Many companies that are considering investing in their business systems wonder how ERP can improve business performance. Deciding to go with an ERP system is not cheap, so what can an ERP system do for you?
To sum it up in one sentence – ERP can improve business performance by helping plan and schedule resources, optimise productivity, manufacture goods, and handle invoicing and shipping.
What is an ERP System?
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a tool that helps join business processes together. It allows for a central location that holds data and can be accessed in real time. This creates a continuously updated view of core business processes and can track resources such as cash, raw materials, and production capacity.
How can an ERP Improve a Company’s Business Performance?
A well implemented ERP can improve a company’s business performance in several ways.
Cost Saving
First, having access to real-time information opens a world of cost saving opportunity. This allows your company to be proactive rather than reactive, as you look at data ahead of time, rather than retrospectively. Using this data lets you plan resources more efficiently or make informed decisions about how your company should be running.
Automation
Second, the ability to automate recurring tasks is a great timesaver. Workflows can be used to guide employees through manual tasks, such as data entry, as well as send alerts to managers when problems arise. The value here is that you free up time for team members to focus on other, more important parts of their job, increasing their value-add as well as boosting job satisfaction.
Customer Relations
Third, an ERP can improve a company’s business performance by helping customer relations. ERP can provide tailored dashboards for each employee that helps them deliver for customers. For example, sales teams can track orders and inform clients of any changes to deliveries, ensuring a first-class service. This will provide a long-term benefit where your company is seen as being proactive and good to work with which will increase how often customers return to you.
Reporting & Analytics
Fourth, having an ERP system makes gathering insights and reporting significantly easier. Due to the central location of data, teams no longer must get data from multiple system and manually compile reports. Having access to data from across departments allows for dashboards to be created with KPI’s as well as monthly reports to be run automatically. This save teams times and helps managers make informed business decisions.
Comply with Regulations
Finally, an ERP system can make it easier to comply with different regulations for your industry. Using finance as an example, an ERP can track expenditure and revenue to work out the amount of taxes that need to be paid. While this is easier than a manual approach, it also has the benefit of being more likely to be accurate as it works from one version of the data rather than multiple systems.
Conclusion
So, there we have 5 ways that ERP can improve a company’s business performance. And while the benefits will be slightly different for each company, the ability of an ERP to improve day-to-day tasks is there for anyone to seize.
If you think your company could benefit from an ERP system, then get in touch with our team of independent ERP experts. They can help with all stages of an ERP project to ensure your business receives the best benefits possible.