5 Benefits of Modern ERP Ready to Change Your Business

To me, ERP has always been a tool we can use to help us toward our objectives. How do we move toward those objectives? By making better decisions! Informative context for this decision making is one of the major benefits of modern ERP systems.

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

Decisions are made at the executive level such as selecting overall strategies and tactics. Decisions are made at middle levels such as what prospect should we work on to become our next customer. Decisions are made at operational levels too. These include which job should we work on next? Or, does this work pass our quality limits? These are all important and today’s modern ERPs are making major advances in utility regarding better decision making.

Information is not the data required to answer a question but the answer to the question asked - Eli Goldratt

Eli Goldratt defined information in 1990 in a way that still is valuable. He said ‘information is not the data required to answer a question but the answer to the question asked’. Those questions are asked at all levels from the warehouse clerk to the CEO every day and we are approaching the day when that question can be answered immediately for all of us.

Big Data was a term still in the future in 1990 but the quantity of data was already growing exponentially. It is now one of the most publicised modern benefits of ERP. So what is the value of Big Data? Better decision making. We can sift through massive amounts of data quickly and use the result as an input to our ERP. Suddenly our data has become the answer to our questions.

Mobile ERP

Mobile ERP is a reality today. Why? Because mobile ERP extends the reach of ERP to the point of activity enabling better and faster decision making. This is perhaps the most obvious modern benefit of ERP to the end-user, and has developed in parallel to general mobility trends in technology.

Cloud ERP

ERP in the cloud is another benefit of modern ERP. On one hand, this allows connections up and down the supply chain to customers and suppliers with instant data transfers that help us make better decisions and helps our suppliers and customers too.

SaaS Delivery Methods

SaaS is another domain of ERP in the cloud. We don’t manage our data and the systems that help us use that data, we outsource those tasks. One benefit is that better ERP systems are affordable by more of us. Instead of paying a lot of money up front for systems and technology, we pay a relatively low monthly fee and can stop whenever we want.

Data Security

Data security is also a benefit. With our own ERP managed by us, we have the best security we can afford. A SaaS ERP will use secure, remote sites to manage our data with the best possible systems and people managing it and keeping if from prying eyes.

Keep looking at your ERP. You want the best and sharpest tools to keep your competitive edge and if your ERP is getting old, it might also have lost its edge.