The truth is business is not a simple practice of bargaining anymore. Business agility is becoming increasingly elusive in a world where new technologies are being adopted everyday.
Apart from improved platforms for expanding business, customers are becoming pickier, and increasing globalization means that there’s even less boundaries for competitors. Evidently, it is important to maintain the agility and efficiency of your business to survive the new world.
But heroes are born in chaos. The silver lining is that businesses are now more motivated than ever to be innovative.
Agility and efficiency go hand in hand. And while we often lump everything together under a single umbrella, there are several different facets of efficiency.
ROI is everything in business. It goes without saying that how a business manages and maximizes their bang for the buck is absolutely crucial to its agility.
As the name goes, this efficiency is dependent on the strength of a business’ core product or service– for instance, manufacturing, building, distribution, etc. Maximizing operational prowess is what gets a business from good to great.
Labour sometimes overlaps with operations but it is more than that. Human capital ROI is not always easily quantifiable. However, it is no secret that optimizing labour efficiency brings about a definite uplift in operational efficiency. Fair warning – this efficiency is heavily influenced by external factors such as technical and equipment resources, availability of automation tools and others.
Not to be confused with operational efficiency, process efficiency rests on factors that contribute to a task being done, not necessarily leading to an AR bill. Most commonly, this would include forms that need to be filled out, documents that need to be approved and other paperwork intensive procedures. While necessary, streamlining processes is a sure-fire way to drive productivity up in a short amount of time.
Chances are you’re reading this now thinking, “sure, that’s all great. But how do I get there… and fast?” There is where I tell you, if you haven’t already gotten onto the ERP bandwagon by now, you should.
Enterprise Resources Planning (ERP) is bigger than simply switching from offline to online. It is about adopting technology that can optimize every aspect of your business and show you things about it that you might not even know.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of having an ERP system is that it puts the right information, at the right time, in the right hands. Suppose you are still running your business on Excel and other decentralized software, you probably don’t realize the business intelligence that lies within your data. That’s simply because you don’t have an integrated platform that can make active associations across your data sources that allow you to analyze crucial contributing factors.
A robust ERP system comes with great reporting tools. These offer business intelligence and accurate insights into your business and provides timely, relevant data. With it, making critical business decisions won’t be a blind gamble.
Often during our implementation onboarding sessions with our clients, we find out that many of their processes can be enhanced significantly. A common reason being that things have been done this way for so long and there’s no reason to change. That’s not always true. Hanging on to the outdated status quo, or “old traditions” as we call it, could cost you more than you know. Unnecessary processes cause you to lose time and inadvertently gnaw away at your productivity and profits.
Fortunately, if you decide to implement an ERP system, you get an opportunity to figure out what works or doesn’t. A typical ERP onboarding would start with a review of your existing business processes with your consultant. But a great consultant will deep dive with you and provide valuable advice on areas of potential improvement. As a result, you not only get a platform that works great for your business but also the inherent process improvement which you can immediately put to work.
Most modern-day ERP systems combine the flexibility of mobile technology with the reliability of an integrated system which enables you to launch appropriate functions across the entire supply chain. This gives you the ability to operate 24/7 from anywhere, saving you time and money, giving you better ROI. Another plus point – it also improves customer satisfaction.
Survival is an easy equation. To survive, you have to be efficient. To be efficient, your business needs to have the agility to keep ahead of the curve. You need to remain flexible, adaptable and responsive to changes that come your way.
ERP systems are by far the quickest, proven way to boost your business agility and allow you to capitalize on new opportunities faster. So if you haven’t decided on implementing and ERP system yet, you should now.
This article is part of a campaign for CRT Insights Technologies’ Live-in-5 Rapid Implementation programme. Just 5 Easy Steps to getting your business future-ready.
CRT Insights Technologies provides world-class ERP solutions and expert advice from experienced regional consultants. No matter stage of your ERP discovery journey you’re at, CRT’s got the solution to make your digital transformation a breeze. Find out about our proprietary Live-in-5 Rapid ERP Implementation programme now!
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