A commonly held perception is that ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) tools are best suited for large-scale industries due to high cost of ownership, complexity of implementation and subsequent maintenance costs. But, in the last decade, there has been a noticeable rise in the number of SMEs willing to take on this technology and make it an integral part of their businesses.
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The right resources – or lack thereof – can mean the difference between survival and dissolution for a small enterprise. Globalization has led to the advent of disruptive technologies that SMEs need to harness to scale or even stay afloat.
As organizations pass through this transitional phase, they should be able to alter core business capabilities that will generate increased revenue opportunities. And ERP(Enterprise Resource Planning) software provides the flexibility needed to make this shift.
SMEs need to invest in technology to achieve success in the digital economy and seamlessly integrate processes across the organization this will help them take complexities out of the business and focus on growth.
We firmly believe that SMEs need to invest in ERP to benefit from built-in analytics, rapid deployment, and best practices for different business processes, including financials, production, HR, procurement and supply chain management.
Below are some of the ERP tools that can able to automate key processes and free up more time to focus on innovative growth opportunities. This clearly demonstrates how ERP can help solve issues at multiple stages.
Benefits of using ERP
SMEs hold in them the potential to be the next big enterprise and ERP systems can help them create innovative growth. Regardless of the industry or business size, real-time ERP software can help connect people, devices and networks – and create a digital core for implementing new technologies.
Here are some enlisted key benefits of next-generation ERP software:
1. Industry best practices: A systematic approach is adopted to accelerate the ERP solution implementation with minimal risk. The service packages simplify each implementation phase to achieve resilient, sustainable and flexible solutions for SMEs quickly.
2. Immediate: Empowers business users with live information from across operations, enabling business leaders to act in the moment and respond quickly to changing conditions.
3. Intelligent: ERP enables organizations to move beyond automation to contextual, role-based suggestion and autonomy, to improve productivity and support informed decision-making.
4. Integrated: The ERP solution connects workflows across every part of the enterprise and the entire value chain to increase productivity, improve collaboration, and drive innovation.
How to choose the right ERP software for your business
Knowing the organization’s exact requirement is crucial in selecting ERP. Being able to prioritize on the critical features will help SMEs adopt, implement and evolve with ERP faster.
Companies simply need to answer five simple questions to pick the right ERP. These are related to: Employee size, Industry, Deployment Option, Business Complexity and Expected Employee Growth.
These parameters should help SMEs realize their own requirements while selecting the right solution.
SMEs should look out for the following features while choosing an ERP solution:
1. One that covers all business functions and provides industry best practices: When a software provides industry best practices and complete coordination among the various functions of the business, it provides the management with the ability to quickly deploy the platform, get real-time analytics and business intelligence for complete visibility.
Once all the major functions in an organization are interconnected and on the one single platform, it creates an ease of operation, removing unnecessary complexities.
2. Ensure it can grow with you: It is extremely important that the ERP software suite is a completely scalable solution leveraging the benefits of a SaaS ERP. If the organization adds a new subsidiary or acquires new entities, the suite should be able to easily incorporate them and integrate office & warehouses across the globe.
Also, establishing a digital core can help connect the enterprise with people, business networks as well as next-generation technologies such as the IoT, Big Data, machine learning, artificial intelligence and more.
3. Should be available anytime, anywhere: In current times, when work flexibility and accessibility is of utmost necessity, it becomes equally important that the ERP software used can cater to this need.
4. Look for experienced partner ecosystem for rapid deployment: The ERP solutions should be supported by a mature partner ecosystem that can help SMEs identify, buy, build, implement, service, support and run the solutions that best fits the organization’s unique needs. Also, they should seek industry based Rapid Deployment Packages that are built, sold and supported by the partners.
Such integrated solutions leverage the core ERP software and innovations, together with the partner’s intellectual property, such as industry or line of business expertise, specialised services, customisations, configurations or applications. These resulting solutions offer rapid time to value, low risk with high predictability at attractive price points
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