By Eric Larson
The pandemic has changed and continues to change so many things about our lives – one of the most notable being how and where we work. Many of us are working from home full time. Some of us are in a hybrid environment, mixing in-office and remote work. When offices started closing in 2020, industries like manufacturing thought that due to the nature of their work, offering remote or hybrid work options to their teams wouldn’t be possible. Since then, these industries have found ways to achieve this. Software – ERP specifically – plays an important role.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) helps make flexible operations possible. If anything, ERP is being more and better utilized today because people are forced to use it. One of the most common challenges with ERP is people not adopting it or working it into their process. In an all digital landscape, employees rely on ERP and have quickly realized its benefits. ERP in a remote work world has staying power, and here are a few reasons why.
Access
Because ERP provides access to real-time data, your employees can work from anywhere – even departments such as customer service, order processing, purchasing and account – who are typically left out of this option. In a fully executed ERP environment in the cloud, your teams can see and access what they need when they need it. Employees from several divisions can communicate with each other because they have the same information as a basis. They experience a boost in their productivity, and they can collaborate efficiently without waiting for accurate data.
Efficiency
When the pandemic first began, face-to-face conversations happened regularly and we weren’t as versed in digital communications as we are today. As we transitioned to zoom meetings and many, many many more emails, miscommunication happened. A lot. But it’s not the “new normal” anymore, it’s just normal. And we’re much better on Zoom. ERP has a hand in this. In remote work environments, ERP becomes the centralized system and tool for sharing and viewing information, in its most recent and consistent form. Instead of departments emailing or calling back and forth the information, ERP software stores and showcases work across all departments, in real time. Teams can communicate and collaborate from anywhere.
Savings
Another undeniable benefit of work from home? The cost savings! In fact, some businesses are encouraging employees to work remotely as it allows them to save significant overhead costs, including the cost of office space itself. In addition, ERP effectively reduces administrative and operations costs by allowing employees to manage business activities proactively and help them make the right decision quickly.
Scalability
ERP systems support this switch and help channel the savings into other profitable activities because of the tool’s ability to easily scale up and down. Cloud capabilities or ERP systems give companies the ability to easily add more functionality as needed. This means companies can focus on using their ERP system to run their business instead of managing data and updates.
To see these types of Improvements you can’t just have an ERP system, it has to be well built, in the cloud, with a process and functionality your team can interact with easily. We exist to help companies adjust their ERP to get it working for them, and not against them. Get in touch to see how we could improve your ERP system and turn it into a tool that helps run your business.
