tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-55382334907824793752024-02-08T22:21:48.931+11:00OrdersInbox BlogAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-18457068570678889592014-01-08T08:20:00.002+11:002014-01-08T08:20:54.205+11:00Why customer portals fail.<b>If you think driving internal change is difficult, why waste time and money trying to drive change within your clients’ business?</b><br />
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A customer portal may sound like a great way to interact with your clients. They can reduce administrative burden, minimise errors, save you time, help you collect valuable information about your customers and generally improve service levels. <br />
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However, lets be honest, most customer portals are designed to make your life easier, not your customers' and especially not those customers that are not sophisticated purchasers of goods or services. <br />
<br />
If you’re <b>HP</b>, <b>GE</b> or even <b>Coca Cola</b>, you can dictate your customer’s behaviour. If you’re not, you can’t - you need to respond to customer behaviour. <br />
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This problem sits at the heart of why customers portals, launched to much fanfare, often sit underutilised. Of course its easy to make the argument that having a customer portal allows your customers to control the order process and to interact directly with your business - "it makes so much sense, how could they not love it?". Why not? Because customers have their own systems for placing orders and these systems have been designed by them to make their life easier. It shouldn't surprise you to learn that these involve emailing, telephone and (gasp) faxing their orders.<br />
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Without putting the customer at the heart of your decision making process, you risk alienating your most important asset. <br />
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But don't despair, there is a simple alternative to establishing a customer portal. An alternative that is far more cost effective, will improve your processes and won't impact the customer experience one iota! <br />
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Before you spend a cent, sign up to our free OrdersInbox trial today. We promise, no hard sell, just simply designed order management software that will save you time and money. <b> Sign up for your free trial now.</b><br />
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Enter your details and we’ll send you a username and password <b><u>no questions asked.</u></b> The free trial will give you access to your own FREE OrdersInbox account for 3 months. <br />
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Join great Australian companies like <b>National Tiles</b> to discover how OrdersInbox can help you. For more information go to <a href="http://www.ordersinbox.com/">www.ordersinbox.com</a>, or email (<a href="mailto:oi@ordersinbox.com">oi@ordersinbox.com</a>) or telephone 03 9024 6268 to arrange a short demonstration. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-16326329919799146392014-01-07T16:08:00.002+11:002014-01-07T16:23:20.250+11:00The Email is Dead - Long Live the EmailEver since email began to rule the workplace, many people have predicted its demise.<br />
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It's now 2014, are there are certainly no signs of abatement.<br />
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There are many reasons for this, but for us, the one that stands out the most is the fact that email is 100% universal & belongs to no one company. And while it does have it's disadvantages, we believe that no social network or new communication method can override it.<br />
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As Winston Churchill said of democracy, "it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all the others have been tried".<br />
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While we don't doubt there are many communication methods which will emerge over the coming years, our money is on email retaining the number one position as the most prevalent method of communications.<br />
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Therefore, the challenge for businesses is to ensure that they use email in the most efficient way possible.<br />
<br />Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-18204876285849358212013-12-04T16:11:00.000+11:002014-01-07T16:11:07.393+11:00Free Business GuideWe've put together a free business guide that will help you discover:<br />
<ol>
<li>The 8 key elements of every good order management process.</li>
<li>Tips to improve your order management process.</li>
<li>The secret to turning your order management process into a goose that lays golden eggs.</li>
<li>6 Costly mistakes to avoid when selecting an order management system.</li>
</ol>
<div>
Download now for free from <a href="http://ordersinbox.com/business-guide">http://ordersinbox.com/business-guide</a></div>
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-34685901142299918792013-10-22T20:37:00.000+11:002013-11-16T20:39:42.511+11:00Document management - not just for policies and procedures.We've discovered that when people talk about the term 'Document Management', they're often referring to documents such as Policies & Procedures. This is natural, because a company's Polices and Procedures are arguably the most important documents a business has. From listing strategic objectives, outlining how to deal with internal HR issues and most importantly, how to apply for leave, a company's set of Policies & Procedures is the base from which everything happens on top of. So it makes sense that these documents are subjected to features such as version control, roll back, workflow, history and audit.<br />
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But document management should not be confined to policies and procedures. The ability to view who has read a document that relates to an order, or perhaps when a work order document was changed, can be an equally important to the business.<br />
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So try applying some basic document management processes to your order management process and you'll reap the rewards.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-58480077849556375722013-07-01T16:30:00.002+10:002013-07-02T11:29:44.574+10:00The 4 Critical Components of Order ManagementOur customers range in size - our smallest is a 2 man business; our largest has nearly 400 employees.<br />
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While they all do different things and operate in different industries, we've put together a best practice order management methodology called LAIR: <br />
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<b>1 - Logging</b><br />
This is all about how an order arrives into your business and how it is initially logged.<br />
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<b>2 - Automation</b><br />
This is about how you can automate as much of the order process of possible. This aspect looks at OCR, workflow, notifications, escalations etc.<br />
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<b>3 - Integration</b><br />
Be it integrating with a Financial, Sales or ERP package, integrating with your existing systems is a critical way to keep costs low.<br />
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<b>4 - Reports</b><br />
Getting real time reports on how you fulfil your orders.<br />
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If you want more information about our free LAIR appraisal, please contact us.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-66722383672488171552013-02-22T12:00:00.002+11:002013-02-22T12:00:57.230+11:00Purchase Order ManagementPurchase order management is often a challenge for businesses because as a process, it involves many people from across the business. From sales to fulfilment, from support to finance, a purchase order needs to be visible across the business.<br />
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Adding to this challenge is the fact that because nearly all businesses start small and grow organically (without external funding) their systems often lag behind - this is a matter of necessity as small businesses need to focus on sales, not process.<br />
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The result of this is not only inefficient processes, but often fragmented ones as well.<br />
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The most frequent example we come across is as follows:<br />
<ul>
<li>a user creates a Purchase Order in Word on their own PC; </li>
<li>then the user updates a centralised Excel spread sheet which lists all PO's;</li>
<li>user sends PO to customer/supplier/client</li>
</ul>
The process is simple for the user however can lead to simple mistakes, loss of documents and most importantly, poor management & financial transparency.<br />
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OrdersInbox addresses all these problems by combining all these processes into one, easy to use system, with full tracking, workflow and audit capabilities, while still being simple to use.<br />
Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-35634545092560430792012-12-19T12:13:00.000+11:002013-01-21T12:52:45.759+11:00Managing change - The security of feeling paperMost people reading this blog will understand how much paper businesses use when managing even a simple order. From purchase orders, to change requests, from delivery dockets to emails, even the most simple of order can use a heap of paper.<br />
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So while the technology is available (and has been for years) to avoid printing out such documents, the fact is that most people are more comfortable in printing something out knowing they can access at any time.<br />
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Tablets and digital paper will go someway to eliminating paper altogether, but in the interim years, we are seeing a clear trend towards some key documents being printed, while all others stored digitally. Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-27543960108735684252012-11-07T10:49:00.004+11:002012-11-07T10:49:41.361+11:00Linking in with your Pronto or SAP ERPWhen we're demonstrating OrdersInbox to new customers, we're always asked about how we integrate with their ERP system. From SAP to Pronto, MYOB or QuickBooks, there are many systems available and we support them all.<br />
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National Tiles for example use Pronto Software (www.pronto.com.au). When an order arrives in by email, the order is created in OrdersInbox and a link is then setup that takes the user straight into the Pronto system.<br />
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OrdersInbox - Paperless with an audit trail at every step.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-24191626362415716442012-09-26T10:37:00.004+10:002012-09-26T10:37:42.299+10:00Does your business receive orders from the same customers?For many of our customers, a large percentage of their orders are received by a small group of key customers. This is not unusual even for large businesses. However, it does mean that improving the fulfillment process of these orders can have a huge impact on the cost of delivering that product or service.<br />
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And as we all know, small changes often precipitate larger improvements.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-3068571119100623122012-07-27T14:36:00.000+10:002012-09-26T10:49:48.043+10:00The answer to email? Email?There has been much discussion about the demise of email. Instant Messaging, internal intranets & social network platforms have all challenged the supremacy of email. Even the advent of mass spamming was thought to be its death knell.<br />
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But email has come through it all - and perhaps stronger and more flexible than ever.<br />
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This is because email for all its faults, email is 100% agnostic. That is, no matter what hardware, software, or Operating System you use, emails can still can be read and created. <br />
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Email is Dead - Long live Email.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-41290455274490453162012-05-07T11:44:00.002+10:002012-05-07T19:02:54.090+10:00Email as a safety netOne of the less discussed benefits of OrdersInbox (but certainly no less important) is the immediate benefit of acting as a backup of all your emails.<br />
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This occurs because as soon as an order is sent to your business, OrdersInbox takes a copy of it, ensuring you retain complete backup of all emails.<br />
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Backups are an important process in every business, and OrdersInbox makes it an immediate and out of the box feature.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-42155278251884811042012-01-06T15:24:00.004+11:002012-01-06T15:24:59.720+11:00Emails with PDF attachementsOne of the most common ways to send a vendor an order, is to email them a PDF which includes the details of the order. <br />
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For medium and larger companies, this PDF is often created by the customers finance/ERP package such as SAP, Oracle or Pronto Xi, while smaller companies get by using a Word or Excel document saved as a PDF.<br />
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The problem with this from the vendors side, is that once the email arrives, a user needs to physically open the email and the attachment, then forward on to the relevant person/area in the business. This is far from a full proof system.<br />
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So here at OrdersInbox, we are developing a new feature that automatically looks at the email and any PDF attachments, and based on the rules of the business, automatically assigns the email and corresponding orders to the right area/people in the business. <br />
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It's an exciting start to the year.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-54964464173653350182011-12-11T10:58:00.001+11:002011-12-11T12:01:21.996+11:00Using the right toolsHave you ever watched a builder and/or electrician work for a day? I know, it sounds a little odd, but during the recent fit out of our new office, I had the pleasure of doing exactly that.<br />
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And what struck me most, was the sheer number of tools they used to do a pretty simple job - namely to build a few partitions and put in some shelving. In all, it took 2 days.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TzmZNQUK0bE/TuP8rB0mxvI/AAAAAAAAAAw/TF_a6XJh2tY/s1600/tools.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TzmZNQUK0bE/TuP8rB0mxvI/AAAAAAAAAAw/TF_a6XJh2tY/s1600/tools.jpg" /></a></div>
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I commented on this abundance of tools to the builder (an old family friend) and he mentioned that these tools meant I was only paying him for 2 days of work, and not 3.<br />
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He said that it's only been in the last 10-15 years that these specialist tools have become available, primarily because they have dropped in cost to a point that makes them affordable.<br />
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This got me thinking about why we built OrdersInbox, and the importance of using the right tool for the job. Using Microsoft Outlook to manage emails sent to an email address like orders@yourbusiness.com, is the equivalent of building a wall with a tape and hammer. Sure, it can be done, but you'll make that wall a lot quicker and stronger if you have a laser level and an electric nail gun.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-38827311504927926062011-12-02T16:06:00.001+11:002011-12-02T16:46:45.335+11:00When orders go bad!We're often told that its the small things that make a difference and this could certainly not be truer when it comes to managing emails and orders.<br />
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When a customer sends you an email, they expect that the right people within your business will be notified, and that it will be actioned accordingly.<br />
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When this does not happen, it normally incurs both a reputation and financial cost.<br />
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For example, one of our customers recently re-told a story (before they were using OrdersInbox) when the wrong order was sent out that cost the business thousands of dollars.<br />
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Basically, the original order had been altered (only in colour) but this change request (sent by email) was somehow 'lost'. The change request was later to be found printed in a drawer :)<br />
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So the order was built, sent to the customer, only to realise that when it arrived on site, it was the wrong colour.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PpvxB5P36QA/Tthj3i7oIPI/AAAAAAAAAAo/P7qohClnTwQ/s1600/order.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-PpvxB5P36QA/Tthj3i7oIPI/AAAAAAAAAAo/P7qohClnTwQ/s1600/order.jpg" /></a></div>
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If you're reading this, then this story will probably be familiar to you - it's universal across whatever business you work in.<br />
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And that's why OrdersInbox is such a useful tool - it automatically links all the information associated with an order and collates it in one area that can be viewed by whoever you determine should see it.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-80998597749972437422011-11-21T08:46:00.000+11:002011-11-21T08:56:26.535+11:00Order Management SoftwareThere are a range of order management software solutions on the market. From complex and expensive ERP options, right through to basic setups like using an Excel sheet, businesses of all sizes have their own way of managing their orders.<br />
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But because none of them integrate well with email programs such as Outlook, valuable information in email can often get lost or overlooked - especially when more than one person is involved in the order.<br />
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OrdersInbox solves this issue by combining the familiarity and flexibility of email, with the structure of an order management process.<br />
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So you still may want to to use your ERP, POS or any other package you use now, but for that initial correspondence with your customers, we think you'll love to use OrdersInbox as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-81498021314806642042011-11-16T11:29:00.001+11:002012-03-28T17:22:14.139+11:00OrdersInbox Begins - What is it?Oi! Welcome to OrdersInbox.<br />
<br />
After 8 months of development & 1 round of funding from investors, today sees the launch of our new service, OrdersInbox.<br />
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Built to enable companies to better manage their orders that come in via email, OrdersInbox is a simple solution that will save businesses time and money.<br />
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OrdersInbox is easy to use, free for small business and is accessible from any browser on your PC, MAC or smartphone.<br />
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So, if you have ever lost, misplaced or not been able to find an order, take a look at OrdersInbox.<br />
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Thanks - Rob & Doug<br />
<br />
PS Oi! is Australian slang for getting someones attention - read about it on <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oi_%28interjection%29" target="_blank">Wikipedia here</a>.<br />
PPS Further explanation and background can be found by following the 'Read More' link below<br />
<br />
<a name='more'></a><br />
<b><u>Introduction to Concept</u></b><br />
<b><br /></b>Many businesses receive orders from their customers via email. This is because it is a fast, efficient and near universal delivery technology - much in the same way as traditional post and fax machines were before email became more widely used.<br />
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And much like how traditional post and fax machines had a central delivery location (ie an address for post, and a fax number for facsimiles) many businesses have dedicated email addresses for their customers to send information to ie orders@mybusiness.com, sales@mybusiness.com, inquiry@mybusiness.com etc<br />
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And while the promise was different, most software programs that are used to manage email (such as Microsoft Outlook) don’t go in any way to reducing the same types of human intensive administration tasks (such as sorting, re-directing or managing orders) that occur when orders were sent by post and fax.<br />
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Put simply, email clients such as Microsoft Outlook were not designed as Order Management Systems. Our product, OrdersInbox is.<b><br /></b><br />
<b><u>The Business Problem</u></b><br />
<b><br /></b><u>Scenario - Peter's Electric</u><br />
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Peter runs his electrical business called ‘Peter's Electric’ and has 50 customers. When one of those 50 customers wants to make an order, they send an email to orders@peteselectric.com.au. While they are not large orders, Peter can sometimes get 30 a day.<br />
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Peter has a staff of 5 who intermittently check the orders@peteselectric.com.au email inbox throughout the day. When an order comes in, the staff member checking the emails will either action the order, reply to the customer asking for more information or forward the order on to someone else within the organisation.<br />
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It is as this early stage, that Peter loses the ability to track where an order is up to or if it has been actioned or not. Some staff use the ‘Mail Read’ and ‘Mail unread’ feature to help determine if a order has been looked at, while some create dedicated order folders, and put all communication in that folder. Some staff then use their own personal email address to send follow up information, which means critical information relating to the order can easily be lost of misplaced.<br />
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If Peter goes out for the day, he has no easy way of been able to determine how many orders have come in, without having to revert to asking his entire team. Asking finance to do a report takes time, and often, such reports are unable to be produced until the end of the month.<br />
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To summarise the issues faced by business who use email products such as Microsoft Outlook to manage their orders:<br />
<ul>
<li>No search</li>
<ul>
<li>Order information exists in multiple locations such as sent and received emails, documents and individual users notes</li>
</ul>
<li>No reporting capability</li>
<ul>
<li>Have to wait until order has been processed via ERP and/or finance system</li>
<li>No ability for real time reporting</li>
<li>Results not visible across the organisation</li>
</ul>
<li>No central location per order</li>
<ul>
<li>Users can not login remotely to view information</li>
<li>Cannot keep a simple notes area that relates to order</li>
</ul>
<li>No history</li>
<ul>
<li>Cannot tell who has read the order</li>
<li>Cannot tell if other emails have been sent and/or received that relate to that order</li>
</ul>
<li>No control</li>
<ul>
<li>Orders can easily be deleted or edited without a trace</li>
<li>Confusion on which tasks have and have not been done</li>
</ul>
<li>No collaboration</li>
<ul>
<li>Cannot share experiences</li>
<li>No ability to mine data for improvements in process</li>
</ul>
</ul>
<b>The Solution</b><br />
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OrdersInbox is a cloud based Software-As-A-Service (SaaS) product.<br />
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The main concept of OrdersInbox is that rather than an email being delivered to an email client such as Microsoft Outlook, it will be delivered to the companies dedicated OrdersInbox instance. In this way, OrdersInbox is just like a normal email client.<br />
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From that point on, the differences could not be more stark. For one, as soon as email arrives into OrdersInbox, it can always be found and reported on. If it's for a new order, an order will be created and the email automatically attached to it. The order can then be labelled based on any set of values as defined by the customer - image 1.1 shows an example of frequently used labels.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
Image 1.1</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tq7MY2NHXnE/ToAt8WAn-iI/AAAAAAAAAAU/X99YOswwylQ/s1600/Capture.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-tq7MY2NHXnE/ToAt8WAn-iI/AAAAAAAAAAU/X99YOswwylQ/s320/Capture.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Any label that is applied (all labels are customisable) can then be both searched and reported on.<br />
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If the email relates to an existing order, it will be automatically associated with that order. Users can be assigned to orders, and notifications sent based on permissions.<br />
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Because each order has its own homepage, it means that one central location is created to store all information that relates to that order - it is the virtual equivalent of a filing cabinet, but made specifically for order management.<br />
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It sounds simple - and in many ways, it is. <br />
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And the reason for this? Because it makes it easier for people to work more productively, without forcing them to change the way they work.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-57228862880130006332011-11-16T10:00:00.000+11:002011-11-20T06:48:47.768+11:00The road aheadWe're only just getting started with OrdersInbox, and with a number of great clients already using the product, you can look forward to seeing lots of new features in the coming months.<br />
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Here are just three of the areas that we will be focusing on in the short term:<br />
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1. Reporting improvements<br />
Giving you the flexibility to create the reports you need - customised to your business.<br />
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2. Email read/unread improvements<br />
Ensuring an email or task never gets overlooked again - including escalations. <br />
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3. Notifications improvements<br />
We all want to be notified when it's our turn to do something - but not to the point of harassment! So we're making big improvements to our notifications engine to ensure you and your team stay informed, when you need to be.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5538233490782479375.post-81873980948009166472011-11-10T07:24:00.000+11:002011-11-20T06:40:42.133+11:00More relevant than SAPWe all know SAP to be a sophisticated ERP solution. But when it comes to the basics of managing an order, it is simply too big a solution for most small and medium size companies.<br />
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So as the below screenshot shows, Google have it right - OrdersInbox.com is more relevant than SAP when wanting to mange your orders using your inbox!<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K95UcWBAPBA/TsVuPksl7GI/AAAAAAAAAAg/x96otM1R4b8/s1600/ordersinbox_sap.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-K95UcWBAPBA/TsVuPksl7GI/AAAAAAAAAAg/x96otM1R4b8/s320/ordersinbox_sap.png" width="257" /></a></div>
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<br /></div>Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com0