Enterprise resource planning solutions (ERP) come with sophisticated tools for financials and project management. The trick is putting an ERP solution in place within a company since ERP is company-wide software that has a reputation for complexity. ERP acceleration packages can help businesses get there quickly, though.
Businesses that scale or want to use industry-standard processes and tools rely on ERP. ERP solutions are company-wide software solutions that power a business end-to-end and integrates all of a firm’s various data and operations in a centralized place. With this centrality comes automation, full operational visibility, and better usage of business data for improved decision-making and functions such as insights generated by artificial intelligence.
ERP Improves Financial Management
Financial management is a particular strength of ERP solutions; the typical journey for a company is starting with spreadsheets, moving to a small-business accounting solution such as QuickBooks, then making the jump to sophisticated financial management and automation with an ERP solution. ERP is what Fortune 1000 companies use for taking care of the books and managing financials, along with growing small businesses and everything in between.With ERP, unlike QuickBooks and similar solutions, businesses get inventory, distribution, sales management, bookkeeping, and more all in one place, saving time and resources. With access to customers, operations, people, and data in the cloud-based ERP, businesses can do more sophisticated financial management such as financial process automation.
Financial trends are easier to spot, too, because ERP comes with robust analytics and reporting capabilities. With ERP, a business can quickly uncover trends and insights, revenue sources, and under-performing products, helping it construct a detailed financial picture both of its financial operations and industry trends that might affect future revenue growth.
Companies typically start looking at ERP solutions for financial management when:
- The business is expanding into multiple markets and locations.
- The business has begun hiring more employees to take on sales and order fulfillment roles.
- The business needs a more comprehensive business management system.
- The business needs improved reporting.
- The business offers multiple sales channels and would benefit from an integrated system.
- The business is preparing to sell globally and needs multiple currencies.
- The current system is ineffective and is incapable of managing an increasing amount of data.
ERP Supports Complex Project Management
There are many project management solutions on the market today. However, growing companies choose ERP for project management because of several key factors.
First, project management functions within ERP solutions already come with the essentials, such as cloud-based, centralizing project management, and giving real-time access to all members of a project team. ERP project management solutions also are deeply customizable, enabling businesses to manage projects in the way they need, including a range of dashboard views and reporting capabilities, workflow automation, and custom fields.
But what sets ERP project management apart is its integration with other parts of the business.
With ERP’s centrality and resource management functionality, company projects can flow real-time data into project management from other parts of the business including operations, financial, and HR. This leads to better coordination, scheduling, and adjustments on the fly.
The integration potential with an ERP solution also bests even the most connected standalone project management solutions because modern ERP solutions can integrate with any third-party software solution or cloud-based service. Project management can take advantage of this integration and coordination that enables better project automation and reduced manual processes.
ERP Accelerator Packages Make Implementation Easy
The value of using an ERP solution for financials and project management is clear, but growing small and medium-sized businesses often must wait until they have scaled before they can start using these enterprise-grade tools. Rolling out an ERP solution historically was a big and costly project.
That is, until recently.
The cloud has made ERP adoption easier and less costly, and solutions such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition have made tier-1 ERP solutions available to fast-growing small businesses and medium-sized organizations at a price emerging companies can afford.
ERP accelerator packages can improve the speed of ERP rollout and enable businesses to put ERP financials and project management in place without much of the setup work. ERP accelerator packages are prebuilt, turnkey ERP solutions that rely on standard, best practices for faster implementation.
With an ERP accelerator package, a business can roll out an ERP solution in 30 days and at a cost of just $350,000. Businesses can use this ERP for core functions such as financials and project management, and add functionality to the system as they expand or decide to use the ERP solution more fully. With an ERP solution such as S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, a growing business has the foundation it needs for scaling operations for years to come.
As an SAP Gold Partner that has helped growing businesses implement more than 500 ERP solutions over the past 30 years, we have developed ERP accelerator packages tailored specifically for growing businesses and those needing robust project management for research and development.
Learn more about our Cloud ERP Solution for Emerging Companies and our Cloud ERP Solution for Research & Development/Clinical Stage Trials.
