Software Spotlight

Michael Bernzweig (00:02.571)

Are you ready to unlock the secrets of B2B SaaS success? Tired of sifting through endless noise to find actionable insights that actually move the needle?

Welcome to Software Spotlight, your weekly deep dive into the transformative world of Software-as-a-Service. Your host is Michael Bernzweig, who in 1998 launched Software Oasis as one of the first platforms enabling businesses to download, license, and deploy software instantly across their networks with a single click. Today, Software Oasis has evolved into one of the leading communities where businesses find top tech consultants across the USA and Canada.

Each week, Michael sits down with industry titans, innovative leaders, and game-changing executives to bring you exclusive insights you won't find anywhere else. From emerging technologies to market trends, Software Spotlight delivers the strategic intelligence you need to accelerate your SaaS career and stay ahead of the curve.

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I'd like to welcome everyone to this week's edition of the Software Spotlight. Today we're thrilled to have Louis Balla. He's a leading expert in ERP solutions and the driving force behind Nuage. With deep expertise in optimizing NetSuite and IFS Cloud, Louis and his team help businesses streamline operations and achieve scalable growth.

Get ready for an insightful conversation about modern SaaS and consulting solutions. So with that, welcome to the Software Spotlight.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (00:36.504)
Thank you for having me, excited to be on.

Michael Bernzweig (00:38.837)
Yeah, no, it's really, really exciting. And we have, I can even see from some of the questions that came in, as we were getting on the ear that people are excited for this episode. And I guess maybe as a starting point, if you could give our audience for any that may not be familiar with yourself or your organization, a little peek behind the curtain and a little bit of the backstory of

how you got to where you are and a little bit about your organization and all of that.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (01:11.908)
Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, my name is Louis Ballot. I'm one of the partners here at Nuage, which is the French for cloud. And, you know, I think my journey really began probably in the consulting sector with a deep-seated passion for

think also the transformative potential for businesses. Prior to Nuage, I wore many different hats from working really right out of college up in New Bedford, I'm sorry, New Bedford, Mass for a maritime organization. So I got to see the, I think some of the harder labor requirements that lot of organizations faced and then became a buyer at National Geographic Channel.

Michael Bernzweig (01:47.491)
Sure.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (02:00.26)
years later and we got to Los Angeles, got into the software industry when I think a lot of CIOs 10 plus years ago said that the cloud and cloud ERP would never work. And so as an organization, we really emphasize the need for adaptability, forward thinking and business strategies. That's what's brought us here today and we're excited for what the future holds.

Michael Bernzweig (02:25.719)
Now, obviously, both NetSuite and IFS Cloud have a tremendous, tremendous portfolio of implementations. But I think one of the key differentiators, if I heard correctly, from what you're doing there is really helping organizations get from where they were to where they need to be, but more importantly, to optimize the solution for their needs. Does that sound fairly accurate?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (02:35.236)
Mm-hmm.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (02:54.82)
Absolutely. So we've certainly seen NetSuite become the gorilla in the room with several thousand, 45,000 plus organizations running on NetSuite as an ERP application. think the easiest way to describe ERP to the listeners who may not be familiar is really the backbone to an organization where you're centralizing or aggregating all of your data in one

application that can do everything from accounting to inventory control, manufacturing, e-commerce, your sales, CRM, the list goes on. absolutely, we have seen optimization at its core being a system that can do so much for so many. There's always the need to continuously improve for those individuals who are already running on NetSuite.

Michael Bernzweig (03:51.565)
So, there are a lot of organizations that might be exploring NetSuite or maybe even transitioning from some other system to NetSuite. What size are these organizations? Who is it a great fit for? What kind of industries? And where are they typically coming from prior to NetSuite?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (04:15.65)
Yeah, so the atypical answer is these organizations are usually running on QuickBooks or legacy applications. But in the instance of QuickBooks, as you would expect, they're exceeding the limitations of QuickBooks Enterprise or your desktops of the world. With QuickBooks, you can only do so much. A lot of folks will throw all their sales and all of their inventory or even try to do manufacturing to a certain extent with

Michael Bernzweig (04:24.493)
Sure.

Michael Bernzweig (04:34.755)
Sure.

Michael Bernzweig (04:44.194)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (04:44.948)
some third-party apps like Fishbowl, but usually they're hitting a wall when they're, I'd say in the five to $10 million range as an organization. What we typically see for organizations is when they're looking to automate one and a half FTEs, they're turning to NetSuite. And NetSuite has a lot from your AP automation to workflow automation to just...

Michael Bernzweig (04:54.488)
Mm-hmm.

Michael Bernzweig (05:07.2)
you

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (05:13.028)
inherent reports that give you real insights into every single process within the organization in real time. So you can do a lot more with less. So back to the notion of automating one and a half FTEs, usually the cost is about one FTE. And that's your upfront cost. And then we see anywhere between 200 to 300 % ROI over the course of three years.

Michael Bernzweig (05:38.157)
So for anyone listening to the podcast, what are some of the telltale signs that they have outgrown their existing setup and need to start exploring other options before things explode?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (05:55.928)
Yeah, I think one is when you look at your financials and system like QuickBooks and maybe you're seeking a line of credit or you're looking at potentially an acquisition and you're being asked by whether it be a VC private equity or a bank relationship to provide financial statements and you're in a position where that's very difficult. That's usually the wall.

Michael Bernzweig (06:23.319)
You

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (06:24.484)
Outside of that, I'd also argue it's when you're usually in a position where you have three or four applications outside of QuickBooks tying in to do the day-to-day functions of your organization. That's also a wall where we'd say, we can save you money by consolidating systems down into.

Michael Bernzweig (06:47.617)
Sure, and I would think, you know, manufacturing and kitting and all kinds of other, you know, very specialized functions or something that...

QuickBooks was never intended to handle with ease. And at the end of the day, if you're on a legacy system where you've bolted together all kinds of custom coded integrations and things that may or may not have ever been meant to work together, that might be a sign as well, And I...

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (07:01.156)
Absolutely not.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (07:19.266)
You're right, absolutely.

Michael Bernzweig (07:22.179)
can probably envision a lot of people out there laughing and shaking their heads up and down. So that's really neat.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (07:27.694)
Yep, more common than you think. We've worked with quite a few organizations who get to $100 million before they switch off QuickBooks. So it can be done. It's just painful.

Michael Bernzweig (07:39.041)
And I would think also transaction volume is probably a pretty telltale sign.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (07:45.164)
It is. And so from an AP automation standpoint, if you're just stuck with thousands and thousands of invoices on an annual basis, NetSuite's a great fit as well. If you're having to consider an AP clerk or even somebody in the back office to do a lot of the manual intervention with smaller applications, there are software applications, not just NetSuite, that can handle all that, automate more, give you the ability to

Michael Bernzweig (08:15.587)
Now, not to leave these guys on the sidelines, talk to me a little bit about IFS Cloud and the types of organizations that might be a good fit for it.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (08:25.442)
Yeah. So, so IFS is a new product for our organization. started with them about a year ago. And IFS is really an application that has become, it's done a very good job of really focusing on a couple of critical verticals. So telecom, manufacturing, defense. There's a couple of others out there, field service, heavy asset management. They've really, really honed in on industrial 4.0.

So leveraging a lot of the AI capabilities where I can, in theory, go on my dashboard and say, hey, I want you to spit out this report with these parameters and bing, bang, boom, it's presented to you in a very unique fashion. So that's a bigger application where we typically recommend companies over 100, 150 million in annual revenue consider, but very well thought out application that

is I think that the reviews are in and the reviews are extremely positive.

Michael Bernzweig (09:31.779)
So with the different client, obviously you've worked on quite a few implementations over the years. Are there still many organizations that are running on-prem in terms of different solutions that they have prior to moving to a cloud-based system?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (09:51.876)
I'd say it's more common than you'd think. When you get into defense, GovCon, no brainer, of course. When we talk to organizations who maybe machine shop, traditional manufacturing, they're still oftentimes running on on-prem. And again, NetSuite, IFS, IFS is a slightly different model where you can choose on-prem, hybrid, or cloud. NetSuite is solely cloud. And for most folks, they're comfortable paying a subscription.

Michael Bernzweig (09:58.381)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (10:21.644)
Everything is a subscription these days. So it really depends on ownership, the executives within an organization, their level of comfort. The reality, in my opinion, for a small, medium-sized business is you probably don't need on-prem servers. That being said, I know you could argue the opposite, but from disaster recovery to just the nature of security intrusion,

know, threat detection, better to have somebody else do it who's got their livelihood at stake versus you and the IT guy trying to manage to make sure everything is safe and secure with very few updates. Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (11:04.205)
Yeah, no, makes a lot of sense. And for a lot of the organizations that you see coming aboard, know, no organization has just a single solution. There's obviously a whole ecosystem of other integrations and things like that. And how do you tie it all together? Is most of it, you know, already set up within NetSuite?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (11:19.364)
Mm-hmm.

Michael Bernzweig (11:33.101)
the integrations exist or is there a lot of custom?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (11:36.772)
So I'd say back in the day, it was a lot of custom. Now there are several iPaaS solutions who've done an exceptional job of standardizing a lot of third party apps, whether it be your Salesforce's of the world, your Shopify, your at times payment processors, the iPaaS solutions of the world, your Power BI, whatever it is that needs to tie into NetSuite.

there's likely already a pre-built connector. In similar fashion, IFS is a very rich marketplace. So a lot of that, there's already precedent. It's very rare these days that we're finding ad hoc solutions that don't tie into NetSuite. Sometimes we see that with healthcare. Some older industries at times, but if we can get a CSV or they've got open APIs, we can connect everything pretty seamlessly and quickly.

Michael Bernzweig (12:07.712)
Okay.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (12:34.894)
So it's very common practice and I'd argue I think it's almost 100 % of the organizations we work with and probably close to that with the overall NetSuite rep. We're connecting to at least one application, whether it be payroll or other solutions.

Michael Bernzweig (12:53.005)
So for organizations that are exploring NetSuite, what other solutions might they be considering and how does NetSuite differentiate itself from those?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (13:06.692)
Yeah, I think if you're looking for just a core application on the financial side, Intact is very common. They've done a very good job of owning the nonprofit space. NetSuite is very comparable. We do better when there's product inventory involved. I think that's where Intact has some more cut out for them. But the other one is Acumatica. Acumatica has done a very good job of really

focusing on field service, focusing on construction, focusing on some of the fringe areas that NetSuite predominantly has not had a strong foothold. But because NetSuite has so much momentum behind it, they kind of catch up in those subverticals pretty quickly. But I'd say those two, while we see them here and there at times,

You have your Infor and your Epicore applications and the heavier manufacturing. The reality is the most common competitor is no change in sticking with what you have, especially in this day and age.

Michael Bernzweig (14:18.349)
Yeah, it makes a lot of sense. for clients that are looking to get up and running with one of these two platforms as an organization, Nuage, how do you distinguish yourselves from other solution providers and other MSPs?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (14:36.408)
Yeah, I think as we are deemed in the NetSuite ecosystem a solution provider, we're unique in that almost like a manufacturer's rep, we can sell the NetSuite application on behalf of NetSuite with no markup. They compensate us on the back end, but to the customer, it's one and the same. And really the level of continuity is typically why organizations work with us.

I think at the end of the day, being responsible for what's sold to you and actually delivering on those promises is really important. So our team, while we sell you the software, we also implement the software and then we provide that Post-Go Live support. So when you oftentimes deal with directly with the software vendor, they can't provide that same level of continuity. There's a lot of different players. There's a lot of different channels within a large corporation.

Michael Bernzweig (15:29.047)
Right.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (15:31.972)
I'd say continuity is probably our strongest differentiator. We have a lot of strength in batch manufacturing, a lot in advanced manufacturing, elements of distribution that may be atypical for standard distributors, like license plating, do a lot of what is scenario planning. So while we have our niches, we also have a very strong end in mind in the notion of continuous improvement where

We want to get you live in the application, but we want to look at your organization for the next three, five years and be along for the journey to make sure you don't have to hire people to throw people out of problem.

Michael Bernzweig (16:11.873)
Yeah, no, and that makes sense. And obviously the journey getting from where an organization is to live is important, but after going live, having the support is irreplaceable. So I guess from where you said, as a subject matter expert in ERP, are there some common...

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (16:19.843)
Mm-hmm.

Michael Bernzweig (16:35.829)
mistakes that you see organizations making as they're exploring transitions and actually, you know, working with a vendor or selecting a vendor to go live with.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (16:48.516)
Yeah, I think first and foremost is the misconception that while you can buy the software, you'll just be able to find a consulting group to do the work after the fact. We see that time and time again in dual.

there's not enough forethought into how we're actually going to roll this out. We got a great deal on the software. Let's take advantage of this deal and then we'll figure out the rest later. That is, that is a disaster. We try to mitigate, you know, so everything from your people, process, technology, understanding how everything's going to be connected, spending great links in the statement of work to define what's in scope, what's out of scope, making sure that there's a.

path for a very detailed project plan, atypical consulting as you would expect, but making sure we're holding your hand along the way. for us, think to mitigate failure, it's all about having open dialogue with the executives. And I think acknowledging the fact that nobody wants to do an ERP implementation. It is an organ transplant to your company. It's heart surgery.

Michael Bernzweig (18:02.967)
Yeah. Yep. Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (18:05.602)
Right? The reason you have heart surgery is because the valves are clogged, there's not enough blood flow. And that's the exact same thing with an ERP application. So we're trying to give you a healthier heart, you wouldn't want the doctor going in and just without understanding who you are and your blood type and what's actually wrong to just sign you up tomorrow. So.

So I'd say making sure you as an organization are doing the due diligence. You understand your business processes today. You have an idea of what they're going to look like tomorrow. A willingness from the team. Sometimes we see very few decision makers. Let me rephrase that. We oftentimes see decision makers who are unwilling to involve the rest of the organization. It's their way or the highway.

Well, they're usually not the end users who have to actually make the sausage work. So getting individuals involved, getting the buy-in, I think too, especially when we talk to manufacturing distribution, an ERP oftentimes adds a couple more steps. Those steps are integral to the executive team to see and do more in real time. So understanding the downstream effect of process.

Michael Bernzweig (19:05.344)
Right.

Michael Bernzweig (19:10.083)
Sure.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (19:29.506)
getting that buy-in is where we see the most success upfront to make sure the projects are delivered on

Michael Bernzweig (19:37.421)
Yeah, and I think, you know, just that, think having buy-in from the team and the entire organization because you're creating a solution to make their lives easier at the end of the day. if you understand what their pain points are and what needs to be solved for that makes your job as a solution provider easier.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (19:58.306)
Yeah. And to that point, I love going into organizations in the first meeting and working with them. You ask, hey, tell me about your system architecture. And you get a punch list, but there's no thought into like, this CRM connects to this accounting software. And I think it connects via CSV, but it's batched once a day. And what's pushed back, sometimes there is no conception of how it actually works.

And you put that all on a Vizio and it's usually a hairball. I think once organizations can see that hairball and you can consolidate that hairball into one or a couple of integral applications, the light bulbs go off.

Michael Bernzweig (20:33.356)
Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (20:46.155)
Makes sense. And are there best practices that you like to use to make sure that implementations go successfully?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (20:57.474)
Yeah, think data is one. Everybody thinks their data is kind of clean, could be better, but is suitable. The reality is, is you look in your application today, you probably have several hundred, if not thousands of duplicates. So there's a lot of cleanup. There's a lot of foresight into potentially redesigning your chart of accounts. And so best practice recommendations on my behalf for giving the data early.

understanding sample sets of the data, making sure that as we walk through the sample sets of data, the executives are crystal clear on how things are going to be. The end users are crystal clear in those conference room pilots of how the system is going to work. Making sure that change management, while we as consultants can only do so much, change management needs to be a critical focus for the organizations. So what that buy-in is, how do we keep

our users engaged throughout sometimes six months is not an easy task. I think that kind of dovetails into just the learning process, making sure we are training power users, training the trainers, if you will, but we're also focused on making sure all that training occurs in the implementation. So you're not left high and dry. We are really focused on Go Live being a non-event.

or you feel comfortable, we make the switch and you're still doing your job on Monday.

Michael Bernzweig (22:31.137)
Yeah, no, just making it as smooth as possible and obviously rolling things out in phases that make sense for the organization to cut over as it can be is undisruptive, if that's even a word, and non-disruptive to the organization as possible because, you know, they're real businesses, you know, it's a living, breathing organization, you know.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (22:34.596)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (22:40.345)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (22:48.417)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (22:52.132)
And yeah, I think it's...

And to that point, know, there's always a subsequent phases. And while everybody wants to the elephant in one bite, the reality is it's just not possible. So setting clear expectations again. know, and sometimes that's a hard truth of us telling organizations, hey, we can do the inventory, we can do the financials. Let's not touch manufacturing yet, because they're just not ready. They're going to kick up a storm and

Michael Bernzweig (23:08.3)
Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (23:26.613)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (23:26.85)
know, candidly, let's get everything else working first.

Michael Bernzweig (23:30.189)
Yeah, no, and obviously starting the areas that'll be least disruptive and all of that. Are a lot of organizations that are on NetSuite running multiple physical locations or multiple facilities or not so much?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (23:34.275)
Mm-hmm.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (23:45.7)
You know, case by case, I think one of the general themes of why organizations select NetSuite is the scalability. So being, you know, as you look at deeper supply chain, potentially a new product line, a new facility, or even going international, NetSuite is set up to handle that, give you the ability to scale and not have to go to a different application. So

More times than not, usually there's two, three facilities or locations. Oftentimes we also see organizations trying to go, whether it be into EMEA or APAC, dip their toes in and not blow the bank with a system. Having the core capabilities, which we can effectively copy into a subsidiary with best practices. So whether it be global, whether it be acquisition, whether it be physical locations.

It's very commonplace for NetSuite, especially as we look at working with you today, but also into the future. And that goes back to the three, five-year goals for an organization.

Michael Bernzweig (24:56.471)
Yeah, and obviously tax implications are a big, big component and it sounds like it has all of that covered and then some so that's huge. As far as, and I think you touched on this a little bit, but maybe can you give an example?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (25:03.99)
Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (25:15.427)
of a client project, you know, it doesn't have to be a specific client if you don't want to mention, but a project that you were, you and your team were particularly proud of that from maybe like a day in the life of where they were before and where they ended up after and what their hopes and expectations were and how everything turned out.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (25:38.136)
Yeah, I like to tell the story of a notable project from a group called Alpha Foods and a rapidly growing plant-based company. Their challenge really was to integrate diverse operations. They had a lot of outsourced code man requirements. They had several different applications where they were really looking to unify to support their expansion.

And I think through a lot of meticulous planning, customization, we successfully deployed NetSuite for them. We streamlined operations, improved inventory management, enhanced the financial reporting. And a lot of this was driven, I think, from a collaborative approach. So involving, as I said, the continuous communication, really to meet their evolving needs. Another group, we just did a podcast with

a group called Miami Beef, they are growing leaps and bounds. They were able to, I believe, automate five positions within their organization just on the AP side. there's a lot that NetSuite can do very, very well and time it all together. With Impact is music to our ears. And we often see that when you look at the ERP ecosystem, NetSuite customers are usually growing.

on average 30, 33%. So a little bit higher than the rest of your standard 10 to 15 % on your QuickBooks legacy application. So it all goes back to just doing more with less, being in a position where you as a business owner can try the new product line, try the new service offering, whatever it may be. You're not hamstrung with an application.

Michael Bernzweig (27:30.273)
Yeah, and I would think obviously the ROI and the payback is important, but it sounds like the kind of thing if it's done correctly, the payback can be quicker rather than later. Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (27:35.428)
Mm-hmm.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (27:43.074)
Absolutely. Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (27:47.817)
As far as scalability, can you talk to that in terms of organizations that are considering making the move? Obviously, they don't want to be right back in the same situation where they are now. So how scalable is the solution and what are the options should they outgrow NetSuite?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (28:10.276)
So the good news is we have several Fortune 5000 companies who run on NetSuite. From your billion dollar unicorns in software to whether it be Lyft, whether it be Peloton to a certain extent. I don't know that I tout that one nor GoPro. But GoPro is a good example of when GoPro was in their prime. They started with NetSuite with four employees when they were...

Michael Bernzweig (28:30.84)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (28:38.584)
building their cameras in the garage, up to a billion dollar organization. And their scale, while tremendous, was supported by NetSuite. So we have several success stories where companies go from your 10, 30 million up to a couple hundred million. And again, they don't outgrow NetSuite and they're in a position where, because NetSuite is backed by so many companies, backed by Oracle.

it is an application that you should never outgrow. So we often tout it's the last ERP implementation you'll ever do. That being said, when you get into heavier field service or asset management or multiple very complex manufacturing requirements, whether it chemical manufacturing, cetera, yes, in theory, you may outgrow NetSuite and go to a tier one. But we have...

Merit Express Global Travel with 5,000 plus users and some pretty sizable organizations are on that suite. So for the SMBs, I'd argue it's a 10 to 20 year horizon before you go.

Michael Bernzweig (29:52.213)
Okay, all right, makes sense. And obviously there is a path. As far as, and I'm surprised we made it this far into the podcast without saying that nasty AI word, but you know, from where you sit, how do you see AI shaping the future of automation, you know, as it relates to ERP?

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (30:14.542)
Yeah, it's funny. I was in a session yesterday on just the notion of AI governance. And we were joking about how so many folks don't think twice to let their staff or employees just divulge all of their information in the Chat GPT, just so that the sales rep can spit out an email to a prospect. Well, now Chat GPT owns all that information. Whoopsies. So.

Michael Bernzweig (30:36.235)
Yeah.

Michael Bernzweig (30:40.439)
Yeah.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (30:41.378)
So I think that from a marketing and sales perspective, while we see that as low-hanging fruit, not only in your general prospecting, your account management, even your collections and dunning, that is now. That exists with NetSuite, that exists with IFS. I think where we're excited to see a little bit more is the notion of really the AI agent, working on behalf of the organization, both internally.

but customer facing and know, IFS had their conference this year and we're talking about the notion of really agent to agent. So your, you know, your procurement specialist is now an AI agent who is working directly with your vendors agents. And I think that could be a possibility in the next two to three years. think, hey.

for larger enterprises. I don't think that's going to touch the SMB space just quite yet. But that's certainly where we're going. Yeah, there is also the notion of just, you know, localized and centralized supercomputers for some of these manufacturers. if the United States has enough energy, who knows, maybe that's possible. But I would definitely invest in your local or your uranium ETS.

Michael Bernzweig (31:59.011)
Yeah

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (32:07.044)
I think we're a lot of uranium for the small nuclear reactors.

Michael Bernzweig (32:07.074)
Yeah, and

What's amazing is just the so many organizations look at AI and say, look at all the writing and brainstorming it can do. But I think the magic to me of AI is really all of the insight that it can draw from large data sets being able to analyze tremendous amounts of information. So I think that that's really amazing. And I'll wrap up by asking you, for anyone

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (32:30.66)
I would agree.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (32:35.095)
Absolutely.

Michael Bernzweig (32:40.485)
listening to this and you know asking themselves you know what should we be considering first before we jump into any ERP implementation and switch providers what what are some of the questions they should be asking

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (32:53.614)
Mm-hmm.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (32:58.7)
You know, I think the easiest question to be asking, especially if you're looking to hire somebody to do a lot of manual entry within the organization, is quite candidly, is there an application or an ERP that could be doing this for us instead? And what's the cost to train up, to retain, to cover all the benefits? Nine times out of 10, each organization probably has

as somebody who's doing all that grunt work. And I think at the end of the day, all the time-based study for an organization is difficult to do. Sometimes just on the back of a napkin, I could ask my shop floor manager or somebody in ops, hey, you and all this via pen and paper, we're doing this at a multiple of X. This takes you 10 minutes to do every day. Well, you know.

that how much is that time worth to us as an organization? And usually that is where we see the light bulbs going off for these folks where it's like, wow, I could be doing all this in a system and it'd be happening in real time and I can make my decisions faster. So I'd say that that's probably the easiest catalyst to seriously consider an ERP versus ad hoc throwing a body.

Michael Bernzweig (33:59.064)
Mm-hmm.

Michael Bernzweig (34:24.023)
Yeah, no, that makes sense. And I really appreciate your time on the podcast today. And we're obviously going to leave a link in the show notes for anybody that would like to reach out to Lewis Pollard over at Nuage. And I really appreciate your taking the time to join us on the Software Spotlight today.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (34:30.07)
Absolutely.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (34:38.295)
soon.

Louis Balla, Partner At Nuage (34:44.174)
Thank you, Michael. Appreciate it.