A manufacturing business is just like our body. Where organization’s mission is the soul, planning is its brain, adequate inventory procurement- lifeblood, and production is the beating heart. Since sales and marketing function generates revenues, it effectively is the oxygen for survival. Quality and compliance prevents from unwanted troubles and hence becomes the immune system of the business. As spine provides the ultimate and most important support for a body to function, the finance and accounting function acts as the backbone of the business. However, like finance, other manufacturing functionalities such as planning, inventory management, production and marketing are equally essential and so is their proper and efficient working for the success of any business. Having accounting software is just not enough, you need to deploy a complete ERP solution to give a boost to your business. Not to miss the point that finance and accounting being the one master department must synchronize and streamline with every other department to attain the smooth and seamless operations all over. And a complete ERP solution paves the way to achieve this in the most effective way. It streamlines all business operations wall-to-wall, improves processes, reduces costs, minimizes wastage, provides a competitive advantage and in turn boosts revenues.
As business expansion and growing complexities are inevitable today for any organization, so is the need for the latest tools and techniques to overcome the glitches encountered in daily routine. Look for the below visible signs of mismanagement and the absence of coordination if you are still running on primitive accounting software.
- If your customers are having a poor experience due to inconsistent data – Customers get a sense of belonging if you know about them and their needs like name, address and their favourite order, in advance. Your old accounting software doesn’t provide this information and your manual records are sure to miss important information. As a result, the customer experience suffers. On the other hand, the inbuilt system in ERP syncs the complete customer order history, plus suggests the frequently ordered items based on previous orders, invoices, special discounts and reward points, helping you to offer a great deal each time and every time ensuring happy customers and repeat business.
- Are you a victim of hidden costs? – Earlier, finance and accounting could not be handled by a single solution. While managing multiple solutions at work for common finance and accounting systems, you must have experienced additional hidden costs in the form of your time, maintaining backup routines, additional accountancy fees for consultation, et al. Moreover, your manufacturing losses, material losses, operational losses, and such could only be identified at the time of month closing- the time when you can’t do anything about it. But, an ERP can give a real-time picture into all your operations and processes, identifying the losses as and when they are happening so that you can take the charge of controlling just when they are happening. So, it’s time to adopt ERP, if such hidden costs are creating a hole in your pocket.
- If you still practice conventional methods such as telephone and fax for taking orders – Non-operational and old-fashioned technologies cannot cope up with today’s dynamic business growth rate and needs. Such order-taking process is not only erroneous but also fails to update information in real time, resulting in order delays. Remember, customers who don’t get served quickly and conveniently usually don’t come back. Alternatively, ERP, with all records saved in advance, accelerates order taking process without any error and allow transferring them directly to the production department eliminating any chances of delays. It is known to facilitate customer retention over the years because of the complete visibility – from sales order to delivery and dispatch.
- If you have no access to real-time business information – if you are using different disparate systems for different departments, no application or person under the earth can ensure real time data exchange and accessibility. Moreover, certain limitations of each software may even limit the frequency of transactional information exchange within these third-party applications. That means varied your systems sync irregularly, which is absolutely not practical to survive in today’s operating environment. Avoid all the confusion and say goodbye to the headache of integration, uploads and downloads, for an ERP provides all the business suites seamlessly integrated.
- If you’re making wrong decisions in the absence of proper reporting system – Your crucial market moves, pricing policy or strategic decisions majorly depend on the current trends and in-depth cost analysis, which your legacy accounting system certainly fails to deliver. Instead, choose ERP and make insight-driven business decisions drawn by a single source of data on sales, purchase, costs of goods sold, inventory, production, and every other key business metrics.
- Losing market grip to an overseas competitor with the less competent product? Try ERP – Even the best product fails to grip the market if there is no visibility into available stock, account information, or self-service options. A customer will rarely look for a product if it not properly labelled or usually stays absent from the retailer’s shelf. Track down the frequency and trends, fast or slow, of your consumer goods, with ERP’s trend analysis and regulate the flow in your supply chain.
- When you fail to make space in the global market – Old accounting software were designed only to handle assets, liabilities and liquidity of a single entity, but today’s need is to cater to the global requirements of multi-location, multiple language, varied regulations and different currencies. To fight today’s fierce competition, ERPs are designed to manage multiple entities, along with meeting global compliance reporting requirements- a necessity for sustained business growth.
- When data security is at constant risk – With a growing number of employees at your multi-located work places, anyone can access your crucial data regarding sales, pricing, quotations and accounts. There is always a risk of data manipulation and exposure to unwanted personnel with multiple logins. Ensure supreme data security with ERP as it provides the ability to implement controls like data encryption, digital signature and unique login credentials for authorised data access in different systems, without affecting the work flow.
If you could relate to one or more signs mentioned above, then it’s time to let go of your old accounting system and find the right ERP Finance system for your organization. We can be of good help!!! Fill in your details at sales@batchmaster.com, and we will be glad to answer your queries regarding ERP and its selection.
