ERP Systems

Having a strong research and development (R&D) team or a creative marketing team isn’t always enough to give a company a competitive edge. Of course, having brilliant people in the right positions is important, but just as important is supplying these people with up to date, well organized data. With the right data available, knowledgeable employees can make better business decisions. Well implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems will provide users with access to all relevant data for their job role.

A successful ERP implementation can bring tremendous value to a company in numerous ways. Among other benefits, ERP systems help a company to forecast inventory needs, quickly respond to ever changing macro-economic factors and adapt to various business conditions. The increased adaptability that comes with a good ERP implementation greatly increases a company’s ability to stay competitive. The ability to quickly access information on trends and how the company has responded to the trends in the past is important for a company to make swift and confident business decisions. For example, if a natural disaster has hit a region, the company can look at historical data to determine how the suppliers in that region might be affected. If necessary, a decision can be made to divert orders to another supplier in a different region or enact a slight price increase in case of a shortage of raw materials.

In addition to providing high level reporting to help with business decisions, ERP systems can provide data at a much more granular level, helping departments achieve a seamless sharing of information. Each job role will use a specialized screen or interface for their function, but the departments share the same database. This means that a sales person can determine the exact status of a customer’s order because each step is entered as a transaction and recorded in the database. From the moment a sales person enters his or her order into the system, that order’s progress will be tracked and logged until delivery to the customer. As a case in point, a customer calls a salesperson and asks the progress on an order for 100 business computers. The salesperson would be able to tell the customer the exact step in the build process and the estimated completion date.

Clearly, the benefits of an Enterprise Resource Planning system can be remarkable.  The capacity for ERP systems to provide various levels of data granularity at users’ fingertips can be of extreme value to a company, providing a very quick return on investment. 

Written by :

Amy Cruz