ERP software is taking the world by a storm, though because of the upfront costs, a lot of smaller or younger businesses step back and say that they are “too small” for financial ERP.
This is why many of the leading ERP solution providers now offer a variety of products which cater to different goals and sizes of businesses. But with that aside, small businesses must realize that in order to survive and thrive in today’s fast-paced marketplace, they need to be more agile and more sharp than their larger and better known competitors. The reality is that no business is too small for ERP.
What Does “ERP” Mean?
Known as Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP has been the backbone for many corporate-scale enterprises for years now. Organizations of all sizes rely heavily on this tool for a variety of tasks:
- Inventory
- Product management
- Order processing
It is also uniquely designed to monitor businesses resources between different company stakeholders. Some of these resources including manufacturing capacity, staffing, revenue, orders and materials.
All of this information is provided in one interactive database management system which includes customizable dashboards and analytics. It can be implemented across a number of industries (starting off in manufacturing and now branching out into retail, HR, construction, farming and the oil/gas industry) and tailored to meet your business needs.
Why ERP Has Been Ignored By Small Businesses
As mentioned earlier, there have not been a lot of suitable ERP solutions for small businesses. This is because the businesses did not have the funds or the tech support necessary to create the complex infrastructure required to produce the desired results.
How ERP Is Changing For Small Businesses
With there being an increasing number of small businesses and bootstrap start-ups entering the economy, ERP solution providers have wizened up and are now creating tailored and affordable solutions for entrepreneurs and small companies.
ERP systems which are geared towards supporting small businesses are able to blend and automate a number of important business functions, such as:
- Production
- Finances
- Order processing
This frees up the time and resources your business needs to be able to compete and scale.
What To Look For In An ERP Solution
A good quality ERP solution will have a suite of business management tools available such as an ecommerce platform, web hosting, CRM and a shipping manager to name a few. Keep in mind, however, that the more features included the more more expensive the solution. A large part of finding the right ERP solution is finding one which offers the features your small business needs to succeed.
Apart from the features, there are other factors which you should take into consideration when looking into your operational ERP software options, including:
- How easy it is to use
- Whether it can be customized to meet your business needs
- Whether it works in the cloud
- How often it needs to be upgraded
- How secure it is
- What level of support you will receive
Marcom Director at Priority software
