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Management's Corner
Chicago Businesses Discover the "New Fluidity"
Examples of Rainmakers helping clients prosper.
http://www.rainmkrs.com/featured_rainmak...
by Jon C. Liberman
Examples of Rainmakers helping mid-market firms prosper in the New Economy. Clients reviewed include Stericycle, Inc.; Tempel Steel Co.; Elkay Mfg. Co.; and National Casein Corp.
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EDI - White Paper Part 1
History and overview of EDI and domestic and international EDI standards
by Ruth Andersen
Ruth Andersen has been a freqent speaker on EDI and other related topics for several decades. The following article is an introduction to the history and overview of EDI. Click here to review Ruths bio: http://www.rainmkrs.com/featured_EDI&EC_andersen.htm
Since 1991 EDI & EC Associates have specialized in providing consultation and project specialists in electronic data interchange and electronic commerce. Their clients have included Baxter Healthcare, Fort Dearborn Paper, Juicepak, Inc. and many others. Click here for details: http://www.rainmkrs.com/featured_EDI&EC.htm
EDI BACKGROUND
Electronic data interchange (EDI) is not a new development or technology but is expanding in many ways to replace paper transactions across all aspects of a business trading partner relationship (the relationship between the entities involved in the transfer of data). The expansion of EDI accelerated in the 1990s and into the 21st century. It now affects virtually every part of the cash flow time line—from the order process to payments. It affects every area of business—logistics, purchasing, production, marketing, order management, international operations, and finance. In this chapter, we distinguish “traditional EDI”, from evolving forms of electronic commerce that include new variations of EDI.
[FULL STORY]
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Introduction to EDI : Part II - Making EDI Work with Technology
EDI & EC Associates
by Ruth Andersen, Principal
This article is a continuation of Introduction to EDI Part I. The second article gives an overview of the different forms of communication channels for EDI and electronic commerce. It also describes the role of EDI management software, or "translators". Finally, eight major categories of benefits that result from EDI implementation are discussed.
[FULL STORY]
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Conco Food Service - Food Distributor Turns to Acorn for Profit Optimization
Case Study: Best Practice for maximizing margins
by Acorn Systems, Inc.
Dear Reader,
The Good News about tough economic times is this….
The marginal players tend to be gobbled up or go out of business. In either case when the pendulum begins to swing bank to increased activity – opportunity arises!
One intelligent way to move from being a “marginal player” to a prosperous one is to learn from other peoples lessons. The attached case study is one such lesson that your company may take advantage of:
Conco Foods Service suffered from many common ailments:
- Issues with out of date cost averages and estimates to calculate indirect costs
- Concerned with losing money on some products and vendors, but could not verify nor establish why
- Lean and mean staffing and lack of expertise made finding a cost-effective solution difficult
They turned to Rainmakers Strategic Partner – Acorn Systems, Inc. to increase their margin by greater than 100%. According to Pete Algero, CFO of Conco Food Service “Eventhough revenues were down 7% our profit margin increased 150%. 90% of increase directly related to Acorn assistance… ”.
Learn about how this was accomplished by clicking on the Full Story below.
Feel free to reply or give me a call if you have any questions or need assistance.
Jon C. Liberman
Chief Rainmaker
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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Increasing Profits in a Flat Economy - Best Practices Web Cast
by Acorn Systems
Dear Reader,
Join a growing number of companies that are bucking the trend of flat earnings in a down economy and taking a surefire approach to increasing their income. Dr. Robert S. Kaplan, Harvard professor and pioneer of Activity Based Costing and the Balanced Scorecard, will lead the discussion of measuring and managing business performance in order to identify and capture additional profits.
Your company would surely benefit from deploying this Best Practice! Simply click on the registration below to sign up (no obligation) or click here or below on the Full Story for additional details.
This is worth investigating!
Jon C. Liberman
Chief Rainmaker
[FULL STORY]
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Customer Profitability Measurement and Management
by Acorn Systems, Inc.
Dear Reader;
Balanced Scorecard Professor Robert Kaplan is someone you should know!
He and V.G. Narayanan from Harvard Business School have published a White Paper on Customer Profitability Measurement and Management that provides:
· An appreciation of why only 20% of a typical company’s customer are truly profitable.
· An answer to why most companies have great difficulty in actually measuring customer and product profitability.
· A Best Practice related to Customer Profitability Measurement and Management.
· A better understanding of why many businesses improve customer service to improve profitability and end up making less money, because they don’t first understand where their profits are coming from.
Click here or on the Full Story Below to read it!
Why are we telling you this? Because we have some answers!
In fact, in hard times the importance of managing customer and product profitability is never more critical! Rainmakers can help your company prosper through the use of Best Practices, Technology and Human Resources.
Professor Kaplan sits on one of Rainmakers Strategic Partners Board of Directors. Acorn Systems (with input from Professor Kaplan) has developed a methodology and software tool for delivering Profitability reporting cost & time effectively!
We welcome the opportunity to prove our claims! Invest a little time in reading this White Paper – it will be worth your while.
Feel free to give me a call if you have any questions or we can be of service.
Thanks for your time.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
Click here to  Find A Resource™ http://www.rainmkrs.com/expert.html
Need help? Looking for an expert on a full-time, part-time or project basis? Let us know what you need and we will introduce you to the experts.
[FULL STORY]
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The Motherlode of Cost Reduction
Where's your companies low hanging fruit?
by Procurement Specialists Inc
Where’s Your Company’s Low Hanging Fruit
Of Cost Improvement Opportunity?
What rock to look under next? Many think they’ve gone there and back, and then some. Plum out of ideas with several labor reductions, travel and continuing education shut off, expense budgets chopped, even cuts in marketing outlays already down to the bone. Others have turned to production one more time for more output and cost economies.
What do all these and most other cost reduction initiatives typically have in common? They focus on the controllable, visible costs under our feet, within the four walls.
The less obvious and yes less controllable opportunity lies externally, beyond the property lines. For most, it’s their largest cost of doing business, supplier inputs.
Click on the full story for the details below.
[FULL STORY]
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The Leaders Tool Box: An Innovative and Powerfull approach to building leadership
Do leaders have tools and a common language to work together for sustainable change?
by Ralph Jacobson
Dear Reader,
Leadership is a mysterious quality. One of the most critical factors that dictate success or failure in business is the quality (or lack of) leadership. Ralph Jacobson, author and founder of Synthesis Group, has provided in this article a number of useful tools for leadership development and the outcomes of a leadership development approach that was implemented in a Fortune 100 financial organization and in a mid-sized construction company. The approach taken in these two companies is applicable to a broad range of organization challenges and cultures. You will find these case studies very valuable and full of useful ideas for your company.
Read this fascinating article by clicking on The Full Story below.
Contact Rainmakers at 847/251-3327 to learn more.
Thanks for your patronage.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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Increasing Profits Faster with a Phased Implementation of Acorn Systems Profit Analyzer
White Paper
by Leslie Haight, Acorn Systems
Dear Reader,
Tough market to increase top line revenues! Prudent management learns from others successes and failures. A customer who successfully implemented Acorn Systems Profit Analyzer System and raved about their results introduced me to the author of this SMOKE SIGNAL article. (Customer is Tempel Steel Co.).
Success involves a combination of expertise, experience, persistence and perspective. Acorn Systems offers a Best Practice that combines Process, Tools/Technology and People in a unique manner to help management teams focus on those “levers” that control profit.
Acorn Systems' patent pending Profit Improvement and Analysis Software analyzes your company's performance to uncover opportunities for substantial and sustainable profit improvement and to optimize the profitability of your company's business on an ongoing basis. This approach involves:
- Unique Time Driven Costing gives accurate and granular profitability and capacity analysis
- Middleware tool that seamlessly captures data from your legacy systems
- On-line reporting/Data Warehouse for as-needed analysis
- Fixed fee, phased implementation in 30-90 days
Acorn has recently modified their methodology to offer a Phased implementation process which enables mid-market businesses to gradiently deploy their powerful Profit/Costing management tools. Acorn commits to delivering these results:
- Deliver high-level cost and benchmark analysis in less than one month
- Deliver P&L’s by individual customer and product in less than 3 months
- Fix bid the costs of accomplishing these results – payback within 6 months is achievable
Read the White Paper, Increasing Profits Faster with a Phased Implementation of Acorn Systems Profit Analyzer, by clicking on the Full Story below. Your company can benefit from investigating how Acorn can help you better understand where your profit leaks are happening, and what to do about it.
Thanks for the opportunity to be of service. Call me if I can be of help.
Jon C. Liberman]
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
[FULL STORY]
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The Danger of waiting till you're forced - a better way.
by Jon C. Liberman
Dear Reader ,
It’s not surprising at all that most mid-market businesses are operating very conservatively – holding off expenditures and change until forced by events.
It’s also predictable that the result of waiting until forced is always stressful for the people involved, and often not financially rewarding for the firms themselves. On the other hand, hanging on to your cash certainly makes more sense then expending it on risky or poorly conceived projects. The unpredictability of current times exacerbates this dilemma.
I have a better way.
It’s actually a combination of committing to proactive behavior, while thoroughly (and cautiously) planning and organizing what that behavior should be. In other words, proactively (vs. reactively) plan BIG while implementing small (phases, steps). It’s a matter of managing the changes by defining the “Outcomes” required and working your way backwards to determine the steps and phases to focus on.
If your firm hasn’t already explored most-every viable option available for taking out non-value added costs I’m surprised you’re still in business! The multi-million dollar question is: what’s your next step?
Management must have some plan-of-action to guide decision making, resource allocation and group energy! Simple statement to make – making it a reality is much more complex. Reality appears more “fuzzy or grey” – every business has some sort of “plan” – but is it good enough (and understood by the people responsible to carry it out) to make more money than it costs?
I believe we can help you plan and organize your efforts in an extraordinary inexpensive and timely manner. Read the Balanced Approach To Project Planning for further explanation.
Rainmakers provides a simple and valuable service = we introduce you to those experts/products you need, how you need them and when you need them.
We are compensated by our Consortium Strategic Partners (sales agent) based upon collected revenues - so we’re plugged into your food chain. We will help you get realistic expectations at least met (if not exceeded) on time and budget. Call me to allow me to prove this to you.
As always, thanks for the opportunity to be of service. I hope to speak with you soon.
Jon C. Liberman
Rainmakers
847/251-3327
jon@rainmkrs.com
www.rainmakers.us
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