The ERP Services Spin

Alex Solomon, ERP

SUPPORT SERVICES: We derive 70 percent of our revenue from services, 30 percent from product sales. [For support services], there are a few options. For vanilla implementations, there is a sterling support program, unlimited phone support. If it's custom app, we have different levels of ongoing support. We also have a help desk full time so there are primary and secondary consultants so the client can always get someone. About 65 percent of our ERP solutions are vanilla, which eases upgrades and migrations.

EXPAND OFFERINGS: Initially, we just did accounting software. Not financial reporting or CRM. We did accounting software and infrastructure, then e-commerce. Fast forward to today. We launched another company four years ago—Docutrend—all around document management. Clients need to get rid of paper, so why send them away? We grow to fulfill their needs. And that's how we got into other sides of the business.

CREATE ROAD MAPS: Our client-care team road maps for our customers where they are today and where they can go. We road-map both necessities and luxuries.

A ONE-STOP SHOP: We resell the hardware as well so we can provide total accountability, one throat to choke. We can guide your IT department in infrastructure needs or we can be your IT department. We can do accounting today, CRM tomorrow.

MANAGED SERVICES: Customer may start out on a spreadsheet, then move to Peachtree, then to MAS 500. As a small business, we ourselves have been growing with our customers. We're also now doing managed services and monitoring, and we've started a security group that does audits and compliance.

PARSE THE CLIENT BASE: One of the biggest challenges is how to start separating clients [by size]. They have totally different needs. We're trying to figure that out. We started with a focus on SMBs and got pulled into divisions of larger companies. The heart of our customer base is midsize companies now, companies with somewhere between 100 and 400 people. As customers grow, they need a bigger, better view of their financials. They need different controls. We do business analytics, which is another upsell opportunity.