Savvy professional services businesses are always looking for growth. Revenue growth, sure. But we’re talking about ways that a professional services firm can evolve for additional efficiency, market share, and overall business growth, not just incremental revenue improvement.
For these hard-charging professional services businesses, or those that are feeling a bit behind the curve and looking to modernize, there’s one big misconception that is limiting growth opportunity. By clearing this misconception, a services business can dramatically unlock additional growth potential.
The misconception: ERP is too expensive and clunky for professional services firms.
Professional services firms typically use a combination of spreadsheets and standalone point solutions for managing operations. When services firms are micro businesses or with only a handful of employees or contractors, this does make sense. But when a professional services firm reaches 15 people or more, it unlocks a better option: an enterprise resource planning solution (ERP).
ERP is a unified, cloud-based backend that connects all applications, data, and people working on behalf of a company. It puts projects, people, and profits in perfect alignment, and it takes advantage of company-wide automation and analytics for significantly more efficient operations.
Larger, complex businesses have long used ERP for efficient operations and a leg up on the competition, but this history and ERP’s reputation for cost and complexity have created the misconception that only big organizations or product-based businesses, such as manufacturing firms, should use ERP today.
The truth: Modern cloud-based ERP solutions such as SAP Cloud ERP and Business ByDesign are affordable, easy to use, and quick to implement. There are even turnkey, prepackaged ERP solutions tailored for the specific needs of professional services firms.
Professional services businesses that use an ERP backend gain a significant advantage in terms of visibility, efficiency, and agility.
When a professional services business has a scalable, flexible ERP backbone, it can harmonize data and interactions for heightened efficiency and visibility. An ERP also streamlines and standardizes business processes, which is key for service-based business efficiency.
Some of the ways that ERP levels up a professional services firms:
ERP solutions such as SAP Cloud ERP give professional services businesses all that they need in a single platform, including powerful financial management capabilities, human resource management, sales CRM, and project management.
Applications such as employee expense management make it easy to capture and automate expenses and reimbursement requests, and the field service management application helps a professional services business better coordinate a network of dispersed contractors and employees in the field. With a modern ERP solution, your professional services business has all it needs now and as it grows.
Moving to a full-featured ERP has never been easier for professional services businesses, thanks to the GROW with SAP program.
GROW with SAP is a prepackaged solution that helps a professional services business quickly and affordably migrate operations to the thoroughly modern SAP Cloud ERP solution. It comes with a preconfigured ERP for professional services needs, best practices built in by default, onboarding material, migration assistants, and enhanced support for making the jump to a more powerful backend system.
GROW with SAP is easy, quick, and painless, nothing like the onerous implementation process that helped create the misconception about professional services business and ERP. With GROW with SAP, your business can modernize and set the foundation for continued growth in as little as 90 days.
Learn more about GROW with SAP for Professional Services firms or how ERP can support your specific business needs by contacting one of our experienced ERP consultants. You can contact us by calling (801) 642-0123 or by writing info@nbs-us.com. Let’s talk shop.