What is Enterprise Resource Planning?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a method of taking different essential processes of business management and smoothly integrating them. Through ERP, ideally, it becomes far easier for a large business to cover all of its management bases without letting anything slip between the cracks in the process, according to Investopedia.

Full Process Integration

The range of different processes that can be addressed through enterprise resource planning include sales data analysis, marketing management, product planning, and general financial operations. In most circumstances, ERP is conducted through a piece of software that’s designed to handle all of the business’s management priorities in one all-inclusive package.

Streamlining Back Office Priorities

With enterprise resource planning software, it’s possible to keep an all-seeing point of view on all of the important back office tasks that need to be managed in order for the business to operate smoothly. All of the core business processes that must be continually monitored throughout the year can be collected and presented in an easily interpreted, organized format.

The better the ERP software, the smaller the margin of error in its presentation of important business management processes. ERP software works in tandem with whatever data management system the business has in place to view its core processes. With a reliable ERP solution in place, everything from payroll to purchase orders to human resources and customer relationship management (CRM) can be accounted for.

Applying ERP To Enterprise Divisions

For enterprises that have a wide range of different sectors, enterprise resource planning can be a powerful solution for keeping up to date with compliance reports and bookkeeping data in the all areas that necessitate constant attention. Employees who work in the sales division and accounting division might have different priorities, but with the ERP system in place, they can both use a single source of information to keep current. By ensuring that all of the enterprise’s different divisions can draw information from the same source of data, it becomes far easier for all levels of the enterprise to stay on the same page. With this shared point of perspective, the enterprise is brought closer to operating as a well-oiled machine, no matter how many small moving pieces it may have.

Different divisions not only share the enterprise resource planning database as a common source of information to draw from, but also as a channel that can serve for synchronized reporting. All different divisions can seamlessly automate the process of sending their progress reports, ensuring that no important details are overlooked. Under normal circumstances, without ERP software, different employees would have to manage different spreadsheets and databases. possibly with no standard for collecting information in a uniform manner; even in the best case scenario, with no errors in their information, this would demand manual report merging.

Related Resource: What are Big Data Applications?

Conclusion

Enterprise resource planning allows a business to swiftly, accurately, and efficiently manage all of its divisions’ data on a consistent basis. Without enterprise resource planning, having to manually merge different reports from different divisions would naturally demand a fair amount of time and manpower. By automating report generation through ERP, the enterprise has more time to devote to other priorities, potentially saving money in the process.