As a wholesale business owner, you should know that Cloud ERP is essential in today’s complicated wholesale environment because Cloud ERPs help you to manage and improve every aspect of your business: Cloud ERPs give you total visibility over your entire operation, help you deliver more jobs on time, improve your wholesale processes, give you improved reporting, accounting, and planning capabilities, as well as provide you with increased data security to name just a few things Cloud ERPs help you with.
Getting the right Cloud ERP will help you stay on top of your business by using real-time data to connect your business from top-floor to shop-floor, helping you to run your shop smoothly and maximize throughput.
Below are the danger signs that your business immediately needs a Cloud ERP:
1. You can’t use real-time data to manage your operations
Real-time data is probably something you hear over and over again from Cloud ERP providers, but it really is important. If you are running your shop on data that isn’t accurate and up-to-date, you will always be behind the eight balls, so to speak. Knowing which production processes, machines, work centers, and product lines are operating at high-quality levels and which aren’t is essential for keeping shop floor operations running smoothly and something you can only do if you have access to high-quality real-time data.
2. You are constantly duplicating data
This is a big-time waster for lots of wholesale businesses. Instead of keeping the information in one centralized and connected system, various spreadsheets and business systems are used to manage your corporate data. This means that your staff is constantly entering the same information into different spreadsheets and systems.
Not only is this a major time-waster, eating up time your staff could be doing more productive tasks, but it is also an easy way errors can creep into your data. Simple typos and human errors will inevitably occur during data entry, and by constantly re-entering the same information, you’re creating greater chances for errors to be made and more chances for errors to compounded, as simple typos can be reproduced over and over again.
Another way this type of record-keeping hurts wholesale businesses is not having one single source of truth. If you are using multiple spreadsheets and systems to keep track of your information, which one is accurate?
By using a cloud ERP, you gain one centralized and connected system for all of your corporate data and information. You will not only stop wasting precious time re-entering information into various systems, but your entire operation will also run off of the same, accurate data set.
3. Your inventory process is out of control
Inventory management is all about knowing what stock you have on hand, sitting on the shelf. However, unless your inventory management system is integrated with the rest of your organization, and inventory management system alone can’t effectively optimize your inventory.
A Cloud ERP integrates your inventory management with the rest of your operation, making tracking inventory throughout your organization easy. A Cloud ERP system gives your staff instant access to a centralized inventory database that’s updated in real-time. This lets you know exactly what you can or can’t fulfill, what raw materials you actually have on-hand, as well as gives you the confidence that what is recorded in the database actually matches what is sitting on your shelf, making not only produce more efficient but financial reporting easier as well.
A Cloud ERP system can save you time and money by eliminating the daunting task of manually processing inventory management. Say goodbye to painstakingly update spreadsheets, and hello to real-time inventory updates, which means you spend less time doing the time-consuming task of manual input and more time focusing on other parts of your wholesale business.
4. Your record-keeping system seems poor
You need your shop to be running at maximum capacity if you want to be profitable and competitive. But if you have poor record-keeping and don’t have a handle on your business resources i.e., what your business has in terms of cash, raw materials, personnel, and production capacity you’ll have a hard time running at full capacity and maximizing your throughput.
With no overarching system that collects data, reports on your processes and systems and sees the big picture, how can you accurately know where you stand? Your business resources are what you use to keep your business running, and you should be aware of where you stand at all times.
One of the greatest aspects of Cloud ERPs is their ability to provide comprehensive visibility and improve record keeping. A Cloud ERP gives you an overarching view of your operations, letting you know how every aspect of your operation is performing.
And with a Cloud ERP what used to take hours of meticulous data collection, and report creation, can be done automatically giving you a comprehensive overview of your operation as Cloud ERPs allows full visibility of all your business processes, and let you measure critical performance metrics, through real-time dashboards. You can use this information to always know where you stand, optimize production schedules, and maximize capacity and increase your throughput.
5. You have bad customer service management
Let’s face it, your customers are everything. Without happy and satisfied customers your shop can’t exist. You need to keep your customers happy and keep them coming back to you, to stay in business. A poor customer experience, and poor customer service, can be major roadblocks to your business success.
How exactly can a Cloud ERP help you deliver a better customer experience you may ask?
Well for one, a Cloud ERP can help you give your customers more accurate quotes and timelines, and help you deliver more jobs on time, making your customers happier, and more likely to use you again for another job. Accurate production planning enhanced control over inventory, streamlined process scheduling, and coordination of distribution channels enable wholesalers to improve on-time delivery which is critical to maintaining good customer satisfaction.
A good Cloud ERP will also include a CRM or Customer Relationship Management function, that lets you keep all of your records and interactions with a customer in one place. You’ll be able to be more organized and easily know the status of each job you have for a customer. You’ll also be able to handle customer questions and inquiries faster and easier, and provide your customers with quicker and better answers, enhancing your customer service and your relationships with your customers.
Final thoughts
A Cloud ERP is an essential tool for your wholesale business. If you don’t have one, want to see a Cloud ERP in action? Get a free demo of Averiware Cloud ERP to see what it can do for you.
