Has your company grown in the last five years? Is your customer base expanding while your software falls behind? As companies grow, they must increasingly rely on the proper activities, processes and business management systems to run their business. Many of these processes, systems or activities may be outdated, resulting in a lack of efficiency, profitability or growth.

Common Problems Every Company will Experience

While every company is different and has its own unique set of challenges, most companies will face at least some of the following problems:

• Inefficient scheduling of resources
• Slow production cycles
• Uncontrolled purchasing procedures
• Inefficient materials requirement planning
• Data inconsistencies
• Decreasing customer loyalty
• High overhead costs
• Delayed financial tracking and analysis

Overtime, experiencing any of these problems can negatively impact your bottom line. If you are currently experiencing any of the above problems, your company can benefit from investing in ERP software. ERP software can help define best practices, optimize activities and help you regain control over your processes. By streamlining operations and providing business process automation; ERP software improves the accuracy of information and accelerates data flow, helping free up the staff to focus on more complex issues that require personalized attention. As a result, productivity is dramatically increased and operating and overhead costs are dramatically reduced.

ERP Software Improves Visibility

Through a common repository, ERP software organizes the data essential to the business. It provides visibility to all the systems and processes and integrates them so all employees have access to the information they need, when they need it, to do their jobs more efficiently.

Storing company information in one common database makes it easier to manage and share information among key individuals within the company. Employees often use their own spreadsheets and databases to perform their jobs and, as a result, the other people in the organization find it difficult to obtain the information they need in a format they can use. By providing companies with a single, unifying system, ERP software creates a common “language” throughout the company that simplifies communication and makes it easier to understand and share important information.

ERP Software Streamlines Operations

Business processes and activities have become increasingly complex, requiring multiple teams and divisions to operate as a single, cohesive unit. Without ERP software, creating that kind of cross-departmental coordination and workflow execution can be very challenging. ERP software helps companies streamline their business processes in the following ways:

• Eliminating data entry errors
  Once data has been entered into the system, ERP software automatically updates the data throughout the entire system, ensuring that employees have access to the most up-to-date information with the click of a button.
• Enhancing workflow
  ERP software helps companies improve efficiency by providing a way to standardize work sequences throughout all processes.
• Providing consistent directions
  Companies with employees who have easy access to work documentation see production errors go down and quality go up. ERP software gives employees the ability to document work steps and processes so other employees know how to perform the work on a consistent basis.
• Collaborating with suppliers, customers and remote employees
  The web-native platform of ERP software gives businesses the ability to connect with their business partners. Each member of your staff can log on to the ERP software wherever they are located. Certain partners can also gain remote access to certain function around the clock.
• Working with multiple languages and business rules
  For companies who operate globally, ERP software gives them the ability to document directions in multiple languages and adapt procedures to local practices.

Effective ERP software is crucial to a company’s success because of its ability to manage the business across all departments in real time. Burdensome, error-prone, labor-intensive manual processes can consume both time and money. To be profitable and competitive, businesses must streamline operations across all departments, including automating critical, yet routine activities, as much as possible.

Contact us today to learn how ERP software such as Infor VISUAL can increase your company’s efficiency, improve your profitability and give you greater visibility in order to make the decisions you need.