Four of the Biggest Business Priorities that are Top of Mind in 2020

What keeps you up at night in terms of your business? Do you worry about recruiting top talent? Or merging and acquiring new companies? Perhaps, you are brainstorming new ways to work harder and grow as an employee.

We posed these questions to our customers and found similar priorities and concerns across companies and industries. Most of our responses could be put into four categories: supply chain visibility and efficiency, technology trends, cybersecurity and growth.

Supply Chain Visibility and Efficiency

There are so many small things that can affect a manufacturer’s supply chain. The best way to track all of this is by having full visibility across the company’s operations. Visibility provides your business with the ability to keep proper inventory, maintain order accuracy, and offer on-time delivery, which improves customer satisfaction. 

The failure to work efficiently becomes a worry for businesses during peak holiday seasons when increased customer demand results in spikes in their usual ordering. During these peak seasons, businesses have to find ways to work smarter in order to get their deliveries in on time. By ensuring you have full visibility across your supply chain, you can increase efficiency and better manage operations during peak seasons.

Technology Trends

With new technologies emerging daily, a huge concern for businesses is being able to keep up with what’s new and introducing those trends to their company within a budget. Companies should prioritize innovation in order to stay competitive within the market and work at top efficiency. Technology can provide businesses with the tools they need to succeed within their industry.

So, how do businesses keep up with these constantly shifting trends? Not only do our customers stay up to date using websites, trade shows, and conventions, but they are also turning to social media, message boards, tech YouTube channels, apps, and podcasts. There are a ton of easy ways to get your basic tech news, even in a busy schedule. Some of our favorites include Digital Trends, Business Insider, Ted Talks, and Reddit.

Cybersecurity

The threat of data vulnerabilities has pushed companies to take cybersecurity more seriously. In 2018 69% of companies experienced a ransomware attack, which can end up costing organizations over $900,000. With spikes in ransomware attacks continuing to rise, the threat is enough to keep any business leader up at night worrying about their cybersecurity plan. So, the continued focus for businesses this year is keeping their data and information secure.

Now, some customers leverage security as a deciding factor when choosing which companies to work with, which is just another reason to ensure cybersecurity within your business. One of our customers shared, “[Clients] are starting to require cybersecurity provisions,” so in order to overcome that challenge, the customer turns to “restructuring the network to comply with cybersecurity.” Some other best practices businesses are implementing include installing firewalls and anti-malware software, educating employees on new policies and protocols, and multifactor identification.

Growth

Change is rarely comfortable, but growth often is the result of it. For some businesses, growth could mean acquisitions and consolidations. If it were to happen to your company, the way you work would certainly change, at least for a time, as your company adjusted to the change and growth it underwent. It could mean new direction of the company and new leadership, which could lead to major success or speculation around how the company will proceed.

Sometimes growth means reconsidering the markets you serve and exploring new recruitment habits to help better staff those markets. Growth may also provide positive impacts to your business such as new opportunities to succeed, better serving your customers, and gaining the ability to meet larger demands. Either way, understanding how your company is growing and how to respond to it is best served by keeping customers front of mind in order to have constant improvement to meet their needs.

At the end of the day, we want to make your lives better and easier. We don’t want your business keeping you up at night. This is why we provide companies a tool to help assist with these inevitable business challenges. Aptean ERPs allow companies to have industry-specific solutions that support a business’s operational and management needs. Our portfolio of ERPs provides businesses with visibility across their operations through innovative software designed to support growth. Through the use of state of the mind technologies, our ERPs take cybersecurity seriously with enhanced SaaS offerings. 

Want to see why a purpose-built ERP like an Aptean ERP should become one of your business priorities? Reach out today.