ERP is one of the IT solutions that have accompanied companies for a long time and adapt to their evolution. This management specialist software has incorporated many new technologies and features over the years. Today, modern ERP differs in several respects from its first versions: a resolutely digital solution, it responds to new uses, with advantages of agility, personalization and mobility.
Too heavy, too expensive, too complicated, too rigid
or not scalable enough? Get rid of these misconceptions about ERP. Its
longevity proves that it evolves quickly and remains at the forefront of new
technologies. Modern ERP has become a communicating solution par excellence
that connects the company to its ecosystem and meshes its operations with unprecedented
digital flows.
A data-centric solution
Today, many sources of data are involved in industrial
operations and processes. Commercial data in customer interface, production
data and workshop data collected by the sensors of connected industrial
objects, among others. Modern ERP collects everything on its centralized
database, standardizes all this data, processes it and analyzes it according to
all the rules for managing the activity. Another ability at the heart of modern
ERP: connect this data so that they mutually provide context and thus enrich
the analyzes and information with added value in terms of management and
decision-making — including ratios, indicators, thresholds alert...
Thus, modern ERP is a real data processing solution,
it helps to mesh all digital flow operations and contributes directly to the
digital transformation of the activity. This digitization at the heart of
modern ERP is one of its major characteristics from which many new
possibilities arise in operational management.
A smart tool for decision making
Who says ability to decompartmentalize, consolidate
and analyze operational data, says visibility on everything that happens in the
activity. Decision-making support is sharpened by modern ERP thanks to its
Business Intelligence (BI) functionalities, often coupled with an integrated
requester to query the various data collected on its central database.
In particular, BI makes it possible to identify trends
in activity as soon as they appear, and this much faster than human operators
could. For example, if the sales of a product go down, the modern ERP spots it
immediately via its BI. By delivering information, the solution allows
decision-makers to arbitrate the adjustments required to avoid any financial
loss, market share or profitability. In doing so, ERP generates savings,
optimizations and better performance.
Automation extended by modern ERP
ERP is the IT tool par excellence for automating
repetitive tasks and providing them with reliability and precision. The digital
data flows involved in its modern version make it possible to digitize and
automate a large number of operations, starting with entries that no longer
need to be duplicated in different tools.
In modern ERP, automation is responsible, among other
things, for the automatic chaining of steps in a workflow. From a single
initial entry, the ERP uses the data at all the milestones in the chain at
which they occur. For example, editing an estimate automatically leads to
editing a purchase order, then a manufacturing order and finally, the
associated invoice. All in a few clicks by the users with, at the end of the
day, a substantial gain in time and precision, without errors that could
require a complete process to be redone. The modern ERP thus makes it possible
to get rid of many repetitive tasks and to concentrate on those, more strategic
and more demanding, which contribute to the growth of the company.
Several customization levers
Modern ERP allows customization of data models. In
particular, its interfaces are designed so that users can create new tables within
the data model, rename, complete, delete information as the activity progresses
and configure tailor-made data querying — by attributes, data conditions.
execution, variables in the various scenarios. Personalization can thus reach a
fine level of detail to adapt to the specificities at the heart of the
processes unique to each company. Ranges, nomenclatures, cost price, launch
price…. The ERP embeds all these criteria and allows them to be configured on a
case-by-case basis, for example to define a range of products with several
variants and options.
Other axis of people onalization: ERP focuses on the
user experience – i.e. the employees who work on the solution on a daily basis.
Also, modern ERP takes more and more account of internal uses, of the way of
“consuming” the solution and adapts in particular through catalogs of services
and functionalities.
Modern ERP is necessarily mobile
Dematerialized data networked by the ERP offer the
possibility of remote and mobile use, on mobile terminals. Thus, with modern
ERP, users access their data from anywhere with a simple Internet connection.
This results in new uses of ERP, since it is no longer
necessary to constantly return to the screen of a desktop computer to consult
the data. Users can move around the workshop as well as outside the company:
managers to monitor productivity on the line, sales representatives meeting
with customers, operators who access safety procedures and instructions
whatever the machine on which they work… this mobility is in many ways a source
of flexibility.
ERP SaaS and multiple simplification
The agility of modern ERP is also evident in its new
SaaS versions, i.e. in cloud service mode. Indeed, Cloud deployment is becoming
widespread in ERP offers where the software is hosted on the publisher's
servers and accessible by users via an Internet connection.
The company using an ERP SaaS benefits from all the
simplifications provided by the model: no license to buy, no deployment on its
servers, no maintenance or updates to manage. For a monthly subscription, the
ERP SaaS is accessible all inclusive.
For users, ERP SaaS means immediate access to the
solution as soon as it is put into service, the certainty of working on an
operational, configured and up-to-date ERP. And if they need new features,
getting them up and running is quick and easy.
Modern ERP is a scalable solution
Mobility, Cloud, digitalization… It is obvious that
monolithic and “heavy” ERP is no longer appropriate. The agility of modern ERP
is instilled at all levels, from its conception. Thus, ERP is now designed
according to a modular architecture, following a simplified and more à la carte
configuration and deployment: a company chooses the modules it wishes to
activate, without having to immediately deploy all the functionalities of the
solution.
This modularity then ensures the scalability of the
solution via its additional modules to support the company in its growth –
diversification, new markets, internationalization, etc. Modern ERP is thus
seen as an interoperable solution, ready for the future. Ideal for moving the
company to industry 4.0, modern ERP brings performance and competitiveness
assets to the heart of success.