A customer calls your business to ask a question about an order they placed. The sales associate who takes the order puts the person on hold for ten minutes, checking their computer system for the information. When not finding it, the sales associate transfers the call to customer service, who can't find the right information on their system as they transfer the call to the warehouse personnel. The warehouse staff puts the customer on hold, checking their system to discover the product is out-of-stock. They transfer the caller and the updated information back to customer service who must now handle the irate caller.
Such inefficient work operations is detrimental to your business. You are wasting time, resources and money. When your productivity and personnel are struggling to produce sales and handle customers through a system that is not integrated, your business goals will not be met and your company could eventually fail.
This is where ERP steps in. Enterprise resource planning (ERP) allows you to integrate software in all areas of your company: accounting, sales, customer service, manufacturing and warehouse operations. It allows for automation of repetitive operations and the sharing of information with other departments in a centralized database. This is accomplished through ERP software.
ERP tools allow for every department in your business to have its own software that fits into the employees' needs. All ERP does is link all the software from each department into one integrated database which will provide better management of information while stimulating effective communication. Once all the data is transferred into the system, this should reduce inaccuracies and allow each department to access similar information to help customers.
In addition to allowing information and data sharing, ERP tools permit you to spot inefficiencies in the business workflow that could be hampering productivity. By immediately addressing this inefficiencies, you can enhance the business process and streamline all operations to meet established business goals. Yet simply implementing the ERP software is not enough to ensure that it will work effectively in your business. Employees will need to be trained to use the system so that proper data gathering is done, accurate information is inputted into the system and good communication can be started between the different departments.
With the ERP system in place, a sales associate can now take an order from the customer as the order is sent to the warehouse staff. The warehouse staff can immediately see the order and update the its status by indicating that the product is out of stock. The customer service department can access the same information, calling the customer immediately to tell them about the situation concerning the order and offering alternatives to satisfy the customer's needs.
The success of any software, including ERP software, will be dependent on how you implement it into your business while getting all your employees to use proper data collection and sharing procedures. Once this is accomplished, you may see an increase of productivity and enhanced performance throughout your business.
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Bryan Grayson writes about business software, ERP, and more.
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