The Little Geeni

Let’s face it – if your company grows, you are going to need to add some form of resource management to your systems to make your life easier. The most effective way of doing so is through ERP software, but finding the right solution for your ERP needs can be tough if you don’t know what you’re looking for. Therefore, the following three factors used in ERP software evaluation should always be integrated into the decision making process.

Redundancy Reductions

A company without a good Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system are going to waste a lot of resources. It’s as simple as that. The larger you grow, the more resources you have and the more redundant activities will occur. ERP software evaluation allows you to find a system that will reduce redundancies that your specific company is having.

For example, you may find that you are regularly having multiple employees entering the same data into your computers because they need it in different ways. Rather than combining databases, you are wasting resources to enter it twice. ERP software that allows you to access and use data in multiple formats will reduce this waste of time and money and make your business more efficient. There are dozens of such examples you should look for when performing your ERP software evaluation.

How It Will Affect Your Company

Integrating a new system into your business is a major undertaking. You need train your staff, restructure some departments and change nearly every process you perform on a daily basis. So, during ERP software evaluation, you should ask what changes are necessary, how much they will require from your team and how effective they will be in altering the overall efficiency of your business. If it’s not going to do all that much (as is the case for small businesses), get a less incursive system.

Matching Needs to Your Departments

Finally, when completing your ERP software evaluation, make sure you know exactly what your departments need and that the software will work within those boundaries. If you need to manage distribution, design, and quality control more efficiently, you need an ERP solution that will work as well in the factory as it does in the office. Toss in inventory control and information services and you are stretching to multiple offices and large data sets. ERP software evaluation should include a complete list of what you will need it for. You are going to need to appoint a few individuals to oversee implementation if your ERP system looks to affect more than just one or two departments (which it should).

In the end, ERP software evaluation will ensure that you take the time necessary to review the various ERP solutions on the market, matching the one that will best serve your company up with what you’re going to use it for. If you can manage this, you’ll save time, money, and ultimately, a whole lot of stress in the process.

ERP Evaluation, Look, Software, things, Three

From the very earliest computer games, one of the most popular aspects that helped to make them so popular was that they could support multiple players, meaning that more than one person could play the game at the same time. This meant that people could play against each other in competition, so that it was not wholly a player versus computer environment. Most people enjoy competing against friends and family, and reveling in success. Most of the highly popular computer and video games available today are multiplayer games.

The idea of multiplayer has three different meanings or interpretations, however. The first, and original, multiplayer games were simply those in which you took turns. The first player would attempt a level, or complete a race, or carry out some other task which would be measured in some way – perhaps with a high score or time. Once they had either succeeded, completed the race or failed at whatever task they were challenged with doing, the next player would take over and have a go. In this way, each person was able to have a go at the same task, and try to beat each other by either getting a higher score, a faster time, or by using whatever other measurement of success.

The second type of multiplayer game to come along, and which is still around today, are the split screen games. These work best for races, where the screen can be wide but fairly short – good for racing when you need to see a wide viewpoint to prepare for corner and obstacles, but there is no need for a tall screen as you’re racing on the flat.

In this setup, the two players see their own character or vehicle in a portion of the screen at the top, and the other player or vehicle in the portion of the screen at the bottom. Both portions offer the same viewpoint to begin with at the start of the race, but each follows a specific player. It is possible this way for both players to be competing at the same time, and against each other.

The player behind will even be able to see the player in front, and by glancing quickly at the opponent’s portion of the screen it is possible to check on where they are and how they’re doing. This offers real time action and competition, and is an engrossing way of playing.

Not all split screens are horizontal – some fighting games are vertical so that you can see the full height of the opposing player, but the majority are split horizontally. Obviously for this kind of game, either having a big screen or sitting close to a screen is best in order to see the detail clearly.

The third type of multiplayer game is the type which has players competing against each other, but where the players are not actually physically anywhere near each other. This can mean that they are actually playing against each other whilst on different sides of the planet! These games use the internet to connect players together, and then each player sees the game from their point of view on their own screen, and sees the opponent as a character within the game. In many cases rather than being an opponent, the other player may be an ally, and work together to complete a task or quest.

Whilst solo games will always be popular, multiplayer games have long ruled the popularity stakes.

Computer Games Computer, Games, Multiplayer, Three, Types

Franchise operations manuals may seem daunting, especially for a company that has never written an operations manual before. Bewildered by the new business of franchising, with its legal requirements, franchise disclosure documents, operations manuals, training programs, etc., many companies delegate responsibility to a high-priced franchise consultant.

But using someone to write your franchise operations manual who knows literally nothing about your business, never makes any sense when everything is considered objectively. And, besides a hefty price tag of $20,000 or more to write the manuals, using franchise consultants brings another, expensive result – legal risk. Here are some drafting tips and strategies from a recognized, international franchise expert.

Why Franchise Consultants Are Risky Business
Paying someone who knows nothing about your business, and having them learn it from scratch at your expense is really just common sense. Using franchise consultants for what is a relatively easy and straightforward task has never made any sense – except to the franchise consultants who charge exorbitant amounts to write an operations manual. It’s one of those little franchise secrets that the consultants don’t ever mention or discuss.

Using a franchise consultant to write a franchise operations manual also carries legal risk. The principal legal risk comes from including inappropriate topics, chapters and policies that are commonly found in company-owned, chain operations manuals.  If these are included, as they often are in franchise operations manuals, very significant franchise liability issues arise. Because the franchise consultants are not franchise attorneys or experts, they are entirely oblivious to this risk. They don’t know where the bullets come from in franchise litigation. As a testifying and consulting franchise expert, I routinely find franchise operations manuals drafted by franchise consultants and do-it-yourself manuals containing inappropriate chapters or topics. And, because they rely on boilerplate manuals used for other clients, where (hopefully) all instances of burgers, for example, are searched and replaced with tax returns, the end result is not only dangerous – it is also very mediocre. Giving a mediocre operations manual to a franchise owner who has invested hundreds of thousands (or in some cases millions) of dollars in your franchise model is definitely not the best way to start or ensure a smooth franchise relationship.

The Best Practice Approach To Drafting Franchise Operations Manuals
Besides the expensive and legally risky approach there is another, best franchise practice approach based on almost three decades of writing, editing and reviewing hundreds of franchise operations manuals. The essence of this approach is also common sense – letting the true expert in your business write the manual. Typically that person is the founder of the business, or a small team of management personnel who know business operations inside and out. While a franchise expert should be involved in the process, the expert’s role should be limited to a planning and editing capacity.

Three Easy Steps For Drafting A Franchise Operations Manual
The drafting process begins with planning and developing the Table of Contents for the franchise operations manual. This includes making sure all the appropriate chapters and topics are included, and the inappropriate ones are not. Knowledge of franchise management best practices is essential here, and that’s why a franchise expert’s input and planning is so important. Because most franchise operations manuals are incorporated by reference in the franchise agreement (which is a franchise industry best practice)  the franchise contract is also  reviewed.  Some operations-specific information may be inadvertently included in the contract by the attorneys, which is not a good thing. This needs to be moved out or appropriately amended.

The second step is giving the person(s) within your company who have drafting responsibility samples of operations manual writing styles, guidelines and instructions. With these, they can begin drafting each chapter of the manual using their extensive operational knowledge of the day-to-day, week-to-week, etc. aspects of your business.

The third and final step is having the franchise expert review each chapter as it is drafted and comment on the professionalism and sufficiency of the chapters from a franchise industry best practices and franchise operator perspective.

Summary
The first couple chapters are typically the hardest to draft, as you or your management personnel learn and apply operations manual drafting techniques under the guidance of a professional editor. But after that, it’s smooth sailing through the balance of the document. This approach produces a professional, easy to use and update franchise operations manual. It also ensures the most efficient use of resources and talent, and eliminates having to pay a franchise consultant $20,000 or more for this relatively simple task. Whether or not a company ultimately franchises, the process of planning, documenting and implementing standardized operating procedures and systems via operations manuals, like blue chip franchise and non-franchised companies do, makes any firm operate more efficiently and competitively. In a franchise environment, it ensures consistent and uniform operations, helping personnel with different skills learn to perform tasks in a consistent manner throughout the franchise network. Finally, it’s important to realize the process of writing a franchise operations manual never stops. As the business model evolves, so must the operations manual – the ultimate reason why writing the manual yourself to begin with makes imminent common sense. As one franchise company executive observed “I found that not only was writing my own operations manual a cost savings; it was imperative.”

copyright 2008-2009, Kevin B. Murphy, B.S., M.B.A., J.D. – all rights reserved

For further information, visit the Franchise Foundations website

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