When your competitors are offering a product the same as yours but raising their prices then it might be time for an increase.
This is usually the case when you are selling a commodity where there are not many substitutes. In other words, the commodity is the same no matter where you buy it. The most prominent example of a commodity is gasoline. There isn’t much differentiation with gasoline other than additives and mixtures but gasoline is basically gasoline. If one station has to raise its prices, the others usually follow suit.

You may have to raise prices because you are too busy !
Oftentimes, a business will have such good service and fair prices that they get overwhelmed with orders. In other words, they get too busy which can have a detrimental effect on quality of service. By raising prices, the inflow of new customers decreases. A variation of this strategy is to allow prices to remain the same for current customers but raise them for new ones so as to maintain the current work level while slightly reducing new business.

Another reason for raising prices is because your product increased in quality.
Customers oftentimes will not have a problem paying a higher price if the quality improvement is obvious. Think of ways to demonstrate to your customers the value of your improved product. If you are increasing the price of your services, focus on what has been done to raise the level of service performed by your providers. For example, if you have a store that sells home improvement products, focus on how your sales staff now has to go through certification training in order to give technical assistance on installation. This way if you have to raise the prices on bathroom fixtures, you add value by having a certified sales staff person who can give sound advice on how to install them.

If you have to raise prices on existing customers, there are ways to soften it.
The best way to tone down a price increase is to add value to the product you are raising the price for. Some businesses offer coupons or add something free with a purchase. If the item you sell is something that your customers rely on heavily, they will probably object to a price increase. One way to soften this is to offer alternatives to the product they are accustomed to. This way, they can either pay the new price or downgrade to a lower-priced alternative. Whatever you do, don’t surprise your customers and don’t raise your prices without being ready to explain the justification for it. Most customers are fairly reasonable if you don’t surprise them and can present your case for a price increase with facts.

You should do a risk assessment first.
A risk assessment is a process of identifying all of the potential threats that could disrupt your business operations. Why do businesses go through the trouble of a risk assessment ? Why don’t they just prepare for any threat? Risks have to be prioritized so that focus can be placed on making disaster recovery strategies for those that are most likely to happen. For example, if your business is in the arid southwestern United States, you don’t need to identify hurricane as a risk therefore you don’t need to spend time on planning for recovery from one.

List in your plan the people who are key players in your business operations.
These are people who perform the job functions that your business cannot do without. Not everyone in the business is critical and in some disaster situations a business would have to operate on a skeleton crew. The people who would be on that skeleton crew are the ones who would be your critical employees.

Your plan must list all critical equipment.
Critical equipment like computers, printers, copiers, and communication devices are all examples of items that your business might not be able to do without. Your business may also depend on specialized equipment. Your plan should give instructions for moving this equipment or you may have designated an alternate site where this equipment must be present.

Identify all paper documents critical to your business operations.
This is why it is important to have a filing system where these documents can be identified. You need to identify all documents related to accounts payables (e.g., utility bills, leases, bills for critical services). Also important are customer contracts, banking documents, documents related to the formation of your business, and tax documents. Think about what documents you would need if you need to start your business all over again.

Locate all computer file backups and installation software.
You should have a computer file backup strategy already in place which includes both on-site and off-site backups. Also important is identifying all of the install software needed to make computers at the alternate location operational for your specific business requirements.

Where are you going to relocate when the need arises ?
In some cases, your staff might be able to work from home. Otherwise, you will need to identify the place, wherever it is, that you will set up and resume operations. The alternate location should have the minimum facilities required to run your critical equipment and computers plus have sufficient telephone lines.

Don’t forget to test your business continuity plan.
This involves doing a full dry run of switching over to your alternate location. Remember that continuity plans and backups are oftentimes given low importance until you need them. Actually, they should be given the highest of priority so that the plan executes smoothly.

The other approach is to set out an over-arching strategy model which will ultimately determine the processes and outcome of the commissioning. This article is intended to provide both an overview and introduction to the fundamentals.

Essentially the business intelligence tool consists of a mechanism (usually an application software package) whose main function is to extract information from within the already existing information resources, classify and interpret that information based on the agreed industry or sector algorithms, process that information into data sets that can point towards patterns or trends before finally establishing protocols for disseminating the resultant information to the end-users.

Whilst this may appear to be a relatively straightforward process that is based on logic, the reality is that there are many pitfalls to be found within this seeming linear activity structure. The degree of success with which each individual firm will be able to use its business intelligence can ultimately be traced back to the commissioning strategy when various tools where being selected.

The tools can very broadly be classified as consisting of spreadsheet based programs and their variants, data reports or queries, online analytical processing systems, digital Business Intelligence Dashboard Suites and mining software. These in turn will feed into localized information protocols that drive performance management. The combination for each of these tools will depend on the particular needs and constraints facing the business in question.

The vital thing at this stage is to appreciate what you want as decision maker and being aware of the availability spectrum on the market. At this stage, it is best to agree a mix of either all or a combination of the tools to be embedded within the overall strategy. It is very important to understand that not every tool detailed in the list above will be suitable for every business or for different segments within the same business.

Some people even argue that experimentation is called for in the preliminary stages before settling onto a particular combination of tools. If the business has the time and resources, the trial and error approach might give them more time to select the best combination. Alternatively they might decide to commission purpose-built tools that are designed to cater for the specific demands of a project. This is where business intelligence is highly specialized and consequently highly accurate.

Finally cost is always an issue especially if the senior decision makers are of the view that other priorities are more likely to directly impact on the bottom line. The costs are likely to go even higher if the components are bought on a standalone basis rather than as part of a package. However the skeleton overview above provides a framework through which each business will be able to assess what is available in the technology markets and then commission the appropriate business intelligence tool or combination of tools.

Advantages:
A company which doesn’t use ERP really finds it difficult to have proper communication with each other business units. Even though many software applications are available to share the resources efficiently, ERP overtakes every other software with the fact that ERP are centralized service for any kind of information available related to the company.

Some of the major advantages in using ERP are discussed below:

1. ERP systems have many software components included within it which helps in forecasting data. Forecasting can’t be done more efficiently with other software. Since ERP includes many software which tracks past history of information, forecasting is done in simple way. This also helps in efficiently managing the inventory and thus the productivity of the company increases automatically.
2. Different business units should have proper communication. Proper communication ensures good productivity and efficiency. ERP software acts as a medium through which proper communication is made between the business units.
3. Using ERP helps in making design engineering better. It helps in shaping the product better.
4. Tracking the order and fulfilling the customer needs is also a main task of the company. ERP provides this service with simple user interfaces. Orders are tracked efficiently and delivery is also monitored for the fulfillment of the customer.
5. ERP tracks every financial data starting from the invoice to the cash receipts. So, using ERP software makes it easier to track the revenue cycle.
6. The inter dependencies between the different materials in the process of making the product can be best managed by ERP.
7. Matching of costs of the product, inventory and order purchasing can be easily managed by ERP.

Above mentioned advantages are generic advantages of ERP systems. Benefits of system centralized ERP are discussed below. System centralized ERP have data in one place. Some of the advantages of this kind of ERP are:

1. The problem of synchronizing complex systems like human resource, finance, sales and marketing are handled and eliminated by these ERP systems.
2. Cross functional services which need communication between different business units are permitted by this system.
3. A top down view of the organization can be easily figured out.
4. A considerable amount of risk in losing important data is eliminated.
5. Production time and delivery time can be reduced to a high level.

Disadvantages:
One of the common problems which ERP implemented companies now face are the inadequate funding required in providing training for using the ERP. Other than these, some of its disadvantages are discussed here:

1. The customizations options available in the ERP software are limited.
2. ERP systems are expensive.
3. After implementation, migration of the system might become expensive.
4. Sensitive information regarding a company can’t be shared efficiently with ERP.