Enterprise Resource Planning Solutions for Growing Businesses

Enterprise resource planning solutions can have a significant impact on growing businesses. From automating and streamlining processes, reducing manual administration, increasing efficiency, and therefore impacting the bottom line, ERP solutions can positively affect every aspect of a growing business.

Is your company growing? Do you find that your current systems are holding you back?

In our experience, growing companies frequently find themselves limited by the software systems they started out with. Most companies start out with a basic accounting system, which is fine in the early days, but can cause problems as the company grows. Lack of functionality means that additional software products are brought into the mix, but these can’t always communicate with each other. This leads to bottlenecks and information silos, and a lot of information that is contained within the owner/managers’ heads that can’t be reported on.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions, such as SAP Business One, can solve these issues. As a comprehensive solution that covers every aspect of a business, your company information is all contained within one database allowing seamless transfer of information between departments.

My company is quite small – how do I know if I need an ERP solution?

ERP solutions are comprehensive business management systems that can provide benefits for all sizes of business, offering a ‘single source of truth’ while supporting business growth. Without an ERP system, you may recognise some of the following issues:

• Disconnected departments with reliance on Excel to fill in the gaps.
• Duplication of data because of systems not being connected.
• Over-reliance on manual processes and rekeying data.
• Issues managing inventory and stock levels, resulting in stockouts, or too much stock for production requirements.
• Difficulty creating meaningful reports.
• Lack of insight into the state of your business.

How to choose an ERP solution

Quite often, businesses don’t know where to start when it comes to choosing an ERP solution. They recognise that they have issues that such solutions can help with, but while they are experts in the daily running of their own business, they are not usually experts in the various software solutions that could help. Here are some things to consider to help guide you in the right direction:

• Define what you need, now and in the future. Where is your business now, and where do you want to be? What are the pain points that you want to resolve? What do you want to achieve by implementing an ERP solution? For example, automation, greater efficiency, reduction in manual processes, greater productivity, increased turnover.
• Deployment method? Cloud is becoming increasingly popular and offers many advantages over an on-premise deployment. Its subscription licensing model turns your financial outlay into an operational expense rather than a capital expense, which can be helpful in the early days when cashflow is inconsistent. Your cloud partner will ensure the security of your systems, avoiding the need for in-house expertise or working alongside your technical experts, which provides additional reassurance.
• Choose a partner you can trust. Your ERP partner will guide and support you through the selection and implementation process, and help you choose a solution that fits your business needs, both now and into the future. They will also provide training and support to help you make the most from your investment.

As a friendly team of professionals, Ascarii loves to work alongside our clients to help them achieve the most from their investment in SAP solutions. We will guide you through the process to ensure your solution fits your business needs, however, we don’t just sell ERP systems. We want to work with our customers for the long-term and create mutually beneficial and supportive partnerships, based on solutions that will help your business grow. Our goal is to be a ‘trusted advisor’ and we will work alongside you to help you achieve the maximum return on your investment, supporting your business into the future. If you’d like to find out more about how we work, and how we can help your business achieve its objectives, please don’t hesitate to contact us.