Too often does it happen that companies hit a steel wall due to bad internal planning and organization? This is why it is so important that you do all you can to ensure that your moving company scales in the proper way. For some, this comes in the form of good marketing. Others will tend to focus on SEO efforts and their online presence. Now, these are all good direction, but today we turn towards software solutions for movers that want to ensure a good heading for their business. And this is where the importance of ERP systems comes into play.
Why use ERP systems, to begin with?
Companies that want to manage multiple business functions and internal sectors tend to find the answer lies in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. And whether or not your moving company needs ERP software is something you need to decide. Yes, there are plenty of other similar solutions on the market, but the importance of ERP systems is in the unique features it provides. So, to clear it up for you, here are the 6 essential ways in which ERP stands out:
1. It is more cost-efficient than the rest
Once you get past the initial investment you need to make to purchase and implement it, the importance of ERP systems can offer a great ROI. Your initial instinct will probably be to doubt its cost-effectiveness. But once you explore all the options it offers, ERP software will show itself for the money-saver it is. How exactly can we be so sure?
- To begin with, the importance of ERP systems is that they offer internal centralization of operations. You can access all sectors of your company from one system.
- Once you have a central access point, your staff becomes more time-efficient and productive. Since ERP works as a database for any information your staff might need, they don’t have to waste time searching for it.
- Finally, you save employee training expenses, since you only have to teach them how to use a single piece of software.
2. Collaboration within the company increases
When you have a centralized database that your entire staff has access to, it’s much easier to meet project deadlines. Since all data is compiled, stored, shared and accessed through a single system, there’s no need to merge information across various systems or sources. And there is no concern about how accurate, complete or secure the data files are. Without ERP systems, you invite human error into your processes. And this is something every business owner wants to avoid.
3. The importance of ERP systems is that they offer better Analytics options
When you have all your relevant metrics and data in one place, it’s much easier to analyze them and make accurate reports. ERP software makes it easier and faster for your team to generate various reports because it can record and store all the data input. As a result, you save days of work researching and compiling a report that can now take minutes.
A majority of ERP systems come with a customizable dashboard that can automatically show current stats and analytics. As a direct result of this instant access, you no longer have to rely on your IT sector to compose and forward you all the data. Instead, you have it all the moment you log in.
4. You can improve productivity by a margin
We all resent the tedious tasks that we are faced with on a weekly basis. This, of course, refers to all those hour-wasting dull processes such as:
- generating reports,
- monitoring inventory levels,
- timesheet tracking,
- processing moving estimates etc.
Spend enough time doing all this over and over, not only will your morale decrease, but so will even the best of your team members be prone to mistakes. However, if you have ERP on your side, all this becomes much less painful. With this piece of software, all these tasks become automated. So, data entry and countless calculations become a thing of the past. Instead, your staff has more time to focus on other aspects of work.
5. Customer satisfaction rises
Maintaining customer satisfaction has never been as important as it is in business today. With the dominance of digital commerce, people globally turn to the Internet for answers to their problems. In fact, certain data shows that as much as 84 percent of online consumers will trust reviews as much as a personal referral. So, how can you ensure that your company is up to the task of making sure your clients are happy?
All you really need to offer is what you are advertising – top-quality goods and services. And since ERP comes equipped with a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, your client management becomes all the easier. We’ve already discussed the key role of CRM for moving companies, so having it within this centralized system is just the installation you want.
6. Compliance and risk management become simpler to control
As your moving company grows on a global scale, it might become difficult to track all the regulations that come with such success. However, ERP systems have all these regulations incorporated in their database, making your job to comply with all of them all the simpler. Thus, things such as tax provisions and auditing are easier to report on and forward.
Additionally, with the reliability and accuracy that ERP systems offer, you can significantly reduce your financial and accounting risks. There are also forecasting tools that can help you create more secure budgets, schedules, and product development plans. All these convey the importance of ERP systems.
Bottom line
When you look everything it offers in return, the importance of ERP systems far outweigh the initial investments in terms of cost, time and effort to implement. In fact, with such a centralized piece of software, you can:
- solve countless existing issues
- improve current processes and operations
- avoid many potential complications and challenges etc.
