Implementing an ERP system is NOT something you do for fun. It’s expensive and can be very frustrating and painful. But the effort comes with the potential for tremendous rewards to your organization. The right ERP system will improve every aspect of your business and can be a strategic and competitive weapon to help you gain market share against competitors. Below are just a few examples of how ERP benefits an organization across each major department.
EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP
Owners, presidents, and CEOs understand that you have to spend money to make money but it’s often difficult to justify investing in ERP software when you could spend that money on new equipment or other tangible assets. Implementing the right ERP software can dramatically improve every aspect of your business from employee retention to customer satisfaction with consider cost savings and increased profits. Further, ERP software can significantly increase the value of your business for owners and investors. ERP helps executive leaders to understand what’s happening throughout the business with alerts, dashboards, and tools to make strategic decisions when necessary.
FINANCE
CFOs and controllers need access to accurate, real-time information. The right ERP system provides a clear picture of working capital, profit and loss, revenue opportunities, sales trends, and can shorten monthly and year-end close procedures with additional cost savings in receivables and payables automation.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
Kissmetrics estimates that it costs seven times more to acquire a new customer than it does to retain an existing customer. ERP software is vital as it provide access to information necessary to resolve customer issues. ERP can tell you what they’ve ordered, if it’s available, when they’ll get it, and what else they may need. It also provides a platform for you to exceed expectations in every single interaction, to build loyal customers who will recommend you to their peers and defend you at all costs.
SUPPLY CHAIN
ERP touches every aspect of your supply chain from inventory to warehouse management, shipping, receiving, logistics, and more. Without ERP you face dozens of manual, disconnected processes prone to error. With ERP you are armed to operate lean with significant cost savings in inventory reductions, fewer stock-outs, lower transportation costs, fewer shipping issues, and improved visibility into stock movement, inventory trends, and complete traceability of lot and serialized inventory.
MANFACTURING
Are you making money on every product? How much are you losing in scrap, rework, and machine resetup? Are your resources fully utilized? With the right ERP software your manufacturing operations will seem like they’re running themselves. Your team has the tools they need to plan, schedule, and react to changes while gaining efficiencies, improving quality, and lowering costs across the board.
SALES AND MARKETING
You may think that sales and marketing work exclusively in CRM but the best companies leverage the data in their ERP system along with a tightly integrated CRM application to identify sales trends, to streamline commission calculations, to improve the quote to order process, and to gain insights into sales that impact marketing plans. ERP is a vital tool to keep sales and marketing on track.
HUMAN RESOURCES
Employees are without a doubt one of the most critical resources for any business – especially for manufacturers. Employees hold the knowledge and skills required to make, sell, and service the products you provide. Keep them happy and armed with the information they need and you’re poised for growth. There are literally hundreds of reasons why ERP helps human resources from employee on-boarding to training, compliance, time entry, benefits administration, and payroll (to name just a few).Selecting the right ERP is not an easy task, but if you start planning from the start you will have no trouble finding an ERP system that maximizes your business. Contact us to see how our experts can help you through the process.
