Inside Operations: Help Your Business Thrive with Advanced Enterprise Resource Planning (Guest Column)

Over the years, financial software solutions such as QuickBooks have become the go-to accounting method for small- and medium-sized businesses. However, you may experience challenges with management reporting, data processing and analysis, sales and customer experience, business management, and technology applications if your business has outgrown its current software solution’s capabilities. An integrated enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution can provide many benefits that can impact your bottom line and help you to achieve your goals.

 

Management Reporting

Consolidated views and up-to-the-minute reporting can make the difference between thriving and barely surviving. Signs your company’s system isn’t meeting your management reporting needs include poor data consolidation, errors and inaccurate reporting, performance bottlenecks, and limited access to data.

Solution: Invest in a single data source ERP system that’s built specifically for the craft industry, such as Barrel ERP. With a single data source, your company will have access to real-time analytics and key performance indicators (KPI) to help you make strategic and proactive decisions instead of reactive ones.

 

Data Processing and Analysis

Manually transferring information between systems can lead to frustrations and inefficiencies. In addition to incompatibilities between systems and imperfect integration, signs it may be time for your business to transition to an ERP include inadequate information, customer service issues, slow approval processes, and/or disorganized transactional data.

Solution: Today’s ERP solutions include custom workflows designed to speed up approval processes and mitigate time spent fixing customer service issues. They can also help leadership access more detailed transactional data—including finance, production, and marketing.

 

Sales and Customer Experience

In recent years, e-commerce standards have led to customers expecting real-time stock levels, delivery schedules, and customer service. Your software may be costing you sales if you’re experiencing compromised customer service, inconsistent stock levels, insufficient or unsafe website resources, or unsuccessful sales campaigns.

Solution: Through prebuilt integrations, a company can share information with customers and vendors, track return on investment (ROI) on marketing campaigns, and determine if stock levels are consistent.

 

Business Management

If your software has become inadequate, your company may need to engineer short-term fixes to complete full audit trails, business planning and reporting, or automated processes. Your software’s business management limitations could be hurting you if you’re using multiple finance applications, having difficulty accommodating sales changes, or are unable to adapt to business conditions.

Solution: An advanced ERP system can handle stronger financial controls, better SKU management, and support more complex financial processes. If a business owner is expanding to new locations or adding users or product lines, an advanced ERP system can integrate these additions easily.

 

Technology Applications

The safety of your company’s technology applications is vital, yet they could face significant complications if systems aren’t functioning at a level that supports operations. Indications that your business’s technology is suffering include server failures, compromised security, lack of mobile access, and shared logins.

Solution: A cloud-based ERP system offers flexibility, agility, and automation—operating seamlessly without the overhead of maintaining technology. These products are built to stay up-to-date, giving companies the tools to remain ahead of the competition and to seize emerging opportunities.

 

Next Steps

Adopting new technology can be overwhelming and expensive, but updating business resources can help your company maintain adequate internal controls and implement technology required to manage it, which could save money and resources over time.

 

 

 

 

Michael Parker is Principal – IT Consulting Services for Moss Adams LLP. He can be reached at (303) 965-7915 or michael.parker@mossadams.com. Mike Borcherding is Business Development Manager – IT Consultant Services at Moss Adams LLP. He can be reached at (303) 965-7911 or mike.borcherding@mossadams.com.