If you could take an important business automation system that was formerly housed on your business premises and move it to the cloud, would you? It seems to make sense, but some companies will choose to keep their enterprise resource planning (Cloud ERP) system on their own site.
The Buzz
In the digital media, we often read information concerning cloud ERP that could easily confuse business owners who aren’t familiar with our industry. Here, we take an opportunity to discuss four advantages of moving to the cloud for all ERP needs. This information can help your company make a better decision about how to best automate this important business function.
What is Cloud ERP?
With the right cloud ERP solution, it’s easy to unify different business systems within your organization. In a manufacturing organization, for example, ERP could include customer relationship management, sales, accounting, procurement, distribution, human resources, and corporate governance software solutions. If you choose to subscribe to ERP software in the cloud, you can save on data center costs. All of these ERP-related applications can share information, which enables smarter business decision-making. In essence, all major departments can share and use real-time information.
The Advantages
- Easier-to-update. Cloud-based systems are scalable. Because they are not housed on your site, they are easier to improve. The creators of the software can make improvements to applications and roll them out faster on their own cloud-based servers. Your company enjoys rapid implementation of updates and gets to access all new software features in your business operations.
- Customized profiles. Your company can use different strategies to divide up production and service area tasks in a comprehensive ERP suite. Because employees in different departments use the same suite, managers can create profiles giving them limited access to business systems in other areas. This enables true process management, in which employees from one business function assist with tasks in another service area according to fluctuating operational needs.
- Less square footage for server storage. While there are some servers that you decide to keep on-site, you can trust an ERP cloud provider for scalable services. The companies that want to keep their servers for ERP are those that require heavy customization. A recent trend in cloud ERP is that the updates providers first introduce soon become standard features in the next version of their software.
- Adding more solutions to the suite over time. You don’t have to go all-or-nothing to the cloud. You can gradually phase your company into adoption of cloud-based ERP software solutions. For example, you could start with accounting and payroll solutions and later add human resource management and procurement solutions. You could ask your ERP provider to interface their ERP solutions for those areas with a different CRM solution that you prefer to keep on-site. You can choose to what extent you want to manage all of your ERP needs in the cloud. If you are worried about security, you can safeguard sensitive business information for some applications on your own internal database servers.
We want to help you understand how automating your business systems through a cloud-based subscription will make your operations more efficient. With a comprehensive suite of Cloud ERP solutions, your business can share information across functions and eliminate many unnecessary tasks. At first, the endless possibilities for restructuring work assignments within a growing organization could overwhelm you. That’s where our experts can assist. We’re experts in cloud ERP, and we can break down the advantages so they make sense in the context of your company. Your bottom line is important to us. For details on how cloud ERP can help your business, please contact us today.