Recommendations for Selecting a Distribution ERP Solution

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What is the right ERP solution for your distribution business? Acumatica Cloud ERP has created an in-depth checklist to help you understand your options. Their hope, of course, is that you choose Acumatica, but the reality is they’ve done everyone a service by publishing the checklist. You could work through it and conclude that a different solution is right for your particular distribution business—especially as the industry undergoes a period of digital transformation.

The checklist is also a good reflection of the way we work with clients in discovering the best solution for their distribution businesses. It’s methodical and allows for the prioritization of needs. With ERP selection, it should never be a simple matter of feature-to-feature comparison. The best practice is to weight features by relevance to your business.

Overview of the Distribution ERP Selection Checklist

The checklist contains five categories of comparison for distribution ERP solutions:

  • Productivity—How a distribution ERP solution can make your employees more productive in their jobs
  • Functionality—The specific features and functions of the solution
  • Technology—The underlying technology that affects user experience, customization and administration along with integration with other systems, e.g. logistics, HR and so forth
  • Value—How the product maximizes features and functions vs. cost for the product’s lifetime
  • Risk—How the product minimizes risk and facilitates security (e.g. network and financial security)

Using the Checklist to Select a Distribution ERP Solution

Depending on your business, you may emphasize some of the five categories more than others. Productivity, for example, is often overlooked, but it shouldn’t be. The checklist forces you to take a hard look at issues like how intuitive the interface is for users. If it’s not easy to learn, people might find ways to work around it, defeating the whole purpose of the solution. Other productivity factors include having a single database, multi-currency capabilities, wikis and so forth.

Functionality is a critical area for evaluation. Even if you totally love a distribution ERP solution, if it doesn’t do what you want, the solution won’t work. Functional check-offs span features like support for multiple entities, financial management and quote-to-cash workflows. Sales order management and cost accounting are on the list, as are purchase order management and inventory management.

In terms of technology, the checklist encourages you to probe whether a cloud-based solution is “True Cloud,” meaning that it was designed natively for the cloud. This can make a difference in how well the solution works and how easy it is to change. Responsive design is also a significant requirement, given today’s mobile workforce and customers. Other technical issues of note include database export capabilities and the presence of a full relational database. This latter technical feature can be important for integration with other systems, audits and more. The value checklist items refer to financial aspects of the solution. Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) figures prominently into the value category, but so do non-monetary but value-oriented factors like scalability.

If you’re considering getting a new distribution ERP solution, we encourage you to work with the checklist. We can help you go through it, looking at how your business runs and how it competes to arrive at an informed, wise solution choice.

Additional Distribution Resources

Looking at 2020 Distribution Industry Trends with ERP in Mind

Benefits of ERP Software for Distribution Business Management

5 Reasons Distributors Need ERP Software

Position Your Business for Growth in 2020 With Cloud ERP

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Will 2020 be a year of growth for your business? While it’s impossible to predict the future, one can still explore how new technology and practices can position your business for growth as we enter this new decade. Cloud ERP in particular, like Acumatica, can make a big difference in a company’s growth trajectory.

How Does Software Enable Growth?

Can software drive growth? No, on its own, software cannot do very much. However, when people, strategy and processes join forces with flexible, powerful cloud ERP solutions, the potential for growth can be startling.

What is cloud ERP? Briefly, solutions like Acumatica are browser-based versions of the classic Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) applications. Yet, they go much further than legacy ERP. Acumatica, for example, offers add-on modules for manufacturing management, distribution businesses, field service, Customer Resource management (CRM) and more. It’s a complete business management solution, not just ERP. It’s cloud-based, so you don’t have to buy hardware or software licenses to use it.

Here are five ways cloud ERP, used in the right way, can facilitate revenue and earnings increases:

1. Save money and invest in your business

Cloud ERP saves you money on operating expenses (OpEx) by way of reduced IT overhead. You can cut capital expenses (CapEx) because you don’t have to tie up cash or take on debt for servers, storage and data center facilities. You can redeploy that capital, investing in new lines of business, marketing campaigns, money-making equipment and so forth.

2. Get closer to your customers and grow your accounts

With CRM and quote-to-order tools, you can grow your business by improving customer engagement. CRM gives you an overview of sales forecasts as well as the ability to dig deeply into the sales status of specific accounts. With CRM, you can also engage in meaningful marketing campaigns that turn prospects into customers and nurture existing customers so you’ll be top of mind when it’s time to buy. Learn more about integrating ERP and CRM.

3. Improve customer service

When you connect customer service, operations and sales using cloud ERP, you have the ability to deliver a consistent, high-quality customer experience. Customers who are well-cared-for tend to become repeat customers. Having a lower rate of customer churn makes it easier to increase revenue. You don’t have to replace customers who defected due to sub-optimal customer care.

4. Be more agile

Cloud hosting translates into flexibility of ERP solutions. Cloud ERP can add functional modules with relative ease. That way, if you want to make a move like adding 24-hour a day live customer support, you can add the software for the capability pretty much instantly. Similarly, if you want to extend your systems and integrate with those of other companies like suppliers or partners, the cloud Application Programming Interface (API) make as this a fairly straightforward, inexpensive and fast process. It’s certainly far simpler than using custom-coded connectors in legacy ERP solutions.

5. Get smarter by running analytics on your data

Your business data contains a wealth of potential insights that can help you grow your business. Modern cloud ERP makes this data available, with rich data visualization, analysis and reporting features.

Grow in 2020 and Beyond With Cloud ERP

Cloud ERP can help you start 2020 on a growth trajectory. You can get started now, working with us to understand your ERP requirements and formulate an effective implementation plan.

5 Reasons Managed Services Are Good For Your Business

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Every investment in information technology has as its ultimate goal to help the business operate more effectively, efficiently, and to help the business grow and succeed. That’s true when you invest in managed services, as well—it isn’t just about helping out your overstretched technology team. If you’re evaluating that investment, consider these 5 ways managed services benefit your business:

1. Focus on business

Because your managed services provider handles your technology, you can focus on what really matters to your business rather than stressing over how IT is getting in the way. This is true for your IT employees, too; rather than solving routine technical problems, they can leverage both their technical insight and their business knowledge to develop new ways to use technology that align with your overall business objectives. In addition, the support offered by the managed services provider can scale with your needs, meaning growing business won’t be hindered by a lack of IT support.

2. Cost management

Reducing IT spending without reducing the quality of your technology means you can invest those funds elsewhere. Managed services provide you with predictable expenses for IT services and support.

3. Increased productivity

With a managed services team looking after your technology, you’ll get more uptime, meaning your employees will be able to complete their work more efficiently. A managed services provider can keep an eye on your systems 365x24x7, meaning the systems are always available for employees to use.

4. Meet compliance requirements

Keeping current with changing compliance requirements is time-consuming; satisfying audits is a distraction from running your business. With a managed services team that’s fully up to date on your industry’s regulatory environment, your technology is kept compliant, making you more likely to easily pass audits.

5. Reduced security risks

Information security presents an ever-increasing risk to your business. Customer expectations are increasing, their tolerance for breaches is diminishing, and new data privacy laws make incidents extremely costly for businesses. In addition to thefts of customer data, thefts of intellectual property can have a direct impact on your business’s level of competitiveness. A managed services provider can focus on implementing security tools and processes that decrease the risks to your business.

Choosing the Right Managed Services Provider

Choosing the right managed services provider requires first understanding your requirements and then finding a provider whose capabilities match those needs. Be sure you understand how resources will be assigned to you, and how you will be charged and billed. Contact CCS Technology Group to learn more about how our managed services can help your business succeed.

Additional Managed Services Resources

How Managed Services Make the Difference

Give Your Managed Services Provider This Information If You Want Them to Succeed

Whatever Your IT Problem, There’s a Managed Services Solution

Don’t Overlook These Aspects When You Plan Your Cloud Migration

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Planning for the cloud requires taking a comprehensive look at your infrastructure. There’s more to consider than simply migrating data and applications.

Network

The network is perhaps the forgotten component of the cloud, but it’s essential to success in the cloud. Making sure the network can handle the new traffic demands of your cloud architecture is vital to a successful cloud deployment.

Be sure you estimate the bandwidth requirements when you switch to SaaS or move data storage to the cloud. The network needs to meet both capacity and latency requirements.

Security

The network is closely tied with another aspect of infrastructure that’s affected by the move to cloud: security. Your firewall rules need to be adjusted to allow appropriate communication with your cloud infrastructure.

In addition, you need to thoroughly revisit your security strategy. Understand which aspects are handled by your cloud provider, so you can focus your attention on the aspects which are still your responsibility. In particular, focus on ensuring your cloud resources have appropriate configuration settings—the defaults may make data publicly accessible, along with identity and access management. You’ll also want to make certain data is encrypted and have a process for managing the encryption keys.

Learn more in 6 Ways to Keep Your Cloud More Secure.

Monitoring

Although the cloud provider has responsibility for the infrastructure, you still need to need to monitor your workloads to ensure they’re performing appropriately. Cloud providers offer tools for monitoring, and you can also consider third-party monitoring tools. Ideally, your cloud monitoring tool will integrate with your on-premises monitoring so there’s a single screen that reports your total system status. Whatever monitoring you use, your employees need to be trained in how to respond to outages and other problems in the cloud.

Backup & Recovery

Cloud providers include backups that let them recover your systems to another instance in case of a problem, but their backup strategy might not mesh with your data preservation requirements. In addition to potentially losing more intraday data than your recovery objective requires, they don’t create an archive of historic data that you may need for compliance or analytics purposes.

In some cases, responding to an outage requires recovering services elsewhere—despite the high availability that comes with cloud, you still need a backup and recovery solution. This may mean failing over to another region managed by the same provider or failing over to a different cloud provider or on-premises environment.

Learn more about the different cloud options for backup and recovery.

Cloud Migration

Both you and your cloud provider hope the cloud migration will be successful. However, it’s prudent to plan for migrating out of the cloud if the provider can no longer meet your needs. While you don’t need a full-fledged out-migration strategy on the day you switch production over to the cloud, you should have at least investigated it to become aware of the potential costs of data transfers out of the cloud.

CCS Technology Group can help you address all aspects of your cloud planning, as well as provide ongoing cloud services once your cloud migration is complete. Contact us to learn more about successfully transitioning to the cloud.

7 Benefits of CRM Software (That’s Integrated with ERP)

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Everyone knows that “The customer is always right.” However, in a lot of businesses, there are two big difficulties with this piece of wisdom: They don’t know quite who their customers are and they may not have a good feel for what the customer wants or thinks. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solutions offer a way to stay in touch with customers and keep them engaged for ongoing revenue growth.

These solutions, which started out as glorified digital rolodexes, now enable highly sophisticated sales forecasting capabilities, customer support, and marketing management. They also integrate with Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions—potentially giving everyone in the business a clear picture of the customer at any given point in time. With that in mind, here are 7 benefits of adopting CRM, especially when it’s integrated with ERP:

1. Improve customer relationships

This sounds pretty basic, but it’s one of the most important elements of a growing business. CRM gives your team the tools to be in touch with key accounts and stay engaged with them as their needs evolve. With CRM, you can instantly get a complete view of the customer, including proposals and orders in progress, new leads within accounts, customer service history and more.

2. Manage sales more effectively

CRM gives sales managers a total overview of customer accounts. Sales reps can use the CRM solution to create opportunities and build sales forecasts, one customer at a time. CRM creates accountability in the sales team, with the potential to drive revenue growth.

3. Understand the effectiveness of marketing campaigns

CRM solutions usually have marketing campaign execution capabilities, though in many cases, separate marketing systems integrate into CRM. Either way, marketing and sales managers can use CRM to track which marketing initiatives are creating sales prospects. And, of these prospects, which become accounts. Thus, CRM offers a way to show Return on Investment (ROI) for marketing campaigns. It measure how well marketing money is being spent.

4. Establish and maintain customer master data

Customer data, especially for accounts with multiple locations and contacts, can easily get disaggregated. With duplicates and missing data, customer data management and communication suffers. CRM gives your company a standard master data record for each customer.

5. Grow sales with quote-to-order capabilities

CRM, when connected to ERP and outfitted with quote-to-order functionality, lets all relevant stakeholders in the sales and order delivery process to know exactly how a particular customer relationship is doing with regard to orders. You can also keep customers in the loop on issues with quotes, e.g. delays in the supply chain that might affect an order.

6. Get better at upselling and cross-selling

With CRM, sales team members can be given suggestions on cross-sell and upsell, e.g. adding a service contract to sale of a product. Sales managers can also then track how well reps are doing at cross-sell and upselling.

7. Deliver better customer service

The customer support module is often activated when companies deploy CRM. Doing so provides mutual visibility between sales and support, which can be helpful in maintaining good customer relationships. For example, if customer support gets a seemingly minor issue from a customer, they can see on CRM that it’s a multi-million dollar account, so it deserves a high priority. Or, if a sales rep is calling on an account, he or she can use CRM to see existing support tickets.

We have worked with many companies on the implementation of CRM solutions, both on a standalone basis and as part of an extended ERP system. To learn more about CRM or see a demo, please visit our CRM page.

Additional CRM Resources

Which CRM solution is right for your organization?

4 ways a CRM helps you improve customer relationships

3 different approaches to CRM systems

Take These Steps to Avoid Expensive Ransomware Recovery Costs

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Recovering from ransomware has cost affected entities millions of dollars—Baltimore spent more than $18 million to bring systems back to their normal state. To avoid budget-crushing costs, it’s imperative to defend against attacks and have a plan for responding to incidents.

Understand the Scope of the Needed Defenses

There isn’t a single measure you can take that will be effective against all ransomware, any more than there’s a single measure that will block all other kinds of malware. Defending against ransomware begins by understanding that defenses need to be widespread. Do a review of your data to identify the most vulnerable and most valuable so you can focus your efforts where you’ll gain the most benefit. Similarly, conduct a review of your network architecture to ensure the most important applications are isolated from the wider network.

Get Your Backups Ready

You can prevent some files from being corrupted by ransomware by setting filesystem permissions, but restoring from backups is often the only way possible to recover from a ransomware attack. It’s crucial that you ensure your backup procedures work. Make sure your backup scripts cover all critical systems, and run a test to ensure you know how to correctly restore a server. Keep a copy of the backup that isn’t connected to networked devices in order to prevent ransomware from accessing the storage.

Learn more in Don’t Lose Your Files to Ransomware.

Block Dangerous Software from the Network

If you can keep ransomware out of your network, you’ll never have to attempt to restore from backup. If you’re behind on installing patches, catch up now, and put a process in place to keep you up to date. Ensure firewalls, blacklists, and mail server filters prevent potentially risky files from reaching end users.

Protect User Devices

Take steps to prevent ransomware from spreading and limit the number of affected files if it reaches user devices. Turn off file sharing and disable Windows PowerShell and Windows Script Host. In Microsoft Office, disable macros. Ensure antivirus software is installed and do scheduled full scans. Don’t allow applications to run from App Data folders.

Train Users

Your users are your final backstop against attacks on your network. Train them on good computing practices in general, including recognizing and avoiding phishing attacks. Make sure users know who to contact in case of any suspicious email contacts. Users should know how to disconnect their device from the network and be taught to do so in case of a suspected ransomware incident. Learn more about creating an information security culture.

Ransomware is just one of the many cybersecurity threats businesses need to defend against. It’s important to develop a comprehensive, multilayered security strategy that offers comprehensive protection. Contact CCS Technology Group to learn about how our security services offer protection against ransomware and other information security threats.

If you’re serious about protecting your company – and you should be – there’s a two-pronged approach that will stop most ransomware dead in its tracks. You need solid employee education, and you need the right technical tools.
To find out how, download our guide: Ransomware 101 Guide.

Additional Information Security Resources

Discover the Dangers of the Dark Web

The Key Features to Look for In Your Firewall

6 Ways to Keep Your Cloud Secure

New Year, New Cloud Choices and Challenges

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The new year brings new technology capabilities and new technology challenges. Here are some cloud challenges and choices you should be prepared for in 2020:

Multicloud and hybrid cloud become strategic decisions

Although adopting cloud was a difficult choice for many businesses, today cloud is an almost automatic decision. Because many businesses started small with cloud, their IT infrastructure is often a hybrid IT mix of cloud and on premises systems. Because many departments adopted cloud independently, their IT infrastructure is often a mix of different cloud vendors. Up until now, those mixtures of technology have often been the unintentional result of separate decisions. In order to get the most benefit from cloud, hybrid IT and multicloud architectures need to become strategic choices, evaluated for how they can integrate and work together to deliver the IT capabilities the business needs.

Learn more in What it Takes to Succeed at Cloud.

Cloud security is a business priority

When cloud was first introduced, many were hesitant to use it because of concerns about data security. After it became clear that cloud security is often better than on premises security, many businesses began to rely on their cloud provider for data security. But businesses need to recognize that the data security implemented by the cloud provider does not provide a complete data security solution that meets business needs and multiple cloud solutions can mean inconsistent, incomplete security controls. Businesses need to make their own efforts to ensure data is properly protected in the cloud.

Learn more in 6 Ways to Keep Your Cloud Secure.

Having a cloud in your data center is a viable, defensible technology architecture

After deciding you want a cloud, you have to decide where you want it. This is no longer simply a matter of choosing your public cloud vendor. Private clouds are getting easier to implement, with tools such as Microsoft Azure Stack making it simpler to build a private cloud on premises. Security considerations as well as concerns about growing public cloud costs mean a private cloud deserves serious consideration.

Build workloads with portability in mind

The multicloud approach means there’s a need to move workloads between providers; the need to avoid cloud vendor lock-in also creates portability concerns. To achieve this, businesses need to balance the benefits of proprietary libraries and APIs against the portability concern. Technology teams need to leverage containers and other technology to make deploying on multiple platforms easier.

Because of the complexities of cloud, it’s always a good idea to get help from an experienced partner. Contact CCS Technology Group to learn how our cloud services can help you get the most out of your cloud in 2020.

ERP Selection Tips for Manufacturers

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Chances are, if you’re in manufacturing, you already have software to manage your operations. It may be time, however, to think about updating that system. With competitive trends accelerating and customer preferences evolving relentlessly, manufacturers are under pressure to adapt and become more agile and better at what they do. New cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions like Acumatica give you capabilities that easily translate into improvements in efficiency, quality and profitability. With that in mind, here area few selection tips for selecting the right manufacturing ERP solution.

Table Stakes

Any worthwhile modern ERP solution will have certain core features. Think of them as “table stakes” to be in the manufacturing software game. These include having a cloud-hosting option and the accompanying flexibility the cloud enables. Cloud computing gets you out of the capital investment (CapEx) you’re accustomed to with on-premises solutions.

A modern manufacturing ERP should also be extensible, with the ability to integrate with other systems using standards-based APIs. Mobility is a given, as is deep data management and analytics capabilities. Security is also “table stakes,” especially considering the emerging risks facing Operational Technology (OT) SCADA systems that may be linked to operational management systems like ERP.

Manufacturing ERP Selection Factors

Assuming the system you have in mind meets the table stakes, consider the following factors when making your selection:

  • It allows you to make decisions with visibility and collaboration. You should be able to use the ERP solution for internal collaboration as well as for coordinating processes with supply chain vendors and customers.
  • A good manufacturing ERP enables you to bring complex, customized products to market in a rapid cycle; it facilitates, rather than hinders, the adoption of new manufacturing methods and technologies.
  • You can manage resources and inventory to keep costs under control and minimize the amount of cash you tie up with inventory.
  • It offers powerful but flexible master production planning and control.
  • The solution handles complexity in the lifecycles of your various products, e.g. multiple versions, revisions, updates, end-of-life, etc.
  • It can easily handle complex product structures that generate Bills of Material (BOMs) with multiple levels.
  • You can set up and implement detailed routings that include processes that occur off of your shop floor.
  • Production scheduling is flexible.
  • Configuration management is easy to use.
  • You can use market data reporting to anticipate supply and demand for materials and finished goods.
  • Cost reporting is fine-grained enough to allow for rigorous cost management and cost cutting that doesn’t negatively affect product quality.
  • BOM costing and production costing allow for roll-up to design and production planning.
  • You can allocate overhead flexibly, by product, product line or business unit.
  • It integrates with the accounting system, including for multiple entities.
  • You can create production orders that track costs for materials, labor and materials as well as overhead that’s either fixed, variable or both.
  • You can integrate with Customer Resource Management (CRM) for sales tracking.
  • It provides Quote-to-Order-to-Invoice capabilities.

This may look like a long list, but it’s really just a sampling of what you should be looking for in a manufacturing ERP solution. We have worked with many manufacturers over the years in the selection and implementation of new ERP systems that are adapted for their unique business needs. If you’re thinking about upgrading your manufacturing ERP, we should probably talk.

Additional ERP Software Resources

How ERP Software Can Save Your Business Money

ERP Software 101: History and Modules Available

7 Signs that You Need ERP Software

Meeting the ASC 606 Compliance Deadline with Acumatica Deferred Revenue Accounting

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Corporate accounting systems must be in compliance with the ASC 606 rule for revenue recognition as of December 15 of this year. This requirement will not be a problem for companies using Acumatica Cloud ERP’s Deferred Revenue Accounting module. Those that don’t have this software or the equivalent will be in a rush to get right with this important accounting rule. So, it’s worth taking a moment to examine ASC 606 as an example of how the interplay between software and accounting rules can affect financial reporting.

A Brief Overview of ASC 606 and Its Implications

If you’re a CPA, ASC 606 is probably not that big a deal. You should already know all about it. However, if you’re in IT and supporting the accounting department or a business analyst trying to build efficient financial workflows, a quick review of ASC 606 is in order. The Accounting Standards Codification (ASC) rule 606 is one of many rules by which companies control their financial reporting. ASC 606 is paired with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) rule 15. The rule is thus known as ASC 606/IFRS 15. In the US, they’re being promulgated by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), the accounting profession’s rule-making body.

The goal of ASC 606/IFRS 15 is to standardize revenue recognition in accounting practices worldwide. Before these rules were adopted, revenue recognition was not subject to any global standards. Companies in different countries could recognize revenue on different bases. Revenue recognition relates to the period in which a company will claim a sale is actually revenue, for reporting purposes. As a result, it can have an impact on tax liabilities and many other aspects of financial reporting.

A quick cash transaction is easy. If you get paid $100 in cash in 2019 for an order that started and finished in 2019, you will recognize that $100 as revenue in 2019. However, what happens if you get $50 to start an order in 2019 and $50 upon completion of the order in 2020? Under the old rules, some companies might recognize all $100 in 2019 (and pay tax on it in 2019) while others will split it. The second $50 becomes “deferred revenue.” ASC makes everyone follow the same rules for these practices. It has implications for taxes, lending, incentive-based bonuses (e.g. revenue growth bonuses), share prices, entity valuation and so forth.

How Acumatica Deferred Revenue Accounting Enables Compliance with ASC 606

Acumatica Cloud ERP has a portfolio of specialized accounting modules. Deferred Revenue Accounting is one of them. It enables your accounting team to handle the detailed, potentially confusing revenue recognition requirements of ASC 606 in a centralized, intuitive and automated accounting workflow. In particular, the module helps users identify a contract with a specific customer—itself a major component of ASC 606. Revenue recognition is contract-based.

The module then identifies the performance obligations in the contract, such as revenue milestones for partial completion and so forth. It can determine and then allocate transaction prices to specific financial periods. Revenue is then recognized when the performance obligation is satisfied. Acumatica’s Deferred Revenue Accounting module can handle bundled contracts, multi-item contracts and related contracts. The system makes these aspects of ASC 606 compliance compatible with other accounting rules already in place.

Each company will have its own distinct revenue recognition requirements. Acumatica adaptable, allowing for Customized Deferral Schedules based on templates or created from scratch. Users can link schedules to specific transactions and line numbers on income documents.

To learn more about Acumatica’s specialized accounting modules, including Deferred Revenue, contact us today!

Additional Acumatica Resources

7 Signs That You Need ERP Software

Why Acumatica Outpaced NetSuite on the Most Recent G2 Survey

What’s New in Acumatica 2019 R1

How ERP Software Can Save Your Business Money

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Can ERP save your money business? In our experience, the answer is definitely “yes.” Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, used correctly, will drive savings in multiple categories of business operations.

ERP at a Glance

The term “ERP” has become a bit of a misnomer. When ERP made its debut in the 1970s, the technology was all about running big manufacturing plants and handling supply chains and logistics for industrial companies. This is still the core of ERP, but today, an ERP solution can do so much more. In fact, modern cloud-based ERPs like Acumatica can run virtually every aspect of a business. ERP does accounting now, along with service management, Customer Resource Management (CRM), project management, project accounting, Materials Requirement Planning (MRP) and more.

High-Level Cost Savings from ERP

How does use of an ERP solution translate into savings? In the big picture, it’s about operating more efficiently. ERP helps people work more quickly and accurately. Process automation cuts down on error-prone manual steps. Miscommunications about orders, inventory, logistics and so forth generally decline with the introduction of ERP. Learn more about the signs you need ERP software.

When we help a customer deploy ERP, they tend to notice right away how much faster everything starts to move. They didn’t realize before how seemingly minor things like chasing down paper bills of lading or returning phone calls slowed down operations. ERP makes people more productive. With people doing more work in less time, the cost doing business drops.

Part of the productivity gain comes from the centralization of all business management processes into a single system. There’s no more porting of data from operations to accounting software, and so forth. People get a continuous, real time overview of data regarding orders, support cases, inventory and the like.

Where ERP Saves Money, Specifically

On a day-to-day basis, we see ERP saving money for our customers in the following specific areas:

  • Better control over inventory control—Inventory costs you twice. There’s the carrying cost of parking cash in inventory. Then, you have inventory handling costs like shipping and receiving and related accounting tasks. ERP helps you automate many of these processes. And, up-to-date reporting and predictive forecasting—along with smarter production management—help you keep inventory carrying costs to a minimum.
  • A faster, smoother information flow—The centralized nature of ERP and its rich data reporting capabilities, coupled with automated notifications and task management, result in a smoother, faster flow of information across the organization. People can make more informed decisions and stop using email to manage workflows.
  • More coherent supply chain management—ERP enables you to coordinate purchasing and supply chain, monitoring dependencies and keeping everyone involved informed about the latest production statuses. Learn how ERP can promote a sustainable supply chain.
  • More accurate, timely invoicing—An ERP solution speeds your cash cycle with timely invoicing. Learn about the benefits of ERP for accounting and financial management.
  • The ability to anticipate, rather than react to problems—Data visualization and automated alerting can give your team the ability to see potential production and inventory problems in the making. This way, they can solve them or devise a response before they cause trouble.

All of this depends, of course, on how well you implement your ERP. The software alone won’t do much if your people aren’t making the most of it. This is where we can help. We have worked with many businesses on the implementation of Acumatica and other systems. For a demonstration of Acumatica or a consultation on how software can help your business run better, contact us today!