"Reducing operation costs " No longer the top priority per Gartner & SCDigest survey - Do you agree?

Gartner and SCDigest recently published their Supply Chain Study survey , covering a number of supply chain issues and trends.

The third annual survey shows for the first time that “reducing operating costs” is not the #1 imperative of supply chain initiatives. Granted, it's still #2, with the top spot taken by "improving efficiency and/or productivity", up from the fourth spot in 2009.

The survey predicts that the #1 driver for 2012 will be 'supporting company growth'.

John Westerveld, from the 21st Century Supply chain, in his blog article makes an interesting comment: The real question is whether this expectation from the survey is from the usual appreciation of business cycles that have long been through expansions and contractions? Or is it from a collective impression that things are in fact getting better?"

Continue reading the WAC Blog article on Supply Chain study survey and leave a comment.

Important News Regarding Certain Versions of Windows That Could Affect Your Computers and Servers

On July 13, Microsoft support—including the release of new security updates—will end for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows 2000 Server and Windows 2000 Professional. It is also important to note that support for Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing (or RTM, as it is commonly referred to, which indicates the original version without any service packs installed) ended on April 13.

More on Microsoft support for new updates and release updates. Please remember to call your local business software solutions provider before buying new hardware and/or operating systems.

How productive is your current web site?

The days of a corporate website being 'brochure-ware" are long gone, but it would be going too far to say that all sites should become ecommerce sites. Between these two extremes lies a great number of intermediary steps, and we'll cover these in great depth at our September 8 conference on Social Media and Inbound Marketing.

For those of you who indeed have explored launching an ecommerce site, or need to revamp it, we have put together a short list of suggestions to help your project along:

GOALS

Does your company have a strategic Internet goal? If not, could you come up with one? Examples of achievable goals:

• We want our web site to be the go-to destination for our product information for our customers.
• We want to extend our customer service capabilities to 24 hours a day to seven days a week.

Think of a couple of goals that will focus your web initiative to move in the direction you have in mind.

Download this eCommerce planning guide

HR Technology Tools - what you may be missing

The routine administration involved in day-to-day HR operations drains most of your available time and energy. Forrester Research found that, on average, over 50% of a human resource department's time is spent processing employee information and answering questions. If you're like most HR managers, you face several business challenges:

Succeeding with limited HR resources - you may be solely responsible for benefits administration, payroll, routine HR administration and more. You may need better tools to track important employee information and to automate HR and benefits transactions.

Managing compliance and risk of litigation - staying on top of these workforce laws is a full-time job, as you need to communicate with and train managers and employees so that the company is not at risk.

Ensuring accurate, timely payroll - federal, state and local payroll taxes are complex, and missing the filing and payment deadlines can incur fines, late fees and an increased chance of audits for your company.

Learn how the right tool can help you, download our white paper below:

Welcome to our Newest Clients

We are pleased to welcome our newest customers into our group, and want to extend a sincere "thanks" for the trust and confidence these clients have shown in us:

Kalamazoo Anesthesiology, Kalamazoo, MI; Partner: Skory Employer Solutions

The Harrington Corporation, Lynchburg, VA; Partner: Source Consulting

We Are Proud to Share Sandy's Testimonial about WAC Consulting Group...

Hello Robert,

I wanted to send an email to let you know how pleased I’ve been with the support I’ve received from you and the entire WAC Consulting Group team.

I’m extremely thankful to you for stepping into the conversion project at the last minute and completing it so quickly and efficiently.

The support we’ve received from Jamie, Karen, and Mary has been very friendly, professional, and knowledgeable as well.

Thanks for saving the day and please don’t hesitate to use me as a reference any time. 

Best Regards,

Sandy Lewis
Finance Manager
Cisbio US, Inc.

All of us at WAC Consulting Group appreciate your business and we hope that you are equally pleased with the services that we provide.

WAC Consulting Group 367 West Main Street Northborough, MA 01532

Robert Distler rdis@wacinc.com