What Is the Best ERP For Small Business?
Just by the name enterprise resource planning, companies are led to believe there is no ERP for small business, or that small businesses don’t need one.
Yet, any size of business looking to develop and grow in a structured and integrated manner will find that adopting ERP Software creates value and helps it grow in the market.
Alongside the growing number of digital-first small businesses, ERP tools for small businesses are increasingly valuable as a growth driver. By absorbing and analysing data, ERP systems create a core of centralised, joined-up and efficient decision-making.
Primary benefits of deploying ERP for small businesses include:
- Better sharing of information between teams
- Make data accessible and transparent
- Improved workflow through automation
- Use that information to increase productivity
- Develop business intelligence to drive strategy
- Access smart features like analytics and AI insights
- Improved data backups, security and disaster recovery
- Simplified and possibly reduced IT costs
Starting your ERP journey as a small business can also prevent many of the integration pains and technical issues that larger firms face. The more “business” there is, the harder it is to squeeze a dozen applications and huge amounts of data into an ERP-sized pot.
In short, vendors are happy to attract smaller businesses with attractive SaaS packages, using the cloud to reduce setup costs and time. And the sooner a business starts using an ERP, the faster the efficiencies and economies grow.
Identify the best ERP for small business that matches your budget and deployment preferences, and easily integrates all your small business processes.
What Are Your Key ERP Requirements?
Best ERP for Small Business Solutions
Infor CloudSuite
The Product
An adaptable, automated, and extendable ERP solution especially designed for manufacturing industry organisations.
Ideal For
SMB to enterprise-size organisations with fluctuating demand and operations that require deep, industry-specific capabilities
Industry Fit
Food & Beverage, Engineering, Construction, Automotive, Manufacturing, and Aerospace
Pricing
From £120 per user, per month
FMIS
The Product
An asset management solution for streamlining advanced fixed asset, lease accounting and asset tracking operations.
Ideal For
Organisations with complex asset, lease, tracking or purchasing structures and priorities
Industry Fit
Manufacturing, Real Estate, Energy, Retail, and Government
Pricing
From £1,500 per annum
Workmate By Cayman
The Product
A quick-to-implement, all-in-one CMMS solution with flexible deployment.
Ideal For
Organisations with 3+ maintenance engineers
Industry Fit
Manufacturing, Food and Beverages, Engineering, Construction, and Logistics and Distribution
Pricing
From £1,490
MaintainX
The Product
A scalable solution designed to standardise work across multiple operations, with a library of customisable processes and integrated messaging.
Ideal For
Organisations looking for a self-service maintenance management solution that can be easily scaled
Industry Fit
Manufacturing, Buildings and Facilities, Food and Beverages, Hospitality, and Education
Pricing
From £13 per user, per month
6 Signs Your Small Business Is Ready for an ERP System
The ambition of deploying ERP Software for small business can occur at any time during a company’s evolution. That lightbulb moment can come when a small business is:
- Struggling to manage growth
- Drowning in paperwork
- Teams are showing signs of organisational or process confusion
- The spreadsheet that runs everything becomes too complex or won’t do what you need it to
- A new hire has experience in ERP systems
- Partners and clients are showing signs of frustration with your organisation
At any of these points an ERP can be considered and the process of finding the right one begins. With examples showing a 10-hour per week saving through automation of repetitive tasks, small business workers will experience the benefit and can focus on higher value-added tasks.
How to Choose the Right ERP for Small Business
Smaller operations tend to have a narrower set of requirements compared to a sprawling enterprise across many continents. Buyers can choose from the many ERP systems on the market. If one is tailored to your market or vertical, it is likely to have immediate appeal and will integrate with your current system, notably for legal, healthcare and finance markets.
Even so, when investigating the landscape of best ERP for small businesses, you may find a combination of features or pricing that appeal. Or a demo that appeals to the needs and capabilities of your team.
A strong choice of ERP gives small business owners a competitive advantage over non-equipped rivals and will help them compete with larger firms and accelerate growth.
ERP Features & Functions | Priority of ERP Feature for SMBs |
|---|---|
| Accounting & Finance | Yes |
| Manufacturing | No |
| HR & Payroll | Yes |
| Automation | Yes – As the Business Grows |
| CRM | Yes – Likely for customer-facing |
| Marketing | Probably |
| Supply Chain | Yes – As the Business Grows |
Find the Best ERP Software For Your Small Business Processes
What Are Your Key ERP Requirements?
ERP Integration Options for Small Business Owners
Before choosing, it is vital the business has a total understanding of the current applications and data in use. Choosing an ERP that can absorb their information, and deliver the right services for finance, sales, production and other teams is key.
See our comprehensive guide to ERP integration for more information.
The second issue is how your business works and what the immediate and strategic goals are. Consider how the ERP will bring them together, to meet goals such as:
- Minimising operational costs
- Reducing decision-making time
- Increasing process throughput or productivity
- Create more value from data (and visibility into it)
Then plan how to implement and integrate the ERP. Again, SMBs are at an advantage as they can do this in one change across the business by following a a successful ERP implementation guide. Training for managers and users will be quicker, and issues will be easier to identify and resolve.
Through a smart integration process, workers can save time on repeatable and boring tasks through automation. And with a solid implementation, all workers gain greater insight across the business, while leaders have better data to plan strategies.
3 Deployment Methods of ERP for Small Businesses
There are three main ERP Software deployment types for small businesses:
- ERP cloud
- ERP on-premise
- Hybrid
The ubiquity of software as a service and the cloud make deployment choices simple for most SMBs. A cloud solution removes the need for IT knowledge and expensive hardware. Most vendors are also used to working with SMBs and meeting their training and any minor customisation needs.
If you have on-site IT teams, they prefer an on-premise ERP for added security and avoiding reliance on internet connectivity for everyday operations. However, a hybrid approach mixing cloud and on-premise might balance any need for control with the ability to scale quickly.
The arrival of the ERP can also align parts of the business that operate in silos, for example, sales and customer service may use a CRM, while warehouses and dispatch may be reliant on legacy systems.
Why Some Small Businesses Aren’t Ready for ERP Software
If an SMB has grown in a chaotic fashion, it is likely to need plenty of remedial work before it is ready to adopt an ERP.
Or, if a business is already running a market-specific application, such as real estate or restaurant software, there is no particular advantage for adopting an ERP unless the business plans to scale at regional or higher levels.
And, just because your more clued-in workers are talking about using AI (an increasingly common feature in ERPs and a big part of the digital future) to supercharge the business, it won’t magically make your processes better.
With all that said, ERP Software for small business has come a long way from its 1990s enterprise-first origins and can now play a part in boosting the fortunes of a company of any size.