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Playbook: Your complete guide to purchasing an enterprise resource planning platform
Kerry Mann, Partner, Business Platforms Market Lead (Industrials)
Daniel Caringi, Partner, Business Platforms Market Lead (Services)
Sean Murphy, Partner, National Digital Solutions Leader
You need to be agile to thrive in today’s rapidly evolving business environment. Whether you need to swiftly adapt to shifting market forces or make informed business decisions as your business grows, it all begins with 360-degree organizational insight.
[insights]
- ERPs deliver a much deeper level of insight into your business than legacy systems currently used in many businesses.
- Adopting an ERP platform can help you save time, make better decisions, and scale effectively.
- ERP platforms are secure and backed by strong cybersecurity practices, meaning you can feel confident that your organization is protected.
Here’s where an enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform can prove invaluable: These digital platform tools help you see a more holistic picture of your organization and how all the corners connect. For most organizations, adopting an ERP leads to better performance through process integration and profit optimization.
What is an ERP?
An ERP is a digital platform that helps you plan, manage, and make real-time adjustments to your organization’s myriad inputs and outputs via a single, interface. ERPs offer the functionality you need to eliminate silos and empower various departments to communicate more effectively, spend and earn more efficiently, and make more rapid and better-informed decisions.
In other words, they are the foundation of a streamlined and fully integrated operation.
Cloud-based ERPs are the norm to meet the needs of an evolving, decentralized, and increasingly mobile workplace. The cloud offers virtual access to enterprise information — including the ability track shipments, identify delays, and introduce solutions in real-time. Whether you want to create and share documents, track and analyze statistics, manage products and inventory, or deploy human capital, you can action these through centralized financial and operational management functionality.
Why should you consider a cloud-based ERP?
Increased investment from leading technology vendors and virtual access are two key reasons companies opt for a cloud-based ERP. Ease of updating is another. Most legacy (i.e., on-premises) applications don’t come with expiration dates and it’s often difficult to pinpoint precisely when they’ve stopped serving a business’s needs.
Conversely, cloud-based platforms only get better with time. Platforms release regular releases and update automatically and offer best of breed capabilities to deliver precisely what a company needs as it scales and grows.
By the numbers: How ERP can help recover wasted profit
An ERP may be for you if...
Limited Visibility
You’re struggling to make decisions due to poor visibility into financial or operational metrics
No real time metrics
You lack access to real time metrics, dashboards, or key performance indicators
Manual processes
Excessive manual processes are slowing you down
Struggle with disparate applications
Inefficiencies result from multiple systems and no real digital strategy
Compliance issues
You’re drowning in compliance issues because there isn’t a single organizational source of truth
Scaling challenges
You’re having trouble scaling operations due to a lack of clear, enterprise-wide information
How does an ERP enhance organizational performance?
Sustainable growth requires agility, productivity, and operational efficiency. A digital platform that supports enterprise resource planning and digital collaboration won’t just sharpen innovation, performance, and customer service — but also your competitive edge.
ERPs are designed to consolidate your organization’s financial data and its complex web of information and moving parts. Below is just a small snapshot of how these platforms can help you enhance operational performance, no matter your industry or sector:
Element 1
Financial Management
Gain unparalleled visibility into the organization’s finances from anywhere, on any device.
- Manage invoices and payments to vendors
- Monitor revenue streams and analyze trends
- Review and adjust budgets
- Generate reports and financial forecasts
- Share critical financial data across teams and lines of business
Element 2
Human resources management
Fill knowledge gaps and keep everyone on the same page whether team members are working from home, in the office, or on location.
- Manage employee performance and identify areas for improvement
- Make data-informed hiring, termination, and compensation decisions
- Automate payroll, tax filing, expense tracking, and relevant deductions
- Log communications to facilitate conflict resolution
- Deliver self-service training to improve employee skills
- Manage scheduling and provide visibility into team member availability
Element 3
Sales management
Enhance your ability to generate revenue and build on existing revenue streams.
- Seamlessly connect with prospects and customers
- Stay in contact with prospects and customers throughout the sales cycle
- Integrate other organizational services, such as payroll and scheduling, quoting and confirmations
- Track financial setbacks
- Compare sales performance to historical data
Element 4
Procurement
Make sure you have the supplies you need when you need them, at the lowest possible price.
- Improve cycle times and turnover rates
- Minimize overstock and backorders
- Manage materials / components orders from multiple vendors
- Monitor fluctuating costs, budgeting, accounting, and price changes
- Identify errors / lags in problematic production areas
- Automate inventory restocking
Element 5
Supply chain and inventory management
Get full transparency into your supply chain so you can get product to market faster.
- Optimize delivery times to minimize costs and maximize productivity
- Analyze each step in the supply chain in real time to identify bottlenecks and efficiencies
- Track and project your supply chain and accounting spend
- Gain a 360-degree view of your entire operation
Element 6
Service fleet management
Manage everyday processes and seamlessly coordinate field and office teams.
- Efficiently route crews, equipment, and service
- Track work orders, issue invoices, and confirm customer signoffs
- Centralize quotes, inspections, and deliveries
- Monitor inventory
- Collect payments and manage financial transactions
- Troubleshoot and address unforeseen challenges
How does an ERP enhance profitability?
Spend less. Earn more. ERPs offer enhancements on both sides of the balance sheet by streamlining processes, improving communication, and helping you make timelier and better-informed decisions.
Predictive and planning tools
Eliminate waste and make the most of your resources on hand. ERPs help you understand what the organization needs, when it will need it, and how demand ebbs and flows over time.
Better communication and coordination
Prevent errors and costly re-work. A single source of truth provides better visibility into processes in real time for everyone in the organization.
- Break down barriers and miscommunications created through information silos
- Gain more visibility into project timing, costs, resources, and materials
- Share information more quickly and keep everyone up to date on processes, opportunities, and challenges
- Improve employee satisfaction, customer communication, and shareholder value
Adapt quickly to opportunities and headwinds
Perform a range of scenario analyses to monitor, optimize, and uncover revenue streams and quantify the best path forward for the organization.
- Seamlessly track payroll, operating expenses, and income streams
- Quickly create and share reports with key individuals and governing bodies
- Provide detailed projections based on historical data
- Monitor economic reconciliation programs and manage capital, equity, and stakeholder investments
- Audit existing programs and budgets, and address the impacts of industry-specific vulnerabilities
Spend more time on tasks that are driving revenue
Offloading the bulk of administrative work to an ERP allows teams to spend more time on actions and activities that are driving the bottom line.
Improve data security and reduce downtime
Leading cloud service providers often offer better resilience and reliability with less exposure to cyber breaches or unforeseen disasters (e.g., power outage, weather events) — which translate to long-term financial gain.
Invest in technology that grows with the business
Cloud ERPs update automatically and always provide the organization with the latest available version. Organizations can save hundreds of thousands by avoiding the need to upgrade incompatible hardware and software every several years.
Begin your free assessment
Lower costs, better business insights, greater line of sight into how your teams are functioning and how everyone contributes to your organization’s success: these are just a handful of the benefits you can expect from an ERP platform tailored to your needs.
To get started on a free ERP assessment, contact Kerry Mann, National Leader of Enterprise Resource Planning, at [email protected]