You mostly run late for month end financial reconciliations. Sales
forecasts are far from reality and have resulted more from solid predictions.
Orders are always lagging behind, thus leaving customers scoffing and
dissatisfied. Inventory management is always haywire and sorting that out is
too much of a task.
Does it sound familiar- like your business or close to it? If you’re
nodding your head in agreement, maybe it’s time you consider investing in an
ERP system.
Every company is unique in its ways and services, thus there is no
single index which directs you to decide on getting an ERP. However, if the
problems faced along with the glitches and disarray resonates with those of
others as well, ERP software can be applied to reap benefits. If you happen to
be one of those suffering from the above-mentioned issues, read on to know the
five most alarming signs saying your company needs Best ERP software.
1) You Have Numerous Softwares for
Various Processes
When you think of the employees at your company from different
departments, do you find anything in common? Do you recall how they record,
track or process information? Do the accounts department use one system for
receivables and payables and the sales department use a different one to record
customer orders? Is processing all the data from entering them to recording and
transferring into database a time consuming and a tedious and manual process?
And do the inventory and warehousing follow a completely different procedure
for the stocking as well as shipment?
Organizations must run on same plane along with all the different
departments running along with, although separately. For the smooth run of the
entire business, the front-end and back-end process must run in accordance with
each other. Data from one department requires to be fed to another for the
continuous flow of information and thus creating a ripple effect in the
business surrounding. Lack of that may tend to inaccurate and/or redundant data
all across the records creating havoc in marketing budgets to payroll.
For example, if you have a Plastic manufacturing company, how would you
collaborate across departments? With a Plastic ERP Solution, each of these departments are
consolidated and indexed to one database making it more accurate and authentic.
One source of information, in the form of one database, makes it real-time and
the software allows the information to pass in the form of packets with lesser
chances of logjams. With lesser manual work and one place integration of all
data, the employees free their time for better work.
2) You Find It Difficult To Access All Information About Your
Business
What if one fine day you need to know the average inventory? Or want a
report to be prepared on the average sales in the last quarter of the year a
certain employee joined? There are many such key performance metrics which
could help portray a picture about your business. For businesses which are more
manual in nature would take up more time to convert into a report.
Suppose you own an Engineering parts manufacturing company, there would
be multiple processes running simultaneously and you would definitely need an Engineering ERP Solution to
have a bird’s eye view of each levels.
The processes in a company are continuous in nature and must keep moving
at a standard pace for successful running of the company. For this to happen,
the employees would require access to key data at all times to have a holistic
view of the operations at any given time. For example, operations executives
should be able to view the inventory along with the order quantity requirements
from each vendor along with the payable and receivables related to each vendor.
3) It Takes Up More Time In Accounting
The earliest signs hinting towards getting ERP software for your company could be from the accounts department. When the employees still
practice the age old procedure of manually recording from paper-based invoices
and sales orders and take up weeks entering them into various processes in
different departments, you might consider getting your hands on ERP software.
Similarly, when financial reporting includes numerous of weeks of
cross-posting information and reconciliation of data manually from umpteen
spreadsheets, it sure does say something about wasting a lot of time. This time
could be well utilised for other productive work.
4) Sales And Customer Service Is Way
Below Expectations
With a growing company grows the inventory too. Managing the inventory
is a herculean task in itself.
Sales, inventory and customer data must be entwined cleverly to give a
wonderful customer service and grow business. Unless all the data pertaining to
these departments are consolidated, relevant, real-time and accurate
information cannot be provided at all times.
With ERP system, all the information are accessible from one place and
staff handling vendors, customers as well internal inventory can answer all
queries with utmost accuracy. It also serves as a dashboard wherein the
inventory level can be viewed in real-time, giving the warehouse manager an
option to reorder as and when required without fail.
5) The IT Gets Too Complex To Handle
Having multiple departments in a business can become a mesh of data
transfers and backups from various departments. Integrating them while managing
the patches and upgrade work without affecting the time and resources
negatively is quite a task!
If on-premise and legacy business software is a part of your patchwork
system, system upgrades can be a nightmare if not efficiently handled. Their
updates are expensive and they are time-consuming apart from overriding the
previously applied customizations with each upgrade. No wonder more than half
of mid-sized businesses run outdated versions of business softwares.
Instead of adding troubles to the already complex IT scenario of the
business, a cloud based ERP technology can provide both efficiency and agility
to the changing business growth and changing needs.
