In today’s fast moving, quick changing, increasingly competitive business environment, good enough is no longer good enough. Manufacturers must achieve enterprise-wide visibility, total collaborate, agility and flexibility to respond to a changing market and grow. Taking advantage of new opportunities before the competition requires an innovative approach. Organizations that rely on aging systems and manual processes will quickly fall behind.
According to Paul Bouchier, Sales Director at iOCO, within iOCO Software Distribution, an Infor Gold Partner, manufacturers across the globe are reaping the benefits of improved business productivity and agility with modern enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions. “Modern ERP systems are helping businesses to revolutionise their operations. Manufacturing companies of all sizes are adopting technology that is industry-specific and designed to better manage business processes on an integrated and real-time basis.”
Advanced ERP systems offer excellent operations, efficiency, intelligence, and Productivity benefits. This in turn contributes to building productive, more competitive organisations that are better positioned to meet customers’ needs.
Infor offers this (oversimplified) definition of ERP; “a system or solution that businesses use to manage day-to-day business activities, such as procurement, project management, manufacturing operations, and sales. ERP systems can also introduce automation that replaces manual tasks. The goal of an ERP system is to improve business productivity and agility.”
Now, although the concept of an ERP solution dates back more than a century, innovative manufacturers are looking to modern versions of these platforms to drive the implementation of digital operations platforms (DOP). “Today’s ERP goal is for these DOPs to reflect the business’ agile, artificial intelligence (AI)-based, and experience-driven nature, while growing a cloud-based, digital business,” confirms Bouchier.
Yet not all ERP systems are keeping up with innovation. So, what should a manufacturer look for in a modern ERP solution? Bouchier confirms that the ERP system must, at minimum offer six core benefits: improve user adoption through user-friendliness; empower business to make better business decisions by connecting data and breaking down silos; attract and retain a new generation of workers with software that mirrors the look and feel of applications they use in their day-to-day lives and supports immediate access to data and collaboration; breaks down business silos and increases both collaboration communication, internally and externally; drives operations to improve key performance metrics; and embraces emerging technology for a transformed approach to business.
“Leading manufacturers are taking the leap and implementing modern ERP – to their benefit. The productivity gains and process improvements far outweigh the costs. With the strategic impact of modernisation on the business, new business models are supported, drawing great advantage from the improvements in key performance indicators (KPIs) that come with a successful ERP implementation,” concludes Bouchier.
