Overview
Readysell is a large and powerfull program. There is a substantial cost if you try to implement most of Readysell's features in your site. You get the same program as everyone else, but for smaller sites the cost of implementing Readysell can be much greater than you expect.
How can you reduce the implementation cost? If your business has up to five users, we can aim at NOT trying to do the best Readysell implementation possible. Instead Readysell can save you a lot of money by:
- expecting to implement less of Readysell's benefits
- pick a list of basics to implement and stick to those priorities only
- get help from other dealers by sending your staff to learn at other sites for a few days
But this will only work if you stick to the small set of features we agree on. Readysell has piles of features that can help your site. The temptation to run with more of the features is hard to resist. But if you can't do so the small site approach will not work. It is a lot easier if you have another Readysell user you can visit.
The key ideas behind the small site strategy is:
- Even the basics will make you business run a lot better
- Don't expect to implement everything Readysell can do or everything you want. Stick to the basics, save money on the implementation but work harder later if you want to implement more features.
- Get help from other Readysell users by sending your staff to work in their site
The key to making the small site strategy work is self discipline! You have to decide to run with just a few key features and ignore a lot of features that could help your business. If you can do this and resist asking for help implementing ANY feature beyond the basics. Then you can save time and money at the time of implementation. You can't keep implementation costs down and implement a lot of features at once!
Strategy
- Make and STICK TO priority list of the few features that are most critical to your business and run with Readysell's most basic implementation of those features:
- Automatic price updates
- Live with the fact that turning on automatic cost and sell price updates will change your old cost and sell prices
- Sale order entry
- Required
- Data review and tidy up
- Understand want needs to be cleaned up and work on it slowly over time if you can.
- Point of sale
- Skip this unless you have more than a few cash sales a day
- Automatic purchasing
- Requires a few hours training but has huge benefits in time saving and improved stock accuracy
- Web site integration
- Don't use contract prices if you can help it
- Scan stock in and out
- Huge time saving and accuracy improvements available. Recommended, but does require a few hours of training time, some large screens and scanners.
- Financials
- There are a lot of details that just have to be right with financials. There is no way to substantially reduce the implementation cost. This is one area where the small site strategy can't reduce implementation costs
- Reports
- Only use lists and reports as they currently are in Readysell
- Readysell staff on site at the start of the project
- Readysell's staff on site can kick start your training. It is over ten times more effective to train standing in your store than over the phone
- Make sure you go to another dealers site if you are not having Readysell on site at the start of the project
- Readysell staff on site for the go live weekend
- Readysell's implementation team are experts on tidying data, training your team and helping people manage the move to live operations
- Readysell can give you checklists of what do do. But you don't have the experience to correctly interpret the list and apply it in your business. It is like any do it yourself project. Even with the best instructions. You need experience to use the instructions, it is harder than it looks, and quick response is critical. Taking time to work out the answer on your first day can result in getting behind and errors effecting your customers.
- If you don't have Readysell on site your go live weekend will be a lot harder. Expect to spend more time fixing things after you go live
- Make sure you have spent time at another Readysell 8 site for a few days before implementation if you are thinking about this approach
You can book a Readysell team member to help you remotely over the go live weekend
Readysell's implementation team do this all the time, they have many years of experience. There is no substitute for having a Readysell team member on site when you go live. You can save money by skipping this assistance, but your go live will be a lot harder. You may end up spending more on assistance after you go live helping with issues than the cost of having someone on site.
- Automatic price updates
Get help from other Readysell 8 customers
No other single measure will save you more costs or make the small site strategy work for you more than sending your staff to work for a few days in another Readysell 8 customer's business:
- You need someone on your team who has good learning and communication skills. The site you visit will not have professional trainers, you need to pick things up yourself
- Give something back to the dealer that is helping you by actually doing work in their business
- A visit of a few hours to look at the business might be the best you can arrange, this would be a small benefit
- The huge benefit comes when you have someone that learns quickly working in the other dealers business for a few days. Actually doing the work. This can save you thousands in training time.
- You need to gain a lot of experience as economically as possible, the cheapest way to do this is to work at another Readysell 8 store. Just pick stock, enter sales, anything you do will be a huge benefit. Going to other sites and watching what they do will not work. You have to stay there and help them process work in order to learn. You have to do the work at the site you visit for the knowledge to sink in. But if you can't do that, sit and watch what the other Readysell 8 customer does for a few days. One day will not be enough.
- Find another Readysell user near your business and agree to send a key staff member to that site to work in their business for a few days
- Get a key team member trained in an outline of those basic features you need. Then send them to another dealer to help that dealer with their day to day work for a few days. By the time you team member returns. They will know a lot of what they need without having to pay as much for Readysell training
- Follow the standard "fail safe implementation strategy", but cut down the features covered
Above all else, don't expect to save on implementation costs and to also get everything you expect. Have the discipline to resist learning more or implementing more than you need to get started. It is a bit like being on a diet. Readysell has all those goodies, but you have to resist going for them all, otherwise your costs will blow out.
The most common reason why the small site strategy does not work you not being able to limit your expectations. It requires the discipline to expect NOT to implement Readysell in the best way you can. The best way is the most expensive way. We are trying to control implementation costs. There will constantly be ways in which you can do better. Once you start trying to add one more thing to the list of features you are using. You will find there are thousands of extra benefits beyond the basics. The project will grow if you let it and costs of implementation assistance will expand. Stick the the priorities agreed at the start of the project.
There is no way to implement all Readysell's features without eventually investing the training time. Expect to budget for ongoing self training or training provided by Readysell. If you don't do this your Readysell implementation will get frozen in time. With many of the potential benefits never implemented.