Here's how deploying a new ERP can help your organisation gain efficiencies
From small business to large-scale enterprise organisations, finding new ways to become more efficient is always a key objective. That's because wasted time, money and resources are all damaging to your bottom line.
It's also worth considering how the modern business landscape is changing. As challenging to navigate as it is exciting, business environments in New Zealand are more fast-paced, and more tech-centred, than they were 20 years ago. Increasing customer expectations, market fluctuations and more competition mean that to survive, organisations must find efficiencies wherever possible, and take steps to minimise the disruption caused by digital transformation.
If your organisation is experiencing a period of business growth - or one is being planned - you need more resources. Remember that while growth is a key objective for any business, it can also be a double-edged sword if you're not equipped to scale and streamline key processes.
What's causing inefficiencies?
There are a number of reasons that an organisation is operating less efficiently than it should, including:
- Poor access to business data - if you don't have a system in place that provides the ability to easily view and extract data, then it can't be harnessed for analysis and improved decision making. You need to be able to pinpoint where you might be over-spending, or where resources aren't being allocated properly and do this quickly so you can adapt and improve quickly.
- Lack of relevant sales data - an organisation needs to be able to identify if sales teams are underperforming, and why, or changes in customers spending patterns and trends.
- Manual data entry - If employees are spending huge amounts of time entering data, they're being taken away from their core, high-value tasks. Manual data entry is prone to errors, and the time spent identifying and correcting them - especially if decisions have been made based on that data - is costly in time, money and resources.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are fast becoming the most sought-after applications for businesses worldwide, as they are so adept at helping to reduce costs while streamlining business processes.
5 quantifiable ways to boost your bottom line with a new ERP deployment
Investing in a new ERP deployment can boost your bottom line by:
- Streamlining your business processes - the more you grow, the more complicated your operations become. An ERP system will help you to manage these complexities by enabling transparency across departments, putting all available data in a single centralised location. For example, a member of the design team in a manufacturing business can monitor the progress of production, and then update the accounts team about material requirements
- Enhancing data security - departments need to be able to share data, but managers need to supervise which team members get to see which data, in order to reduce the risk of that data being compromised. ERP systems help control user access, so employees see only what's relevant to their roles. An ERP system will also ensure the improved consistency, accuracy, and security of your data
- Reducing operational costs - an ERP system is a 'single source of truth' and that transparency means your organisation will save on IT expenses involved in administration or managing support and infrastructure. For manufacturers, an ERP will optimise the efficiency of their inventory processes; it will identify slow-moving inventory, then accelerate its time-to-market by finding new and quicker ways to deliver services and products.
- Recovering debt – this is often a key area where efficiency gains need to be made. If an organisation doesn't have a robust Accounts Payable system on board, it becomes more difficult to track who owes them money. Debt collection suffers from this kind of inefficiency, and it has a direct impact on a business's bottom line.
For example, we have a client who's an apple exporter. At the beginning of the harvest season, they need to start paying the orchardists who supply the apples, but if they haven't received the necessary funds from their offshore buyers, they're forced to borrow massive amounts of money to ensure the apple season gets kicked off. They were using a system that was not properly tracking which foreign customers had paid, and which hadn't. It was an inefficiency that was causing significant damage to their financial resources, and needed to be addressed immediately. - Maintaining business continuity - as we navigate the Covid-19 era, the fact that ERPs are mostly cloud-based means many organisations can continue to function as a remote business. Were it not for the cloud-based functionality of ERP systems, many businesses would have had to close their doors during lockdowns, and there is nothing more inefficient than losing business continuity. With the threat of the pandemic still hovering over organisations world-wide, it's become more important than ever to make use of systems that allow businesses to continue to function remotely.
Calculating the ROI on a significant investment like a new ERP deploy is important, and these efficiency gains alone are tangible examples of how an organisation can boost their bottom line by investing in ERP technology.
How Endeavour can help
The Endeavour approach is based on a proven methodology that’s been honed during the successful implementation of hundreds of ERP solutions over 25 years.
And while gaining efficiencies is a key objective, we don’t just focus on one area of improvement. We work with several leading ERP and BI software solutions to ensure that every client gets the most appropriate solution for their business goals. By implementing and supporting these solutions, we enable you to ‘join the dots’ in your organisation, becoming more efficient in every area and boosting your bottom line.
If you've noticed that inefficient business operations are impacting on your profits, get in touch and we'll start a discussion around what ERP system would best suit your organisation and get you running efficiently and profitably.
