ERP Solutions

Predicting the Future with ERP Solutions – Part 2

The obvious advantage of ERP solutions is the return on investment you’ll get once you’ve implemented the solution.   Consider how much money you’ll save by automating certain process, for example. No matter if you’re a mom and pop shop or a large manufacturer you need a way to manage and automate your business processes.  Everybody is in business to make money.  Money makes the world go round.  The way to make money is to maximize the efficiency of your business processes.  Maximizing efficiently is one big advantage of an ERP system.  Accuracy is another advantage of ERP systems.  Having insight to your inventory, for example, or having real-time data feedback keeps your business up to date technologically.

Another advantage of ERP solutions is that they can handle unexpected growth.  For example, let’s say you’re a small mom and pop shop and don’t expect to grow.  You buy some Enterprise Resource Planning software for small to mid-size businesses.  All of a sudden those donuts you make take off and everyone wants them.  Well, you can upgrade your current ERP to handle tasks for a mid-size business.

Decide how you may take advantage of an Enterprise Resource Planning solution by defining your business model.  Determine where your gaps are and how an ERP solution can fill those gaps.  Enterprise Resource Planning solutions are great if you take advantage of all the functionality they have to offer.  If you find an ERP solution with functionality that you don’t plan to use, don’t buy that functionality.  Only buy those modules you plan to take advantage of.  Why waste time implementing, supporting and upgrading functionality you’ll never use.

In some cases businesses may take advantage of free open source Enterprise Resource Planning systems.  One such free open source ERP is called Compiere.  Other open source ERP solutions include; Openbravo, BlueErp, and Opentaps.  Open source ERPs are great because they come with the compiled code and the uncompiled code.   If you’re not comfortable with open source ERP solutions, you might want to look into Enterprise Resource Planning SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions.  ERP SaaS solutions are much less expensive when compared to on-site implementations.  For example, you can save lots of money by not having to purchase hardware needed for an on-site implementation.

No person or machine can truly predict the future.  However, you can come as close as possible by using your ERP solution to generate statistical analysis’ and reports. 

Written by :

kristine H