What Are the Top Factors to Consider When Choosing an ERP Software?

The IPL season is back, and all are glued to the television every evening. It’s pure bliss to see your favorite players, teams, and captains give their heart and soul to lift the trophy. But can you guess the most anticipating moment in the tournament? Did you say lifting the cup? Not really. It’s the players’ auction! The team you build decides your victory. So, is your ERP! The factors that you consider while purchasing the ERP determine the success of your business! Are you ready to pick the playing eleven of your ERP team? Spin the toss, and let’s start!

Understanding the game and its rules is mandatory before you start picking your players. So, what is ERP?

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. ERP is a software widely used by organizations to manage day-to-day business activities, including accounting, procurement, project management, risk management, compliance management, supply chain operations, ordering, delivery, and reporting. A robust ERP system integrates all the core functions into a unified system that helps plan, budget, predict and report on an organization’s results.

Understanding current business requirements

Before you get into the match, the first and foremost thing to do is understand the game, rules, and regulations. You cannot win a game that you are unaware of. You must consider what your business needs before implementing an ERP. Ask yourself,

• What do you want to gain after the implementation?
• What are the problems that you want to solve?
• What requirements should the ERP accomplish for you, your employees, and your business?

You cannot win a game that you don’t know, you cannot win your business unless you know what you want to win. Every business is specific, and so should be your ERP!

ERP that scores easily with Three Top Order Batsmen

Every match needs its Top Order Batsmen to ensure the team has the right start and progresses well. The first of your top-order batsmen should be ‘Automation’. If you’re manually comprehending the data and conducting your operations, then it’s only going to cost you more time and effort.

The ultimate requirement to get your scores hit peak is the right Inventory Management. Your ERP should help you

• Match the customer demand and the supply of stocks
• Prevent the loss of revenue by having the right stock in your store
• Have good visibility over the stocks and fulfill the customer orders without fail
• Empower sales force with 100% product availability and increase the revenue
• Reduce the time and cost involved in stock audits by automating the process and having the complete inventory control
• Identify and eliminate all the inefficiencies in the inventory with the help of real-time data

Do not let your ERP ignore Order Management and Delivery Management in the online shopping era. With the right ERP, you can nail stock take and refill with stock count-based, timely system-generated tasks for employees and eliminate supervision. This way, you save customers time and increase customers! Ensure your ERP automates and helps you with seamless Order Management.

Also, your ERP should help you manage peak hours and festive seasons efficiently by billing anywhere inside your store or when you are on the go with the fastest billing mechanism. An ERP that includes a Brilliant Cash handover system allows you to monitor cash flows counter-wise. Also, Sessions allow users to Log in and Log out with the manager’s control. Don’t miss even a penny of yours by tracking each transaction from your mobile POS machine.

ERP that paces and spins to get more customers and brand ambassadors!

Scoring in the match is good. But that is not the only thing you need to win the game. You have to ensure you don’t let your opponent’s team score. That’s why you need pacers and spinners! The ERP that you select should pace up the growth with the Purchase Management and Delivery Management. At the same time, it should spin the wheels of loyalty to build a strong brand presence.

Your ERP should help you achieve profits with the right Purchase Management software. With the help of Purchase Management, you can purchase the right products at the right time and price from the right place with a completely digitized purchase system. Let your Retail Purchase Order Management software make re-order decisions, not your suppliers. You can fix the re-order formula for each product or category based on the minimum/maximum stock, sales history, purchase history, purchase factor, and order frequency. This is the pacer you need to save runs!

It’s hard enough to get customers. Why would you lose the gained customer due to delayed deliveries? Your ERP should include a Delivery Management feature. Ensure and execute faster deliveries to your customers with an ERP that can automate delivery tasks to your employees, including easy location tagging and convenient cancellation. Wow! That’s an excellent swing that saved you with Q-Commerce.

You don’t want to lose customers. Of course! But you need your customers to stick to your brand and become brand ambassadors. Your ERP should empower you to provide offers and discounts to your customers on their entire bill without hurting your bottom line.

With an ERP that offers flexible loyalty programs based on points or amount, you can decide your equivalent redemption value to your customers’ loyalty points or amount on different slabs based on the margins you make from the products.

ERP that turns the game in your favor

Your system needs to be continuous and not discrete. If not, that adds to your employees’ confusion, creating a domino effect of missed opportunities and cross-purpose functions. Therefore, the most crucial all-rounder you need to pick up the game’s pace is how your ERP integrates all the data and offers you a comprehensive view in one place. Your ERP should be highly flexible and allow third-party integrations for e-commerce, payment, hosting, and loyalty. If your ERP is not a one-stop solution, you juggle between different tools, and imagine the chaos! Especially if your ERP does not score in the banking integrations, you can forfeit the game right now.

ERP that never lets your opponent breach Data security and privacy

Data is the new form of ultimate power. It’s like when the captain loses hope, the entire team fails. You cannot have your team losing hope if you want to win the game. But with data, it is not just hope but losing the entire game. Dig deeper and understand how your ERP provider is ready to offer authentication towards data access, protection against ransomware attacks, and data backup in case of security breaches. Bowlers try their best to stop the batsmen from scoring. But when they miss it out, the fielders try their best to do the same. That’s what your ERP should do! Especially with Inventory Management and customer data, pilferage cannot happen. An ERP should offer role-based access to its employees and ensure the right authority access to the right data. Though the skipper might do their best to halt the shot, it is not certain that it will halt. But with an ERP that has strong fielders like verification mechanisms including Captcha, Password, and Biometric and multifactor authentications, it is possible to stop the cyberattack ball. Still, if you lose data, your ERP should offer a data recovery mechanism to recover the lost data and make sure the match continues without losing hope!

ERP that has your back 24*7

You can have the perfect fielders. But be prepared for an unprecedented situation. What if your bowlers and fielders miss stopping the opponent’s batters? That’s why you need a wicketkeeper. Your ERP’s 24×7 support is like your “Wicket-keeper.” He is always there to protect the loose balls, no balls, and wide delivered by your employees while using the ERP.

The ERP that you choose should offer multiple support channels for you in any situation to solve the problem. Ask yourself if the ERP offers

• 24*7 support via chat/email
• Live chat with options to share images/audio notes to explain the process
• Digital support with required materials to get help instantly
• Ability to reach support from anywhere anytime without delay
• Issue resolution with 24 hours of time
• Staying updated with the status of the issues raised without follow-up

Your ERP should empower you to solve your problems or ask for the right help via the right channel.

ERP that can make decisions, just like a captain

As a business owner, you already have too many things on your plate to think about. It is not easy to make decisions, especially when your game is at stake. That’s why every game needs a captain who can decide for the entire team and still turn the winds of the game. Set your purchasing decisions in an auto-pilot mode with AI and ML-based purchase order management systems. Forecast and replenish using seasonal, perishables, private label production, and supplier lead time. Track supply chain discrepancies, get them fixed, and move from Buy -> Stock -> Sell to Sell -> Buy -> Stock mode. Spend the least time making a purchase or merchandising decisions with interactive conversation-based web and mobile apps. Your ERP should offer you BI Reports to increase your business awareness for improved focus on growth.

Get real-time insights to buy the right product, correct quantity, the right price, and the right time.

So, your ERP should be the captain of your team and not the other way around.

ERP that consults, coaches, and helps you win matches!

It’s easy for anyone to develop an ERP and implement it. But does it make the cut? Before choosing the ERP, do research and experience if your ERP provider listens to you. Choose an ERP provider who listens to you closely right from the start and includes you in every part of the product development and implementation. The ERP software provider who constantly checks with you for feedback and includes you in the road map discussion will understand your requirements realistically instead of shoving down your throat what they have built. If your coach does not listen, he will never know your strengths or weaknesses. It is impossible to bring out the best game without a coach who listens!

Woof! This is going to be an intense, nail-biting, and edge-of-the-seat match. Cricket matches are always uncertain with the wrong team. But don’t let your business be uncertain of its win. Gofrugal ERP includes the best playing eleven who have made it to our list after an intense selection process. With Gofrugal ERP, you will not just lift the trophy but will finish off in style for your entire customer crowd to remember. Come and join us for a friendly match!