About Paul Ziliak

Paul Ziliak, co-founder of xkzero has helped conceive and launch mobile sales and delivery automation apps for smart phones and tablets. Designed for mid-sized and growing manufacturers and distributors, the xkzero brand apps leverage the power of popular back-end ERP and accounting systems. A registered CPA and former auditor, Paul has spent 20 years designing and implementing ERP and accounting solutions using Sage 100, Sage 500 and Sage X3 in industries such as food and beverage, wholesale distribution, and numerous discrete manufacturing environments. Paul lives in Chicago and is a married father of three sons. An active leader in Illinois CPA Society networking events, Paul has also coached youth baseball since 2007. Websites: www.xkzero.com Blog: www.erpappsblog.com Social media handles: @PaulZiliak @erp_apps

xkzero Announces Food and Beverage System for Acumatica

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Leading software developer and ERP consultant, xkzero, announced today plans to offer a fully-integrated direct store delivery (DSD) & ERP (enterprise resource planning) solution for food and beverage wholesale distribution by integrating xkzero Mobile Commerce with Direct store delivery for Acumaticaleading cloud ERP system Acumatica. The solution is expected to be ready for market in the second half of 2017. Initial target industries for the solution will be beer distributors, wine & spirits distributors, grocery wholesalers, milk and dairy, salty snacks and bakery products.

Mobile Commerce by xkzero is a flexible mobile app and web-based platform designed to optimize mobile sales, route delivery and intelligence gathering while unifying back office accounting and customer service. Food and beverage companies are able to automate and integrate functions such as Truck Loading, Route Planning and Scheduling, Route Selling, Delivery Automation, Compliance Tracking and Reporting as well as gathering new intelligence.

“We are very excited about partnering with Acumatica,” said xkzero Vice President, Mark Rastovac. “The market has responded very positively to Acumatica and its ability to manage sales orders, track inventory, improve purchasing as well as perform core accounting and financial reporting. Since xkzero has had such great success with Mobile Commerce integrated with Sage 100 and Sage X3, we see Acumatica as the perfect platform for Food and Beverage companies looking for a modern DSD and ERP offering — especially those that have outgrown Quickbooks,” added Mr. Rastovac. “What makes xkzero different is our ability to deliver the entire solution for these wholesalers – from supply chain and warehousing, to financial management to in-store performance.”

“We’ll launch with the food and beverage sector in mind,” continued Mr. Rastovac, “then likely consider other industries relying on route sales and direct store delivery as a means to distribute, such as oil and gas, industrial supplies and hard goods – we’ve had plenty of demand from those companies too.”

About xkzero
xkzero specializes in integrated mid-market ERP systems for wholesale distributors and manufacturers who rely on mobile sales, route sales and direct store delivery automation as a means of distribution. xkzero is a certified consultant and developer for Sage X3, Sage 100 and Acumatica, creating integrated and embedded mobile solutions into some of North America’s most popular and powerful ERP and accounting systems for the mid-market. Find out more at xkzero.com.

About Acumatica

Acumatica is a leading provider of cloud business management software that empowers small and mid-size businesses to unlock their potential and drive growth. Built on the world’s best cloud and mobile technology and a unique customer-centric licensing model, Acumatica delivers a suite of fully integrated business management applications, such as Financials, Distribution, CRM, and Project Accounting, on a robust and flexible platform. In an interconnected world, Acumatica enables customers to take full control of their businesses, play to their organizations’ unique strengths, and support their clients by following them anywhere on any device.

[this press release was originally published on PR Web January 26, 2017]

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iSales 100 by xkzero now supports iOS 10

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xkzero is pleased to announce the compatibility of iSales 100 with iOS 10 – the latest mobile operating system by Apple. No action is required on your part. There is also no imperative for you to upgrade to iOS 10 as your current operating system will continue to function as well.

For those of you who do plan to upgrade to iOS we recommend that you back up the device first. Backing up the device is not required for iSales 100, but it is always a good idea when updating an operating system. Information on how to back up your device is available from Apple here. https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

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Sage Summit 2016 – Make No Little Plans

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xkzero welcomes you to Chicago and Sage Summit 2016!

xkzero welcomes you to Chicago and Sage Summit 2016!

Welcome to Chicago.  City of big shoulders.  Hog butcher to the world.  The windy city.  The second city.  The city by the lake.  Hometown of xkzero.

Daniel Burnham was the architect of the incredible urban plan that Chicago was built on, and In Chicago Burnham is equally famous for this saying:  make no little plans.

There is nothing little about Sage Summit this year.  15,000 registered attendees – the largest conference for small and mid-sized businesses in the world.  Holding this year’s Summit in the city that invented the skyscraper makes perfect sense.

For many of you, navigating Chicago may be a bit daunting.  If so, we’d love to help.  You can visit xkzero in booth #305 all week long at Summit.  You’ll find friendly Chicago experts happy to help you find your way around – recommend a great restaurant, find a blues club, or explore one of our dozens of beautiful neighborhoods.

At Sage Summit 2016 we hope you ignite your passion – and make no little plans.

Welcome to Chicago – we’re glad you’re here!

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Is now the time for mobile sales in your manufacturing business?

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Process improvement – process improvement – process improvement

process

As a manufacturing company process improvement is your credo. Process improvement is your mantra. Your DNA. It’s what you preach to your supervisors. It’s what you ingrain in the minds of your new hires. Process improvement informs everything you do in your work – and in manufacturing companies, process improvement informs everything from research and development to quality control to production planning, to packaging, shipping, receiving, and so on.  But what about mobile sales in your manufacturing business?  That could be a process worth re-evaluating.

Technology has given shape to most of the great process improvements in manufacturing business over the last 30 years. The great desktop PC era has revolutionized the way we work in business in almost every conceivable way all across your business from purchasing to materials planning to warehouse management, customer service and accounting. Paper-based and manual processes have been identified and targeted for replacement. Replaced by technology tools such as keyboards, monitors, printers, and scanners – to drive information and communication faster across your enterprise. The reason you’ve done so? To create a better experience for the user, to save time (aka labor cost), to accelerate your supply chain, and to improve overall communications. Quite simply – you made these changes in order to make your business better.

Yet, perhaps ironically, there is one group of workers inside most manufacturing companies whose jobs have not been impacted much at all by technology and process improvement over the last 30 years, and that is the outside sales rep. How can that be? The group of people most responsible for generating revenue growth, and most able to convey directly to your customers the experience of doing business with you – yes, that group – is by and large stuck using the same tools and following the same processes for the last 30 years.

A great many sales processes are built around:

  • Printed product catalogs
  • Price books
  • Spec sheets
  • Order forms
  • Phone calls back to the office
  • Email

These sales reps have little or no visibility to customer status, product pricing, ability to promise, cross sell suggestions. Whether the sales rep is onsite with the customer or prospect, at a special event, staffing a tradeshow, or roaming a showroom floor, the chances are they have a smart phone in their pocket – but the chances are almost as great that the smart phone will NOT have intelligence to help them close business or otherwise assist the customer. Smart phone and tablet technology is available now that can provide sales reps with far more meaningful interactions with customers.

Sales apps that are connected with your Sage ERP and CRM systems abound. The key is finding the right level of enablement for you and your sales team. As a manufacturing company this should be easily enough done because it’s all about making the selling process – the experience your customer has doing business with you – a faster, better informed and more complete experience. And that is exactly what you should expect to accomplish for your sales team.

xkzero specializes in Sage ERP integrated mobile sales, route sales, and direct store delivery automation for small and midsized manufacturers and wholesale distribution companies.

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Sales Essentials for 2016: Sage Summit and Beyond

Sales essentials for growing businesses

Thousands of businesses will converge on Chicago for Sage Summit 2016 to learn and share stories of challenge, innovation and change.

We hope you’ll visit us at Sage Summit 2016 in Chicago—our hometown! At xkzero we help companies grow sales and increase profits by providing high performance, flexible mobile apps engineered to integrate with Sage 100 and Sage X3. This year alone, clients will transact about $1 billion in new business using xkzero mobile sales and delivery apps for smartphones and tablets. As far as who is using our apps, there are no bounds to the range of industries that view mobile as a sales essential for success.

Learn how leading companies across North America are using Sage and xkzero solutions to stand out and win against the competition. Especially if you rely on route selling or direct store delivery to serve customers and close new business, have outside sales reps, sell at trade shows, attend special events, or have a showroom floor or parts counter, we hope you’ll stop by our booth.

Want a preview of the xkzero mobile sales and delivery solutions for Sage 100 and Sage X3 that you’ll see at Summit? Register now for our free webinar – Sales Essentials for 2016: The Power of Mobile.  

NEW DATE AND TIME: June 29, 2016, 12 pm EST

All Sage business partners and Sage 100 and Sage X3 end user customers are all welcome!

The Plight of the Modern Customer Service Manager

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Mobile help for customer service!

Mobile help for customer service!

Your hands are full

This is probably not news to you, but as a modern customer service manager you have your hands full! And that is mainly because your customers are now literally all over the place.

They are all over the place in terms of what they expect from you as a seller of goods and services. They are all over the place in terms of how they expect to interact with you. In terms of how they expect to place orders. In terms of how they inquire about their orders, or about the availability of product in your warehouse. Your customers are all over the place in terms of how they expect to pay you. All over the place in terms of the availability of intelligence for you to gather and discern. All over the place in terms of what it takes for you to earn their loyalty.

Yes, that is a lot to lay on you, as if managing customer service was not already challenging enough.

Because customer needs rule

But here is the good news—all of this customer expectation spells opportunity for you. That is because the winners in your industry today are the ones ready, willing and able to meet, greet and serve the customer wherever they are and whenever they’re ready to interact with you.

Your day is obviously filled with activities focused on what makes your most valuable to your company—building relationships, identifying customer needs, gathering intelligence, resolving issues, and representing your company These are all critical activities to the overall success of the business and building and maintaining brand loyalty.

However, what the customer expects from you, and when, has changed dramatically. Today’s customer wants and needs to interact with you on THEIR terms, not yours. Are you ready to meet them where they are? One way to get a sense of readiness is to take an inventory of your sales processes, technology and tools.

What your sales tools say about your business

What is the experience of doing business with you like today? Are you about to accommodate the wide range of buying expectations?

What possible ways can your customer interact with you when it comes to things like requesting a quote, placing an order, checking on inventory or shipment status? What means do they have to place an order with you?

  • Fax machine?
  • Telephone?
  • Customer service counter?
  • E-commerce website?
  • Customer portal?
  • Mobile app?

Our experience tells us that many of you reading this are still offering a sales channel built around the first three on the list—fax, phone and personal visit. While that may seem sufficient for you today, you may ask yourself about what your industry, and your place in it, will look like 2, 3 or 5 years from now. If competitors enter your space, do you think those new Millennial businesses will ask their customers to fax in orders? I don’t think so.

The smartphone is a profit machine

Have you noticed the communication tendencies of the new generation of workers? Their use of the telephone is a fraction of that compared to earlier generations. The modern workforce is far more inclined to interact with you online, often via an app on their smartphone or tablet.

I mentioned in an earlier paragraph that all of this is good news. And I believe it is good news. If you explore the marketplace you’ll see multiple options to connect E-commerce sites, customer portals and mobile sales apps with your back office ERP/accounting system.

Obviously you want to offer your customers access to you in ways that help you win more business and even more loyalty. So make sure your communication choices are reliable, dependable and supportable for you and your business. You just might find that you can do without that fax machine.

###

xkzero specializes in mobile sales, route sales and direct store delivery automation for small and mid-sized manufacturers and wholesale distribution companies. xkzero is also a certified developer for Sage X3, Sage 100 and Sage 500, creating integrated and embedded mobile solutions into some of North America’s most popular and powerful ERP and accounting systems for the mid-market.

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Mobile B2B Sales: A Practical Guide for Operations Managers

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As an operations manager the design and control over business operations is in your hands.  As your industry evolves, your ability to stay on top of best practices and adaptation of new technologies is so important.  This article offers key insights into mobile B2B sales, and a practical guide for operations managers.

Mobile sales apps for B2B represent the new standard for growing small and mid-sized businesses. In fact, mobile B2B sales may be the greatest thing to happen for manufacturing and wholesale distributor sales reps since the invention of the printing press. There are very few technologies you can add to your business today that will have as far reaching effect on the quality of operations, and the bottom line of your business as a mobile sales app.

Job #1, as always, is to meet or exceed customer expectations. Your goals are centered around metrics like on-time deliveries, days on hand inventory and inventory turns. Mobile is setting the new standard for warehouse operations, and there is no role in the organization that will gain from the transition to mobile like operations will.

How will operations benefit:

  • Accelerated supply chain
  • Reduced delays and bottlenecks
  • Cost reduction
  • Increased order and invoice accuracy
  • Improved on-time delivery and other key metrics

Risk factors to watch out for:

  • Solutions that do not cater to your unique operations environment
  • Out of control budgets that customize projects can lead to
  • Poor or improperly designed integrations with your ERP system
  • Reliability of the mobile solution, and need for contingency planning

If your company has outside sales reps, or sells at trade shows, on a showroom floor, from special events or on-site with a customer –for you, the era of the printed product catalog, the paper order form, and the fax machine – is over.

Ready to talk about charting a mobile sales strategy that makes sense for your operations?  Contact us at info@xkzero.com or call 847-416-2009.

 

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Mobile B2B Sales: A Practical Guide for Sales Reps

Mobile automation is the new standard for B2B sales

Mobile automation is the new standard for B2B sales

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The mobile sales app for B2B represents the new standard for growing small and mid-sized businesses. It may be the greatest thing to happen for manufacturing and wholesale distribution sales reps since the invention of the printing press. Few technologies for business have the far-reaching impact on the quality of your work and your company’s bottom line of a mobile sales app.

If your company has outside sales reps, or sells at trade shows, on a showroom floor, from special events or on-site with a customer, for you, the era of the printed product catalog, the paper order form, and the fax machine is over. The integrated smart phone and tablet era is now. xkzero has summarized some important considerations for you here.

Salespeople

The impact of having everything you need in your pocket

Off you go to your prospect meeting. Off you go to the trade show. Off you go for another day on the showroom floor. Off you go, back to your hotel room. Off you go, equipped with a product catalog printed 9 months ago, a price list printed 6 weeks ago. Hoping the fax machine doesn’t get jammed when you send in your order. Hoping that a customer service rep is ready when you call to find out the status of the inventory you’d like to sell.

The new standard for B2B selling is the smart phone. It’s replaced the fax, the printed materials, and antiquated processes that hold back a business today.

How you will benefit from a mobile sales app as a salesperson:

  • You’ll be better prepared with fingertip access to up-to-the-moment customer and inventory data.
  • Customers and prospects will sense your increased confidence.
  • You’ll have the chance to close larger deals.
  • You’ll be able to complete high transaction volume sales more quickly.
  • You might not ever be late for a meeting again.

The price of not doing anything

Over 90 percent of the mobile sales automation projects xkzero has implemented over the past several years have been for companies that previously relied on the tools and processes of yesterday—printed product catalogs, paper order forms, and fax machines. For many of these businesses, sales reps had to call customer service for the status of anything customer or inventory related. Representing the entire spectrum of manufacturing and wholesale distribution industries, they have one thing in common. Once they switch from paper and manual processes to an automated mobile solution—they don’t change back.

More practical guides – Mobile B2B Sales: A Practical Guide for Executives

Ready to talk about charting a mobile sales strategy for your business? Contact us at info@xkzero.com or call 847-416-2009.  Visit the xkzero website to learn more about our winning solutions.

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Mobile B2B Sales: A Practical Guide for Executives

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Mobile sales apps for B2B represent the new standard for growing small and mid-sized businesses. In fact, mobile B2B sales may be the greatest thing to happen for manufacturing and wholesale distributor sales reps since the invention of the printing press. There are very few technologies you can add to your business today that will have as far reaching effect on the quality of your work, and the bottom line of your business as a mobile sales app.

The new standard for B2B sales is mobile

The new standard for B2B sales is mobile

If your company has outside sales reps, or sells at trade shows, on a showroom floor, from special events or on-site with a customer –for you, the era of the printed product catalog, the paper order form, and the fax machine – is over.

The integrated smart phone and tablet era is now. xkzero has summarized some important considerations for you here.

All stakeholders in your company—Executives, Salespeople, Operations Managers, Accounting and Finance and IT professionals—look at your business from a different angle. The great news is mobile can and will benefit all of them. But you need to avoid several pitfalls that can cost you money and headache.

If you have not yet mobilized your sales team, here are some important things for executives to consider.

Executives

From sales enablement to new revenue streams

Making or producing a great product is never enough to ensure business success, and relying on antiquated methods of selling can leave you vulnerable to new competitors that enter your market, hoping to disrupt.

More practical guides – Mobile B2B Sales: A Practical Guide for Sales Reps | Mobile B2B Sales: A Practical Guide for Operations Managers

 

A mobile sales app can do more than simply replace the fax machine with a smart phone as a means to get orders in your system. (Think about that for a minute.) It can turn you into a disruptor yourself.

How your team will benefit:

  • Increased revenue
  • New revenue streams
  • Reduced administrative costs
  • Better served customers
  • New and improved customer intelligence
  • Attraction of a new generation of sales reps and customers
  • More profits

Risk factors to consider:

  • Choice between a packaged solution and a solution that is custom designed specifically for your business
  • Adaptation by your team and overall usability
  • Ability to integrate with your existing systems
  • Achieving a justifiable ROI

The Cost of Inaction

Over 90 percent of the mobile sales automation projects xkzero has implemented over the past several years have been for companies previously relying on the tools and processes of yesterday – printed product catalogs, paper order forms, phone calls to customer service for the status of anything customer or inventory related.  Fax machines…

These companies represent the entire spectrum of manufacturing and wholesale distribution industries.

One thing all of the companies have in common is that once they switch from paper and manual processes to an automated mobile solution, they don’t change back.

Ready to talk about charting a mobile sales strategy for your business?  Contact us at info@xkzero.com or call 847-416-2009.

Visit the xkzero website to learn more about our winning solutions.

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Why you should have a mobile sales app for your business

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Not a fax machine, price sheet or product catalog in site.

No fax machine, price sheet or product catalog in sight.

 

Does your current sales process include a fax machine, pre-printed forms (multi-part forms!), printed product catalogues, or price sheets? If you can get past the competition and land a sale using with such antiquated tools, do you have to pass along the order to a customer service rep to re-enter the data into your order management system?

The above scenario almost sounds silly these days. The simple reason you should have a mobile sales app for your business is because it makes the whole process more convenient. Every step of the way.

Using a mobile sales app, your company ends up with a better-informed workforce that is more confidently equipped to do business with whomever, whenever—whereever. Mobile sales apps not only accelerate your supply chain, which gets you paid faster, but they also reduce administrative costs.

You may ask, “If I spend money on a mobile app, how can I be sure it’s more convenient than current tools?” Valid question. Think about it for a minute. Consider the role of the smart phone in your personal life. Why do we rely so much on our mobile devices? We use a smart phone because it is the most convenient way to access information these days.

Using a mobile device from any location sure beats waiting until you’re hunkered down at the office, at a designated desk, on a computer.

In our personal lives we turn to our smart phones for content and data like music, Facebook, Instagram, photos, email, Draft Kings, YouTube, Twitter, and texting. We look up maps and restaurant menus, order tickets for sporting events and concerts, compare prices at local and online merchants, register for personal enrichment classes and college courses—and even access children’s grades and homework assignments.

It’s about content and data. Real, live business data that you can access and on which you can take action on immediately. Interact with customers and the back office, about really important stuff—like closing new business or serving a customer. Do all of this right from the phone in your pocket or purse.

So, when you ask the question about the convenience of a mobile device, really think about it. Consider how much more efficient your sales and customer service team can be when they are empowered with rich information about your customers right in their pockets, too.

Your team will be able to quickly access content like how much a customer owes. They’ll have access to data about shipments-in-transit, and orders you owe customers. They can smartly respond to opportunities to quote a prospect. Or respond to a customer who wants to know if such and so product is in stock. They’ll be able to provide customer pricing. They can show off a product photo, or provide specs on the fly.

On a more exciting level, would it be great to be ready to accept a customer payment from any location?

Our smart phones provide all kinds of ways to interact with our friends, family and conduct personal business. But when it comes to your business, shouldn’t your smart phone be doing more for you and your customers?

Smart phone. Smart sales team.

 

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