Cloud ERP Trending as the New Normal 

The History

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the system that automates and integrates a company's core business to help them focus on effectiveness and simplification. Over the past 25-30 years the business world has been dominated by traditional enterprise research planning. These are on premise systems that are ran and controlled by the company that owns them. The systems help companies with order entry, inventory control, purchasing, accounting and warehousing. The new trend for companies is to move towards SaaS based systems or cloud ERP. These new systems offer the same features that the traditional systems do, but do not require on premise infrastructure. The process is a lot more efficient and provides an easier way of managing a company's ERP. Overall, SaaS based systems have been the recent norm for companies based on the countless benefits they offer companies. Below are four of the biggest benefits to companies today.

Financial Benefit

The first major benefit is through the lower upfront and operating costs. It is considerably cheaper because there is no need for IT infrastructure, which eliminates acquisition costs, long-term costs for software and hardware and ongoing operational costs. Basically, the company will not have to worry about the physical machine and infrastructure on their premise. This also means that companies can update their systems faster and have the ability to scale their demands up or down with greater ease. Instead of having to buy brand new systems or having excess machinery, businesses can just pay more or less to control their ERP needs. Another key is that companies will only have to pay someone a monthly/yearly fee to manage their system. This makes costs predictable, meaning that budgeting is easier to control. 1 System Upgrades and Enhancements The provider continually upgrades cloud ERP so you can be sure you're always using the latest, most advanced version of ERP software. The traditional ERP system customizations are tied to the current software and are not easy to implement. However, with the cloud ERP your previously implemented customizations and integrations automatically carry forward. This avoids the difficulty of starting from scratch with new upgrades and implementations. Also companies will be able to update without additional investment.

Increased Performance, Accessibility & Security

Cloud ERP often delivers better performance than the traditional systems. Cloud-based ERP also offers optimized performance that adapts to a businesses needs. If there is an increase or decrease in business, cloud ERP can automatically adjust to handle the difference. Companies can pay more or less whenever because they are paying a fee either monthly or yearly. Another benefit here is that companies can access accurate information anywhere at any time. Employees can access information on laptops, smartphones and tablets wherever they are. Along with better performance and accessibility, cloud ERP provides greater security. The companies that provide cloud computing deliver rigorous security, disaster recovery and back-up procedures that are harder to find with traditional on-site solutions.2 Greater Focus on Core Competencies With the costs saved from switching to a cloud-based ERP, this allows focusing the resources that would be used to maintain an IT department toward upgrading systems to be used on other essential areas of business. This helps companies finance the products they are producing and selling. Having more money to invest into core competencies helps to make better products along with the ability to do research and development to make better products. This can open up new opportunities for businesses with the extra capital they have.

The Verdict

Businesses today have a wide array of challenges in front of them. Cloud ERP provides many solutions to some of these challenges. It can provide a financial benefit, give your company the technological advantage and open up new opportunities. With all that said, every business is different so there is a lot to consider when choosing which ERP system is right. The trend today would support the transition to a cloud ERP system.