Any business, which is either big or small involves a gamut of planning, reporting, tracking and measurement. To maintain and keep all the processes in sync across an enterprise, we need a cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning solution.
What is an ERP and why does a small & medium-sized firm need it?
An ERP is software enabling businesses to manage all of their operations, including production, planning, purchasing, manufacturing, sales, distribution, accounting, and customer service from a single integrated system.
Even though small businesses have less complex processes than the bigger ones, still an ERP solution gives an edge to compete with the bigger players. ERP software helps small & medium-sized enterprises optimise business processes and improve communication between departments. ERP also enables small businesses to combine customer and financial data into a single system.
Modern ERP automation, which includes digital scheduling and analysis of production tools, is replacing paper-based systems and excel spreadsheets in small businesses today. Business operations have reportedly become simpler and more efficient as a result of the growth and acceptance of ERP platforms over the past ten years.
Here is why we need an ERP for small and medium-sized enterprises:
1. Share information & transparency
Connect and integrate every department in your business making it simple to transfer data between units and speed up operations. This enables different departments of an enterprise to access real-time data with just one click and ensures transparency between all the departments. It also eliminates the need to re-enter the variables which help to reduce errors.
2. Increase output efficiency and employee productivity
ERP dramatically increases the scalability of business operations. Operations are automated, relieving employees from trivial monotonous work and ensuring a reliable workflow record. Your most valuable resource, your people, can then focus on taking care of the other crucial tasks. By automating business processes on the cloud, a cloud ERP suite provides flexibility to users while scaling business processes with ease.
3. Custom reporting & gain business intelligence
With ERP, small and medium-sized enterprises can track progress, productivity, and performance using accurate data and reporting. Reporting is how organisations keep track of KPIs for each department. Understanding the weak links that may have caused delays or errors is very crucial for decision-makers. However, without a sound system, you can’t generate useful reports. Reports generated by an exhaustive ERP provide insight into where you are currently efficient and where there is room for improvement. This will give you a better understanding of your business and help make better strategies and decisions.
4. Estimation of cost and proper utilisation of available resources
For small and medium-sized businesses, cost budgeting and control are both crucial because these businesses already operate with limited resources and must make the best use of them. Cost analysis becomes simpler owing to ERP solutions, which also help to analyse, plan, and calculate the actual cost of operations and production. Manually performing cost analysis otherwise is very time-consuming and at times may lead to wrong estimates; however, ERP software makes it accurate and quick.
5. Better customer relationship management
Ensuring good customer relationships is very crucial for the success of an enterprise because it’s goodwill that pays off in the long run and helps to attract new customers.
With the help of an ERP software, small and medium sized businesses can manage all facets of customer relationships in a streamlined and effective manner.
Conclusion
Small and medium enterprises can transform their data into useful business intelligence and automate processes on the cloud with a cloud ERP suite. ERP software for small businesses are necessary for discrete and line manufacturing processes. To reap the optimum benefits, including lower costs, operational planning, CRM, etc., SMEs must carefully evaluate their needs and choose the software for their business.
SourcePro is a software company which offers the best cloud ERP software for SMEs in India. New Horizon Enterprise by SourcePro is the best ERP software for SMEs. It is an integrated ERP solution developed with 2 decades of industry experience that allows small and medium-sized businesses to streamline their critical processes across multiple offices, factories and locations. Powered by an unmatched ERP engine and auto MIL, New Horizon ERP is a versatile solution for discrete manufacturing that easily adapts to your business and industry needs while maximising the ROI.