There’s a lot of complexity in a modern business. But real-time data with cloud ERP can help businesses cut down on this complexity.
First, though, let’s talk about the problem. Businesses today are more complex than ever, and there are a number of reasons for this complexity.
- Financial complexity: Businesses must handle payments and invoicing from a range of sales channels and suppliers, often in different regions or countries with different tax rules and currencies.
- Supply chain complexity: Inputs and distribution networks are now spread across a wide geography with multiple primary and secondary suppliers that require precise coordination even in the face of changing geopolitical and environmental shifts.
- Sales channel complexity: Businesses today mix brick-and-mortar sales with a multitude of online marketplaces and direct-to-consumer sales channels.
- Manufacturing complexity: Just-in-time manufacturing and the rise of custom manufacturing have made the shop floor more complex.
- Regulatory complexity: The rules that ensure consumer safety, proper financial management, and environmental protection are getting more complicated, even more so in a global sales environment.
- Data complexity: The data that businesses use for adjusting operations, refining product offerings, and driving efficiency comes from a variety of sources and in a number of different formats.
Minimizing this complexity is critical for efficiently managing a business, and real-time data with cloud ERP can help.
Using Real-time Data with Cloud ERP for Reduced Complexity
A cloud-based ERP solution such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition is built for managing a complex business because it brings together all of a company’s data and makes it accessible to employees at every level of the business. By housing all of a company’s data and making it accessible in real-time, there are a number of ways that cloud ERP can help conquer complexity.
1. Monitor Complex Operations with End-to-End Visibility
Cloud ERP encompasses all parts of a business by serving as a company’s system of record. By being the nerve-center of a business, cloud ERP enables full operational visibility from sales activity and manufacturing operations to inventory and supply chain logistics.
The real-time data with cloud ERP helps management and select employees see and understand the various moving parts of a business and how they all interrelate. With full visibility, a business can keep track of all parts of the business and help ensure that complexity does not derail operations or hinder accurate decision-making.
2. Simplify Complexity with Dashboards
Making sense of a business and spotting trends can be hard when there are high levels of complexity. The real-time data with cloud ERP simplifies this complexity by calculating and displaying key metrics via a range of dashboards that can be configured for various roles within a company.
A set of best-practice real-time dashboards comes standard with S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, and businesses also can create their own dashboards using a visual, no-code editor through the SAP Business Technology Platform.
3. Make Sense of Complexity with Analytics
Because real-time data with cloud ERP can be combined with built-in analytics engines and third-party artificial intelligence solutions, businesses can cut through the operational complexity and spot trends despite this complexity.
From financial insights and changing market dynamics to operational efficiency and potential supply chain bottlenecks, a business can sift through its data with cloud ERP and drive intelligence from it instead of being overwhelmed by it.
4. Mask Complexity with Automation
The real-time data that comes from cloud ERP can enable greater levels of automation, which in turn can mask some parts of business complexity. By having all business data within a S/4HANA Cloud ERP solution, a business can set up automation that can handle many parts of the business and shield this complexity from employees and day-to-day operations.
While the various moving parts of a business might still be complex, management and employees can instead focus on a manageable core set of business activities and leave the rest to the ERP system.
5. Reduce Complexity by Eliminating Data Entry Tasks
When all data flows automatically into a single system or record, employees no longer are burdened by manual data entry that adds complexity, eats staff time, and introduces data entry errors.
By having data automatically flow in a cloud ERP solution, employees can avoid data overload and cut down on the range of tasks they must perform each day, reducing complexity.
Is Your Business Managing Complexity with Real-Time Data and ERP?
Business complexity is real, but companies can make this complexity manageable by using real-time data with cloud ERP.
Learn more about how SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition can help your business conquer complexity. Talk with one of our experienced ERP consultants by calling us at (801) 642-0123 or by writing info@nbs-us.com.
