NetSuite

As companies grow, they begin to experience some common pain points. Manual processes that are destroying productivity and creating the need to hire more employees. Not having instant access to critical data to make informed decisions. Complex integrations and custom tools that are hard to maintain and keep running.

There are no set-in-stone rules that tell you exactly when your business should implement a modern ERP solution, but if your business is suffering from growing pains, the right ERP solution could help.

So what are the 5 top signs that you are ready to implement a modern ERP solution?

1. You have multiple systems and duplicate data.

How does information flow through your business? In many cases, each department has its own siloed systems. The operations and finance teams utilize an accounting package to track payables and receivables. The sales department has a cloud-based CRM. There could be yet another tool to track product or service orders.

Very often this creates manual steps in the normal day-to-day flow of business, which increases costs as your organization grows. The data from each system resides in different locations. That data gets duplicated. And each department may not have the most recent, accurate data.

A modern ERP system will bring together back-office operations and financial functions with CRM that provides a complete view of the customer. Some ERP systems also include resource and project management, project accounting, and expense management. And still others tie in your eCommerce presence.

2. Critical business data is housed in multiple locations.

When your systems do not share information freely, it can be difficult and time-consuming to find the data that you need. Can you easily see sales and profit margins per day or per date? How about per hour? When companies are running on multiple systems and spreadsheets, it can take some time to update and reconcile the information you need.

In today’s competitive landscape, having instant access to the data you need in a format that makes sense is critical. With a modern ERP system, the executive and leadership teams can get a holistic view of the organization at any time. Your staff becomes empowered to make informed decisions that can increase sales, exploit opportunities, or eliminate inefficiencies.

3. It takes a week to close out the monthly finances.

Your sales are steadily growing, but the back-office manual processes wastes a lot of time. When you consider how far technology has progressed, this problem’s existence doesn’t make sense. Money and productivity are lost as your team struggles to keep up.

You should instantly be able to see your up-to-the-minute sales, profit, expenses, resource utilization, inventory, and order status. Closing out the month should no longer be a set of manual processes and reporting, consolidating spreadsheets, and verifying data.

4. Customer experience is suffering and it is affecting sales.

Your business has grown. Maintaining sales order, inventory, and customer data in separate systems can cause real problems. When you were small, knowing which inventory or human resources were available at all times was easier. Now, not having the right inventory in the right place can start costing you sales. Not to mention the damage it can cause to your reputation.

When you tie all of the departments together with an ERP system, your entire team has instant access to the data they need. Any customer-facing employee can answer questions about stock, products, order status, service issues, or anything else a customer might want to ask. And the operations team should be able to spot warning signals such as low stock or an increase in returns.

5. Your technology is becoming too complex, difficult to manage, and costly.

Using multiple systems to run your company can be an IT management headache. Over time, the integrations and customizations that have to be maintained continues to grow. When patches or updates are applied, you have to make sure that those customizations continue to work.

An ERP that reaches across multiple business units eliminates the need for those integrations because all of the data is shared in a single data warehouse. Modern ERP systems are also more user-friendly and intuitive, which reduces the need for many of those expensive customizations.

One more item to consider: Your data is a target for cyber-criminals

If you maintain multiple silos of data, you are at risk. It becomes very difficult to protect multiple systems from a data breach. A study by long time security experts, Symantec, showed that about one-third of all cyber-attacks now target SMBs. The cyber-criminals have realized that smaller companies often lack the resources for comprehensive security measures, and the data they house is just as valuable.

Conclusion

Instead of piling more cost and complexity onto your organization by adding more tools or customizing the ones you have, it might be time to take a look at a modern ERP system. The right system can help your organization slice expenses, reduce the need to hire more staff, and set your company up for exponential growth.

Contact the ERP and business process experts at NeoSystems today.