The B2B cold call: what the first call is for
A first cold call to a company has one goal: a second meeting. How to use the thirty seconds a prospect's question gives you, and how calls become arguments.
Blog
40 articles on business systems — written from inside the projects, not from the decks.
The three-to-four-month B2B deal cycle and your network
ERP deals take months to close. How to build a pipeline that closes two or three a month from month four, and why 'we just bought a system' is not the end.
Ten chosen accounts or fifty calls? The B2B target list
Why 10 to 15 hand-picked companies a month beat 50 random calls a day, how to write an ideal customer profile, and how to enter an account by several doors.
Research before a B2B sales call: what to collect
A prospect who hears their company's name in your first sentence stays on the line. What to gather in 15 minutes before a B2B call, where, and how to use it.
Before an ERP interview: know the company and its rivals
Not knowing what a company shows on its own website sinks a candidate fastest. What to study before an interview at an Odoo or other ERP partner, in one hour.
Writing a CV for the UAE: projects first
A UAE hiring manager looks for three numbers before your years of experience: how many projects, which industries, and your role on each. How to write them.
UAE hiring stages and how fast to reply at each
Most UAE hiring runs in four stages, from CV screening to a case study, and capable candidates drop out simply because they took three days to answer.
Getting an internal referral in the UAE via LinkedIn
An internal referral lifts you above hundreds of applicants. How to reach the right team on LinkedIn, what to write first, and what to do if you know nobody.
Accountant to ERP consultant — the market's shortest move
An accountant already owns what cannot be taught quickly: the entry, the close, the reconciliation. Exactly four things are missing, in a build order.
ERP consultant pay — what moves it, and how to find yours
Published salary figures contradict each other, so no number is quoted here — only the six factors that move pay and three ways to find your own range.
Skills nobody teaches — an angry client, a stalled meeting
A consultant is rarely replaced for not knowing the product. What decides it is reading anger, saying no with a price attached, and escalating on time.
Data migration — the riskiest step nobody budgets for
Migration gets one line in the proposal and eats more project time than any other item. What moves, what stays behind, and how opening balances are entered.
How to read an ERP demo without being sold to
A vendor demo is built to impress, and that is its job. Three scenarios to send a week ahead, and eight questions that expose the real limit.
Which ERP systems are actually ready for Gulf e-invoicing
Every system measured against one question: who ships the tax integration? The vendor in the core product, under a separate licence, a partner, or nobody.
Your first ERP job — where to start with no experience
The job wants experience and the experience needs a job. Four real ways into the market, the portfolio project you can build alone, and what a CV is read for.
When ERP freelancing works, and when it ends your reputation
ERP is not ordinary freelance work: the project runs for months and failure leaves a company unable to invoice. Four conditions before going independent.
ERP glossary — forty terms, one sentence each
The vocabulary of an implementation meeting, defined in one line each and grouped by meaning rather than alphabetically, plus the four pairs most confused.
Go-live night — six steps, and the point of no return
Go-live is a window of about two days, not a date. The six preconditions, the step everyone skips for time, and the rollback plan written beforehand.
Why ERP projects fail — real reasons, not stated ones
A failed implementation rarely fails because of the software. Seven causes, every one visible months before go-live, each with its early sign.
ERP modules — what each does, and the five you cannot skip
Five modules no system works without, ten that are a purchasing decision, the order to switch them on in, and the one question that keeps a quote honest.
ERP implementation roles — who does what, and which you fit
"ERP consultant" covers six roles that diverge in skill, career path and pay. What each does with its day, and which door to enter by.
ERP vs CRM vs MRP vs WMS — only one of them owns the ledger
Four abbreviations put in front of you as four competing products. Three are chapters of the fourth. The one distinction that settles which to buy.
UAE e-invoicing — what your system has to do on its own
The UAE chose a five-corner model, so your system never talks to the Federal Tax Authority. The accredited service provider decision, and the dates.
ZATCA phase two — on your software, not your accountant
Phase two asks nothing new of your accountant. It asks your system for seven prohibited functions and four anti-tampering mechanisms, from ZATCA's guideline.
Why contracting firms go broke on profitable projects
Cross-funding between projects, five leak points nobody prices, and why a 12% margin against a 10% retention leaves you on 2% of real liquidity.
The project a $200 barcode printer killed — a case study
A furniture factory implementation that failed on none of the risks in the register. Management by affection, and an obsolete printer used to demand a refund.
Oil and grease on Dynamics 365 — digitising fluid physics
A litre is not always a litre and one gram of the wrong additive condemns a batch — a case study of a 48-hour cutover across 28 tanks.
When the arithmetic fails and something else holds
Business teaches that effort and return are proportional. A personal account of the years when they were not — weak effort met with overwhelming provision.
The three-day quotation — what resistance is really about
A salesperson stands up mid-demo and says one order will now take three days. She is not exaggerating. What she is defending is territory.
What an ERP consultant does — and what it costs to skip one
The three jobs a consultant is paid for, why the do-it-yourself route costs more than the fee it avoids, and the four line items in the real bill.
Jobs in 2030 — the WEF numbers, and which side you are on
92 million jobs displaced and 170 million created by 2030, a net gain of 78 million, and a list of the roles that shrink. The decision is personal.
An AI roadmap around a day job — eleven courses, four stages
Eleven short courses that take somebody with no machine learning background to building agents that work. The order matters more than the list.
What an ERP is, explained without jargon — the episode
A short audio and video episode explaining what an ERP system actually is, for somebody who has never worked with one. No acronyms, no vendor language.
Odoo HR — employees, contracts, attendance, recruitment
The field that separates HR from system administration, the date that decides whether payroll runs, and why leave balances stop the WhatsApp queue.
The ERP consultant roadmap — five stages, in order
Business language before software, functional or technical, one product rather than four, and a supermarket you build alone as proof.
The ledger and the close — where numbers stop being opinion
How automatic postings replace manual journals, the two reconciliations that decide whether you can trust the figures, and a close cut to three days.
Inventory and costing — margin is decided before you sell
Five stages from receiving to dispatch, why cycle counting replaces the annual shutdown, and the costing method that changes your reported profit.
Order to cash — the sale is not done until the money lands
Opportunity, quotation, sales order, delivery, invoice, collection — plus the stock reservation and credit check that stop a bad order before it ships.
The procurement cycle — five documents and a three-way match
Procure-to-pay in five documents and the check that refuses to release a payment. From a client whose material cost ran at 80% against a norm nearer 60%.
What an ERP actually is, and four tests to run on yours
An ERP is one database that several departments write into, not a program you install. Four tests for your setup, and the three parts a real system has.