operations, including intricate business procedures for data collection.

Microsoft Power Automate is a great place to start if you don’t know how to program but want to benefit from cloud automation.

Business Process Automation (BPA) Defined

Team members need help to reduce error margins and delays and enhance inefficient systems when your organization processes enormous volumes of data and completes numerous activities daily. You can create, manage, and improve workflows and elevate organizational effectiveness and productivity with the help of business process automation.

Business Process Automation automates routine and repetitive business operations often performed manually. With BPA, you can rapidly and effectively execute repetitious labor and transition to paperless operations, ranging from complex workflows to straightforward consumer responses.

It entails automating tasks in product development, sales, human resources, and other areas with vast amounts of raw data and documentation. By adding business process management software (BPMS), you can easily manage new workflows that business process automation produces.

Top 6 advantages of using a Business Process Automation (BPA) solution

You can benefit from what BPA software offers after you know which procedures can and cannot be automated and how to create dynamic business process flows for your team.

The following are the top 6 advantages that your company can gain from automating your business processes:

Increased production and efficiency

Your company becomes immediately more efficient and has fewer errors when implementing a new automation solution that removes the potential for errors.

You can eliminate bottleneck jobs and speed up more high-level business processes between business units, team members, and everyone else in your organization by eliminating the daily cumbersome and painful manual processes your team performs.

Reduced costs and time

Automation benefits your company’s bottom line, especially for teams that handle their duties through traditional paper-based procedures. Since automating processes speed up internal operations, it’s simple to save time and money on the resources required to complete such processes.

Additionally, you can reassign staff previously working on manual tasks to more crucial tasks.

Simple document and data handling

Employees who use manual methods may misplace printed or sent emails, written correspondence, spreadsheets, and other materials. Additionally, transferring data or doing calculations from one data source to another adds time and increases the possibility of human mistakes.

With process automation, all your data and documents are kept in one place, streamlining document management and making organizing and retrieving them easier.

Transparency and openness

Since automation solutions help guarantee that staff follows best practices and governance enforcement, you won’t need to give your team extra support.

Thanks to data collection, reporting, and analytics capabilities, you can access data dashboards that provide insight and transparency into workflows across the organization, enabling better-informed decisions.

Process compliance and standardization

Your team members might not always abide by the rigorous rules of automation processes on who can update or make changes to documents. No problem. You don’t have to worry about missing steps when BPA is in place because the system includes the procedure. You can create productive automation of your digital workflow to ensure the appropriate information goes to the right person at the proper time.

That means organizations can easily log names, dates, and assignment information and track who uses respective data sets. You can construct audit trails and show compliance by documenting such information.

Increased customer and employee happiness

Employees will be much happier on your team if you add an automated solution to your process because it will make it easier for them to execute many of their daily tasks without making mistakes. Employees can flourish in a frictionless atmosphere created by automation. Quickly completed manager permissions mean your staff can concentrate on projects crucial to driving innovation in business choices.

Why use Business Process Automation (BPA) flows?

People can follow the flow of a business process to complete their tasks, which offers a streamlined user experience that guides users through the procedures established by their company for encounters that require resolution. You can customize the user experience so that users in various security roles have an encounter most appropriate for their work.

With business process flows, companies can create instructions for employees to follow to achieve desired results. Thanks to these steps’ visual indicators, people can see where they are in the business process. Plus, business process flows lessen the requirement for training because new users don’t need to concentrate on which table to use. They can follow the process as a guide.

Business process flows can be set up to complement popular sales approaches, which will assist your sales teams in producing more significant outcomes. Business process flows for service organizations can speed up the onboarding of new workers and help them prevent errors that might leave clients dissatisfied.

Ultimately, with Business Process Automation, you’ll benefit from pleased clients. And happy clients mean repeat business – and greater profits.

Ready to discover how Business Process Automation (BPA)can improve your efficiency?

Liberty Grove can help you analyze and evaluate your practices to determine which processes can be automated to improve efficiency and productivity throughout your organization.

Contact Liberty Grove for a complimentary consultation on how Business Process Automation can increase your employees’ productivity and elevate your organization.

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

The most thorough training and education event on Microsoft business applications for finance and accounting, IT, operations, and systems administrators is Community Summit 2023, from Dynamics Communities, which will take place in Charlotte, North Carolina, October 15-18, 2023. 

And Community Summit 2023 it’s a hot ticket. Why?

Community Summit 2023 will feature 500+ sessions on AI, Dynamics, Dynamics 365, Power Platform, and more.

The “for user, by user” event aims to shorten the time it takes to complete the equivalent of months of training. Users can navigate how-to and tutorial sessions that provide practical advice they can bring back and implement at their businesses.

Plus, if purchased before the 5-day event, every attendee’s registration fee will be at most $1,849 to access a variety of sessions. Comparatively, a single online training course from a company can cost more than $2,500; your Community Summit 2023 ROI is a no-brainer, say previous participants. 

11 compelling reasons to add Community Summit 2023 to this year’s budget

• 4,000+ attendees from business administration, IT, accounting, and finance roles across various sectors and businesses of all sizes
• 500+ expert-led education sessions organized by AI, Dynamics & Dynamics 365 ERPs, Power Platform, Data, Business Intelligence, Customer Service, Vertical Industry and more
• Tech-Medic Help Desks, where knowledgeable users work to address your unique difficulties or issues
• General sessions by Microsoft executives providing updates and business and ERP roadmap apps you regularly use
• 200+ partners and independent software vendors (ISVs) on the expo floor to close gaps in implementation, data management, cybersecurity, automation, reporting, and more
• Registration fee covers all meals and receptions
• A welcome celebration with live music, food, beverages, and special events on the expo floor
• NASCAR Hall of Fame reception with notable NASCAR attendees, food, beverages, and engaging racing experiences
• Opportunity to network with peers and exchange ideas and experiences –understanding other companies’ difficulties and how they overcame them is valuable information
• More than 30 hands-on academy training sessions that count toward continuing education requirements (additional cost)
• The Preconference AI Summit on October 16 will feature Microsoft executives, AI MVPs, and knowledgeable users (additional cost)

Community Summit 2023 Academy – an education bonus

As an add-on to your event registration (at an additional fee), the Community Summit 2023 Academy program can help you accomplish three key goals:

1. Deep dive into a particular Microsoft business application area for intensive training in the “master class” format
2. Establish a connection between you and a knowledgeable trainer in the field who will help you understand how to apply the training to your company
3. Earn CPE (Continuing Professional Education) credits to meet your continuing education requirements on time

Academy is a fantastic opportunity to employ tailored material and specialized classroom instruction to support learning, development, and growth for Dynamics users. 

Community Summit 2023 – a fountain of knowledge

There are numerous reasons why you might consider Community Summit 2023. Knowledge is a precious asset, so it’s an excellent opportunity to learn something new.

Conference attendees can absorb information in a manner that reading an article or participating in a conference call can’t match, whether that knowledge happens to be the newest games or a tutorial on the future of cloud computing.

And while there’s something for everyone in the learning opportunities, you won’t want to miss the chance to meet and collaborate with like-minded peers to share business experiences and solutions.

Haven’t registered yet? Secure your ticket.

Are you concerned about push-back from your manager? This will help justify your trip!

Learning sessions with Liberty Grove’s Andrew Good

Liberty Grove CEO Andrew Good will be featured as a panelist, co-presenter, and independent speaker in several sessions.

Andrew built his 22 years of Microsoft Dynamics 365 BC/NAV experience on personal experiences with various companies. His project experiences range from finance to manufacturing (automotive, food and beverage, and aerospace). The central themes of knowing costs and revenues are pervasive and have empowered clients to make good decisions about their operations.

Throughout his career, Andrew has helped customers get the most out of their BC/NAV systems through integrations, upgrades, and extensions that allow them to deal with their changing business environments. His expertise includes leveraging the available tools to deliver end-to-end solutions.

Andrew also speaks at many industry events.

You can learn more about the learning sessions with Andrew below:

Ask the Experts: Manufacturing

Tuesday, October 17 • 9:30 AM – 11:00 AM EST

Manufacturing is indeed a topic for the experts. Attend this session with queries or difficulties you may be experiencing with manufacturing. An expert panel will share advice and assist in this open discussion.

Panelists: Cliff McDaniel (Moderator), Ben Baxter, Steven Chinsky, Andrew Good, Dave Wiser

Manufacturing in Business Central for Newbies

Tuesday, October 17 • 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM EST

This session is appropriate for you if you are new to manufacturing or the Business Central production module. It will focus on a review of the fundamentals of setting up items, Bills of Materials (BOMs), routings, dealing with Production Orders, and posting inputs and outputs. You’ll receive advice on how to avoid manufacturing errors, particularly as some of them are difficult to fix. We’ll construct a fictitious potato chip factory to help with comprehension.

Presenters: Andrew Good, Steven Chinsky

Supply Chain Challenges Today

Wednesday, October 18 • 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Bring your supply chain problems and use the influence of your peers to gain new insights. You will have the chance to share your expertise and knowledge with others. In this roundtable discussion, you can benefit from one another’s experiences and discuss what has and hasn’t worked for you.

Speaker: Andrew Good

Ask the Experts: Inventory, Warehouse & Supply Chain

Thursday, October 19 • 2:30 PM – 4:00 PM EST

Amidst the ongoing geopolitical, economic, epidemic, and weather-related problems, supply chains remain a significant concern.

In this interactive discussion, a panel of supply chain professionals will explore how they are sustaining business operations, meeting urgent demands, and minimizing supplier problems during this disruptive time.

To provide first-hand insight into current strategies, best practices, and forward-looking approaches to navigating the current environment and the inevitable storms ahead, we’ll draw on various experiences across the supply chain, from inventory management to shipping, receiving, EDI, and warehousing.

Panelists: Kate Pinyan (Moderator), Steven Chinsky, Andrew Good, Chris Howes, Bryan Whitney

If you attend any of Andrew’s sessions, please seek him out and say, “Hello!” Got questions about your business for Andrew? Contact us to schedule your personal 1:1 session where you can ask Andrew about what’s on your mind. 

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

Read it and weep. With statistics like these, it’s a wonder any executives can sleep at night. And if organizations aren’t eligible for cyber insurance, they’re at significant risk of a financially devastating cybersecurity breach.

Any firm using technologies and IT infrastructure must invest in cybersecurity insurance due to the rising danger posed by cybercriminals. Regrettably, increasing cyberattacks make it extremely difficult for insurance companies to accept new clients or validate claims from current ones.

Furthermore, because of the lengthy application and renewal processes, businesses frequently encounter rejection when obtaining cyber insurance.

But, while insurance protocols might seem to run the show, companies can have an insurance safety net with Cloud ERP technology.

First, let’s take a look at reasons why you might be ineligible for insurance coverage. Then we’ll discuss how Cloud ERP can be your sentinel for data protection.

What does cyber insurance entail?

To help reduce the financial risks connected to online enterprises or businesses that use technology, an entity or business might enter into a contract for cyber insurance. The policyholder pays a monthly or quarterly cost while the insurer bears the risk.

The cyber insurance market increased from US$ 9.73 billion in 2021 to approximately US$ 11.75 billion in 2022.

It demonstrated a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20.7% for the previous two years. Yet, for various reasons, cyber insurance firms are hesitant to accept insurance offers from businesses or to accept claims.

Reasons why your business might be ineligible for cyber insurance

Companies can be denied cyber insurance coverage for several reasons. Typical explanations include the following:

Inability to provide evidence of suitable security measures

Insurance firms may consider businesses at high risk if they cannot demonstrate their security robustness while adhering to stringent legislation, security policies, best practices, and robust benchmarks. Allowing insurance companies to evaluate all preventive measures and evaluate security based on numerous indicators is the best approach to handle this.

Absence of protective measures

Another frequent justification for denying firms cyber insurance is a lack of preventative steps or best practices for cybersecurity. Because cybersecurity is such a problematic IT endeavor, companies cannot guarantee security. However, many businesses neglect to conduct regular audits, compliance checks, or penetration tests as part of their cybersecurity procedures.

That’s the primary justification cyber insurance providers give for rejecting claims or applications, as the absence of preventative steps shows the business could not protect its systems.

Cyber insurance companies decline to bear risk since the risks of doing business with such enterprises vastly outweigh the benefits. Thus, businesses should proactively secure their perimeter before filing a claim or purchasing cyber insurance. It is a step in the right direction to hire penetration testers and security audit experts to examine the entire system and address any flaws.

History of data breaches

Insurance companies may see a corporation as a higher risk and refuse coverage or increase premiums if they have previously had a data breach. Insurance companies might be reluctant to offer coverage owing to the possibility of future breaches, even if there is a resolution to the problems that caused a breach.

In addition, insurers may perceive a corporation as too high of a risk to cover if a past breach resulted from a lack of security measures, such as insufficient firewalls or unpatched software.

When businesses show that their cybersecurity procedures have improved, they can reduce the risk of future breaches and raise their chances of receiving cyber insurance.

Failure to follow regulations

Companies are more likely to be denied coverage if they don’t follow cybersecurity laws and regulations. For instance, a healthcare provider not adhering to HIPAA rules might not be approved for cyber insurance.

Companies must comply with the PCI DSS, SOC2, FedRAMP, ISO27001, and MPA compliance standards to be eligible for coverage. Insurance companies could see non-compliance as a higher risk of cyberattacks and other incidents, such as data breaches.

Absence of a plan for handling incidents

If an insurance carrier discovers that a business does not have an incident response plan, it may refuse coverage. That’s because the absence of an incident response strategy shows that the company is not taking the necessary precautions to react appropriately during a cyber incident.

Industries at high risk

Healthcare and banking are two sectors more vulnerable to cyberattacks and may experience higher premiums or coverage denial rates. Insurers view these sectors as being particularly exposed to numerous risks and having a lot of sensitive data that could be compromised. Businesses should take the required steps to reduce risk and show insurers this.

Companies must comprehend cyber insurance policies and the justifications for coverage denials. Businesses can increase their likelihood of receiving coverage by improving areas where they are not meeting their insurer’s requirements.

Now for the excellent news – Cloud ERP

Cloud ERP is rapidly becoming the choice of executives for data protection and more.

Why? Because much of an organization’s most sensitive and vital data resides in ERP systems. Enterprise-wide concerns about data security have risen, and business executives are increasingly assisting in strengthening cybersecurity and spotting risks.

Executives must know where this information is kept, how it is protected, any potential hazards, and how to manage those risks.

ERP Security in the Cloud vs. On-Premises

Understanding the shared responsibility concept for security is crucial when switching from on-premises to cloud ERP. Security for cloud-based ERP systems is everyone’s responsibility, not just that of the vendor.

Advantages of Cloud ERP Security Reduced Expenses

Because the cloud provider controls security, controlling security costs is significantly more affordable with cloud ERP. Systems for identifying and responding to security threats will be in place at the cloud provider, ensuring that any potential hazards are handled immediately following established protocols.

Customers benefit since the security expenses in the cloud ERP subscription prices minimize their security obligations. That gives IT staff more time to concentrate on other potential weak spots like application-level security and user access.

Here are some of the ways that cloud ERP can protect your organization’s data:

Auto-Updated Software

One of the primary motives for using cloud ERP solutions is to avoid having to request approval from management before implementing changes. Any delays in updating your ERP could expose it to hazards associated with cloud ERP, such as hacker attacks. The cost of the cloud subscription includes automatic upgrades, guaranteeing current operation, and addressing Cloud ERP security issues.

Attempted Denial-of-Service

The ability to handle denial-of-service (DoS) attacks is a significant benefit of cloud ERP. When attackers flood the system with unnecessary requests to overwhelm it and prevent legitimate requests from being fulfilled, they commit a denial-of-service (DoS) attack. Cloud ERP systems are more protected from DoS assaults since they operate on scattered data centers worldwide. Moreover, cloud service providers have specialized teams to quickly and effectively respond to DoS attacks. While limited-service outages can happen, they are much less common than with on-premises ERP systems.

Compliance and encryption

Your systems and data are secure since cloud ERP providers offer encryption for data both in transit and at rest. Cloud ERP security technologies use HTTPS for internet traffic, SDKs for application-level encryption, and default settings for data storage encryption. Furthermore, cloud ERP solutions offer pre-built templates to save time and effort, making it simpler to comply with security compliance needs. Companies may maintain compliance in a few clicks, saving considerable installation time and work to support effective accountability, encourage financial scrutiny, and make risk-aware decisions.

Automatic software updates

ERP service providers fix threats or vulnerabilities by releasing security patches or software updates. Therefore, it is crucial to keep software updated to protect ERP data from any dangers. Software updates for on-premises ERP software were formerly infrequent since customers were discouraged from implementing the upgrade due to high project costs, complex architecture, extensive customizations, and significant downtime. Although clients have the option to enable security updates instantly, cloud ERP providers frequently release security upgrades that address the most recent threats and vulnerabilities. This is one of the primary benefits of cloud ERP systems and a significant factor in the rapid expansion of cloud ERP adoption.

Ability to assess the capacity for disaster recovery

If you encounter a disaster, Cloud ERP’s Disaster Recovery (DR) services are designed to enable service restoration. To execute the DR strategy for the affected applications, your cloud ERP provider will decide if an occurrence qualifies as a catastrophe. Recovery Time Objective (RTO): The amount of time an application can be unavailable without seriously harming the company’s operations is referred to as recovery time objective (RTO). The RTO is extended to consider the time needed to finish the upgrade if the decision to activate DR processes is made while an update is in progress. Restoration Point Goal: Your company’s loss tolerance, or recovery point objective (RPO), is the maximum amount of data that can be lost without adversely impacting your operations. It is expressed as a time interval between the loss event and the most recent backup that came before it. The RPO does not cover any data loads in progress when the disaster happens. It’s crucial to remember that the RTO and RPO do not cover adaptations that rely on external parts or third-party software. Non-critical fixes and enhancement requests are not supported while active failover events or recovery procedures are underway. Any problems brought on by third-party software or customizations are not the responsibility of your Cloud ERP provider. Production services may continue to function during the catastrophic event with reduced performance.

With Cloud ERP, you have the following benefits:

• complete control over selecting the right level of access for new users and the ability to revoke it when it is no longer necessary
• enterprise-wide centralized identity management and federated single sign-on means only users you have authorized have access to pertinent data, whether on-premises or across clouds (SSO)
• segregation of duties (SOD) is made possible by role-based access controls (RBAC), which prevent unauthorized access to sensitive data
• users only view information about the tasks particular to their jobs, and administrators configure job roles corresponding to work functions and data privileges.

Cloud ERP provides threat detection, remediation, and automated incident response:  your ultimate security shield.

Conclusion

Even with proactive precautions, many businesses are denied coverage as the cyber insurance landscape rapidly changes and evolves. But, to improve their chances of acquiring coverage, companies should assess their cybersecurity posture and ensure they adhere to relevant country or state laws and regulations.

Liberty Grove can help companies locate weaknesses in their security posture and provide the tools, services, and knowledge required to secure their networks. Taking preventive actions like running penetration tests and putting security solutions in place increases the likelihood of a successful cyber insurance application.

Contact Liberty Grove for a complimentary consultation on securing your access to cybersecurity insurance coverage.

Related reading:

Free Up IT Resources by Moving Your ERP to the Cloud (libertygrovetech.com/website_c6b6bfc4/)

Best 10 Reasons to Move Your On-Premises ERP to the Cloud – Liberty Grove Software

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

We rely on the Food and Beverage Manufacturing industry to provide us with options and to bring innovative, high-quality, and safe products to our tables. But the consistent delivery of these products represents a series of complex equations for food manufacturers.

So, how does the food manufacturer plan for future success in a competitive market?

Despite steady growth, the industry remains vulnerable to rising input costs, government regulation, and cost-related supply chain tension. Future food and beverage manufacturers must focus on production efficiency, supply chain management, and adapting to changing government regulations.

Innovation occurs in high-demand areas such as supply chain, cold storage, and traditional unit operations in legacy manufacturers and product categories. Disruptive technologies span the entire value chain and will have long-term, positive consequences. And the answer to all of that lies in a robust Cloud Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution.

Here are some of the top factors that food manufacturers must address every day to maintain a competitive edge:

Focus on production efficiency

Food and beverage manufacturers know their high volume/low margin characteristics, which do not correspond well with rapidly rising input costs. In the future, these manufacturers must boost processing productivity by focusing on input management, inventory control, and waste reduction, all issues that can be managed through your ERP.

Controlling these cost drivers will assist businesses in meeting consumer expectations for competitive prices while also freeing up funds for new products to meet their varying needs. A robust ERP system allows companies to control costs and increase profit margins by implementing information systems that optimize product mix calculations, inventory level and cost tracking, and automated quality controls.

An all-inclusive supply chain management strategy

Food and beverage manufacturers who succeed in Canada and the United States in the future will be those who effectively manage relationships with both consumers and suppliers. Sharing information and integrating systems with suppliers will be critical, as collaboration should propel the industry forward.

Cloud ERP software provides controlled information access to supply chain partners and can automate routine tasks by providing up-to-date figures, purchasing requests, and budget control tools. These systems go beyond task automation by collecting analytical data with each transaction, increasing the potential for supply chain efficiencies.

You have no control over the global economy, but you do have control over the value of your relationships. While investing in new technologies can help with the innovation drive, it also starts by collaborating with suppliers in a mutually beneficial partnership. Working closely together and managing the entire supply chain will give manufacturers some wiggle room if rising costs continue to be an issue.

Increased SKU counts and specialty ingredients have increased exposure in the current environment. It is common for a food processor to handle 200 ingredients for 60 SKUs, even though a significant portion of their revenue comes from a few essential products.

When an ingredient is unavailable, the manufacturer faces additional challenges because a substitute ingredient may necessitate changes in everything from supply storage to processing requirements and even cleaning and traceability policies.

The willingness to invest in this area has resulted in solutions that use ERP systems and artificial intelligence (AI) powered algorithms to rapidly adjust to new supply constraints, real-time location tracking, and alternative input sourcing.

Staying abreast of Government regulations

For successful food manufacturers, government regulations are a constant and critical concern. Although regulations are necessary for customer safety, they can slow the introduction of new products and harm the manufacturing of existing ones.

Recent regulations indicate a food safety shift in emphasis from the regulatory realm to the marketplace. That means it will be up to food and beverage manufacturers to ensure compliance and readiness in an emergency.

Future food and beverage manufacturers must adapt quickly to new regulations as they become available. There is no substitute for monitoring regulatory developments, which tend to predict trends. Such regulations affect all companies in the industry, creating a small but significant window of opportunity for competitors to adapt faster.

Because the burden of ensuring quality and safety falls on manufacturers, highly advanced ERP systems can integrate new regulations with existing business processes, ensuring compliance in food processing while also managing performance and tracking inputs.

In the future, innovations in this industry will drive the progress of societies striving for health and sustainability; they’ll also play a significant role in determining regional economic success, particularly for top manufacturing countries such as Canada and the United States.

Companies must be more proactive than ever in organizing and managing operations, utilizing all available tools to reduce external factors’ impact on performance. It’s a great time to be in the industry, as new technological solutions help solve business problems and improve our society.

For decades, many food manufacturers have needed help to collect good data. But not any longer. The food industry is poised for transformation as sensor technology advances and technology platforms become more accessible and affordable for small and medium-sized manufacturers. Food manufacturers can now better understand their ingredients, products, and operations.

Food Digitalization

Even the smallest food manufacturers must invest in digital technologies such as Cloud ERP to meet new industry standards for increased transparency and safety. The changes address compliance concerns and retailers’ requirements that their vendors be able to participate in digital supply networks.

The more money you put into measuring your raw materials and finished goods, the easier it will be to improve your performance. For example, you may improve a product’s shelf life by better understanding its water content through accurate, real-time measurement.

Using data-driven science to supplement human decision-making is beneficial to business. The ability to collect data from your operation will also help standardize work and reduce reliance on tribal knowledge held by key individuals. 

Big data will also help to inform food science, such as cold-chain management and related R&D.

Automation, Robotics, and Industry 4.0

Autonomous systems will significantly impact the food industry. As sensor performance improves, some food manufacturers are implementing AI. Data acquisition systems can accurately characterize complex biological ingredients and products, allowing manufacturers to automate processes and derive the same value from predictive data analysis that other segments have for years.

Significant capital investments and new workforce skills in analytics and programming, which are in high demand across all industries, are required for Industry 4.0. Many smaller domestic manufacturers have found it challenging to implement automation, particularly for high-mix, low-volume work. However, the advantages of automation are numerous, including:

• Increased output efficiency
• The possibility of running operations around the clock
• Reduced labor requirements
• Increased machine uptime and lifecycles
• Quality and repeatability have improved

Consumers who understand their food are demanding healthier options and more transparent processes. They also want more customization and convenience in shopping, purchasing, and delivery. They are looking for brands that are committed to reducing their environmental impact.

Resource Allocation (Sustainability) 

Regulations governing emissions, resource use, and waste will likely become more stringent in the food industry. The good news is that advanced technologies are making it possible to manage resources more efficiently.

Many food companies can significantly improve this area by learning how to quantify and measure waste streams. For example, there is a significant difference between the goal of “use more recycled resin in our HDPE tubs” and “increasing the recycled resin in our tubs from 10% to 20% will reduce our product’s net carbon footprint by 15% while only losing 3% in rigidity.”

And the key is in knowing how to measure the values – with your ERP technology.

Ready to reconsider your ERP?

Replacing a legacy ERP system with cloud ERP will result in significant organizational changes. Suppose you want to learn more about updating your ERP to a modern cloud solution or about the cost of ERP for small businesses. In that case, the Liberty Grove Software team of ERP consultants can guide you to the right ERP solution for your organization.

We’ll provide the services you need to guide you through evaluation, project planning, implementation, testing, training, and ongoing support.

Contact Liberty Grove for a complimentary consultation on how Cloud ERP can future-proof your food manufacturing organization.

Related reading:

Is Your Food and Beverage ERP Recession Proof? – Liberty Grove Software

Best 10 Reasons to Move Your On-Premises ERP to the Cloud – Liberty Grove Software

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

CDC estimates that roughly 1 in 6 Americans (or 48 million people) get sick yearly, 128,000 are hospitalized, and 3,000 die of foodborne diseases. (Burden of Foodborne Illness: Findings | Estimates of Foodborne Illness | CDC)

That’s a food manufacturer’s nightmare.

Recalls occur. Often, the problem is beyond your control. In a recall emergency, it can be challenging to know what to do and in what order to expedite the recall process with as little friction as possible.

If you’re using an ERP solution, you’re already ahead of the situation. Many tools you’ll need for recalling goods are already available within your ERP.

This checklist has two sections: 

Section 1: What to consider before a recall occurs

• Planning for the worst-case scenario ensures preparedness for what you hope will never happen. That’s where your ERP comes in – it’s your recall assistant.

Section 2: Step-by-step procedures to work through the recall process

• When the unthinkable happens, being prepared enables swift team action and helps maintain customer confidence – and your brand reputation.

Part I: Getting Ready 

• Establish a Documented Recall Team

Those responsible for decision-making, quality assurance/technical advisory, media communication, complaint investigation, contacting accounts, government contact, and legal counsel.

• Complaint Form

While you may only need this once a recall occurs, preparation is a good idea. The complaint file has three sections:

• Documentation of the initial complaint information 

• Investigation of the complaint and documentation of the findings

• Acting on the findings of the investigation

• Quick Information Access

An ERP solution enables quick access to critical information about products, manufacturing processes, the location of items in the supply chain, and contact information for those during a product recall.

• Capability to Find Any Item in the Supply Chain

Throughout the supply chain, an ERP solution (along with barcodes and RFID) enables traceability down to specific ingredients. Connect production and quality management testing to determine which other products may pose a risk due to cross-contamination or faulty processes.

• Actionable Communication Transparency and Openness

Open communication with suppliers, customers, and government agencies helps mitigate the impact of a food product recall. ERP users can quickly email documents, alerts, instructions (such as how/where to dispose of products, etc.), and updates to contacts in bulk or individually from the software’s interface. When a faster recall is required, manufacturers can temporarily open access to product location information by authorizing external users, such as suppliers or customers, to access and pull data from their systems.

Contact your Food Inspection Agency immediately if you suspect you sold an unsafe or illegal food product to another manufacturer, distributor, or retailer.

Part II: Plan of Action

• Engage the Recall Management Team
• Inform the Food Inspection Agency
• Identify all products in the recall
• Detain and segregate all recalled products under your company’s control
• Create a Press Release (if required)
• Make a Distribution List
• Prepare and distribute the Recall Notice
• Check the recall’s effectiveness
• Control the recalled item(s)
• Decide what to do with the recalled product(s)
• If the recall occurred at your facility, resolve the issue

Quickly tracking and removing defective problems with clear communications can significantly mitigate a product recall’s financial and brand reputational consequences. A company with the tools and procedures for a covert recall shows its customers and supply chain partners that it values its relationships.

Customers judge a company on how well it prepared for a recall and how it responded when things went wrong.

Be prepared.

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

You might find the meat industry safety regulations daunting as a meat production facility manager. Perhaps you spend more time ensuring legal and food safety compliance than working in the business.

If so, you’re not alone – and we get it. But there is a viable solution in a DynamicsFoodERP system.

Read on to learn more.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS), there were at least four major recalls of ground beef products due to possible contamination with E. coli O157:H7 or extraneous materials. There was also a recall of raw bone-in goat products imported from Australia that were not presented for import re-inspection. The total amount of recalled meat products was over 336,000 pounds in weight.

Why is meat subjected to rigid regulations?

Meat is likely to have the most stringent regulations of any mass-produced food. And for a good reason; for one thing, meat can be more dangerous than other foods. Disease in meat can originate anywhere along the supply chain, from how the animal was raised to poor storage or cross-contamination by retailers. When mishandled, it is far more likely to carry diseases, some potentially fatal to humans.

Numerous other vital factors necessitate stringent regulations. The quality and source of meat must be proven to maintain strong nutritional, flavor, and trust standards. The infamous horsemeat scandal is one instance in which quality and provenance checks failed, damaging public trust. Then there’s animal welfare: each jurisdiction has requirements for the conditions where animals are raised for meat.Any business that keeps livestock or is involved in animal slaughter, preparation, or sale of meat must be strictly regulated. However, the rules that meat businesses of all sizes must follow are frequently complex and challenging to keep track of.

They can easily impede an efficient production schedule and impact the bottom line.

Regulations for meat businesses are complicated

The meat industry’s rules and regulations may constantly shift as industry consensus shifts, and regulators learn from new problems. The outbreak of Covid-19 infections linked to meat packing plants is an example of this.

Specific requirements will vary depending on location, type of business, and other factors. For example, in the United Kingdom, all of the following establishments require special permission from the Food Standards Agency (FSA) to operate:

• Slaughterhouses
• On-farm slaughterhouses
• Establishments that handle game meat
• Plant pruning
• Wholesale meat markets
• Restaurants that serve minced meat
• Establishments for the preparation of meat
• Meat processing plants that use mechanical separation
• Plants for processing
• Cold storage facilities
• Re-wrapping businesses

Consider the complexities of purchasing and selling meat across national borders, where businesses must comply with new safety regulations. The rules themselves are covered in minute detail and shrouded in jargon. The FSA’s ‘meat industry guide’ contains 20 technical chapters.

The scale of regulations, in particular for small and medium-sized meat businesses, can be a burden. However, the alternative is even worse.

Failure to meet industry standards is a nightmare scenario for any food business, and the nature of the meat industry makes failure to meet industry standards more likely.

With the average recall cost estimated to be around $10 million and the potential for reputational damage to be even more costly, businesses must tread carefully.

How can food ERP aid in regulatory compliance?

You’ve probably heard of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and its ability to increase efficiency and help a business grow. However, you may not have given as much thought to how an ERP solution can assist your meat business in meeting regulatory requirements.

Food-specific ERP, such as DynamicsFoodERP, is ideal because it is designed with specific tools to meet the industry’s challenges. For example:

• Traceability of lots. ERP increases the transparency of the traceability process for all parts of the supply chain. As the origins of meat products become more scrutinized, the visibility ERP provides is invaluable.
• Quality assurance. Food ERP provides superior quality control at a consistency that would otherwise be impossible. ERP tailored to the meat industry can ensure that products meet predefined quality standards. Because of the interconnectedness of ERP, companies can extend this control seamlessly across entire inventories.
• Management of shelf life. Controlling every aspect of your inventory is essential for avoiding a significant food safety disaster. Not only will ERP prevent meat that does not meet industry standards from being sold, but instances of meat being stored incorrectly or past its expiry date will be far less common due to the technology’s logistical intelligence. Most importantly, this reduces revenue lost due to waste.
• Functionality for recall. If the worst happens and subpar meat is shipped, ERP’s specific recall functionality is available to mitigate the damage through timely and intelligent communication.
• Ensuring compliance. Keeping your ducks (or cows) in a row with FDA, FSA, FSSAI, FSMA, HACCP, and other relevant food safety authorities is a critical success strategy. It ensures that your routine inspections run smoothly and frees your organization from penalties or being forced to shut down your production operations.
• Protocols are enforced throughout a company. ERP integrates the compliance process across all aspects of a business, making it more difficult for individual errors to slip through the cracks. The centralized database of an ERP system can be extended to all workers via mobile technology, as can the creation of checklists and reminders of correct standards, protocols, and testing regimes.

ERP for the meat industry can be beneficial in avoiding disastrous safety breaches. Beyond that, its value is in allowing businesses to focus on growth and improvement while their technology solution handles regulatory compliance.

Ready to make a meaty profit from your meat production and processing business?

Contact Liberty Grove for a complimentary consultation on how cloud ERP can help you maintain meat safety standards, mitigate risk, and give you a competitive advantage.

Whether you want to get more out of your existing ERP or are considering implementing a system for the first time, the Liberty Grove team of ERP consultants can guide you through each step for a smooth ERP solution.

We use the best technology available to deliver a simplified, fully integrated Cloud ERP solution designed to address the challenges of the Food & Beverage industries. The Liberty Grove team has years of distribution and manufacturing experience, ensuring your products reach customers safely and securely while meeting complex supply chain requirements and regulatory demands.

We’ll provide the services you need to guide you through project planning, implementation, testing, training, and ongoing support.

About the author

Liberty Grove Software is an established Microsoft Partner that focuses on providing customers with sales, service, and support for Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central/NAV solutions and training and upgrades.

Over more than 25 years, Liberty Grove has assisted hundreds of customers with businesses ranging from small to mid-sized to Microsoft Partners in implementing, training, customization, and upgrading Microsoft Dynamics ERP solutions.

The organization is one of only a few companies worldwide that Microsoft recognizes as qualified to provide Business Central/NAV Upgrade Service Centers.

In Part 1 of this 2-part series, we looked at what Digital Transformation (DT) does and doesn’t mean. We touched on the strategy and the journey. We explored the goals companies are trying to fulfill by embracing DT and implementing DT company-wide.

If you missed Part 1 of the series, you could still read it here to gain some insights and perspective into the overall value of DT before reading today’s blog, which is Part 2. Just click on the title below.

Digital Transformation in the Food & Beverage Industry: Part 1

Here, in Part 2, we will delve into the benefits of Digital Transformation specific to the Food & Beverage industry.

Think about the tasks that are the most mundane and time-consuming, perhaps some of the day-to-day grunt work that involves manual data entry. Think about your supply chain and how the recent supply chain disruptions and freight rate hikes have impacted your food business.

Then think: What if Digital Transformation could mitigate or eliminate those issues? Let’s see…

Mundane Time-Consuming Tasks

Obviously, there are many kinds of companies in several sectors under the Food & Beverage label. So, let’s take one example: A small company that imports beer, wine, and spirits from multiple sites around the globe, including Eastern Europe, Western Europe, and Asia.

The owner/president, who happens to be a woman, wears many hats, but mainly CFO (Chief Financial Officer) and COO (Chief Operations Officer). What does her day-to-day look like? Of course, she checks her email first thing in the morning. And then…

She starts checking on all her pending orders, bottling, labeling, packaging dates, container movement, expected arrivals, and drayage from the port to her warehouse. These are mundane tasks, some of which can be easily automated. All this has been very time-consuming.

In a company that has fully embraced and implemented Digital Transformation, she would not be sitting there running reports because those reports would have run automatically overnight. As soon as she logged in to her laptop, a list of the new daily reports would have automatically popped up. All she would need to do was select the ones she wanted to read.

Supply Chain Disruptions

Like so many importers, our fictitious importer has been plagued with supply chain nightmares: difficulties getting her container on ships in the ports of origin, port delays here in the United States, unloading delays, drayage to warehouse delays, and more, plus price increases across the board.

It’s an absolute nightmare, and she’s concerned about the very future of her company as cost increases have dug deeply into her profit margins. Her YOY revenue numbers are heading into the red. And that is not sustainable.

But there is such a thing as Supply Chain Management (SCM) software. And it is often an integral component in a company’s Digital Transformation. SCM software won’t get the container ships into the port faster. No, those ships will have to wait their turn. But here’s what SCM software can do!

Supply Chain Management software is a set of tools or modules used for:

• Executing supply chain transactions
• Managing supplier relationships
• Controlling associated business processes
• Maximizing the efficiency of business activities such as the planning and management of the entire supply chain
• Automating operations

By automating operations and logistics, SCM software increases a business’s physical and information flow. The entire business, therefore, benefits from:

• Higher performance
• Greater cost-efficiency, and thus
• Increased supply chain efficiency.

Supply Chain Management (SCM) software typically includes:

1. Customer requirement processing
2. Purchase order processing
3. Sales and distribution
4. Inventory management
5. Goods receipt
6. Warehouse management
7. Supplier management
8. Supplier sourcing

SCM software may also include forecasting tools that help companies balance the disparity between supply and demand. Such tools use algorithms, consumption analysis, AI (Artificial Intelligence), and BI (Business Intelligence) to improve planning.  

WOW!

Are you ready to explore what Digital Transformation can do for you?

We are here to assist you as you plan and strategize your digital journey. Just contact Liberty Grove Software. Call 630-858-7388 or email us at nav@libertygrovetech.com.

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As any Importer can tell you, supply chain issues have become an absolute nightmare. Soaring shipping costs. Skyrocketing land freight costs. Production delays. Shipment delays. Port congestion. Wasn’t it back in September when we heard the so-called industry analysts predicting that rates would start coming down toward the end of the year? And yet… here we are in May, and still, there has been no relief, nor is there any reliable relief on the horizon. Nothing you can take to the bank.

What Happens When Supply Chains are Broken?

Let’s say there is a Food & Beverage item being produced for you in Thailand. And let’s say it’s a product with a 6-month shelf life. And let’s say that the supplier bottled the product in mid-January with the expectation that it would go straight to their warehouse where it would be packaged immediately, loaded into a container, which would then travel overland to the port where it would be loaded onto a freighter, and shipped by the end of that month. It would then arrive six weeks later at a U.S. port, where it would be immediately unloaded. That container would then immediately travel overland to your U.S. warehouse, from where all your distributors’ orders would be promptly fulfilled. And there would still be four months of shelf life left.

That’s how it should work.

But the universe had other plans for your shipment, and those plans were not good. If even one of those dates were pushed out for reasons totally beyond the bottler’s control and totally beyond your control, a domino effect would kick in. There would be broken links in your supply chain. And if you were lucky, by the time you received that shipment, the product might still have two months of shelf life left before it would have to be destroyed, at a significant cost to you. Meanwhile, your distributors would be clamoring for product.

Causes of Broken Supply Chain Links

What could have happened to your supply chain, a chain that had been, at least 90% of the time, working perfectly well? Here are a few answers:

• The bottler in Thailand was forced to shut down due to the pandemic.
• The raw materials and ingredients arrived too late at the bottler.
• The packaging was delayed.
• The original overland freight date was pushed out because there weren’t enough drivers.
• The truck with your container couldn’t be unloaded at the port because there weren’t enough dock workers.
• The freighter sat outside the port for weeks because there weren’t enough dock workers.

Broken Supply Chain Links Cost Money!

Any single one of the above would already spell a disaster, and the cost to you would be enormous. But if there were more than one delay at more than one point on your supply, it would likely be impossible for you to raise your prices enough to cover those costs. In many cases, we are seeing:

• Overland rates up 20%
• Overseas rates are up 300%, and that’s not an exaggeration!
• Raw material costs up to 10%
• Warehouse rates up another 5%

You would be lucky if you could break even. But you’re not in business to break even, are you? You’re in business to make a profit. But because of all those issues that are beyond your control, you’re faced with some tough decisions. You could:

• Raise your prices and potentially lose customers
• Don’t raise your prices and potentially break even
• Don’t raise your prices and potentially show a loss for the year
• Wait it out in the hope that these supply chain issues will be resolved before it’s too late
• Deplete the equity in your company to cover some of those losses
• Diversify your product lines in the hope that with more products to sell, the higher volume will cover some of your losses

You’re between a rock and a hard place. Your only solace is the knowledge that…

Your Competitors Are in the Same Boat (pun intended)

What can you do to get into a better boat? You can’t change the forces that are beyond your control. But you can improve the outlook for your business by lowering your internal costs and transitioning to a cost-effective cloud-based ERP software system that streamlines your operations, increases productivity, and monitors your supply chain every step of the way.

That cloud-based ERP software solution is Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. Business Central is the perfect solution for manufacturers, distributors, and companies in the Food & Beverage sector, industries where Liberty Grove Software has decades of experience that we bring to bear for your success in good times and in troubled times.

Take the next step toward connecting your supply chains…

Contact Liberty Grove Software by calling 630-858-7388 or emailing nav@libertygrovetech.com.

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