6 signs your company needs an ERP system

Big companies are processing a lot of operations at ones. No matter what the industry is or what products or services the business provides, it needs systems or software that will help to manage all the aspects of the company.

A long time ago, all the businesses procedures existed in the written form. Piles of papers kept track of financial transactions, clients’ data, and inventory reports. As time went by, most of the paperwork moved to the digital world and Microsoft Excel became the favorite program of every manager. Now the numbers and other information were compiled in the tables with multiple functions. The management of processes became much easier.

Nowadays, a lot of companies left Excel sheets in the past and adopted more complex systems to handle different processes. Usually, those systems are simply some software that is responsible for an individual department or aspects of the company. But it can complicate the communication between the workers and access to different information. In turn, the use of multiple systems can cause problems in executing tasks and affect the employees' performance.

The ERP system is an Enterprise Resource Planning software that helps to optimize the business processes and make the management more efficient. The system covers all the aspects of the company allowing to have all the operations and communication between departments in one place. However, the implementation of the ERP can be pricey and requires employees to learn the new system. So the decision to develop such a system sometimes is delayed to the point where it is evident that the company needs it.

Here are the six most often appearing signs that indicate that you should consider developing a dedicated ERP system.

1. It is difficult to retrieve and analyze information

When you have multiple systems that are used to manage processes in different departments, it is almost impossible to gather the information and analyze it. Especially when the company grew much larger since the implementation of those systems and the scope of stored data had increased. To create reports and analyze the company’s operations you need to assemble all sorts of statistics that takes a lot of time to do. Because the software and spreadsheets store information from only one department, it is difficult to see how it is relevant to the data from others.

2. The communication between departments and existing systems is complicated

When the company handles thousands of operations a day, the independency of systems is an enormous disadvantage. It is only a matter of time when the problems will occur. Your warehouse can run out of products, but the customers still purchase them in your store because the information on the shortage was not sent from one department to another. The company that has impeded communication between the systems is not functioning as one entity but the mixture of processes that are not in any way aligned. The difficulties in contact between departments and systems slow down the processes and can withhold the growth of the company.

3. It is hard to manage finances

The traditional approach to managing finances in companies is based on heaps of paper-work. Different invoices, orders, and reports in paper form require the interference of the employee and take a lot of time to get through. When the accountant is managing the finances manually, the risk of human error is quite high. The numbers could be calculated inaccurately, or one report could not be included because some department didn’t get the request to send it. The ERP system helps to manage the financial aspect of the company allowing the accountants to perform tasks in a matter of minutes instead of hours. It automates small and repetitive tasks helping the employees to focus on more relevant operations.

4. Customer support and sales are suffering

As the company grows larger the inventory management is becoming more and more difficult. Different systems are not sharing the information and are not aware of what is going on in other parts of the company. It creates situations when customers do not get the product they wanted, the delivery is late or the sold product is not available in the inventory. The use of separate systems has also a negative effect on customer support as the users’ data is compiled in different databases. Consultants have a difficult time finding the information necessary to help customers that prolongs the waiting time. Such problems may seem insignificant, however, they have their impact on sales and customers’ opinion.

5. Constant occurrence of small problems

Every once in a while, the company can ship product to the wrong address or miss the date of invoice payment. But when such small errors are occurring more and more often, it creates more significant complications in the functioning of the company. Also, as separate software is used in different departments, they can hold contradictory information that causes even more mistakes. The lack of connection between systems creates a harmful environment where the information is not processed correctly and operations take too much time unnecessary.

6. The company is in a constant need for new software features

The software that is dedicated to only one aspect of the business is very limited in the scope of the whole company. That is why with the growth of the company the need for new features and functionalities arises. Departments are expending their responsibilities and becoming to process more information. Systems start to copy modules from one another to accommodate the increased demand in access to information from other departments.

Instead of enlarging the existing systems without the connection between them, it is easier to develop one software that will suit each department, store all the information in one place and allow employees to access the data without the need to reach out to multiple systems. The ERP allows managing orders, human resources, and equipment, making the work of employees more efficient.

SuwiGo, dedicated system that was developed by our agency, does just that. The software consists of modules that were specifically designed to suit the operations and processes taking place in the company. The advantage of the ERP system is that the system is built from scratch with modules that will be the most helpful for an individual company. In the case of SuwiGo, the software compiles the documents and helps the employees to interact with each other.

Did any of the points above sound familiar? Did you notice that the systems you have in place maybe not enough for your company at this stage of development? It is time to prepare for the future of your company and develop a system that will help you to optimize the processes and to grow your business more naturally and smoothly. ERP can be the solution you were looking for.