What Is ERP Software?
ERP Software acts as the data and decision-making nervous system of a business. An ERP captures information about customers, financials, production, operations, logistics, supply chain, human resources, and much more.
ERP means Enterprise Resource Planning. This term potentially can be misleading because ERP is an enterprise planner, data holder, and execution and reporting engine. It works by collecting datasets from business processes and displaying data in real time via dashboards and workflows. An ERP then recommends automation procedures through predictive analytics to improve business processes.
Essentially, an ERP system stores data from every aspect of a business, either directly or via integration with other systems or modules. An ERP acts as a data and information pipeline across all (or chosen) functions of your business. 95% of businesses that adopt ERP Software see an immediate operational improvement.
A modern cloud ERP system deployment model enables businesses to:
- Use ERP planning engines to model multiple financial, operational, supply chain, workflow, and sales order scenarios.
- Use data and forecasting capabilities to optimise procurement of materials and labour.
- Interlink accounts with sales, procurement, supply chain, and human resources.
- Improve project management using data and analytics from finance, human resources, sales, and supply chain departments.
- Develop, monitor, and control individual, team, and business-level compliance adherence.
- Use ERP analytics to make decisions on KPIs, changing structure, growth, and overall optimisation decisions.
Core ERP Software Features and Modules
Planning Engine
- Financial planning
- Materials and Labour planning
- Supply chain planning
- Workforce planning
- Warehouse planning
- Logistics planning
Accounting, Budgeting, and Finance Modules
- CAPEX (Capital Expenditure) budgeting
- OPEX (Operational Expenditure) budgeting
- Buffer budgeting for unknowns in a fiscal year
- International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS)
- Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB)
- Generally Accepted Accounting Principles in the United States (GAAP)
- HGB in Germany and PCG in France
- US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)
- European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA)
Workforce Management ERP Software Features
- Hiring
- Human resource management
- Employee well-being monitoring
- Human resource upskilling
- Managing internal and external workforces on site, plant, or other locations
- Assigning workforces to a project
- Time and labour management
- Define permit-to-work conditions
- Monitor health and safety conditions in the workplace
Project Management ERP Software Modules
- Internal project management
- Acquisition projects
- Departmental projects
- Strategic projects
- Change management
- Short-term projects
Risk Management
- Document risks
- Grade risks
- Project Risks
- Navigate risks with risk mitigation actions
- Correlate risk dependencies
- Fully understand the detailed impact if the risk events happen
Compliance Management
- Define internal and external compliance factors
- Understand planned vs actual compliance
- Understand non-compliant areas
- Procedure to adopt if compliance is not met
Supply Chain Management
- Map the process from the production of goods to the delivery of goods
- Adjust for just-in-time (JIT) availability of raw materials
- Interlink between supply chain production processes
- Define parameters of goods/raw material acceptance
Best ERP Software Products on Comparesoft
Flowlens MRP and ERP Software
Flowlens is an MRP/ERP solution for original equipment and device manufacturers seeking to consolidate build-to-order processes. It is designed to eliminate paper/spreadsheet-based workflows and simplify compliance with common standards, such as ISO 9001. Flowlens includes an embedded CRM system and post-sales service support, and integrates with third-party finance and accounting packages.
Pricing
From £39 per user, per month
Industries
Original Equipment Manufacturing, Equipment Reselling, Parts and Materials Supply, Industrial Machinery and Components, Manufacturing
Deployment
Cloud-based
IFS ERP
IFS ERP is a configurable enterprise resource planning solution optimised for complex, asset-intensive industries and organisations. It is a consolidated platform for work coordination, execution and adaptation that features industry, role and user-specific workflows and lobbies.
Pricing
From £250,000
Industries
Aerospace, Defense and Security, Energy, Engineering, Construction and Operations, Logistics and Distribution, Manufacturing, Oil and Gas, Telecommunications, Utilities
Deployment
Cloud-based, web-based, on-premise
Infor CloudSuite Food and Beverage (ERP)
Infor CloudSuite Food and Beverage (ERP) is an adaptable, automated and extendable cloud ERP Software especially designed for leading food and beverage industry organisations.
Pricing
From £120 per user, per month
Industries
Dairy, Animal Feed and Pet Food, Beverages, Grains and Cereals, Meat, Poultry and Fish, Bakery and Confectionery, Agricultural Produce, Fruits and Vegetables, Food Ingredients
Deployment
Cloud native on AWS
RamBase Cloud ERP Software
RamBase was launched because the manufacturing company could not find an ERP Software that met their needs of managing a high value - low volume manufacturing processes. After using it in a real manufacturing setting, testing it for a number of real manufacturing processes and scenarios. RamBase then decided to launch the software for other manufacturers.
Pricing
£29 per user, per month
Industries
Manufacturing, Electronics, Wholesale Distribution, Automotive, Oil and Gas, Industrial Machinery and Equipment, High Tech and Electronics
Deployment
Multi-tenant cloud hosted
Statii
Statii is a customisable MRP system designed to help SME manufacturers manage everything from front-of-house customer and supplier documents to shop-floor production management. It includes built-in document creation and storage, production control modules and shop-floor data collection.
Pricing
From £64 per user, per month
Industries
Metal Manufacturing, Wood Manufacturing, Plastic Manufacturing, Industrial Machinery and Components, Engineering, Construction and Operations
Deployment
Cloud-based
EFACS by Exel Computer Systems
EFACS is an ERP with comprehensive planning engine and embedded aftermarket capabilities. It includes comprehensive field service management capabilities and is used mostly by medium to large manufacturing (and associated) industries.
Pricing
From £4,000 a month
Industries
Manufacturing, Aerospace, Engineering, Construction and Operations, Automotive, Electronics
Deployment
Cloud and On-Premise
The Business Value Benefits of Implementing an ERP System
There are three key areas where ERP Software provides business value:
- Productivity through automation
- Collaboration through the flow of data
- Efficiency through total visibility of business processes
The primary benefits of the cloud are immediacy, scalability, and affordability for any growing business. 55% of SMBs choose to implement a cloud ERP due to its convenience (29%) and adaptability (27%).
For service companies the operational and strategic benefits include a more structured approach to creating, refining and updating processes. For product firms and manufacturers, cloud ERPs support supply and demand efforts, sourcing, manufacturing processes and customer orders, and logistics.
Whatever the business type, Cloud ERP Software helps deliver:
- Speed and mobility: Growing companies can rapidly adopt and deploy a cloud ERP, workers can access information from laptops or mobile devices wherever they are located.
- Lower cost of adoption: Compared to monolithic software licensing, the costs are reduced and scale with your growth. Bills are less complex and typically per user or seat, with add-ons billed only as they are needed.
- Enterprise-class functions: Whatever the size of your business, you get ERP features like HR, accounting, process management and others that were traditionally the preserve of major corporations.
- Ease of implementation and integration: While a cloud ERP adoption process for an enterprise can take many months or longer, ERP vendors focus on making the process as simple as possible with plug-ins, APIs, and third-party providers delivering vertical-specific support.
- Continuous innovation: Cloud ERPs deliver new features and updates regularly with no need to update your applications or pay for new features.
- Increasing automation: In the era of AI in ERP and process automation, ERPs are evolving to reduce the workload for users and managers, providing real-time insights and AI-based analytics, faster response times to issues and delivering a competitive advantage.
- Always-on security: Cloud systems typically come with enterprise-level security, backup solutions and disaster recovery tools built in to protect the business, users and data. Security is a vendor's lead priority with the risk of a breach now likely a devastating one for businesses.
How Cloud ERP Software Benefits SMBs
- Most SMBs lack the resources for extensive IT adoption, and the cloud saves time and effort that can be focused on the business and product
- Leaders get used to seeing business strengths and weaknesses faster, and respond with data-based insights to make better decisions
- Reduced per-user costs mean more capital for the business
- New features are instantly available and users can leverage them faster
How Cloud ERP Software Benefit Enterprises
- They were slower to adopt cloud than their SMB cousins, but the pace is picking up year-on-year as confidence and necessity grow.
- Enterprises see the cloud as more secure and reliable than previous generations of applications
- Enterprises are more prone to digital transformations and system-wide upgrades with ERP in the cloud widely promoted
- The rewards of timely business intelligence from ERP are now proven
Understanding Cloud ERP Software Delivery Model
ERPs running outside of the business hardware are considered cloud ERPs. Running on a vendor or partner’s cloud over the internet, the cloud enables a company to scale its seats or user numbers as it grows and use greater computing and storage resources as its data volumes increase.
Cloud ERP Software unifies a business. Leaders gain:
- A unified view of business data
- Insights to drive growth by optimising current operations
- The ability to economise smartly during tough periods
- Understand future opportunities and when to launch them
Today, any business can deploy huge amounts of computing power thanks to the cloud - built around data centres with high-powered processors and huge volumes of storage, linked to fast and high-bandwidth networks. None of which your business has to worry about managing.
Workers can access and collaborate with cutting-edge ERP systems and other modules from day one, all of which function in a largely secure environment, reducing the need for expensive IT and security roles. All of this is great news if a business is struggling to wrangle its data and needs an ERP in a hurry. Or, if high-growth opportunities require careful management and analysis to ensure your teams don’t spin out of control.
With cloud ERP Software, teams are more responsive, knowledge experts can collaborate with others, and the tempo of business is faster.
When it comes to implementation, there are 5 types of Cloud ERP hosting options:
1. Public Cloud
The public cloud isn’t “public” like a library, but offers shared ownership of a single huge pool of resources (compute, storage and infrastructure) for the most efficient pricing. Individual clouds are separated by access rights.
2. Private Cloud
A private cloud is a limited but scalable set of resources that is exclusively reserved for the customer, providing privacy and security benefits. For those with specific needs, private clouds represent a more secure and flexible approach.
3. Hybrid Cloud
The hybrid cloud gives the best of both worlds and mixes the above schemes with on-premises and other solutions such as edge networks. This gives larger enterprises the ultimate flexibility across their extensive organisations and territories.
4. Multi-Tenant Cloud
A multitenant cloud is an enterprise-class instance from a vendor as a single cloud. Used by multiple cloud customers (the tenants), they efficiently share scalable computing resources, which can be managed as a public or private cloud.
5. Single-Tenant Cloud
Conversely, a single-tenant cloud is for the exclusive use of one customer. They have total control over that cloud, but at typically greater cost in terms of management, and less flexibility.
The Three Categories of ERP Software Products
1. Niche ERP Software Products
Niche ERP Software products come with planning and execution engines for specific industries and applications. Some examples include:
Niche ERP products offer very deep and broad capabilities, often requiring light configuration. These products optimise ERP processes and deliver incredible productivity uplift.
2. Small and Medium Business ERP
Often, SMB ERP products are aimed at companies with 250 employees.
ERP Software for small and medium businesses are non-modular. I.e, they have all the features in the core product. ‘All-in-One’ is typically the core preposition.
3. Enterprise ERP Software
Enterprise ERP systems tend to be modular and have industry and application experts for pre-sales and implementation.
Deepest configuration and customisation possibilities often mean Enterprise ERP products require phased implementation.
6 Reasons Why Businesses Implement ERP Software
- Access one source of truth (from Sales to Manufacturing to Delivery of Goods to Returns and Service Management)
- Improve capacity and utilisation of people, assets, and processes (by eliminating data duplication, improving data visibility, and offering micro, macro, and co-relational analytics)
- Transition enterprise communication from Seeking Information to Driving Progress
- Use co-relational analytics to make data-driven decisions
- Correlate different parts of the business
- Build a growth-oriented culture
1. Build and Access One Source of Truth
The top reason for implementing ERP Software is to build one data pipeline between the most important (or chosen) business processes. Often, ERP is implemented to connect Sales, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Warehousing, HR, Financials, Delivery of Goods, Logistics, Returns and Service Management. This allows businesses to reduce the need for multiple and individual software applications.
2. Improve Capacity and Utilisation of People, Assets, and Processes
Co-relational data and analytics is a very powerful deliverable of an ERP system. It enables enterprises to co-relate data and information across all business functions. There are amplifying capacity and utilisation benefits in knowing answers to questions like what was promised by the sales team, what is available to deliver, what can be manufactured, and when the goods will be delivered in one system.
3. Transition Enterprise Communication From Seeking Information to Driving Progress
Often, communication with siloed software is around seeking information. Simple questions like what is the order value, material location, instructions to deliver, arrival of a bill of material etc. consume an exceptional amount of time for an Enterprise.
By implementing a single source of data and truth, ERP users can find information within the ERP Software meaning information-seeking communication time is significantly reduced. This gives space for improved communication quality to drive the enterprise forward.
4. Use Co-relational Analytics to Make Data-Driven Decisions
Co-relational analytics and data between different teams open several opportunities to deliver growth, improve utilisation, and optimise costs. Volume leverage, timing leverage, managing peaks and low periods of business, hiring decisions, training, and upskilling decisions can be taken with utmost confidence by unpacking data from your ERP Software.
5. Correlate Different Parts of the Business
An ERP communicates several parts of a business by building a common data pipeline from business functions. The overall understanding of your enterprise goes up for every ERP user. The intangible benefit of deploying an ERP system depends on the quality of hires, training, and overall communication in the business. If done correctly, this results in amplified speed and efficiency of your enterprise.
6. Build a Growth-oriented Culture
ERP Software can set targets for functions such as Sales, Supply Chain, Manufacturing, Warehousing, HR, Financials, Delivery of Goods, Logistics, Returns and Service Management. This enables enterprises to set, monitor, and drive growth.
How ERP Software Impacts Different Industries
Businesses implementing ERP Software have multiple operations, each with a specialised area of focus that requires complex planning and reporting. With this in mind, ERP Software is best utilised in industries such as:
- Manufacturing: Manufacturing ERP systems help manufacturers plan and schedule production, improve product quality, leverage product lifecycle management, optimise supply chain planning, and gain accurate inventory control.
- Retail/E-Commerce & Distribution: Retailers utilise e-commerce integrations and ERP modules such as order management, warehouse management, customer tracking, and supply chain management to improve control of sales and the customer experience.
- Healthcare: Hospitals, care homes, blood banks, and more, use ERP business systems to manage medical inventories and supplies, digitalise patient records to build centralised patient portals, and create accurate financial forecasts.
- Construction and Engineering: Construction and engineering operations use integrated ERP applications to track and assign sub-contractors, control the inventory of building materials, plan for resource allocation, and improve project management on a large scale.
- Banking and Financial Services: ERP systems are used by financial services to control risk management, plan for “what-if” scenarios, secure data management, and track custom relationships.
- Education: Institutes, schools, and colleges use ERP Software to make sharable information available to parents, students, staff, and teachers, as well as help to build digital student records and improve the availability of educational equipment through resource planning and asset management modules.
- Food & Beverage: Tailored food and beverage ERP tools use information to analyse and improve food waste management, recipe management, ingredient tracking, and allergen and dietary safety compliance. As well as using warehouse and inventory management modules for storing products with temperature, weight, and date requirements.
