What is ERP Software? How It Can Help Your Business?
Read Time: 5 mins
Updated On: Sept 09, 2020
What is ERP Software? and How It can Help Your Business?
Have you ever heard the term “ERP” thrown in business lingo, but are unsure what it means? When doing a search for this term, a lot of information comes up – much of it different and perhaps a little vague. As ERP software consultants we make it our life’s work to understand the ins and outs of ERP so that we can help our customers find business solutions that will help them achieve company growth.
In this three-part series, we will go over what enterprise resource planning is, the different kinds of software available for it, and how to choose the right one for your business. Let’s start by looking at what it is and what it can do for you.
What is ERP?
ERP is actually an acronym for Enterprise Resource Planning, which doesn’t really tell you much. At its most basic level, you can understand this as ‘business resource planning,’ but it actually has more to do with business management.
If you think about the big picture of how a company is run, you’ll see that it is made up of a number of different parts: inventory, order management, finance and accounting, human resources, customer relationship management (CRM), sales, and more. These “resources” need to be managed efficiently and in sync with each other in order to run a successful business.
This is where enterprise resource planning software comes into play. This technology is designed to enable a business to be managed via a single platform, consolidating all areas of operations into one system.
How Can It Help Your Business?
Without enterprise resource planning software, each department needs its own system for managing their processes, limiting a business’ ability to quickly and efficiently share data. Teams have to manually create reports and trade insights between departments in order to work productively, which can take a lot of time and bog down operations.
Because this software consolidates data from multiple departments into one, it creates a complete picture of business operations and how they function together. For example, ERP for process manufacturing can be used for tracking inventory levels, delivering sales insights, stock control, quality management, supply chain management, and more, all in one place.
What Does ERP Software Do?
How does enterprise resource planning software work and what features can you expect? There is an ERP solution out there for a number of different industries that often have unique features, but let’s go over some of the basics.
- Easy-to-use dashboard that can be customized for different departments
- Automated reporting for each department that can be used to produce business-wide insights
- Automated processes such as inventory tracking, invoicing, order fulfillment, scheduling, general ledger creation, and more
- Cloud-hosting options for real-time insights and on-the-go access
- Store data in a single, secure location
- Can be tailored to account for company-specific restrictions, processes, rules, and regulations
- Functional support for international locations, languages, and currencies
- Add-ons like ERP barcode scanning software and a wireless personal data assistant (PDA)
Depending on the product you use, there are a number of additional features that you can expect from your ERP software. In the next post, we’ll go over which industries use ERP software, what types there are out there, and specifically go over a few products currently available on the market.
IWI Consulting Group
Want to learn more about enterprise resource planning? Contact us toll-free at 1-866-916-3851 or by email at info@iwigroup.ca for more information – our expert consultants will be happy to answer any question you may have.