Business Performance and Measurement

ERP, CRM, and other business software systems are frequently executed with what we call “feed the beast” mentality.  In these implementations, the companies’ processes are structured with the primary goal of getting financial and operational transactions into the system in a timely manner so that financial statements can be produced from the system.  While important, financial statements are “results measures” that cannot be used for day-to-day, operational decision-making.

ERP systems collect and retain mounds of timely and actionable data.  Frequently, however, companies fail to develop “process measures” using the ERP data.  If measurements are performed, they are frequently done in stand-alone databases and spreadsheets, resulting in inefficiencies and data inconsistencies.

M&M Business Solutions has identified a set of best practice process performance measures for manufacturers and distributors, and we’ve helped our clients utilize their ERP systems to produce the reports and analytics to measure the performance of their business and underlying processes.  For each core business process associated with a manufacturing business, such as the Order-to-Cash process or the Procure-to-Pay process, we’ve identified measures corresponding to Service (internal or external customer), Quality / Accuracy, and Cost that middle and upper managers can uses as levers to manage and control their businesses.

In the traditional “accounting” sense, M&M Business Solutions’ staff is also adept at identifying and performing appropriate cost accounting methods and supporting data collection processes.  We frequently find companies that have a disconnect between their business strategy and cost accounting system.  We first seek to align the cost accounting method with the overall business strategy and significant cost structure issues.  For example, we’ve advised and assisted clients that use commodity-sensitive raw materials off of standard costing and into average or actual costing methods that provide a better match between products costs and their associated revenue.”
 
In clients competing on being the low-cost provider, we help the client identify the true cost drivers and make better, more appropriate allocations of overhead so that the true costs of the products are reflected.