Kevin Collins, manager, Business Profitability at Elkay Manufacturing, was recently published in Financial Executive Magazine. In the article, Kevin wrote about the importance of Total Profitability Management. Below is a short description of this subject; read the full article here.

Performance Analyzer 5G is now available for Windows 8 and Windows RT, Microsoft’s highly-anticipated new version of its Windows operating system that launches today. We are excited to leverage the new Windows to create new user experiences, but most importantly to extend Acorn insight to mobile devices and tablets to reach a broader user community.

For those of you who tuned into last week’s presidential debate, you might have caught both candidates briefly mention the topic of bringing more jobs back to the United States, or reshoring.  Both Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama have plans for bringing more jobs back to the U.S., however, in the meantime many high-profile (as well as small to medium) U.S. manufacturers have already announced plans to move production of certain or all products back to American shores.

Congratulations to Acorn’s longest-standing international partner, B&M Consulting, for their strategic merger.

NACUBO is right around the corner, and this year’s conference should prove to be one of the most interesting and necessary gatherings of higher education professionals of our time. Public collegiate institutions in the United States are experiencing a budget crisis, and the current state of higher education is more challenging now than ever before. States are slashing the higher educational spend across the board, ranging from high single- to double-digit percentages. Private institutions are also experiencing issues as annual giving has been reduced and endowments have not generated historic returns. At this year’s NACUBO conference, we’ll come together and share knowledge and ideas about how deal with these new challenges.

I recently attended the Gartner Supply Chain Executive Conference 2012 in beautiful Palm Desert, California.  Lots of valuable content, networking, and innovation were shared over the course of the event.  

Deciding when to eliminate an unprofitable customer can be a difficult choice that isn’t always black and white. The real question at hand here is deciding IF a customer should be eliminated when it’s costing your company substantial profit loss. A number of factors must be evaluated to determine a customer’s true value to your company.

Early 2012 saw signs of a recovering economy. Yet, despite these encouraging signs, many companies continued to struggle. Sony recently reported that it plans to cut 10,000 jobs due to significant losses. Sears and Kmart have announced they would close more than 100 stores in 2012 due to declining sales, and it wasn’t that long ago when big box retailers Linens and Things and Circuit City closed all of their store fronts.

We are very excited to announce that two of our customers, Navy Federal Credit Union and Comerica Bank, will lead presentations at the AMIfs Annual Conference for Profitability, Performance and Risk in Phoenix, AZ, April 25-27. 

Last week, I talked about a few of the biggest mistakes companies make when attempting to maximize profitability—firing unprofitable customers, making a sale at any cost, using gross profit to measure performance, and trying to provide too many goods or services to induce your customers. Today, I’m continuing the discussion with other ‘deadly sins’ companies commit when trying to weed out inefficiencies and maintain competitiveness. Let’s keep the ball rolling with number five.