Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP):
Every organisation small, medium, or large has a variety of functions including, but not limited to, finance, human resources, procurement, compliance, risk management, operations, distribution, and others.
ERP software is used to automate all business process within these functions.
It is integrated into the business to streamline complex business processes and centralise information. This data is accessible in real-time by all the key stakeholders across the organisation.
Features of a Good ERP Solution:
There are numerous ERP solutions available in the market to cater for generic as well as specialised ERP requirements. Choosing the right solution for your organisation might be a challenge with so many options in hand. The nature and complexity of a business, plans, budgets, etc. are the key factors in deciding the solution or software.
An organisation should make a list of required core functionalities, some of them are listed below:
- Finance and Accounting: this is a core module of an ERP and focuses on storing and managing accounting and financial data. The module also offers budgeting, forecasting, and financial planning.
- Customer Relationships Management: it helps an organisation to manage relationships with both existing and potential customers.
- Supply Chain Management: it helps an organisation to manage the continuous supply of resources and materials and has functionalities to manage demand, supply, manufacturing, vendor management, and planning.
- Human Resources: this module within an ERP provides full employee life cycle management from the onboarding of an employee until an employee leaves the organisation. It has features such as holiday management, timekeeping, payroll, tax computations, etc.
Above features are not the only ones to consider, different organisations can have different priorities and requirements. A project management team should be assigned with a project manager that should create a list of those functionalities.
Organisations should focus on the below after selecting the core features.
- Automation: software should provide advance automatic functions and will help in saving time.
- Integration with Other Tools: the best ERP software will provide the ability to connect with other ERP solutions and reporting tools.
- Data Management: an organisation should be able to have a centralised repository to be accessed across all departments.
- Reports: this feature focuses on providing a customisable dashboard, creating different graphs, pie charts, bar graphs and other visual representations.
- User Interaction: an important feature of an ERP is to provide an interface that is user friendly. Software with excellent user interface reduces training cost and looks professional.