In this blog, rather than just provide a list of benefits from implementing an ERP solution, we wanted to go one step further. We have included quotes from our implementation team, giving their real-life examples of these benefits being delivered to customers.
- Deliver Excellent Customer Service
Customer service is so vital that it is often the single differentiator between consumers choosing one business over another. Without a single customer view, customer service is going to be very difficult to provide. This frustrates both your customers and the staff who are having to support these customers
“A client had identified that their customers got frustrated with orders not being fulfilled. When they looked deeper into the problem, they found products were out of stock or couldn’t be found. Implementing an ERP solution provided a singular view of stock levels and customers’ demands. The client can now tell customers exactly what stock they have and where it is.“
2) Support compliance with industry and government regulations
Implementing an ERP solution enables businesses to take advantage of standard system capabilities that facilitate the provision of automated workflows and audit trails. As a result, this has a role in helping a business achieve regulatory compliance. Companies that invest in ERP software will increase the visibility, security, and traceability of data.
“Rather than relying on exporting or copying data to 3rd party tools to meet general compliance (like HMRC’s Making Tax Digital (MTD) for VAT), customers can simply achieve this in a few clicks from the one system. Compliance varies significantly between industries, and systems can meet precise requirements such as production quality control, FDA / Plant Health requirements and/or packaging waste reporting.“
3) Secure customer and business data
One of the risks associated with using multiple disparate systems and spreadsheet to manage your business finances, customer and sales data is the risk of losing business data. By investing in a cloud-based ERP solution, you can see where all your data is and effectively allow or restrict access as appropriate for your business and the user’s role.
You can hold data on Microsoft’s secure datacentres – either directly from Microsoft or via specialist partners. Both options have disaster recovery plans in place. We know that Microsoft’s Azure datacentres pass multiple security standards, and they regularly test their securities effectiveness. These processes, standard and tests will be greater than those used in most businesses to protect their data.
4) Improve operational efficiency
A cloud ERP solution such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central provides your business with a single view of your business. Connecting accounting, operations, inventory, sales and customer service enables you to take advantage of your business data.
This enables you to:
• Predict ordering volumes for individual product lines
• Enable just in time orders, so you aren’t sitting on stock
• Improve business processes across all departments
• Identify changing customer trends
Customers have boosted business efficiency by automating common activities such as purchase approvals. While other industry specific solutions have been established to allow for peak period planning, to ensure promised delivery dates are met (even when they were maxed out) and to have the sales team able to promise delivery dates based on known workshop availability.
5) Remote / Mobile working
Customer service in the field or from home is as essential as via the phone, internet, face to face or working from home. ‘Today’s ERP solutions, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central, are designed to support the needs of today’s modern workforce.
Workforces relying on paper or disparate systems are going to become quickly disappointed that they ‘can’t provide excellent customer service. This is turn can lead to staff churn rates as employees expect more from today’s computer systems.
Furthermore, with today’s challenges, access to paper and different systems may not be possible while working from home, This making it much harder to protect your workforce while trying to maintain excellent customer service and operational efficiency.
Companies – pretty much overnight – had to comply with lockdown requirements; people who were on modern solutions (things like modern ERP, CRM, VoIP, etc. systems) were well prepared to be able to start working from home quickly. Those that had older ‘in house’ systems, manual processes, shared spreadsheets, etc. found it much harder to transition.
6) Automate business processes
Manual processes, however well organised and managed lead to human error and in turn, mistakes. This, combined with disparate systems, can cause significant issues for business. ERP systems can provide substantial benefits by automation manual processes to reduce resource requirements and maintain data integrity.
By mapping out processes, growth in volume can be fulfilled much more effectively as will training new starters.
Being able to scan incoming documents (like Purchase Invoices & Expenses) and have that data electronically read and entered into the system, or to batch email invoices & statements, speeds up common business processes and give people more time to focus on more than just data entry.
