One of the major benefits of technology is the fact that it has enabled companies of all sizes to streamline operations, both front and back end. With the development and continual advances in Enterprise Resource Planning, ERP, software, it is now possible to have one integrated system in which every department can communicate with each other via digital technology without thousands of wasted manpower hours spent tracking down data that another department holds.
Sound a bit confusing? It isn’t really once you understand what SAP has done with ERP software solutions! Here is a bit about exactly what ERP is and how Mindset Consulting can help your business, large or small, save invaluable time and money with the right modules for your business.
What Exactly Are SAP and ERP?
If you are like most business owners, you are probably overwhelmed with all the tech acronyms that are being thrown your way day after day. You often hear SAP and ERP used in the same sentence and sometimes even interchangeably but are they really the same thing? Actually, no they are not! ERP, as mentioned above, is an Enterprise Resource Planning solution that consists of a modular software program that can interface with literally every department within your company.
At any time, the R&D department knows what Sales is doing and Production knows what orders Sales have taken so they can set up to produce the next big order. In other words, ERP software interfaces every department within your company and you can set access as to who can see what.
Still confusing? Just think of ERP like the neurons in your brain. Knowledge (data) is departmentalized and the neurons (ERP software) stores data in modules to be communicated throughout the body, which is your organization. SAP is the leading, and one of the pioneers, in ERP technology and as such, the two are often used synonymously, but one is the technology (ERP) and the other is the largest and most widely-known developer (SAP). It’s like calling all facial tissues Kleenex. We tend to call ERP by the most widely known pioneer, SAP.
How Can an SAP ERP Solution Help Your Company?
Going a step further with the analogy of the human body, think about what happens when a human brain misfires. The brain might be unable to communicate with the legs to tell them it’s time to run because a bear is at your back door or to sweat when you are being subjected to extreme heat. These are all different biological systems within your body and unless controlled by the brain which sends commands via those neurons bouncing around inside your head, your body is just that – a body, inert and immobile.
As the leading developer of ERP solutions, SAP developed technological neurons that communicate between various functions within your organization. Think of it like having the ability to sweat to cool off as opposed to physically getting up from what you are doing to walk inside to an air conditioned room or walking to the pool to jump in water. Both of those solutions are time consuming and a waste of energy. Your body’s ERP wasn’t working! If it was, it would have communicated that you needed to sweat and you could simply go on about your business, no time and energy wasted.
That’s why any company, large or small, can benefit from the right modular ERP software. Start with what you need as a core and add to it as your company grows. One system interfaces throughout so it is also cost effective. Why do you need SAP ERP solutions? To save time and money, thereby conserving resources and adding to your bottom line. That, alone, is reason enough, wouldn’t you say?
