What is ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a collection of integrated software solutions that are used to manage one’s business, company or institution. It is made up of a few basic modules that are essential in running your business eg. Human Resource, Finance, Inventory Management, Purchase Management, Sales Management, CRM (Customer Relationship Management), Manufacturing Management, among others.
ERP
Although it was only for the manufacturing industry before, it has now expanded and is being utilized in various industries and sectors. For instance, ERP systems are now used in retail and wholesale, service, education, real estate, food & beverage, health & even government.
ERP systems helps one manage their employees, manage buying of products or services, selling, distribution, accounting & finances. Integrated ERP software allows organizations from all industries to integrate and manage all of these basic functions. Investing in an ERP software system may seem pricy at first and not understand how it is going to save you any money at all. However, once you decide to implement it, only then will you see & understand how it is an excellent ROI for your business. Allow me to explain why using an ERP system is important for your business, regardless of the size of the business.
Importance of ERP System
- Improved Collaboration
Cross-departmental collaboration is a very important and crucial part of business. Using an ERP system improves collaboration within the workplace, as it breaks down functional barriers that usually exist between departments.
When organizational/company data is stored in a centralized & consistent ERP, then workers from different departments can retrieve and access data from other departments.
- Optimizing Efficiency
With ERPs, one can automate repetitive tasks ie tracking inventory, assigning tasks to employees, monitoring working hours, distributing salaries, generating financial reports. It therefore helps by simplifying business processes that take a lot of time and effort when done manually. By automating those complex processes, your employees can focus more on their core deliverables and roles without bugging each other. For example, the marketing team can generate sales-related reports based off web traffic without bugging anyone from the IT team, or the Finance manager can generate sales-related reports without having to interfere with the sales manager.
- Saving on Operational Costs
With ERPs, most operational activities are automated hence reducing unnecessary interruptions, delays, amount of labour and complex work. This saves time as work is finished more quickly and other breakdowns are anticipated much better.
- Improving Data Security
Since ERPs are centralized, they come with Firewalls & restriction controls so as to prevent data breaches. Since access points are easy to monitor. The administrators who are responsible for company’s data can provide limited access rights to employees. Case in point, the HR Manager can limit & hide access to some important data only for themselves and the stakeholders while granting employees permission to view their financial data. They can also quickly and easily deactivate the access of laid-off employees and grant access to the new ones.
ERPs can also show user activity of the employees to the admins so as to identify unauthorized actions or suspicious activity patterns in the system.
- Better Analytics
The stakeholders and owners of a business or company rely on reports to make predictions & forecasts, which can then affect the decisions they make. A proper ERP system can generate real-time, complete and reliable reports as it uses sophisticated filters and analytics that filter inconsistencies in the data.
Accurate business and corporate reports generated from the ERP will help stakeholders and business owners make the best decisions for their business.
- Simpler Resource Management
Along with managing your inventory, ERP also manages manufacturing. ERP provides insight into all manufacturing operations including the shop floor. This enables users to optimize production schedules, equipment and labor to maximize capacity.
Additionally, ERP manages your Bill of Materials (BOM) and fixed assets. With this software, users can easily create and edit BOMs along with keep track of all previous changes. Fixed asset management allows users to schedule equipment maintenance to reduce unexpected downtime, improving your profitability and supply chain relationships.
- Improved Inventory Management
A significant challenge for growing businesses is monitoring and tracking their expanding stock amounts. ERP uses barcoding, RFID tags, and sequential numbers to keep tabs in your stock at each stage through the distribution chain.
These tools help you keep costs on stock levels at several stores or warehouses, which things have been in transport, and which items are on the shelves, ready to be sold to customers. The greater stock visibility optimizes the selection, pack, and ship procedure significantly, eliminating all of the guesswork.
Inventory tracking also strengthens reporting, as tracking technologies provide more precise numbers. Users may configure customized KPIs to determine which goods move the quickest demonstrating greater need and which raise carrying costs.
Together with the greater accuracy provided by ERP, warehouse supervisors may get real-time information on their stock to make more accurate business decisions.
Conclusion
Basically, an ERP helps your business or organization by automating most of the manual tasks that take a huge chunk of time, energy & resources. Using an ERP also eases communication and access of information across various departments and other personnel, protects company data since it makes it easier to control and track who has access to that information.
The significance of using an ERP outweighs the initial cost, effort and time used in implementing it, if you choose the ideal software solution that fits your business.
At Robisearch, we even offer custom-made features when you choose our ERP system, based on the model and type of your business or organization
If you are not sure of the features you need in an ERP system, don’t hesitate to discuss it with the right ERP solution provider. Robisearch Ltd provides free consultation for those who are looking to implement automated solutions to streamline their business operations.
Robisearch Ltd is situated at Suraj Plaza, 5th floor, Opposite Jamhuri Highschool, Limuru Rd, Ngara, Nairobi, Kenya.
2nd location: Kisii, Umoja Complex – Family Bank Plaza, 2nd floor.
Email: info@robisearch.com, robisearch@gmail.com
Phone: (+254 716 413386), (+254 780 655987), (+254 782 337270)