Why businesses need ERP right now
As globalisation puts pressure on the market for many industries, and the economy struggles to stand under the weight of a global pandemic, it is essential to identify every tool that could give your business a competitive edge. For many companies, business need ERP (enterprise resource planning ERP), or as some companies call it, BOS (business operating system), as the tool and secret weapon that keeps them going when others fail.
Why you need ERP? Streamline, improve, simplify
ERP, or BOS as we’ll call it, wraps customer relations management, human resources management, accounting, stock control, management information systems, and supply chain functionality together into one system.
Removing the need for spreadsheets, patchwork systems, or outdated processes, BOS systems improve business performance and communications, streamline complex operations, and simplify the way businesses do things. They utilise a centralised and integrated system to manage every moving part of a business. Business owners use BOS to get instant, effortless clarity on everything that is happening in the business, which makes for a more peaceful sleep at night, and fewer nasty surprises. It is also used for effective decision-making, be it to manage their staff, understand their customers, forecast stock levels, manage accounts, and oversee the business in general.
Ideally, BOS systems should be flexible, scalable and able to adapt to the business, rather than the other way around, but not all BOS systems are designed with the end-user in mind. Chat to us about personalised, customisable BOS to streamline your business, and that gives you the edge.
Why organisations need BOS now, more than ever
There are several business-critical reasons why BOS is more than a ‘nice-to-have’ but is rather an essential facet of business survival. The current economic climate, the far-reaching effects of Covid-19 and the threat of rolling blackouts mean business owners need to bring resources around them that allow them to work smarter and act leaner to survive.
#1. You can work from home, efficiently
Many organisations have been forced out of their offices and into their homes during the lockdown. However, where production and manufacturing may be halted, office and admin functions should be able to carry out their roles without interruption, what with internet-enabled platforms available to most.
Access to BOS through the cloud allows for ‘business as usual to continue. Each employee has full access to their own particular area of business, and each transaction immediately updates the database. This means real-time access to the latest version of data, in one resource. Estimating, sales, scheduling, accounting, marketing, and HR can work from home, and keep the business operational.
Additionally, once lockdown lifts, remote working can remain a viable option for employees, in line with emerging trends on what employees value in an employer, such as flexible hours and more autonomy. BOS tracks and manages productivity, facilitates interdepartmental communication, and mitigates the perceived risks of working from home.
#2. Facilitates leaner, smaller teams
BOS and automation allow you to keep smaller, more agile teams. Small teams are easier to manage, more affordable, and more agile than larger teams. This is possible because BOS handles the mundane, repetitive admin tasks, and thus frees up employees to focus on revenue-generating tasks. No more need for admin-heavy teams as BOS does all the admin heavy-lifting for you.
#3. Saves you money, which is good for the bottom line
Reducing overhead and salary costs, pricing products and services accurately, optimising production, and minimising waste all make for a leaner, smarter, more profitable business. BOS gives clarity into all of these areas and empowers business decision-makers with accurate information on the best ways to remove bottlenecks, improve productivity, and allocate resources and finances more efficiently.
BOS systems also allow time-consuming, vital roles, such as estimators, to do their work faster and more accurately. This also makes way for less expensive staff resources to be upskilled to use the BOS system to create estimates, instead of hiring a heavy-weight, expensive estimator. Accounting and bookkeeping is another niched role that can now be automated by BOS, with accounting reports updated in real-time, and a simple click or two away, thus significantly reducing the need for a full-time accountant.
#4. Local is still best
This point is more of a postscript than a point, but it is too important to leave off. Aside from support that is available when you are awake and understands local business needs, now more than ever the benefits of a local BOS supplier have become a matter of business life or death.
With rapid, overwhelming fluctuations in the foreign exchange rate, companies who use internationally manufactured ERPs may have had to deal with a 30% increase in their BOS expenses lately. For a multi-user company that pays subscriptions in dollars, this could be a crippling blow.
Locally developed, installed, trained and supported BOS is still the best option when considering a BOS supplier. The product, the support, and the price all weigh heavily in favour of local businesses with local BOS, without compromising on functionality or reliability.
