Knowing When It's Time for an ERP Change

An ERP system helps you keep your business in order. Not only does it ensure maximum utilization of your resources, but it can also give your manufacturing business an edge over competitors by helping you gain agility.

However, there comes a time when the ERP software that should be an advantage to you starts to become a burden. It is important to identify the indicators that it may be time for an ERP change. This article aims to help you recognize those indicators, so you can make the changes necessary to keep your manufacturing business profitable and ahead in your industry.

Indicators that Your Business Needs an ERP Change

ERP Software Can’t Keep Up With Business Needs

Your business model and strategy must change with time for you to keep up and compete in the fast-changing manufacturing industry. As an essential part of streamlining operations, your ERP system needs to be flexible enough to keep pace with such operational changes.

Moreover, your business needs have likely changed from when you were just starting out. It is difficult to scale your business while still relying on a software solution--or multiple solutions--you had when your manufacturing business was much small. The business will find itself adjusting to make room for the software’s inadequacies instead of the other way around. 

The catch is that it is difficult to know how much redundancy there is in your current ERP system until you try out a new one. Then you realize how much the software has been holding your business back.

ERP Software is Getting Cumbersome to Use

Earlier ERP solutions were notorious for being difficult to use. The steep learning curve makes the onboarding process for new employees longer, more tedious, and more expensive. Not to mention the clunky, confusing interface makes it a chore to use and discourages your staff from taking full advantage of its features.

An ideal ERP solution will be intuitive to use, with a user-friendly interface that encourages data input. Therefore, when your ERP software starts to hinder your employees’ ability to do their work effectively, it is time for a change.

Cost Inefficiencies

You lose money when your business does not agree with your ERP software. The inefficiency starts piling up from licensing and maintenance fees for the software. Outdated software leaves room for cracks, causing operational inefficiencies and costing your business money.

Cloud-based ERP solutions remove the need to spend so much on in-house maintenance. And the cost of switching is mitigated by the pay-as-you-use model.

Clients Leaving Because of Poor Customer Experience

One of the cheapest ways to provide more value to your customers without much cost is by improving their experience with you. Research shows that 96% of customers will leave a product or service due to poor customer experience. 

Effective manufacturing ERP solutions help communicate billing and shipping details to your customers without additional effort from you. As you keep track of your materials from vendors and partners, clients will also be able to keep track of their production timeline in real time.

Lack of Access to your ERP Outside Work

New technology has to be leveraged to gain throughput in business. With the abundance of support currently available for mobile devices, not having this increased accessibility can impede your business operations.

Employee productivity is increased when users can access your company's ERP outside of work. They can update their logs and contribute to work when they are not on-site by logging in through their mobile phones and laptops.

Cloud-based manufacturing ERP solutions make accessibility possible in a seamless way. In addition to the increased productivity, you are able to achieve a more coherent network where data flows more smoothly. 

Conclusion

A manufacturing ERP solution that is adaptable, easily accessible, and cost-effective will improve your throughput through the roof. In most cases, businesses can already sense the inadequacies of their current software but hold on because of the uncertainty and costs of switching to a new solution.

Infor ERP solutions take away these problems by providing a system that is intuitive to use and tailored for your business. Learn more about how Infor ERP solutions manufacturers can transform your business and how Guide Technologies can help you accomplish this.