Companies of all sizes, from small and medium sized businesses (SMBs) to large enterprises typically have several systems in place to manage inventory and complex operations like enterprise resource planning (ERP). As more companies move ERP systems to the cloud, there are major benefits to gain during volatile business climates like the one we are experiencing today. In some less desirable cases, companies run their entire operations on excel spreadsheets or legacy software systems which limits the ability to scale and provide agility to customers. Companies that have disparate systems often run into problems like double entry, incorrect pricing and quantities, lost materials, low visibility, and overall inaccurate data, which leads to poor business strategies and decision-making. Old systems also tend to require more training, due to a cumbersome system that requires ongoing support and frequent maintenance just to keep it running.
A Single ERP System to Effectively Manage Operations in the Cloud
Moving to a cloud ERP system helps take companies to the next level of revenue generation and customer loyalty. A good ERP process allows business leaders to improve agility through better inventory control, demand planning, real time analytics/reporting, production, order entry, reverse logistics, financial systems such as purchasing (POs) and vendor management, all under one roof. With a cloud-based enterprise resource planning system, data is much easier to maintain and analyze.
Having a single ERP system also allows better insights and communications across departments from purchasing, sales, operations, and customer support to accounting and finance. A single cloud ERP system connects the front office with the back office and increases visibility into operations, supply chains, and critical partners/vendors to reduce costs and increase profitability.
7 Reasons to Consider a Cloud ERP System
- Reduce Costs: If you are using several disparate systems to manage inventory that also means you have to maintain several systems. IT upkeep quickly becomes expensive with 15%+ of budgets being very common simply for maintaining legacy systems.
- Data Integrity: With disparate systems having good clean data is hard to maintain. Human error exists and increases especially with double entry. By using one system it allows the users to input the data once and stay in one system. Analyzing data with reports and dashboards becomes easier too.
- Single Point of Control: A single source for information allows executives to easily access data and improves visibility. It also allows companies to integrate more processes and improve workflows to drive increased productivity.
- Increased Business Insight: By having more visibility into your supply chain and operations, businesses make better decisions and have a better understanding of different business needs. It is clearer to see trending inventory items and where your supply chain bottlenecks exist.
- Simple to Train: When companies use disparate systems, often only one person really knows how to use the legacy system, and thus, makes it harder to train new users. With a simple single system training becomes more scalable since there are a multitude of online resources available such as knowledge bases, training videos, etc.
- Minimal Maintenance: Since you are on one system you no longer have to manage different support issues from completely different systems. Having one system increases a user’s chance of fixing a problem quickly because there is only one technology partner to manage.
- Easier Upgrade Process: Company-wide system upgrades become much simpler in the cloud. You will no longer have to keep track of several different upgrades and releases or worry about the system crashing. It also decreases the IT tension about making sure integrations are intact and work with one another.
It’s clear. Moving to a single cloud-based ERP system allows companies of all sizes to scale and become more profitable.
Want to learn more? See how our customer Flow Water scaled from a startup to a publicly listed company using Ascent Solutions and Salesforce.
