Sales and operations are at odds with each other in the majority of companies, due on the one hand to people and on the other to IT systems that cannot follow up on deviating customer requests.
Research by Business & Cloud Integrator Ctac shows that there is always tension in the relationship between sales and operations at 80 percent of the companies in wholesale, retail and manufacturing, with 13 percent of the 60 managers Ctac spoke to even talking about an acute problem.
Discrepancy between departments
One in seven managers give cooperation between different departments an unsatisfactory mark as a report: the average is a meagre 6.8. A rigid focus on one's own department and own targets appears to be a frequently mentioned problem. Because while the Sales department is steered towards achieving more turnover and bringing in new customers, Operations looks much more at KPIs such as efficiency or stock position. This discrepancy does not always make it easy to speak the same language. Sometimes, for example, there is not enough awareness that a certain action or promise to a customer has consequences for the entire organisation.
The technology aspect
In addition, for almost six in 10 managers (58 per cent), IT systems and processes are always or usually the bottleneck when it comes to bottlenecks in the organisation. An example is an outdated ERP system to which different tools have been linked over the years. Or conversely, a new ERP system combined with an outdated order system on which the company is still heavily dependent. What also does not make things easier are best-of-breed solutions of different cloud applications that need to be integrated. Furthermore, a relatively high proportion of manual operations is mentioned as a bottleneck (40 per cent).
Data as the biggest challenge
But even when technology is in order and processes are well organised, companies can still face major challenges. For example, there appears to be a huge amount of data untapped, leaving much useful (management) information invisible. Almost half of the respondents (47 per cent) are in the process of converting the acquired data into useful information. In fact, about a third (31 per cent) still see a major challenge in gathering the right data. And that while 56 per cent call the role of data in their organisation all-important.
Henny Hilgerdenaar, CEO of Ctac: "The results of this study underline what we also see in practice: the complex relationship between sales and operations cannot be improved just like that. That requires a broad view with three pillars as a basis. Firstly, the chosen corporate strategy, future vision and corporate culture must be effectively understood. Next, a sharp analysis of business processes and the consequences of implementing a new system or tool is needed. And the third pillar is technological knowledge, its application and adoption by the organisation after implementation. So, for many companies, there is work to be done to improve cooperation in order to better focus on the customer."
