Why do businesses need custom ERP?

Why do businesses need custom ERP?

Irrespective of the size, big or small, every company faces one usual problem: a dependable way to collect and store information. Fortunately, ERP solutions are very helpful on this count.

A report suggests that 95 percent benefitted immensely by using ERP software. However, it has to be noted that there is no system as such perfect for all. Ideally, it should meet your business goals and needs. This is where ERP applications come into play.

An Enterprise Resource Planning (abbreviated “ERP”) system happens to be a group of digital management instruments that can be utilized for all business departments and also assists in managing data flows inside the organization.

Some of the well-known ERP modules:

  1. finance and accounting
  2. warehouse and inventory
  3. supply chain
  4. tasks and workflows
  5. customer relationship management
  6. sales
  7. human resources

Advantages to derive with an ERP app

These happened to be some of the reasons to implement an ERP system:

Save Time: ERP tools contain all segments you require inside, which implies you do not have to take time to harmonize various apps and establish their structure for your organization.

Clarity: The work pertaining to any department and its procedures can be obtained within one solution. This increases the visibility of the whole company and enhances the collaborations of various departments.

Easily Automate: You can easily automate the company’s workflow and, then, better the team’s productivity and efficacy.

Reporting: ERP apps offer the excellent peek into the company’s entire progress as every department is brought under one roof.

Enhanced customer services: Information about every client will be stored in one system and there won’t be any need to make several spreadsheets for customers’ profiles.

Well-known ERP software providers

In case you happen to use an ERP system or plan to in future, you would want to know about the ideal options available in the market. Some of the best ERP products are:

Microsoft Dynamics is perfect for several industries such as retail, finances, or manufacturing. Apart from other benefits, this solution contains in-built predictive analytics segments and varied alternatives for third-party integrations.

Odoo has a novel inventory management system as it allows you to track the product from the manufacturing stage up to the end user. Also, the tool provides advanced customer portals that keeps information safe regarding your clients and automatic stock adjustment for eCommerce companies.

Infor stands on an AI platform meant for businesses of any size. It offers useful insights into business activities. For example, handling assets is as important as anticipating failure and offering preventive measures for the same.

SAP Business One is a pioneer in the market and quite ideal for small organizations. It has various standard segments inside (finances, sales, marketing, customer relations, etc.) and gels with any device.

Oracle NetSuite is another ideal solution meant for companies of any size. It is a famous platform that assists several languages and currencies. It can be customized with ease and has a partner relationship module inside.

Why custom ERP software?

In certain scenarios a custom ERP system would be an ideal choice for a business. Customization is essential if:

Your team should not get stuck in a mix of digital tools

One app for storing the clients’ database, the second one for the payments and bills, and the third one for the marketing department. The multiple arrangements can be chaotic even in a small organization. So, to cut out complications and ease the business processes, business owners must go for custom ERP development. This won’t make employees change the apps and will help them focus on more critical activities.

Swift access to the crucial business data

If databases are stored at diverse places then it can be very annoying for you face at work. These things can alter with ERP customization. You can develop independent structure with the critical information you require at your fingertips and store the same at single application, combining all business data.

Customer service is the biggest causality of organizational woes

The product is a long procedure before it makes it your table. There is production, storage, selling, delivery – these departments you might have in your company. In case they are using different software, it can result in overdue orders and negative feedback for your business.

6 Ways you benefit with ERP customization

Now let us just find out why customized ERP software is an ideal call affecting various business functions.

Decreased expenses

Off-the-shelf products possess everything you require and probably a bit more. Ultimately, you might be required to shell out for more options despite the same being futile for your business. Whereas, there are some features that are non-existent in the solution you can buy and use right away. This happens to be the origin of additional spending. Overpaying is something that can be avoided.

Good degree of control

The complex solutions are made steadily, in tiny working fragments. For you, it implies getting total control over the development procedure and incorporating features on the go. Your team happens to be the sole decision-maker and you get to decide what you will achieve in the end.

Steady workflow

The custom ERP segments and their variations will be made personally to your business requirements, implying that you will not make any modifications in the present workflow.

Spike in productivity

Gradually, new features will be given as per the demands of the company’s management. You will begin to see how the same procedures will be handled swiftly and how it triggers the organization’s evolution.

Smooth integration with third-party services

Ready-made tools provide several choices as far as integration is concerned, but it is not clear whether each business app can be included in the list. While building your own software, it becomes an essential condition. And irrespective of the app you use, it will be linked with the custom solution.

Expandability

ERP building does not cease as and when the tool is ready. Your business will evolve and even the number of business functions. You would also require extra features on your current ERP product. If you join hands with a sincere team of developers, you can deal with a lot of challenges together, including the burgeoning list of segments and features.

Way to develop a custom ERP system

Developing such systems can be challenging and exciting. Developers go through each corner of your business and create segments for them. But let’s begin from scratch.

1. Prepare the list of needs

The existing ERP solutions in the market will give you a varied module, but you should realize the present business requirements, strengths, and weaknesses. There are probably various departments that warrant your attention and some automation at present. This is where you begin forming software needs.

2. Sketch the system’s structure

You can assess ready-made applications and make up your mind about elements you require the most. However, ultimately, only knowledgeable developers can build an ERP system that is apt for your entity. Through experts, you can save time and future costs – ERP developers are fully aware of what needs to be done from the start and spare you from errors in decision making. They assess your needs and draft a program for you.

3. Ponder over project’s tech stack

Seasoned developers have the ability to swiftly develop an idea regarding technology in use. Seek answers from the team regarding these points:

The programming language to use.

Database.

Hosting.

There are two major choices: in the cloud (it is a web solution) or on the local server (for linked computers). Cloud-based software is a regular choice for the majority of entrepreneurs due to the safety aspects.

4. Unify legacy apps and databases with the new app

Prior to building an ERP system, the team is required to have all the gathered data at hand. It expedites the work progress and offers developers a total understanding of your existing business culture.

5. Examine the outcomes of the first iteration

Executing an ERP system proceeds stepwise. Prior to achieving the final outcome, you must ensure that each module has been built properly and this smoothens the company’s workflow. Your employees must assess the solution and carry out various daily operations with it. Once the testing finishes, you will have the system’s part that works on its own.

Single tool for every business

ERP systems can be complicated but also very flexible solutions for contemporary business. It collects every essential software under one roof and assists in enhancing the workflow to a large extent. The sole hitch is to get the apt solution from the market, which might not be available there. The ideal solution in such a scenario is to build an ERP from scratch. This can be a bit too difficult and you might require professional assistance as well. This is really worth all your effort and time as you get the software that syncs with your business perfectly.

ERP VS CRM Software

Enterprise Resource Planning. (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are business driven software that helps in increasing business efficiency and reducing cost for an organisation . Using CRM and ERP helps to effectively manage customer interaction .

ERP may help you to effectively measure sales and marketing department performance but will fail to measure the performance of customer which is often measured by a CRM software . Let’s discuss some merits and uses .

CRM

CRM is a software helps to manage company’s customer interaction in organised manner . CRM compromises of all the features like sales and support , customer interaction and engagement , prospectus and business partner .

Traditionally CRM was the software used by only sales department to maintain client and prospectus . But when it comes to reality CRM is used by different department for multiple purposes .  For instance a CRM can be used by sales department to take regular follow ups , sales projection can also be predicted by CRM , and at the same time support and complain department may use CRM to raise a support ticket and assign the executive for solving the complain / support to customer . Modern CRM also has marketing automation system thus enabling marketing department to send mass email to all customer at once regarding any kind of promotion or offers thereof .

When is specially comes to the used of the CRM , there is no limit of its usability . It is just like sea which has no end point .

ERP

While at the coins one side CRM focuses on front side office management , ERP system on the other side focuses on business at large . ERP facilitates sharing of information with the rest of the company , thereby facilitating improvement of overall efficiency . ERP has been customised for each of the industry individually as per their demands and supply like manufacturing , product or finance department ERP system automates many of the organisation process thus enabling company to make better strategic decision .

In other words , ERP is back office application as it is no way related to customer management .

CRM And ERP

Look why the title of this section is not ” CRM or ERP ” .  Both software servers completely different task which is yet a very important task of the organisation . CRM helps in building a deeper relationship with the livelihood of any business organisation ” Customer” thereby making a profitable enterprise , whereas on the other hand ERP allows internal management of the organisation as it may encounter from time to time .

Having both solution for business namely ERP and CRM software solution is always proven beneficial for any company thus increasing profit , saving time and increasing staff efficiency .

Usually a growing business organisation will first adopt a CRM solution to establish a stronger customer relationship and several support department . In small business organisation there is a small room and teams are just a few feet away , then obviously there is no need of using the ERP system .

Thereby a CRM system will help in marketing automation together with maintaining healthy relationship with clients by sales force automation , thereby creating new business opportunities thus helping business grow to the point when ERP system becomes the necessity of the organisation .

Integrating ERP And CRM

Once your business system has stepped into ERP system together with CRM its time to start thinking about the integration process of CRM and ERP .

Lack of integration gap may increase the information gap within the company . For instance a manufacturer might keep the stock record on the ERP system which may later be crossed checked by sales department before processing any of the orders , thereby confirming stock availability and also automating the task of stock update , which may result in some error in case of manual entry . On the same time a sales representative may check the customer credit history and can give them stock as per the existing credit history only .

So before purchasing or handing over your software development requirement , business organisation should evaluate their specific needs and requirement to the software development company. Here at Winklix , every business organisation must adopt a basic CRM for their organisation , but if later on their working are getting complex day by day , then they may move to ERP system integration .

Integrated ERP And CRM Why It Matters ?

crm-erp-developer

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) are awesome to handle all the organisation needs , and even gots better integrated . Let’s have a look at both of the software packages that can be proven beneficial for business .

Get The ROI As Desired

The very first thing that any business owner is looking for is Return on Investment (ROI) . Integrating ERP and CRM in any organisation will defiantly increase the ROI as it efficiency manage the gap between employees and internal management together with customer management . This solution streamline difference between various department so that every department can work efficiently without any communication gap , and hence increasing productivity , sales and profit of the organisation .

Data All Stores Centrally

Wouldn’t it be great when your sales team can access the data of your billing and accounts department ? It is all possible because of centralised database in CRM and ERP system , thereby saving your response time and energy .

Centralised database also reduced duplicate entry . It means as soon as you enter the information in CRM system , it will automatically be integrated into ERP system immediately and vice a versa , thus keeping all department on same phase without any miscommunication .

Reduce Training And IT Cost

Using easy to use fully integrated ERP and CRM solution can always be proven smart choice for any organisation . The very first thing it saves is employees time , which can be used more productively somewhere else . At the same time , all employees will be trained under one common system .

While implementing any software solution in the organisation , the main thing which matter it IT department cost . By integrating with the software package from mass scale of vendors like SalesForce CRM or SAP ERP , any company don’t have to worry about integration process as they are already ready to use , thus saving development and testing time which will be occurred once they make it for scratch .

Order And Quote Management

A well integrated ERP and CRM software facilitate employees to get to know what’s happening in the organisation . For instance the backend department and the account department will automatically get the information about the new order taking place through sales department . Also customer and employees will able to see the progress of their projects , and any points can be discussed with the customer directly .

For companies who are just trying to bridge the gap between different department , some integrate CRM and ERP solution can really do some wonder for them as it brings all department together .

All United Powerful Support Team

A customer can get all the support tickets solved across different departments from one place rather can communicating with each and every department individually .

When two different software packages are to be implemented there might come lot of hurdles and complexity that may come along on the path . If you are interested in integrating ERP and CRM solution together , then fortunately you are at right place , contact Winklix to make it happen for your business .