October 30, 2018
Once considered “just a convenience” to manufacturers, predictive analytics is now a necessity. Explained simply, “predictive analytics” refers to “the application of statistical analysis to business issues to improve operations and effectiveness” (Source: Toolbox). Statistical analysis requires data, and lots of it. As a major source of enterprise data, ERP has a starring role to play in helping manufacturers improve their predictive analytics.
ERP & Business Intelligence
ERP solutions collect and organize enterprise data in real-time from every corner of your business — manufacturing, operations, finance, sales and marketing, customer support, IT, HR, and more. Using ERP business intelligence tools, such as Infor’s Birst for CloudSuite, companies can sync all that data with their pre-existing analytics. By doing this, manufacturers are able to more accurately reflect on their efficiency, productivity, supply chain, finances, and maintenance needs. By applying past data to current analytics, the ERP solution can help make predictions to guide decision makers.
Making Predictions with ERP
One important prediction that can be made with predictive analytics involves supply chain management. Receiving real-time updates on shipping (e.g., where a particular truck is at that moment) keeps the chain running smoothly. This is also beneficial to maintaining good relationships with customers, as it allows companies to know exactly when a particular product will arrive – information which they can also relay to the customer. Additionally, with predictive analytics, an ERP is capable of warning staff of potential shut downs or other issues requiring maintenance. By staying ahead of it, companies are able to save up to 40 percent on maintenance and repairs. ERP and predictive analytics are also able to identify sales opportunities and drive results. These insights and proactive alerts, along with sales management tools, prompt more accurate forecasting for your organization’s success, building reliability you can trust.
eBook: 7 Companies that Transformed their Business with Analytics
Implementing ERP-Enabled Predictive Analytics
Infor CloudSuite Industrial ERP automates, anticipates, predicts, and informs your stakeholders in everything they do. With predictions like these, your company can stay on top of trends, both positive and negative. And in the event that something unexpected does happen, Infor has a disaster recovery strategy, including immediate response to outages, threats, and other incidents and daily backups and data replication with a minimum of 14 days’ retention.
Want to put predictive analytics to use in your manufacturing business? Contact Guide Technologies. We are an Infor Gold Channel Partner with over 20 years of experience helping manufacturers find, implement, and optimize software solutions to grow and improve their business.