As an integral part of larger business infrastructures, enterprise resource planning (ERP) encompasses all inter-departmental activities such as accounting, human resources, sales and operations. Software tools that can track and organize all the workflows and assets throughout a company offer valuable solutions for enterprise-level firms. Growing startups and small to mid-sized businesses (SMBs) also stand to benefit from ERP technology.
High-quality ERP platforms empower organizations in every industry to scale their central business processes without losing clarity or control over operations. As a result, adopting an ERP system early on is one of the best ways that a firm can maintain scalability as they prepare for future growth.
While the benefits of using an ERP system extend beyond enterprise-level corporations; much smaller business operations stand to benefit as well. To help business leaders understand whether their organization is ready to consider such a platform, we’ll break down some of these advantages,, explore use cases and delve into a strategy for ERP adoption.
Benefits of an ERP System
The efficiencies an ERP system can generate deliver tremendous value for businesses of many different sizes and in a variety of industries.
| Utility | Details |
|---|---|
| Clear and Automated Workflows | ERP systems provide company leaders with a clear overview of workflows within each department as well as interdepartmental workflows. AI-enabled ERP systems can help automate portions of these workflows and create entirely new ones. |
| Comprehensive Financial Overview | Growing firms often have multiple departments with separate budgets. This makes it more difficult to track finances with simpler tools, such as Excel and QuickBooks. ERP systems facilitate the unification of financial data that is visible in one place. AI-powered enhancements enable ERPs to generate alerts and make recommendations based on analyses of a company’s financial data assets. |
| Holistic Asset Management | All the aforementioned details of financial data usage also apply to asset management. As the company grows, so does the complexity of asset management. ERP systems make it easier to collect and analyze all company data in one place and AI functionality allows for automated alerts and recommendations. |
| Better Data Security | Better Data Security Centralizing data within a single unified platform makes it easier to secure a company’s sensitive information, rather than storing the same data behind a number of different work emails, website logins and third-party servers. In case of a breach, IT admins can re-establish company security by creating new logins for the ERP platform instead of having to track down the single extraneous profile that caused the incident. |
| API Integrations | For firms looking to maintain the familiar features of a third-party platform or retain their stored information, ERP system integrations can help preserve the preferred platform’s data and functionality while maintaining the ERP system’s more robust security. |
| Customizability/Scalability | There are few pieces of software that offer as much customization potential as an ERP platform, which is why out-of-the-box ERPs can work for some companies. A custom platform is built to suit a business’s current needs, but they can position the platform to adapt and scale for the future. This means allowing for modularity to add and change functionality as business processes change and new ones arise. |
AI ERP System Applications
To understand whether an AI ERP system is right for your business, consider what efficiencies your teams might employ when you integrate AI applications listed in the table below into a custom platform.
| Feature | How it Helps |
|---|---|
| Data Automation | AI is extremely proficient at collecting, organizing and analyzing data. AI-powered ERP systems can automate these rote processes to reduce labor costs and improve data accuracy and security. |
| Analytics and Forecasting | Visualizing data and generating reports make information more accessible and far easier to apply than seeking insights from raw data sources. Users can also input historical data into machine learning and AI-powered tools to generate reports and forecasts based on a combination of automatically updated data and data derived from historical trends. |
| Security and Compliance | IT admins can use an AI-powered ERP system to ensure that employees follow data security practices and safe data-sharing procedures. The system flags possible threats and proactively warns admins of vulnerabilities. It also ensures regulatory compliance by identifying procedural updates that must be deployed as regulations change. For medical clients, ERP systems can crawl images and text-based documents to look out for potential violations. |
| Asset/Fleet Management | AI can assist in monitoring IT assets, hardware assets, company vehicles or industry-specific equipment. An AI-powered asset / fleet management tool within an ERP system can also notify users of scheduled maintenance, outages or connectivity problems and issue warnings about how they may affect other departments. |
| Integrations | A primary advantage of ERP systems is that they create a single “source of truth” for every department in an organization. AI can facilitate integrating data from multiple sources and platforms into readable dashboards that leaders can utilize across departments. |
While this post doesn’t offer a comprehensive list of the use cases for AI ERP systems, it does present some of the most common value-adds that users of AI ERP systems report as being genuinely transformational for their businesses.
Enjoy the Benefits: Adopt an ERP System with 7T
At 7T, we use a problem → solution approach to creating custom ERP solutions for our clients. Through our custom-built platforms, machine learning and AI technology can provide a significant operational advantage with a robust ROI. Our team will identify your organization’s challenges and pain points, oftentimes even showing up on-location for a time to embed ourselves within your business and understand your needs from a first-person perspective. Then, we’ll architect a value-generating solution to transform your vital business processes and meet your goals.
7T is based in Dallas, Houston and Charlotte, NC. But our clientele spans the globe. If you’re ready to learn more about the benefits of an ERP system, contact 7T today.
