Are you the kind of a person who think that ERP is for the huge enterprises? It’s different from that look at it this way.
What is ERP?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is a business software that uses the information stored in the database to manage specific business functions such as sales, human resource, finance among other business functions. Think of the olden day’s business where the management was manually done?
The losses incurred? It’s a sight that managers can never long for, I suppose. The software is customized to solve the specific needs depending with the type of a business. It has the meaning that the organization and design of the ERP is based on the operations and the functions of a business. It is organized in modules, each with a specific role and for completeness of the software, the modules are integrated to form a complete set.
What comprises ERP?
ERP is ‘perfectly’ constituted information structure-schema, designed to have the integrated modules ‘fetching’ data from a common database. It gives an access to business data from various activities by applying the common concepts and definitions. For example, the marketing department can access the information posted by the sales team from the common database. In my view, ERP operation can be compared to the central nervous system in the human body_ it collects and stores all sorts of data from the body parts and avails the information to the relevant part for execution. In a similar manner is the ERP, information from different business organs is stored to ERP, the same information is made available to other business organs.
Benefits of ERP to business
As the say goes,” information is power” we can never deny the fact! The informed lot has more degree of freedom to a situation. Sure! But is it possible for a business to succeed without proper information management? Certainly no! As a result of proper management of data using the ERP system the following are the benefits;
1. It reduces cost of operations. The system used is customized to only cater to the demands of the business hence the business activities are objectively organized.
2. Facilitates collaboration of business departments. Simply because the data stored in the database is fed from the different departments of a business. The sharing of data make the business a compact unit.
3. Enhance efficiency of business operations. The data stored in the data base ensures that information is available when a business decision needs to be made, accordingly, decision made are based on some given set of data.
4. Reduces the number of risks. Availability of data enables the management to remain vigil making it easier to identify any incidence that might challenge the progress of a business.
5. Reduces the costs related to the management of the business. For example, the management of the financial records is done in a more simplified way.
ERP use in competencies and assets
It is very clear that ERP can be used in every form of business, small, large or even medium. It has the meaning that the ERP is versatility extends to those areas that even the ordinary people seem to ignore, think of personal business, property management etcetera. It’s undisputed that different business demands vary with the size, operations and the services provided. As a result, experts in ERP employ different models depending on the available business modules.
For instance, in the competencies and assets management, the management can closely follow the resources in the company and ensure allocation, delegation and posting is done in the most appropriate methods depending with the previous performance record. For instance, it could be hard to measure the performance of a worker so effectively without any amount of bias by just using some common methods. But using the records stored in the database, the management can make decisions based on some facts. Managing the business assets could be an expensive task if the ordinary methods are used for example in a supply chain, it is possible to tell the route that a supply van has covered and effectively make decisions on the servicing. It also facilitates in managing the operations of the supply team.
Did you know that “the best person in life is the one who has the best information” Benjamin observed this and I too hope that you have the best information why don’t you practice change in data management for your business?