When it comes to a management system or ERP for small and medium-sized companies, the best option is to combine the solidity of a nationally and globally known technological platform with features that meet different company profiles. In addition to, of course, presenting an excellent cost-benefit ratio. This is an investment value that makes sense for small and medium-sized companies.
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And Why A Management System or An ERP
As the name suggests, an ERP is a technological platform software that allows you to organize, monitor, and manage your business processes and activities. From cash control to supplier orders. From sales history to payroll. From logistics to production. ERP concentrates your business information and allows you to more simply and quickly identify errors, predict needs, reduce waste, and automate day-to-day activities.
Ultimately, a management system automates the company’s activities and guarantees the reliability of the information obtained, which means making decisions with greater security.
Four Essential Points In ERP For Small And Medium-Sized Companies
TCO Compliant
The first aspect is accessibility. There is no point in an ERP being a management marvel if the so-called Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is high, making the SME’s operation more expensive or even making its adoption unfeasible. TCO is the total financial cost. In other words, all necessary direct and indirect costs: software, hardware, services, maintenance, etc.
Complete Solution
It is common for you to find solutions limited to meeting your business’s administrative activities. However, it is essential to opt for ERPs that can be applied to production processes, supplier management, logistics, inventory, sales, and marketing.
Easy To Implement
It is closely associated with TCO. It must be a ready-made platform already used by companies of your size and, possibly, your type of business. When you decide to adopt, the implementation process should last days or weeks.
Convincing Base
How many users does it have? How many companies does it adopt? How is the service issue? Partners? How many are there? Always remember: if thousands of companies adopt the solution and have a network of hundreds of partners, it is undoubtedly a “future-proof” platform. The worst of all worlds is for you to invest money, time, and effort in a solution and then be left in the lurch.
In addition to these questions, it is necessary to analyze the fundamental functionalities. So that you can manage your company with ease, quick access to information, and more intelligence and security in decision-making, we can list six of them: financial management, customer and sales management, purchasing and stock, production planning, commercial analysis, and reports.
Also Read: Top 7 Benefits Of Implementing ERP Software For Your Business
Understanding The Main Features Of A Management System For SMEs
Financial Management In Small And Medium Enterprises
These are the central capabilities of your ERP, which will offer you the tools to manage and streamline your financial operation and automate everyday accounting, calculation, and transaction tasks. Furthermore, depending on the solution, it will give you a real-time view of your cash flow and financial and future sales needs. The main features are:
- Accounting – Automates key accounting processes such as journal entries, accounts receivable, and accounts payable.
- Control – allows you to accurately manage cash flow, monitor fixed assets, control budgets, and monitor project costs.
- Simplified fixed asset management, virtual fixed asset function frees you from repetitive manual posting.
- Banking and Reconciliation – This allows you to quickly process bank reconciliations, bank statements, and payments using various methods, including checks, cash, and wire transfers.
- Financial reporting and analysis – to generate standard or custom reports from real-time data for business planning and audit reviews.
Customer And Sales Management In SMEs
To efficiently manage the entire sales process and customer lifecycle and thus increase sales and profitability and ensure customer satisfaction.
- Sales management – to control opportunities and manage sales activities.
- Marketing campaign management – to create, manage, and analyze marketing activities.
- Customer management – storing and organizing information about the relationship with each customer.
- Service management – to manage after-sales. In other words, register and respond to service calls more effectively.
- Reports and analysis – to generate your reports, such as sales forecast, stock, production, and many others.
Purchasing And Stock in SMEs
Small businesses also demand systematic procurement control, from requesting quotes from suppliers to creating purchase orders and paying suppliers.
- Procurement – generate purchase requests, orders, and merchandise receipts; link purchasing documents and view document trails for audit purposes; and manage returns, additional expenses, and multiple currencies.
- Master data management – manage detailed data and view balance sheet, detailed merchandise procurement information with price lists and tax information.
- Integration between warehouse and accounting – real-time synchronization of goods receipt and warehouse stock levels.
- Processing payable invoices, cancellations, and invoices
- Reports updated in real-time
Production Planning For Small And Medium Businesses
Set of features that allow you to obtain accurate information about incoming and outgoing orders, stock, and item location.
- Inventory and warehouse management – managing inventory using various cost models, units of measure, and prices.
- Warehouse location management – management and optimization of stock movement.
- Control of entry and exit of goods – registration of entry and exit of goods and inventory of stocks.
- Production and material planning – control and release of production orders; material price control.
Commercial Management
In addition to managing activities and opportunities, it gives you an intelligent view of the commercial strategy. In other words, create your performance indicators and allow you to understand how each product line performs in real-time.
Analysis And Reports
Organize all the information you consider crucial to understanding, monitoring, and managing your business and enabling you to
- Eliminate duplicate data entry, costs, and related errors.
- Create workflow-based alerts
- Automate responses to situations that have been detected
- Trigger automatic responses when safety events occur.
Suppose you need to improve the visibility of your business or prepare to grow within a “non-surprising management” vision. In that case, consider implementing or updating your ERP to a platform that accompanies your growth and profitability challenges.
Also Read: What Is Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)?
