There are both tangible and intangible ERP advantages
Tangible ERP advantages
i.) Workflow of the product from one department to other becomes smooth and without any impediments. Hence increasing productivity of process and personnel.
ii.) Since same software is now used across all departments, individual departments having to buy and maintain their own software systems are no longer necessary leading to lowering of cost of production hence reducing cost
iii.) There are various modules in an ERP system like Finance/Accounts, Manufacturing, Marketing/Sales, Supply Chain/Warehouse Management, CRM, Project Management, etc. hence many systems can be integrated to one
iv.) ERP systems can handle tracking of product hence giving timely situation of the product so customers know the current location and time it will need to reach them
v.) Automation in ordering and payment will lead to lowering of payment processing cost and also save the cost of paper.
vi.) Since the required stocks are known due to various data from all the departments, the chances of stocks going obsolescence is minimized.
Intangible ERP advantages :
i.) A unified and single reporting system to analyze the status etc. in real-time, across all departments. ERP makes all departments transparent hence it is easy to know what is going on in each department, this makes easy to check for any faults.
ii.) All the transactions happening via the ERP systems can be tracked as ERP systems are more secure as centralized security policies can be applied to them.
iii.) ERP systems provide better company-wide visibility and hence enable better collaboration across all the departments.
iv.) ERP can reach number of vendors this will lead to producing more competitive bids hence saving money to the organization.
v.) Time is one of the factors that decide the profit that a company can make. More time its employees have more will be the productivity, ERP saves enormous time and effort in data entry.
vi.) Amount of data that can be studied is increased due to a single database hence it provides more control over the organization process thereby lowering the risk of mis-utilization of resources.
vii.) Due to simple access to this much data; an organization can form strategies for the welfare of the organization.
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o should you go for ERP or not?
As pointed in the above article there are lots of ERP advantages both tangible and intangible. So if one should go for ERP or not, completely depends on the requirements of the organization. If an organization is small and can work just fine with different systems for each department than using ERP in such a organization will just be waste of resources ,but if an organization is large and is always in need for data transfer from one department to other than using separate systems for each department and transferring of data can cause a lot of delay and process will not work smoothly in this organization. In this type of organization ERP should be preferred.
