At the end of the month, it’s taking longer and longer to reconcile financials. Even forecasts related to sales are based more on guesswork than on solid figures. As a result, business is having trouble in keeping up with its order volume and also customer satisfaction is faltering. Marketers have no idea how much inventory they have in their warehouse and it is quite painful to find out the same. If this is the scenario in their business or close to it, then it may be the time to consider an ERP system.
Because each and every organization is unique and there is no single indicator that utters, “Your business needs ERP now!” However, the companies that are benefited most from ERP software will often face exactly same problems and frustrations. Is your business facing some of these same issues? Here are the points which will help you to discover the signs that your company is ready for an ERP.
Having Different Software for Various Processes
Think for few minutes about how employees at your company track records and process information. Does your account’s staff use one system for payables and receivables while sale’s staff uses another system to enter in customer orders? Is that process of order taking and fulfilling into accounting takes time-sucking manual process? Do your employees use different solutions to track shipping and receiving in the warehouse?
It can wreak havoc on the processes when various front and backend systems run separately, that are meant to ensure smooth running of company. While not having an accurate data from sales, inventory management will suffer a lot and without the updated information from accounting can prompt a contagion effect on everything varying from marketing budgets to payrolls.
ERP software amalgamates these systems so that each and every business function depends on a single database. An ERP solution breaks up information logjams with one source of information that contains accurate, real-time data and helps staff in making better decisions more quickly as well as freeing up their time to work on more high-value exercises so that it can help the businesses to grow even more faster.
Not Having Easy Access to Information
How long will it take to find out, what your average sales margin is? What about various key performance metrics of orders per day? Companies relying on siloes systems and spreadsheets needs to be constantly updated and should be reconciled manually.
When employees across your company need immediate access to key data that means the pace of business is faster than ever before. At any time, executives can get a holistic view of business operations with an ERP solution while others can only get the information they needed for doing their jobs more efficiently.
Accounting is More Difficult and Takes Longer
Often, from your accounting department only, the first noticeable sign will come that your company needs ERP software. If your employees every week spend hours in manually entering paper-based invoices and sales orders into different accounting then you need to consider that most of the time is being wasted on tasks that ERP software can handle instantly.
The same scenario is going with financial reporting, an ERP solution can make a noteworthy impact if it is taking ages to reconcile or consolidate information related to finance across systems and through countless spreadsheets. So, if all the financials will be in a single database then accounting staff won’t have to spend several hours rekeying numbers, cross-posting information, or manually reconciling data. Thus, it will help your accounting staff to deliver critical reports without any delay or frustration and they will become more productive.
Sales and the Customer Experience Suffers
Often, inventory management is one of their biggest challenges when companies are growing very fast. As it ensures that the subsequent amount of products is in the right place at the right time, which is a vital part of any business operation.
When customer data, inventory and sales are separately maintained, then serious problems can occur across your company. Sales will be off until the next shipment arrives, if you are running out of a popular product. Meanwhile, if customers are calling to inquire about an order and employees are not able to track it to see whether they are shipped or are still in stock then company will start developing a poor reputation for services and reliabilities.
Moreover, with an ERP system staff of every department will have an access to the same and will also have up-to-date information too.
Is Your Business Ready for an ERP System?
