How ERP Applications Execution Can Change Your Business Dimensions?

We can imagine ERP systems as the internal network within businesses that effectively integrate all business areas and improve communication and coordination amongst them. ERP systems integrate all facets of a business into one comprehensive information storage and processing system.

For example, employees in research & development would have access to the same data as the staff in financial management, modified to suit their specific needs. Moreover, the data is made available to all employees in real-time, making it faster and easier for everyone to make more informed, efficient business decisions.

Furthermore, ERP business applications enable all essential business functions and departments to access and share a central source of up-to-the-minute information. In other words, ERP systems are responsible for streamlining the collection, storage, and utilization of the organization's data.

An appropriate ERP system could help you tremendously with collecting, processing, and storing data into one centralized system from areas such as Human Resources, Finance & Accounting, Customer Relationship Management, Business Intelligence, Warehouse Management, Production Management, Inventory and Supply Chain Management, e-commerce, Point of Sales (POS) and more.

What are Some of the Basic ERP Systems?

ERP systems can be used to improve your business processes and efficiency drastically. However, it is essential to have a solid understanding of the various concepts of ERP systems before actually employing and incorporating ERP business applications into your existing process.

Below are some of the common and basic concepts of ERP:

On-Premise or Standalone ERP

Standalone ERP systems are installed locally on your hardware and servers. These are managed by your staff. They are usually limited to a specific area, system, or device. This system is rarely integrated with other functional areas.

For example, you may have a standalone ERP system for inventory management. It will only be integrated with your storage and inventory and won't be incorporated with your R&D or supply chain.

Unlike Cloud ERP, standalone or On-Premise ERD systems usually work from a specific system and have no other access points.

Meaning, all the data related to a single business procedure will be managed through a single user from one specified access point. They will not be exposed to any other areas of functionality except for certain personnel engaged with it.

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Cloud ERP

These systems utilize cloud computing platforms and services to deliver efficiency for a company's business processes.

The term cloud computing defines the delivery of hosted services over the internet, which provides the ability to access the system applications all across the globe so that business functions and processes can be managed from anywhere in the world through the web.

This allows greater mobility, connectivity, and automation of processes for a business. It also enables enterprises to transform how they manage and utilize data entirely.

Supply Chain Management

A supply chain consists of all the elements involved starting from the production of goods to consumers. Supply chain management consists of the numerous services, processes, and functions performed within this greater process.

Supply chain management is one of the main aspects of businesses managed by ERP systems. All fall under supply chain management, from scheduling input to inventory management and tracking output. Needless to say, this sector deals with a tremendous amount of data.

This process is also quite repetitive and consists of huge chunks of data regarding input, production, product information, quality checks, and more.

Mobility Solutions

The facility and ability to access your ERP system remotely from any desired location to manage business processes. Accessibility and mobility are the main facilities offered by an ERP system.

In other words, it's only fair to have unlimited accessibility at your disposal if you incorporate a dedicated ERP system into your business.

Read Also: What Kind of Importance Does the ERP Solution Hold to Develop Your Business?

Business Architecture

This term refers to the structure of a business, static and dynamic combined. There are elements in business structures that adjust themselves according to requirements. Those are the dynamic components of a business. They can acquire a different role or extend the existing role to fulfill situational requirements.

Static components of businesses are those that continue to attain their fixed role. Regardless of what's happening elsewhere in the organization, they maintain their routine activities.

All these elements of a business combined make up the actual structure of the business. An integrated ERP system can bind all the pieces together and maintain coordination.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

This sector is a more customized one. CRM is a function of the business that maintains interactions with customers. The CRM tools incorporated in ERP systems include almost everything required, from the database to market researches and KPIs.

Third-Party Vendors

Third-party vendors are your business partners that can be incorporated into your ERP system. Though indirectly, they are essential parts and functions while your entire business process is concerned. Third-party vendors can play a number of roles for your organization, including:

• Material supply
• Transportation
• Storage
• Business process outsourcing

Benefits of Having an ERP System

Businesses of all sizes and industries are implementing ERP systems and reaping their benefits. What makes ERP systems so efficient and attractive? Following are some of the primary benefits a business can enjoy from having an ERP system set up:

• Simplifying entire finance and accounting processes
• Providing instant access and mobility to      global supply chains for the business leaders
• Providing real-time visibility, insights, and analyses on the business processes to the decision-makers.
• Streamlining and automating tedious, redundant, and complex processes
• Enable leaders to identify challenges and opportunities and make faster and more informed decisions to maximize business efficiency.
• Providing a single, accessible point of reference organization-wide.
• Provides accessibility with a mobile device from anywhere in the world via the internet
• Improves productivity across teams within the organization
• Provides one-touch access to all the information needed by various departments in the business on a need basis
• Provides a secure and organized platform for collecting, processing, and storing data.

Deciding If/When Your Business Needs an ERP Business Applications

Businesses, like individuals, are different in nature and have needed specific to themselves. So, the question stands, "How do we decide if our business requires an ERP system or not? If so, when?"

Following is a list of factors to consider if you want to employ an ERP system. If you can check off most of the items in the list, it might be a good idea for you to start evaluating ERP options in the market:

• Teams and members within the business have to put in too much time and effort for repetitive processes that could be streamlined and automated.
• The business utilizes numerous tools, software, and processes acquired over time that are adopted and implemented into the system but not connected or integrated.
• Your business is affiliated with third-party vendors and applications globally.
• Keeping track of your inventory and managing the decisions is becoming increasingly complex with improvement in production
• The teams in the organization are having difficulty collecting, utilizing, and storing information to boost productivity and efficiency. Communication within and across teams is also not ideal, and members struggle to coordinate with others.
• Keeping pace with changes in regulatory compliance is becoming a nuisance.
• The decision-makers are struggling with access to essential data while they are off-site.
• The problems and complications within your organization are being addressed when it's too late. Addressing the issues as soon as they come is becoming an urgent need for your organization to maintain business processes smoothly.
• If you are facing a majority of the issues discussed in the above list, it is about time you start exploring vendors for an ERP system.

To justify and determine the specific investment needs for an ERP system suited for your organization, you can use the items checked off the above list to consult with the decision-makers and identify how your organization could benefit from an ERP system.

Choosing the Appropriate ERP Solution for Your Business

Whether you are looking to incorporate the first ERP system into your organization or upgrade the existing system, it would be a long-term investment decision for your organization.

Following is a list of steps to help you through the process of determining the right solution for your organization:

Evaluating:

Have the initial discussion about having the ERP system with the members of your organization responsible for making decisions. It's important to maintain transparency and have everyone on board while going through this step.

Assessment:

At this point, you should be identifying the processes within your organization that are working well, the challenges you are experiencing, and the specific needs to address the improvement or the ideal state you wish to attain.

Establishing the Criterion:

It is vital to have a set of criteria or standards while choosing vendors. It may include prices, platform, features, and anything else that might seem important considering your organization's decisions.

Scheduling Consultation Sessions:

At this point, you should be making over the phone, in-person, or online meetings and demonstration arrangements with sales representatives and product experts of the vendors under consideration. You should get a general sense of the offerings and the differences among the several vendors you are dealing with.

Shortlist:

Narrow down the options to 2-3 most attractive and appropriate vendors.

Communication:

Start communicating with the shortlisted vendors by scheduling follow-up sessions, consultations, and calls to get an in-depth understanding of how each solution could impact your business processes and productivity.

Address Your Concerns:

Have specific and adapted questions that you would like each vendor to answer to address your concerns.

Conduct Vendor Reference Checks:

Consult with other businesses that have implemented the ERP solutions and obtain feedback from them. Make notes of what they found to be beneficial, what hasn't worked well for them, what expectations they have fulfilled, what areas of improvement they have noticed etc. It's important to be thorough with this before making the final decision.

Once you have decided on a vendor, spend as much time as needed to scope out the entire project. Continue working with the ERP vendor until deployment to chart out the path for your concerns to turn into success.

Implementing the ERP System at Your Organization

Following is a list of best practices and tips you can follow to ensure and sustain success:

Requirement collections:

It is of utmost importance to understand processes within your business and the essential requirements. You must have your entire business mapped out to each unit and include all facets of it, spending enough time identifying any requirements and inconsistencies.

Return of Investment:

Build up a case for ERP with favorable ROI. Make specific notes of the benefits you plan to achieve from implementing the ERP system. Besides, share the list across your organization with the key decision-makers, stakeholders, team members. Finally, determine KPI's you plan to use to measure the success once the new ERP system has been implemented.

Resources and management

Allocate resources and project management appropriately. Have one individual assigned with the task of implementation throughout? Provide sufficient resources to that person to ensure proper performance.

Ensure everyone in your organization provides full support and commitment from top to bottom. They must understand what is being done, how it affects their work, and how the business gets affected by it as a bigger picture.

Planning

Start planning early. Planning ahead can reduce the time needed to implement the ERP system into your business at an operational level and improve various dimensions of your business.

Implementation

It's important to emphasize migrating your data early in the implementation process. Deciding on the amount of historical data to be migrated into the system and starting the migration process as early as possible is essential to ensure proper implementation.

It is absolutely necessary to train your staff, shuffle within the management to assign appropriate responsibilities, and allow the team members and management sufficient time to adjust to the new system.

Exercise

Have your requirements adequately defined, metrics established, and your business plan augmented. This is necessary to know, remember, and articulate the benefits you wish to attain from implementing the ERP system.

Do not hesitate to reach out for external support. At any point during the implementation process, you might require additional support. External consultants can contribute to successful implementation using their expertise.

Following the steps mentioned above can ensure efficient implementation and reduce the required time.

Wrapping Up

ERP systems have numerous applications beneficial for business processes. From the above discussion, it should be evident that an ERP system can help improve your business processes, efficiency, and productivity if applied timely and appropriately with sufficient relevant resources.

Businesses all across the globe are already enjoying the benefits of Enterprise Resource Planning systems by integrating them into their core business functions. If used correctly, this saves time, money, effort, and personnel for a business.

Find out the specific needs for your organization and have a customized and dedicated ERP solution constructed to make the most out of your business. ERP solutions also enable you to focus specializations, resources, and attention on specified facets of your business that need it the most.

• If you're having trouble achieving and sustaining your business's desired efficiency level, it is high time you start exploring the available ERP business applications available in the market. Consider the above-explained discussion to reap the utmost benefit from the systems.