There were no mobile phones with data plans just a few years ago. Now mobile phones have more computing power than the technology that sent the first rocket into space. Wi-Fi hotspots, unlimited data plans, and phone networks with increasingly large areas of coverage make data not only easy to access, but easy to use. Some of the old mobile phones allowed you to view certain online pages, like Yahoo! Sports, but there was no way to interact with the internet like we see now. Employees can receive and send emails. Salespeople can place orders. Warehouse workers can control inventory. Purchasers can track stock levels. Managers can track employees. Customers can track their packages.
The availability of this information creates opportunities for businesses to use the data in real time and for predictive purposes. A business not only has access to information about where data has been, but can leverage that information to better see where it is going.
It’s not quite that easy, unfortunately. Many legacy systems can’t perform this type of data mining and most do not offer mobile access. Older systems are also often missing dashboards and other user-friendly aspects that modern systems offer. Another problem is that older systems can’t track trends in customer purchasing habits, which doesn’t allow companies to monitor inventory and adjust product offerings in a timely manner. They also miss out on information about products becoming outdated and/or lose opportunities to cross sell to customers.
These issues can be costly.
So what can you do? Get new software that fixes those issues. New systems:
- offer dashboards, which display data in ways that make intuitive sense to users and provide the
tools needed for those users to find the valuable information they need - offer cloud services, which allow 24/7 access to data
- offer ease-of-use, including graphical representations of business processes
- offer customization, which allows each business to alter the system to their unique specifications
- offer forecasting, which makes it easier to predict which inventory items to purchase and when
- offer customer relationship management, warehouse management, and operations as part of a single database, which allows employees to have real-time access to data across the whole business
Software providers are reacting to these needs with systems known as enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. Big software systems that can do it all are no longer only available to the large enterprises with thousands of employees. Smaller companies, like Sage, are creating ERP systems for medium sized business too, and suddenly it’s easier than ever to enter the fray.
Contact Oates & Company today to learn more.
