What exactly is an ERP System?
ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. At its best, it’s completely integrated business-management software that an organization can use to collect, store, manage and interpret data from all their business activities.
ERP software creates a central spot for your organization to share data. One spot for data means all the departments can get to it easily. It also means there are not different versions of the same data. The best ERP systems have complete modules that track all business resources; cash on hand, accounts payable and accounts receivable, raw materials, production capacity, finished goods inventory and people. ERP software should also track business activities such as customer orders, purchase orders, work in process, and payroll. In summary, ERP facilitates information flow between all business functions and manages connections to outside stakeholders.
Tell-tale signs you need ERP software
- It's taking longer and longer to reconcile financials at the end of the month.
- Your sales forecasts are based more on guesswork than solid figures.
- Your business is having trouble keeping up with its order volume.
- On time delivery % is declining and causing a decline in customer satisfaction.
- You have no idea how much inventory or if you have the right inventory for current and future sales
- You use several different independent pieces of software or spreadsheets that don't communicate with one another.
Featured ERP: Passport Business Solutions (PBS)
While the choices are wide and varied for the midsize business market, we have enough experience with small business ERP to recommend PBS is the perfect starter ERP for small manufacturers. With a short learning curve and implementation timeframe, businesses that are used to running on spreadsheets can now enjoy integrated, secure, information flow between department staff.
One of the things we really like about PBS ERP software is it allows an organization to start small and then quickly build on the success of the implementation. For example, you could implement their basic bundle and very quickly get a handle on inventory, product structure, customer orders and vendor purchase orders. A few months down the road, you could implement their Control Master Bundle and begin tracking work orders and job costing on the shop floor!
Perhaps your business is running on basic accounting software such as Quickbooks® and now as your business expands you’re ready for accounting software with better audit trails and controls. PBS offers a rock-solid financial solutions package that provides outstanding control and auditing capability. The financial software integrates fully with manufacturing which minimizes duplicate effort and improves data accuracy.
Centrend is a certified partner of Passport Business Solutions and we’ve seen extremely impressive results it has helped companies achieve. On our Clients, you can read a short case study about one particular customer that realized a 35% reduction in inventory costs by stocking the right subcomponent and raw material products at the right time. At the same time, their on time delivery performance went from 75% to over 95% and continues to be in the 90’s to this day.
If you’re ready to improve your manufacturing or distribution business and maximize your ROI on an Enterprise Resource Planning system, please contact us to learn how we can help!