An ERP system is important to an organizations operations since it creates an environment where different processes and systems are integrated under a single software solution. The road and transport department of a local government has a lot of functionalities. These functions include the management of costs and resources, streamlining processes, optimization of service delivery, and reporting and complying with regulations.

These are some of the functionalities of a local governments transport department where the local government will need to create different system solutions. It is also important to note that the road and transport department will also need to create different systems to cater for basic organizational functionalities such as accounting, inventory, and personnel. This shows that the road and transport department has various information system requirements that are needed for different purposes of its functionality and service delivery.

The road and transport department of a local government should ensure that they adopt an information system strategy that will address of all this issues under a single software solution. For the strategy to be overly effective, it should not focus on the day to day activities of the road and transport department which will also enhance the competitiveness and performance of the road and transport department.

There are a number of benefits that will be derived by the road and transport department if they adopt an ERP system. Automation is one of the benefits although the road and transport department will have to ensure that it has an upgraded ERP system.

An advanced ERP system has a variety of options that will help in streamlining the procedures of different functionalities of the road and transport department. This will also reduce the dependency of the road and transport department on manual processing.

This benefit will be reflected on time and financial savings. Enterprise analytics is also another benefit that the road and transport department will benefit from since it offers a user-friendly graphical interface that will give a trend analysis on such aspects as traffic trends. This will replace the tasking process of writing reports and manually going through numerous cameras to view the situation of the traffic.

ERP can also be easily integrated with customer relationship management which will enhance the road and transport departments CRM. Without ERP, CRM will be a standalone entity that will miss a lot of opportunities. This will enhance the road and transport department’s performance since it will be offered a better opportunity of focusing on the customers’ needs.

The local government road and transport department has a number of applications of an ERP. The ERP will be an umbrella for a number of applications. Personnel management is one of the roles that the ERP will play within the road and transport department. This will include ensuring that the whenever there is a need to look for information pertaining to a particular staff member, their information can easily be accessed through the ERP solution and there information such as their duties and responsibilities and contacts can easily be accessed.

The division can also use the ERP for accounting purposes. The ERP can be used to easily access the sources of revenue and costs of the road and transport department in order to analyze any issues within associated with the finances. ERP will also be used by the organization to identify opportunities such as the need to construct a new road which will ease the traffic in one location. This can be achieved through the road and transport department identifying a reserved area that has been documented within the ERP which can offer enhanced logistics of how the division can proceed with the construction.

The road and transport department will also use the ERP for such purposes as the integration of technological solutions that will support its operations which will reduce costs and increase efficiency. ERP will also be an important tool of risk assessment and the evaluation of internal controls and the implementation of the performance management methods.

These will enhance the operations of the road and transport department through the inclusion of performance appraisal methods that are designed to help the organization to improve its operations. The ERP will also be beneficial to the road and transport department because through the integration of its operations in one ERP solution will ease the reporting and complying with regulations which will improve efficiency and reduce costs.

An ERP system is very beneficial to any organization such as the road and transport department of a local government that has numerous benefits to derive if it implements an ERP solution.