Why ERP Systems are Important to a Company?

by Edwin Alexander Marketing Manager

Once used exclusively by large-scale manufacturers, enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems today are increasingly being used by smaller organizations across many industries. While these systems may not be practical for the smallest of companies, many small to medium-size business (SMBs) have adopted ERP.

ERP solutions are designed to meet the specific needs of different types of organizations. Today, a multitude of competing ERP software solutions exists, even in niche markets.

Major benefits and advantages of ERP systems:

Saving Money

ERP packages are not cheap, so it can seem unlikely that the program would actually save your organization money. However, this is exactly what can happen. An ERP unifies many of the systems that may currently be fragmented in your organization, and this ranges from everything from product development and supply chain management to IT support, management and more.

By unifying systems, you will create cost-efficiency and improved business processes. More than that, your organization can save money by eliminating the need for different users to be trained on different systems. All will be trained on one system, and there are cost and time savings associated with this.

Improved Collaboration

The features of ERP applications can vary depending on the program that you are using, but all of these systems enable you to share and edit data as well as to improve security and access. There is no need to merge information across various systems or sources. Because all of the data is compiled, stored, shared and accessed through a single system, there is no concern about how accurate, complete or secure the data files are.

Better Analytics

The right ERP can make it easier and faster for your team to generate various reports, and this may include everything from income and expense statements to customize reports based on metrics and trends. The ability to have access to these reports quickly enables you and your team to make better decisions more quickly. You will not need to rely on your IT staff to generate the reports that you need.

Improved Productivity

Without an ERP, you and your staff members may have redundancies in operations, or you may have to waste time completing repetitive tasks manually. This can ultimately have a negative impact on your bottom line. An ERP will eliminate this time waste, and this can ultimately have a positive effect on your organization’s productivity, efficiency and profitability.

Happier Customers

An ERP is an internal system, so you may not think it has much to do with customer satisfaction. However, this is not the case. The right ERP software solution can be used in various marketing tasks, and this relates to processes that include lead generation and customer acquisition to late-phase customer service and customer retention. Ultimately, it can help you to better communicate with your customers and clients through all stages of the process.

Simplified Regulatory Compliance

If your organization is like most, your team may spend a considerable amount of time trying to comply with regulations related to the Federal Information Security Management Act, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act and others. Successful execution of your ERP project can help you to gain and maintain compliance through the improved ability to manage and secure data and to generate suitable reports.

Improved Inventory and Production Management

If your organization utilizes the inventory and has a production process, you can also benefit from improved management in these areas. An ERP can be used to simplify the task of reducing overages, improving production and delivery schedules and more. It makes it simple and easy to optimize your efforts rather than to create an informed guess about volumes, processes and more.