Facing these 5 challenges in your business? Here's how a modern ERP solution can help.
While all businesses have their unique set of challenges they must overcome, there are specific common challenges that every small and mid-sized business faces at one point or another. This is especially true during times of rapid expansion or growth. Those companies that are equipped with a robust ERP solution are more likely to overcome these challenges and gain a competitive edge.
But First, What is an ERP Solution?
An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) solution is a type of business management software that integrates a company's various business processes into one unified system. This means a company can consolidate its financials, operations, HR, reporting, and under one platform. Learn more about what an ERP solution is here.
An ERP Can Solve These Business Challenges
Let's explore the five most common business challenges that ERP software will solve.
Too many manual processes or repetitive tasks
Repetitive manual tasks are tedious and increase the chance and margin of human error. If your employees are constantly entering data manually, such as for sales invoices, cross-referencing spreadsheets, or coping information to other systems and solutions, this time-consuming process may be costing your business more than you think. Not only does it take time away from higher-value, revenue-generating activities, but human error could result in costly mistakes. Repetitive tasks such as taking inventory, placing orders, sending invoices – all of these can be easily automated when you use an ERP solution. This is especially helpful as your business grows and the volume of repetitive tasks doubles. Automation increases your business efficiency as a whole and results in less wasted time and effort.
Poor communication and disconnected systems
If there's a communication disconnect or information silo at any point in your business, it can cause many issues. All employees need to have all the information they need at all times when carrying out their duties. They should also be able to share information across different departments easily. Lack of communication, especially between different business departments, can lead to missed opportunities and delays. An ERP solution will integrate your business data across departments within one platform. If your company relies on multiple stand-alone solutions, this also contributes to poor communication as employees in different departments use different systems that don't speak to each other. An ERP solution acts as a single source of truth, where all the information is available and reduces the issue of inaccurate or redundant data.
Lack of financial visibility or access to data
Proper financial planning involves exploring the present financial condition, building strategic plans, and allocating funds. Data largely drive financial planning. So, if it is becoming increasingly difficult to access financial information or takes extremely long to generate reports, it is time to rely on an ERP solution. ERP solutions provide total transparency into your company's financials and give you a holistic view of your business operations. As all your data is within one solution and can be viewed in real-time, this goes a long way in simplifying the reporting process. Apart from handling data and monitoring trends, ERP software can also help you make better business decisions. In fact, some ERP solutions, like Dynamics 365 Business Central, comes with in-built business intelligence tools that can provide you with actionable insights, giving you a significant edge over your competitors.
Lack of customer knowledge and poor customer experiences
If your business is unable to maintain a rapport with its customers, it will struggle to survive. Customer relationship management can be an impossible endeavor if everything has to be done manually. Modern ERP software, like Dynamics 365 Business Central, comes with in-build CRM capabilities that allow you to keep track of customer data and their interactions with your organization. As everything is connected, the transition from sales to service is smoother, as you can easily track customer returns or reply to inquiries. It essentially streamlines communication and ensures your customers receive prompt responses to their queries. Having customer information in one place makes it easier to upsell and cross-sell and provide exceptional customer experiences.
Lack of agility and access
Today's businesses need to be quick to adapt to ever-changing trends and risks, especially in this post-pandemic landscape. Being agile and flexible allows your company to stay resilient in unpredictable times. An ERP solution, in particular, a cloud ERP solution, can help your company achieve this as it consolidates processes, reduces operational costs, and makes it simple to scale your operations up and down, as required. Cloud ERP also lets your employees access information and data on the go, using any device, on any browser, as long as they have an internet connection. The ability to enable remote work as and when needed allows your employees to complete everyday business operation tasks without needing to be at your physical office, without sacrificing productivity or collaboration.
An ERP Solution Will Transform Your Organization
An ERP solution can eliminate many business problems. When you think of how ERP software handles business challenges, three things come to mind: data consolidation, process automation, and streamlined communication. ERP solutions have a lot of benefits, including lower operating costs, increased efficiency, improved reporting, optimized supply chains, and more. To learn more about ERP solutions and how they can transform your organization, we've rounded up some of our most popular resources below.
Got questions? Speak to an ERP consultant from Kwixand Solutions today. We help businesses across Canada and the US digitally transform and guide them through the entire ERP process, from selection to implementation, to support and training.