Increasing Sales in 2017

Increasing Sales in 2017
Most of us are worried what is going to happen in 2017. I am also in the same group.
I have analyses the sales and marketing data in 2016 and this is my suggestion:
1. The conversion rate.
Current conversion rate is about 20%. Which means that you get 2 orders for every 10  sales meeting. In order to increase sales we can increase the conversion rate.

You will ask, how to increase conversion rate?
Increase the leads quality.

How to increase the leads quality?
Do your pre meeting calls or custmer contact.
Ask questions to qualify the customer.
Only customer that qualifies we will have meeting with.

2. Increase the sales meeting.
If you have 20% ssuccess,
then for every 20 sales meeting you will get 4 orders.
If we increase sales meeting to 30,
then the orders will go up to 6, assuming the rate is 20%.
Of course if we implemet the quaifying leads strategy,
 then we may be able to increase the conversion to 30%, and sales will shoot up to 9,
which is much higher than 4 last year.

You will ask, how to increase sales meeting?   
Now you are spending a lot of time because you drive to see customers.
So maximum meeting is 2 only per day.
Cost will also be high, travel, petrol, toll, parking etc.

If we analyze the customer behavior in the early majority segment, you will see that they are looking for company that is trusted. They want to have low risk. They want company that is leading in the area. There is a big chance that the manager or CEO wants to visit the company. Really confirm that the cmpany is realiable. Can support them. have enough team to support them. Will not fail them.
Chances are the CEO will want to visit our company.See for himself.
Ths is good for us.
More sales meeting, more sales.

3. Increase leads.
if we increse leads, then we can do the qualifying the leads bette.
If you have only one leads, you are introuble becuse you cannot be choosy.
if you have a lot of leads, then you can do the leads qualification exercise.

Your target now is the increase your leads from 150  in 2016 to 225 per month in 2017.
More leads. More chance to work on leads quality.

More leads > more leads quality > more sales meeting > more conversion.

So as a conclusion,
we are doing three things to increase the revenue:
 1. Increase sales meeting from 20 to 30 per month.
2. Increase leads quality by pre sales leads quality filtering.
3. Increase leads so that leads quality processing can be successfully done.


 
 

Role of Trainers and Customer Support in Software Company

Role of Trainers and Customer Support in Software company.
By now we have thousands of users and have trained and supported thousands of users.
This is what I told my trainers and support staff:
If you still have to train them how to use the software, then the software is not yet user friendly.
Our objective is to design a software such that users can use the software without having to go to user training.
Currently we have developed the support website, where all the questions that customers asked are answered. Customers like this. The website shows the method, the step by step instruction including screen shots or video on how to do things. This is good but not the ultimate target.

The ultimate target is to make training obsolete.
This is what trainers and customer support should do:
If users ask what to do when they start certain module, then he design is not friendly.
We should understand what is the question before they ask.
We should build wizards, step by step flow such that users will just follow the flow in order to accomplish what they want to do.
The help button should be designed to understand what the user is thinking and provide the help relevant to the page.
Many great companies have perfected this type of thinking. OfficeCentral must think along this line so that we can join the group of excellent software companies. It is not difficult. We have achieved much more than our competitors at this stage. Just another step, and we will be in a different class.

  

Comparison between Accounting Software - Malaysian Market

Comparison between Accounting Software - Malaysian Market
There are many software for the SMEs in Malaysia for the accounting.
The following are the comparison between them.

We have selected the  following for comparison:
1. SAGE UBS
 2. MYOB
3. Quickbook
4. OfficeCentral

The following are the criteria that we compare:

• Technology
• Mobile Apps Availability
• Business Management
• Easy to Set Up & Access Help
• Sales Invoice and Manage Debtors
• Track GST
• Business Reporting
• Pay & Track Expenses
• Set – Up Recurring Transactions
• Estimates (QUotes) & Job Costing
• Create Purchase Orders
• Manage Creditors
• Inventory Stock Management
• Links with Microsoft Office
• Company File Auditor
• Time Billing
• Multiple Currencies
• Multi-Level Pricing
• Multi-Companies
• Multi Users
• Multi- Stock Locations
• Customisablility
• Subsidiary Companies monitoring
• CRM Integration Availability

The following is the result of he comparison:

Criteria UBS  MYOB QuickBook OfficeCentral Cloud technology PC Based PC Based Cloud Cloud Mobile Apps is provided No No Yes Yes Business Management Yes Yes Yes Yes Easy to Set Up & Access Help Yes Yes Yes Yes Sales Invoice and Manage Debtors Yes Yes Yes Yes Track GST Yes Yes Yes Yes Business Reporting Yes Yes Yes Yes Pay & Track Expenses Yes Yes Yes Yes Set – Up Recurring Transactions Yes Yes Yes Yes Estimates (QUotes) & Job Costing Yes Yes Yes Yes Create Purchase Orders Yes Yes Yes Yes Manage Creditors Yes Yes Yes Yes Inventory Stock Management Yes Yes Yes Yes Links with Microsoft Office Yes Yes Yes Yes Company File Auditor Yes Yes Yes Yes Time Billing Yes Yes Yes Yes Multiple Currencies Yes Yes Yes Yes Multi-Level Pricing Yes Yes Yes Yes Multi-Companies Yes No No Yes Multi Users License based License based License based License based Multi- Stock Locations No No No Yes Customisablility No No No Yes Subsidiary/ Group Monitoring No No No Yes Integrated with CRM No No No Yes
All the accounting software provide the features required by their target customers.
However some software have certain features due to their focus on certain target market.
One of the problem of the older technology like PC-based technology is the lack of features provided by cloud technology. Technically because of the technology difference, many fantastic features of the cloud technology like access from anywhere, access from mobile and integration with  other software modules are not possible. UBS and MYOB suffers from this weakness.
The UBS and MYOB have been in the market for more than 20 years. They have a strong following and many users are trained in the system. So they have the advantage here. The UBS is designed for experience accountant in mind. So many small enterprises that could not afford accountant will find it very difficult to operate.
Whereas Quickbook and OfficeCentral are designed with entrepreneurs in mind. So the system is easy to use and very intuitive. The Dashboards and Reports are very friendly to entrepreneurs.
OfficeCentral designed the system with entrepreneur in mind. OfficeCentral provides CRM tools. CRM is one of the major tools that entrepreneurs can use in order to be very effective. CRM provides them with sales management, sales staff KPI management, Leads and Account management and the Point of Sales, Distribution Management and Inventory management. The Mobile Apps for sales staff also comes in handy.

Comparison between Tally, Quickbook and OfficeCentral

Comparison between Tally, Quickbook and OfficeCentral
One of the things that I normally do is studying the major competitors in the market and compare the products. At least we should know where we stand. Every one have their good points. That is why they have their group of customers.

We are comparing the following software:
1. Quickbook
2. Tally Software
3. OfficeCentral

Tally is the most dominant accounting software in India. Locally developed in India and have extensive user base.
Quickbook is an American product. The product is owned by Intuit the leading accounting software in the USA. Quickbook is new entrant to Indian market, coming in a few years ago.
OfficeCentral is a Malaysian product. The product is a cloud based product, leading in Malaysia. They are new entrant to Indian market.

Overview
Tally's key product is tally ERP 9. It is an ERP solution from Tally Solutions Private Limited. Tally ERP 9 is a PC based solution. It will run on Microsoft PC operating system. They have extensive users in India and have been in the market for more than 20 years.

Quickbook is a ssolution from the USA. Quickbook online is a SAAS software. They have configured it to suit Indian market like tax and Indian currency. They have many users in the USA among the SMEs.

OfficeCentral is a solution from Malaysia. OfficeCentral is also a SaaS solution like the Quickbook. They have configured the system to suit the new GST regime in India. They have experience on GST implementation in Malaysia.

 Comparison

We will compare the products on the following criteria:
1. Technology
2. Features
3. Usability
4.  Support
5. Cost

Technology
Quickbook is offered in the cloud.  The cloud technology means that users can get access to the Quickbook from anywhere as long as there is internet access. Multiple users can work on the same database from anywhere.  No need to install anything on the PC. only need internet explorer or any internet browser.
Quickbook also have Quickbook mobile Apps. This allows users to use their mobile to ccess their system.

Tally ERP 9 is a PC based software. This means that you need to be at the PC in the office in order to access the data. However you can remotely access the data from another PC by using PC remote access technology. However this is not the same as the cloud technology. Tally ERP 9 have extensive users n India.

OfficeCentral is a cloud based software. Just like the Quickbook, users can access from anywhere, anytime as long as users have internet access. Users can access via mobile or tablet. OfficeCentral also have a few mobile apps for staff, sales and outsourcing that users can use to get the best from the  system.

Features
Quickbook release in India have a number of good features targeted to SMEs. Not all he features in the US are available in India. Nevertheless some good features are available in India like automatic bank transaction synchronization and scheduled invoices.  

Tally ERP 9 is the leading accounting software in India. They have created many features that suits the Indian market like the tax features and many business models. Tally ERP 9 is suitable for SMEs and large enterprises.

OfficeCentral is almost like Tally ERP 9 in terms of features. However OfficeCentral is targeted to SMEs. OfficeCentral have many features that are available in Quickbook and Tally ERP 9. Some of the features include Bank Reconciliation, Scheduled Invoices, Business Intelligence, Multi location accounting, unlimited chart of account and PERS reporting standard. OfficeCentral have extensive features in the Mobile Apps.

Usability
Quickbook is designed for people without having to employ own accountant. It is easy to use without having to know extensive accounting knowledge. Quickbook understands that most SMEs do not have accountant on the payroll. It is very intuitive.

Tally ERP 9 is designed for accountant. Those that do not have good accounting knowledge and not trained to use Tally ERP 9 will face a nightmare to use the software and trying to read the reports. However for companies that have trained accounting staff, Tally ERP 9 would be good to use. Many user comments on the difficult to use and only trained accountant are able to use the software. The technology is also an issue since it cannot maximise the use of latest cloud and mobile technology ease of use.

OfficeCentral is designed for entrepreneurs of the SMEs. It do not require accountant to operate the system since the design is such that any staff with minimal accounting knowledge can operate the system. Many Dashboards and Reports are provided for the entrepreneurs. Transactions are intuitively designed so that mistakes can be avoided.

Support network
Quickbook is a new entrant to the Indian market, They have established the support network called Quickbook Gold partners and Quickbook ProAdvisors to provide the support for their customers.

Tally ERP 9 have an extensive supplort network in India. Tally provides Tally Institute of learning, Tally Partners, Tally Service Partners, Tally Integrators and Tally Extenders. They have extensive service network in India.

OfficeCentral is a new entrant in India. OfficeCentral provides online support, website support, online e-Learning and e-mail support. The local support is not yet extensive. However user training and support  are provided in India by the company and dealers. 

Cost
The Quickbook online India have a good offer price of Rs3,000 per year now. This is very competitive since the target is the SMEs.

ERP 9 Silver can be purchase on line for Rs17,000.  Tally ERP 9 also have monthly rental rate of Rs600 per month.

OfficeCentral accounting is priced at Rs 750 per month. The annual cost comes to Rs9,000. online support, remote Support, software upgrade and on boarding support included.

The Verdict
Quickbook, Tally ERP 9 and OfficeCentral are very good software with good features. They are targeting different niches.
Quickbook is targeting SMEs entrepreneurs that do not have own accountant.
Tally ERP 9 is targeting enterprises that have their own trained professional accountants.
Tally ERP 9 also targeting large companies.
OfficeCentral is targeting SME entrepreneurs and small and medium size companies. The training requirements for staff is very short. Transactions and dashboards and reports helps a lot.
All three software will find their own niches and will serve the market well.

OfficeCentral is a Full Service Software

OfficeCentral is a Full Service Software.
In any business we have to decide what is the business type. Is it a full service company or is it bare bone company. Practically the question is are you Air Asia type or MAS type. Two different strategy and two different approaches.
Air Asia means cheap but minimum service. Any service like food, drink, luggage, best seat are additional cost.
MAS model means customers get full service without extra cost. Comfort, food, seats, luggage are all provided.
At OfficeCentral we found that Malaysian customers  expect the MAS type of service. Customer support must be personal. Coaching need to be done. Customer on boarding need to be provided.  Every questions must be answered fast. Every mistakes that they did must be sorted out fast.
Starting in 2017 we will design the whole operation of OfficeCentral under the full service strategy. We will provide premium service, fast and convenient. All requests will be handled fast by a trained team.
However this requires the price to be in line with the full service cost. We will update the price soon.
We already implemented this type of service for more than 12 months. I believe this is the right thing to do.

OfficeCentral as the base software for all industries and businesses

OfficeCentral as the base software for all industries and businesses
In the last five years we have built the OfficeCentral as the core application for enterprises. Every enterprises need accounting, human resource, payroll and customer relationship management. There are hundreds of  vertical businesses that need these base applications.
OfficeCentral will have one or two verticals  directly developed by OfficeCentral but for the hundreds of other verticals, we will work together with other software developers.
It takes a lot of time to develop the base software. For example if you are building hotel management system, it will take you 12 months to build the hotel software and another two years to build the base application like accounting, HR, payroll and CRM. It will take longer when you add the debugging times and oter improvements. By working with OfficeCentral, you can reduce your development time to one year or less. Your development cost will also reduce by more than 70%. On top of that you are getting  a software that is already used by te market, bugs cleared and refined by thousands of other users.
This is our strategy in 2017. Work together with other software companies. let them build their apps on top of OfficeCentral. Grow together with our partners. Shorten development time. Reduce cost of development. Get quality product.
In the last two years we have built a lot of APIs. It could be for accounting, HR, payroll, CRM or POS.  Now all software developers can connect to OfficeCentral to build their own application on top of OfficeCentral. Faster to market. Cheaper to develop. Less bugs to handle.

Contact us to get the various APIs that are required.

 

Retailers - Can a new concept Point of Sales help you to grow your business further?

Retailers - Can a new concept Point of Sales help you to grow your business further?
I have been thinking about this for some time now. I also have talked to many retailers - their issues, their problems, their inspirations.
The problems:
1. I need to know what products are sold today? this week? this month?
2. How much is my sales today?
3. I cannot drive to the shop/kiosk every day to get data.
4. I need to spend a lot of time with my excel sheet to analyze the data.
5. I spend a lot of my time to get the data and analyze the data.
6. I am feeling very stressed. Slow data coming in. Analyse. making decision.

The solution:
This is what I think we should have:
1. Sellers and the shop or kiosk use a mobile /table when they sell products.
2. Data is immediately updated in the database in the cloud.
3. If internet is down, the transaction is still going on. data is kept in locl database in the mobile or android tablet.
4. You can see your sales data from anywhere. No need to come to the shop or kiosk.
5. You can analyze the sales, profitability, trend from remote.
6. You can see which salesman/girl is working or which ones are below target.
7. You can see which products are fast moving, which one are stagnant.
8. How much cash sales today?   
9. Import to accounting system. get your profit and loss, balance sheet, cash flow.
10. Send the receipt via email. This will automatically create CRM database. You can implement many customer relationship strategy after this.