Technology has become an integral part of every business, irrespective of whether the business is based on new-age technologies or not. It helps in accelerated decision making since it provides visibility into different aspects of the business.
A large organization has multiple departments such as marketing, sales, finance, etc. and most of them work in a coordinated manner. On the other hand, a small business owner needs to shoulder multiple responsibilities to keep the business moving in the right direction. Software that integrates different processes necessary to run a firm brings improved visibility into the internals of business.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is one such software that is instrumental in facilitating the real-time flow of information between different business functions. ERP solutions have been used by large corporates but ERP for SME has become equally important. Small businesses have to invest in the right set of tools and ERP is one such tool that has become essential for ‘any’ type of business.
Many small businesses follow practices such as relying on guesswork when it comes to sales forecasts, maintaining numerous spreadsheets for invoicing, etc. that are error-prone and non-scalable. These practices will falter once the business expands and your competitor that has leveraged technology for making informed decisions will have a competitive advantage.
ERP software features becomes important so that the concerned team can evaluate the solution from different perspectives. Factors such as ease of use, technical support, support for banking transactions, inventory management, GST (Goods & Services Tax) compliance, scalability, upgrade frequency, and cost should be considered when choosing the ideal ERP software.
Scalability is an important factor since it should be suited for managing a single enterprise or a group of companies.
Shown below are some of the integral benefits of ERP for SMEs:
1. Improved decision making – The data available in an ERP system is visible to different departments (e.g. marketing, sales, finance, etc.) in the organization. Hence, they can work in synchronization to arrive at decisions for the betterment of the business.
2. Better visibility into business functions – In today’s competitive times, companies with tight-knit departments will thrive in the long run. Business functions in an organization (including SME) should no longer work in silo since it can lead to miscommunication.
As different functions in an ERP system are inter-connected, the business owner has better visibility into the financials of the business. This will help the key stakeholders to take decisions for improving business performance.
3. High Productivity – Maintaining tons of excel sheets for tracking business performance can hamper your employee’s productivity. On the other hand, ERP software like Tally.ERP 9 by Tally Software boosts productivity, as it helps in streamlining the business processes.
4. Improved Security and Scalability – Any business owner wants his/her business to grow leaps and bounds. Along with spotting the right opportunities for business expansion, it is essential to use the right tools that are secure and help in reducing the operational expenses.
An ERP solution like Tally.ERP 9 is used by many SMEs and large corporates. It has important security features that ensure that only authorized personnel have access to ‘right’ information in the system. Many SMEs witness exponential growth and choosing a scalable ERP solution that is scale-agnostic (i.e. works seamlessly irrespective of the organization’s employee strength) can be advantageous in the long run.
Wrapping it up
Whether you are a small enterprise, growing startup, or a large conglomerate; Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is a must-have for businesses. ERP software download is an integral step to evaluate the software, as it helps the concerned teams in choosing the best ERP software for driving operational and business benefits to the organization.
