10 Important Use Cases of ERP For Businesses

Enterprise Resource Planning for businesses is as essential as planning for crucial business processes in the current scenario. While all companies carry out resource planning at their own level in some way or another, having a dedicated ERP system tuned for your business can be a game-changer.

Pivotal ERP Use Cases for Businesses

While the use cases of ERP for businesses could be truly countless, there are some significant areas where prompt ERP use can reap layered benefits. These include-

1. Sales and Marketing

If yours is a sales or marketing-related venture, not having a structured ERP app could adversely affect your business. Let’s say you want to reach your customer base through a wide range of digital and physical retail channels. Sales and marketing is one domain where reps handle data that literally translates to conversions. 

Customer management, invoicing and remarketing, sales cycle management, quotations, and advertising; everything requires prompt management. A custom ERP application can help organize these aspects for your team.

It will also open the door for easy and effective communication and digital sales automation with centralized updates across different departments.

2. Manufacturing Requirements

A manufacturing business is one that is in constant need of checks and balances. This could be in terms of its operational processes, cost management, material planning, and much more.

While centralized management could be key here, you also need different functional systems for managing each manufacturing department. 

From buying components or raw materials, processing, and manufacturing, right up to distribution, payments, and delivery, well-integrated ERP apps can enhance the process. You reduce overhead and downtime costs and skyrocket your performance and efficiency with an ERP system for all your manufacturing requirements. 

3. Supply Chain Management

First off, Supply Chain Management offers challenges that are a little different from sales or manufacturing. More real-time data at hand needs to be addressed immediately for an order that is being shipped.

If you’re overwhelmed with late shipping, inventory management, and increased order returns, an ERP system tuned for your SCM could be something you might want to look at!

Monitor your orders, prioritize them, and keep track of your estimates and financial tabs with an ERP. Transit from your warehouses to gauge the current demand can also be made on a need-basis. An SCM ERP helps reduce redundancy in the system to allow the supply chain operatives to focus on the next task at hand. 

4. Error and Miscues Management

Any system or business faces obstacles owing to manual errors, miscommunications, or the lack of proper communication within and across departments. The management of such mistakes and miscues can be one of the most critical use cases of ERP systems for different business industries. 

For one, automation of the process plays a vital role in minimizing manual errors regarding activities, status, processes, and cost. Communication across departments can be streamlined to make sure each sector takes action with the right cue from the other. No resource or workforce is wasted, deadlines can be effectively handled, and processes optimized with an effective ERP system.

5. Inventory Management

Businesses dealing with physical products often struggle with inventory management, most significantly when they are scaling up. The coordination between different vendors, manufacturers, and transport companies is difficult to keep a tab on. Not to mention, the cost incurred due to improper or false updates about the inventory status can be significant. 

Real-time inventory statuses and levels can be tracked from your warehouse to different levels of operation management. With prompt and automated updates, your team can keep track of the location of items and predict the approximate time to fulfill your orders.

ERP for inventory management can be revolutionary if you don’t have one yet!

6. Risk Management and Mitigation

Let’s move on to an ERP use case that remains unpopular and underappreciated. For businesses dealing with uncertainties and dynamic progressions, this is a factor that could change the entire way you operate. Frankly, all businesses have certain uncertainties and risks, and managing these is unavoidable.

Using intelligent ERP systems to predict and mitigate this risk is a solution many companies are benefiting from.

Weighing the metrics of ERP implementation risks vs. cost can help your team/project managers to set realistic expectations and budgets. This includes re-tuning communications with sponsors, investors, vendors and quoting a price to your end client. Risk mitigation and management is all about prompt awareness and communications with a dedicated ERP system.

7. Communication Management

Communication is undoubtedly an integral part of any business. ERP systems can play an important role in automating and streamlining all communications within your business or organization.

An ERP application can do wonders, especially for managers and team leaders looking to track progress at various levels within their team. 

Structured communication management through ERPs can also help assess, instruct, and review work along with addressing queries that arise at any point in time. A centralized software can clear the confusion around availability and help keep your team on the same page regarding progress and obstacles in the project. 

8. Process Improvement and Approval

ERP applications can play an essential role in implementing a structured mechanism for business processes. In a typical business, a good structure for approval is needed. This could be giving the go-ahead to the next team or perhaps approving implementation across the organization. Keeping track of the status of approval saves time and helps in planning effectively. 

Your current drawbacks and shortcomings can also be tracked and assessed to improve business processes for greater profitability. An ERP for tracking current operations and exploring the practical disadvantages of the same can trigger the next stage for improving and refining these processes in future iterations.

9. Finance Management

At the end of the day, financial numbers are everything for a business. Whether it is investments, expenditure, or expected profits, no lapse in management can be tolerated in terms of finances. Dedicated financial management modules within your ERP system can help manage your accounts and orders effectively. 

Balance sheets, employee salaries, cash flow, invoicing for clients, and intelligent predictions for expected profits are a few domains that can be handled efficiently with an ERP for financial management. This helps keep errors at bay and automate the transactional processes to ensure accurate expectations. 

10. Regulation and Compliance Management

When you’re a business operating in a particular industry and demographics, regulatory compliance is a must to ensure your healthy survival. ERP systems can help you handle your compliance monitoring requirements to ensure you don’t miss out on a protocol that is crucial or has a deadline on it. 

Prompt audits and checks can be carried out frequently to ensure that your processes and operations are in line with the updated regulations that you are required to comply with. A centralized system also helps keep track of varying regulations across different international locations. 

Final Words

It is fair to say that a business with well-structured ERP systems for segregated departments can really set apart its operations, productivity, and functioning from the rest.

Implementing ERP for business means not only taking away the hassle of manually tracking your dynamic business requirements, but it also translates to direct financial gain and improved profitability for your business.