A better viewpoint on your supply chain

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,

and information is in their hands

Find out why

Being wary of unexpected risks is part of what makes us human.

Whether it’s the hairs on the back of your neck standing up during a horror
movie, an increase in heart rate when you reach the top of a rollercoaster,
or a shiver down your spine when you hear a strange noise in the dark.

It’s only natural to want to know what’s going on around you. And it’s the
same with supply chains in your business. Knowing that things are running
smoothly, and seeing what’s happening, puts your mind at ease. But a recent report from the
Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) says that more than half of companies
lack any sort of end-to-end visibility in their supply chains. Which makes
them vulnerable to all kinds of unexpected risks.

Introducing an operating model that offers a better oversight allows for
changes to be made easier, faster and safer. Models that can break down
supply chain resources and processes into separate ‘blocks’ is one way of
doing this.

This ‘block’ approach allows for quicker reactions that minimize the impact
of emerging threats or disruption.

A clearer picture

It’s not just about seeing what’s going on around your business. Having a
clearer picture of your supply chain, and where your products come from,
also has a huge impact on your bottom line. As well as your reputation
within your industry.

Click the icons below for more reasons why it pays to be able to see what’s
going on in your supply chain:

With hybrid and remote working on the increase, your teams need to access
supply chain data from a variety of locations on a variety of devices. Not
being able to offer them this option can mean them missing out on
additional sales.

Research has shown

that customers are willing to spend up to 10% more for products when they
know where they’ve come from. As well as what materials and ingredients
were used and where they were sourced.

More and more companies are being asked to be open and share information
about their supply chains. Not having that information to hand can
seriously impact your reputation and play into the hands of your
competitors who do.

By 2025, 60% of B2B sales organizations will move to more data-driven
selling. Your teams need easier access to keep up and provide customers
with the information they need.

CFOs are under constant pressure to manage costs and productivity. But it’s
harder to make smart business decisions when you don’t have the data or
insights into what’s going on.

The six challenges of distribution

The right business management tool gives you full visibility across your
entire supply chain. Everyone—from suppliers to customers—can easily see
everything they need to know and more. Whether it’s customer information,
stock levels, past purchases or quotes.

But how does it solve the most common issues that organizations face today?

Challenge #4

Productivity

Measuring the productivity of remote workers can be challenging. Scheduling
their work can also be time-consuming—with many competing priorities,
personal obligations, absences and other issues.

The solution

The right business management solution will improve employees’ performance
and reduce the logistical complexity of scheduling their work. Sage manages
to compare the actual time employees spent on tasks and travels with the
expected time budgeted. You can check efficiency and provide support where
issues are identified.

4 / 6

Challenge #2

Teamwork

Teams who can’t collaborate effectively may be missing out on new
opportunities.

The solution

By making your data centralized, accessible and always up to date,
departments and individual employees can work better together.

2 / 6

Challenge #1

Complexity

An unorganized or overly complicated back office can make life difficult,
especially for finance and accounting teams.

The solution

Businesses with multiple legacy systems, and no centralized location for
these requirements, are already at a disadvantage when it comes to serving
customers. Sage consolidates your work systems into one solution.

1 / 6

Challenge #3

Division

A disconnect between processes, technologies, machinery, and the workforce
slows everything down, which can leave you struggling to meet customer
expectations and respond to changes in the market.

The solution

The right system helps you manage purchasing processes from beginning to
end, starting with management of Requests for Quotes (RFQs), input and
follow-up of replies, and integration into the price list base. You can
optimize your stock, keep up with demand and ensure efficiency through
real-time monitoring of inventory status. Having effective scanning and
bar-coding functionality, for example, helps ensure that your materials and
products are properly tracked.

3 / 6

Challenge #5

Organization

Every customer interaction is critical but can be difficult to manage.

The solution

Remote sales teams can access info such as stock information, past orders,
open quotes, etc., whenever they need it, for sales with their
clients—whether they are working at home or visiting their offices.

5 / 6

Challenge #6

Time wasting

Repetitive tasks can take time away from customer engagements.

The solution

When your teams spend more than half of their days manually inputting data
into Excel sheets or other mundane, error-prone manual tasks, productivity
plummets. Sage reduces repetitive tasks through automation, saving them
time and giving them the ability to create new orders while they are with
the client.

6 / 6

Dr. Mark’s HyGenie

“Sage X3 will save us considerable time and effort in the future. We will
be able to integrate new distributors into a single platform, instead of
having to set them up on separate platforms.”

Steve Plakotaris, CEO and Managing Director, Dr Mark’s HyGenie

1 / 3

Woven

“We wanted an ERP package that was truly in the cloud and secure so that we
could use it from anywhere in the world. We now have one common database.
It’s a single source of truth and it’s accurate, reliable and up to date.”

Judi Babbage, Financial Processes Consultant, Woven

2 / 3

IDC

“Sage X3 provides the flexibility in deployment (public cloud, hosted in a
private environment or on customers’ infrastructure) and pricing that
medium-sized firms are looking for. Additionally, all options have special
appeal as firms look to support an increasingly mobile and remote
workforce.”

3 / 3

A case in point

Sage customer success stories

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