Growth-focused mid-market manufacturers need a modern, scalable cloud ERP backend for competitiveness and continued expansion. In a marketplace where technology plays a starring role, cloud ERP becomes a growth engine through intelligent automation, end-to-end visibility and wide connectivity with other systems along the supply chain.

When evaluating potential cloud ERP solutions, there are several key characteristics that a manufacturer should focus on during selection.

1. Deep Manufacturing & Supply Chain Functionality

Growth-focused mid-market manufacturers need more than a generic ERP solution. They need applications and workflows that both support advanced manufacturing and strong supply chain management.

Look for a cloud ERP that comes with production planning & scheduling, shop-floor control, BOM (Bill of Materials) and routings, quality management, capacity planning, extended warehouse management, demand forecasting, multi-location inventory visibility, lot/serial traceability, and system-wide automation

2. Preconfigured Best Practices

Reinventing the wheel with bespoke processes slows down a mid-market manufacturer and reduces agility.

Look for a cloud ERP solution that comes preconfigured with manufacturing processes and industry best practices baked in by default. This helps a mid-market manufacturer standardize workflows and reduce deployment time across finance, MRP, shop floor, and the supply chain

3. Scalability & Modularity

Having a system that can evolve with the business is key for growth both today and as market dynamics change. This requires true system scalability and a modular architecture that allows a manufacturer to easily adjust and change functionality over time.

Make sure your cloud ERP solution can scale to encompass the complexity and larger transaction volumes of a large enterprise, that is it tailored for multi-site and multi-geography operations, and that it has an application marketplace and a modular structure that doesn’t limit your business when things change

4. Real-Time Visibility & Analytics

Complete operational visibility and data-driven decision-making are crucial for today’s precise but changing world.

Ensure that your cloud ERP solution of choice comes with cross-functional visibility spanning inventory, production, procurement and finance, has easy to configure real-time dashboards, and includes both predictive analytics and a strong AI core for enabling the system to work for employees instead of employees working for the system

5. Integration & Extensibility

Growing mid-market manufacturers need a cloud ERP solution that acts as a central hub, not a silo. This means the system should easily connect with MES, IIoT platforms, PLM, e-commerce, CRM, supply chain partner systems, and other cloud services that support the business.

Look for a cloud ERP solution that comes with pre-build connectors for common integrations, open APIs and integration platforms for custom extensions, and low/no code integration tools for less common integration scenarios. The right cloud ERP solution will connect with everything, and without fiddly custom integrations

6. Support for Global Operations

As a mid-market manufacturer grows, operations will become increasingly global. The right cloud ERP solution will serve businesses all around the world, and both support this internationalization without adding bespoke workarounds or unnecessary complexity.

Look for a cloud ERP solution that easily handles multi-currency accounting, diverse tax rules and compliance requirements, and supports both subsidiaries and multi-site operations out of the box.

7. Partner Ecosystem & Support

An end-to-end backend system requires end-to-end support for when a manufacturer adds functionality or changes workflows. Cloud ERP is a lot easier to use than on-premise legacy solutions, but a mid-market manufacturer will still need support from time to time.

Look for a cloud ERP solution with a strong partner network in manufacturing and a wide ecosystem of third-party implementation and support providers. Make sure this partner ecosystem encompasses deep implementation support, training, and development, and that there’s also an active community of manufacturing businesses that rely on the ERP of choice. 

Consider SAP Cloud ERP

The world leader in manufacturing ERP solutions, SAP is a known entity when it comes to ERP.

What you may not realize is that SAP has redesigned its flagship ERP solution, S/4HANA, as a cloud-native ERP platform that’s flexible, easy to implement, and supports both fast-growing smaller businesses and the large enterprises it traditionally serves. SAP Cloud ERP is not your father’s SAP solution!

Mid-market manufacturers can now get the power and heft of an industrial-grade SAP manufacturing solution but in a scalable cloud form that checks all the boxes mentioned above. Take a look at SAP Cloud ERP for manufacturing, and we think you will be deeply impressed. We’ve seen more than a few businesses reconsider and ultimately select SAP after taking a look at its new cloud offering.

What’s more, we offer a prepackaged SAP Cloud ERP solution for manufacturing that makes rolling out the solution almost turnkey. Our solution comes pre-configured for the needs of growing mid-market manufacturers both from a functionality and manufacturing best practices standpoint. So instead of a long implementation process and reinventing the wheel, you can improve your operational processes and roll out a new SAP Cloud ERP solution in as little as a few months.

Learn more about our SAP Cloud ERP solution for manufacturers by calling one of our experienced ERP consultants at (801) 642-0123 or by writing us at info@nbs-us.com.