Enterprise Resource Planning is a business management software used by organizations from various industries. It is designed to integrate and manage the core business processes of an organization. It collects, stores, manages and interprets data from a diverse range of business activities using a suite of integrated applications to streamline the whole process. It eliminates chaotic data transfer, human errors and security gap by integrating separate work processes into one system which can be accessed through a unified interface. It provides real-time data of the company’s daily operations and is an effective cost reduction tool to save administrative and operating costs.
ERP Software consists of a customized suite of integrated applications that caters to the various departments of an organization like the administrative department, accounts, purchase, production, human resource, inventory, sales, customer relationship management to name a few. Companies from a diverse range of industries and of all sizes are transitioning to cloud ERP systems these days. They understand its benefits that include an increase in organizational efficiency as well as a reduction in human errors by automating the entire process. With all its advantages, it has emerged as the best business management software in 2020.
Before you decide to invest in an ERP software, you must find out if it has the essential features that we will be looking at in this blog.
Since every organization has its own security concerns, requirements related to update and configuration as well as flexibility needs, each company needs a different hosting option that caters to its specific needs. You must make sure that your ERP software provider is not limiting you by imposing his choice of hosting option onto you. You should have the freedom to decide and choose when it comes to the fact that whether you want your new solution to be hosted on your own servers (on-premise ERP), on a cloud, or on a hybrid cloud (when a company uses a mix of public and private cloud services). Offering different hosting options is one of the most essential features of an ERP software.
Mobility is something that you must consider having in your ERP software. Having mobile access is no longer a futuristic ERP feature. A mobile-friendly ERP dashboard will give your employees on-the-go access which is very beneficial in this day and age where most workers access data and workflows on their own devices. Thus, having a mobile version is a very important feature. It makes it possible for the employer as well to know how his business is doing at any particular point in time.
Platform scalability is another important feature that you need to look for. Your business will keep on growing and so will its requirements that will change over time. Hence, your ERP software cannot remain inflexible to these changing needs. The decision to update your ERP system, will turn out to be a costly choice. That is why you need to make sure that your ERP software offers you a scalable solution that will be flexible enough to adapt to your future needs. Otherwise, you might end up in a position where you have to change your ERP solution regularly, or you will have to start using additional applications to take care of all your business needs.
An ERP software should be user-friendly.ERP solutions are complex systems with many functionalities that are designed to streamline and automate your business processes. If your ERP software is not user-friendly and is too complicated to use, then the whole purpose of reaping any benefit from it,will be defeated. The investment made on the ERP software will not earn any profit in this case and the purpose of increasing the company’s productivity will not be met despite having invested in an ERP tool. In order to avoid making this mistake, always make sure that you request a demo before deciding on investing in any ERP tool as the ideal solution for your organizational needs.
Apart from these features it should offer easy integration and must have the necessary modules that include but are not limited to CRM and sales management, finance and accounting, HR management as well as business intelligence tools which help the company to analyze its performance and take better decisions.
An ERP software streamlines and simplifies lengthy workflows and accelerates response time by using an integrated database to increases operational efficiency and productivity. It monitors and manages daily operations and helps make informed decisions to facilitate business data analysis and saves time. It offers a wide range of benefits but unless it has the basic and most essential features that have been discussed here, it will prove to be of no use and will fail to fulfil the aim of increasing organizational efficiency and overall productivity. Hence, you must make an informed choice and look for the presence of all the essential and basic features when opting for ERP software for your business specific requirements.
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