This will engage you on understanding the advantages and disadvantages of enterprise resource planning. What is the ERP system is a software solution to support and integrate functional area of business processes that includes production planning procurement of goods and services manufacturing logistics and warehouse management finance accountings as well as human resources?
ERP is built to cater each organization based on their size and strength regardless of the industries ERP system focuses on business process integration that allows integration of systems and services automation of business process secure sharing of data among departments.
The Advantages of using ERP system
Integration information among all departments in old ways company used to store information in each of the department’s database thus the information would only be shared within the particular department if other departments wish to get the information, they have to inquire from the respective department manager in order to access the information by using the ERP system.
The system can store all the information across the all the departments in a single database which mean all the employee form different department can use the information form the database without other department approval next more efficiency for the business process.
Before the implementation of the ERP system all of the information is stored in different database this information may be duplicated and there is high risk that the information may not be the latest version hence decision made based on this information may not be accurate after the implementation of the ERP system.
All the information is stored in a single database which mean everyone can access and update the information from various department to reflect the latest information in the system this reduces the risk of duplicate file because all the information will be updated in a single database thus decision made would be more accurate and reliable total visibility.
Total visibility is one of the biggest selling points for ERP. ERP allows full access to each and every important or major process in the business/schools/institutions by making data from every department easily accessible to the management. This management able to control inventory levels on a daily weekly or even monthly basis including future consignments that are yet to be received and inventory currently in transit by knowing precisely where the companies stand regarding inventory levels.
It helped management to control working capital on a more precise level moreover the availability of all company’s information in a centralized location allows for increased collaboration and more streamlined completion of complex tasks.
This complete visibility provides better workflows and allows interdepartmental processes to be easily tracked with maximum efficiency. All of this makes it possible to make quick and accurate decisions in confidence as management can rest assured that they’re seeing the full complete picture at any given moment lastly improved reporting and planning.
Implementing an ERP system suite across departments it means that an organization has a single unified reporting system for every process by having a single source of truth.
An ERP system are able to readily generate useful analytics and reports at any time. ERP system provide management to have the ability to compare and analyse functions across departments or divisions without the bias of multiple emails and spreadsheets.
one of the most popular reports involves finances standard financial reports such as cash flow and income statements generally are built in ERP system allow management to produce their own custom reports and it can be quickly generated without relying on help of IT.
The Disadvantages of using ERP system
Firstly, on the cost of ERP software the upfront costs of the software alone can be very high especially for small to medium companies even though these costs can be avoided by using cloud solution with a monthly basis payment yet the users can only have access to the system if they continue paying this would then make a cloud-based solution slightly more expensive option over a product’s lifetime.
Secondly the customization processes this process takes a lot of time effort money and expertise businesses often completely underestimate how many resources are needed and either don’t finish their customization or end up going way over the budget.
many companies may also lean on customization when their chosen system doesn’t really fulfill their business needs this could lead to diminishing the best practices built into the system and make it more difficult to upgrade or update in the future.
full participation of users for implementation for a successful implementation of ERP system there is a must that every employee in the organization should participate in using the system it requires training and learning session for the employees. in order to understand how the system works however it may be hard for certain groups especially the older generation to learn the whole process of the RP system.
lack of participation from employees or if unskillful and handling the system can lead to failure of implementation or operation decrease in effectiveness. while completing tasks companies should understand that implementing the system requires a long time this is because it takes time to do migration of data organize the training courses for employees and other tasks this can bring huge amount of loss of to the company.
In terms of time or costs since it will influence the employees and doing their routine process. the process of implementation can take up from months to years if the company did not handle properly on a possible risk, they likely cannot recover from the loss suffered you.