What are the primary business benefits of ERP?

When a young company starts growing and begins looking for new ways to increase profits, financial and process optimization matter. Once you have a fundamental understanding of your organization’s pain points, you can make the case for investing in an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. In today’s business environment, where more and more employees are working remotely at least part of the time, cloud-based ERP makes a lot of sense because it helps eliminate redundancy while offering greater visibility into all areas of the business.

So, what are the primary business benefits of ERP? Simply put, you can use the system to perform routine tasks so you have more time to focus on the bigger picture.

ERP systems have been around for decades, and are used both by the majority of Fortune 500 companies and by thousands of small and midsize businesses. Any business that manages people, processes, products, or services—and needs to oversee sales and accounting for those products or services—can benefit from an ERP platform.

When it comes to life sciences businesses, an ERP system doesn’t merely simplify operations; it can also help you comply with regulatory requirements and maintain strict financial and product life cycle records.

How Can ERP Improve a Company’s Business Performance?

Depending on where you are in your business life cycle, you may need a solution designed only for operational support, or you may need one that manages your manufacturing process, supply chain, and logistics as well. More likely, you would benefit from a solution that can scale as needed. Ultimately, the right ERP system should help increase your throughput and balance your inventory according to forecasted need, and keep operational expenses manageable during periods of growth as well.

But more specifically, how can ERP improve a company’s business performance? Here are some of the top benefits ERP systems offer life science firms:

• Ultimate financial oversight. Cost predictability is important, and to keep expenses in check, you need to understand where things stand today as well as where the business is heading. Real-time data provides this visibility and helps you stay agile and make adjustments when needed so you can limit risk and take advantage of new opportunities quickly. With an ERP system, you can access all your reports in one place and generate consolidated financial statements without the need to convert files—a massive time saver.
• FDA validation-ready environment. The FDA and other regulators require strict documentation and evidence that any system set up by a life science firm is installed and configured properly. Many prepackaged ERP solutions are preconfigured to match these exact requirements to save time and money with the validation process.
• Quality management. An ERP system provides automated supply chain visibility, tracking, and transactions. Real-time data can be used to identify shortages, changes, and other trends that could impact inventory, so you can scale production up or down as needed. Life sciences firms must uphold precise specifications and track every product carefully, and an ERP system provides end-to-end traceability that documents processes and integrates tracking and compliance into one dashboard.
• Integration inside and outside the organization. Product launches require a streamlined commercialization process, and ERP is excellent at achieving this. An ERP system can often integrate with those used by your contract manufacturers, vendors, and logistics providers so you can get real-time information on inventory, pricing, alternatives, and more. Staying agile and getting insights into supply and demand issues can ensure you deliver products consistently.
• Customer relationship management. ERP helps provide stronger customer service by automating processes for orders, inventory refills, payments, shipping, and more. The system’s data can be used for sales tracing as well. If you deal with group purchasing organizations (GPOs), the ERP system can also help provide strong oversight with the components of contracts, such as rates and administrative fee tracking.

Benefits to Users of ERP Systems

An investment in an ERP solution actually helps fuel innovation among teams through advanced analytics, collaboration tools, cloud and cognitive computing, and machine learning. Users of ERP systems come from various job functions. Any employee using the system can be empowered to gain a fuller picture of the business, derive new insights to develop new ideas, and focus less on routine tasks.

ERP systems can even help improve morale. Cloud-based systems are easy to use, and users of ERP systems often like they are using consumer web services when they use modern cloud-based ERP in the workplace. It doesn’t matter where your teams are located—everyone has the same access to real-time data 24/7. Remote access without the need for complicated VPN logins offers even more flexibility for teams to work at any location, which can help enhance work-life balance.

Cloud-based solutions also don’t require on-premise servers or support. As a result, no additional IT staff are needed to maintain them.

ERP Life Science Software Solutions Designed for Business Today

Navigator has life science software solutions that are designed to provide the functionality you need, no matter where your business is along its evolutionary path. Learn more about our prepackaged ERP Life Science Software solution and how it can help your business grow.