A well designed enterprise resource planning (ERP) system should work for you and not against you. Experienced ERP consultants understand this and will work with you to develop and implement systems that tie directly to your unique business and its business strategies.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, mapping business processes, business processes, john shepperson, oates co, business strategies, gaps
One of the most attractive elements of the Sage ERP X3 system is how easily it can be customized. Every business has its own needs and priorities, and the beauty of enterprise resource planning systems is the numerous modules and add-ons that they offer. Sage ERP X3 is a powerful tool on its own; customizing it will make sure that your company gets the best results and the most efficient use out of this great ERP tool.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, sage erp x3, oates and company, enterprise resource planning, john shepperson, oates co, customize, customization
In a previous post, we discussed some signs that might indicate your need for an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. We said that if you have these issues, it’s probably time for new software:
Our last post asked questions in each of these areas to give you an idea if the response to those indicators was “yes.” Today we’ll talk about how an ERP system will fix those issues.
Each of your processes uses different software
If your accounting department uses a different system than your sales department and both your accounting and sales departments use a different system than your warehouse, you’re doing too much work. In addition, when departments are operated separately from each other, their data may not match, which could affect everything from payroll to the marketing budget to inventory management.
An ERP system has one database that integrates all the data from all the departments and keeps it in a centralized location. Integrated data means several things: more accessible, more accurate, and more up-to-date data than was ever possible before; in addition, your employees will be able to make better decisions more quickly, which leads to higher productivity.
Statistics about your business are not easily accessible
With your current system, key performance indicators, like sales-to-date or average sales margins, take a lot of effort to find. The ERP system’s database gives you and your employees immediate access to all available data. The data, being real-time, offers a current, holistic view of business processes and key performance indicators.
And there’s more: an ERP system can automate reports, so if you need a daily report about completed transactions, the software can create one for you, automatically, every day – and then send it to you in the medium of your choice.
Your accounting tasks seem interminable
Anything being paper-based in your accounting department is a red flag that you need a new system. Paper-based items required manual entry into different systems, which is a huge waste of time when an ERP system could do the job instantaneously. The need for cross-posting, re-typing, reconciling, and compiling data will be gone, along with the high levels of human error that manual data entry is prone to.
Your customer service is suffering
One of the biggest challenges that your growing company will face is inventory management. Learning how to order and stock product so that you have enough is difficult to do when you’re gaining new customers all the time. If your sales, inventory, and customer data are maintained in individual systems, your numbers could easily be thrown off.
An ERP system, on the other hand, allows staff in all departments to have access to the same information. Therefore, an employee in sales can view what inventory is available before he/she promises an order; customer service employees will be able to answer questions without consulting another department.
Best of all, the system automatically updates itself, so when an order is taken, the inventory number immediately refreshes to show current available inventory.
Your Information Technology team is stressed out
If your information technology team is bogged down with maintaining multiple systems, an ERP system will greatly ease the burden. Each team member will be supported by the other members because they all need know only one system, and
So if you found yourself nodding along when you read the reasons that your business should get an ERP system, and you like how an ERP system can fix those problems, contact Oates & Company today to get started!
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, accounting, enterprise resource planning, john shepperson, do i need an erp, oates co, statistics, customer service, it team, checklist
Businesses invest in ERP systems for a number of reasons – ERP systems increase business intelligence, reduce costs, and streamline processes. Although the benefits are promising, however, studies show that over 60% of ERP implementations fail to live up to their users’ expectations.
The developers of Sage ERP X3 have several pieces of advice for businesses that want to implement an ERP system.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, oates and co, sage erp x3, business intelligence, integration, john shepperson, best practices, return on investment
Welcome to today’s installment of The 6 Stages of ERP Implementation. We discussed the 6 Stages briefly and we covered Stage 3 – Developing and Analyzing – in-depth last week. Today we’re going to talk about the fourth stage.
Topics: ERP implementation, oates and co, testing, phase 4, erp implementation phase, erp development, john shepperson
Welcome to today’s installment of The 6 Stages of ERP Implementation. We discussed the 6 Stages briefly and we covered Stage 2 – Planning and Designing – in-depth last week. Today we’re going to talk about the third stage.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, oates and co, implementing ERP, implementation phase, erp implementation phase, development, erp development
Welcome to today’s installment of The 6 Stages of ERP Implementation. We discussed the 6 Stages briefly and we covered Stage 1 – Research and Selection – in-depth last week. Today we’re going to talk about the second stage.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, oates and co, design, software integration, business management, implementation phase
We’ve been talking a lot about ERP systems and ERP implementations, and we’ve been doing so because more and more companies have been “taking the plunge,” so to speak, and choosing to go with ERP systems. ERP systems, if implemented properly, would truly benefit your company in multiple ways. If you’ve been following along on our blog, we’ve posted several articles about the mistakes made by many companies who are attempting to implement ERP systems. We also posted a blog about the six stages of the implementation itself. As with the mistakes, we’re now going to break down those 6 stages and look at them a little more in depth.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, oates, stages, implementation stages, implementation steps, oates and co
Choosing an ERP, as we’ve discussed before, is not an easy undertaking. Previously, a blog entitled “6 Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing an ERP” was published. We’ll now be looking at one of those mistakes in further depth. This mistake could very well be the most common mistake made when an ERP implementation occurs at a company, possibly because everyone is simply relieved that the implementation is completed successfully.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, oates and co, enterprise resource planning, erp maintenance, erp mistakes, go live, john shepperson
Choosing an ERP, as we’ve discussed before, is not an easy undertaking. Previously, a blog entitled “6 Mistakes to Avoid When Implementing an ERP” was published. Today we’re going to look at the fifth mistake, which is failing to use real data to test your new system.
Topics: ERP, ERP implementation, oates, oates and company, enterprise resource planning, implementation, erp mistakes, john shepperson
