With the advances in data processing, storage, visualization, and more, SMBs can now enjoy the significant benefits of business intelligence and analytics. It can be challenging for SMBs, to unlock the potential hidden in their data. Because SMBs have limited resources, staff must perform multiple roles to guarantee that the necessary work is completed. The workload increases when a manual, lengthy reporting process is used. As a result, certain tasks aren’t completed optimally, not to mention that to obtain the necessary data, some analytics requires the help of IT.

Self-service data integration significantly reduces the time and complexity users face in preparing their data for analysis and shifts much of the activity from IT to the business user. In other words, data analysis and discovery using self-service ERP tools is becoming something that an individual within an organization can do without technical training. Here are five ways an ERP can empower SMBs.

1. Save Time and Money with Report Automation

In today’s business environment, a rapid reporting process is crucial to establishing and maintaining your competitive advantage. Sluggish reporting methods lead to slow insights, which in turn lead to slower action/implementation. Businesses that use outdated reporting techniques will produce outdated results and soon become obsolete.

You have an outdated reporting process if you manually collect, store, and organize, your business data and performance reports. Unfortunately, a lot of businesses still employ this strategy, wasting dozens of hours each month gathering and synthesizing data from numerous platforms. To organize, arrange and display your data, you want a modern ERP solution.

A modern ERP solution can transform your business by:

• Automating the reporting process & showcase results on a dashboard

• Freeing up valuable time, allowing you to analyze your data and uncover hidden insights

Would you like to perform better financially? an ERP solution will help you get there. Organizations that use analytics are more likely to outperform their competitors. Going without a reporting system is not an option if you need to know how your business is doing.

An ERP automatically gathers and sorts data. Additionally, automating the reporting process frees up your staff members (or you) to work on other critical activities. Not implementing an ERP solution wastes staff time, reduces productivity, and increases costs.

You will waste increasingly more time and money if you rely on anything other than an automated reporting system to keep track of your businesses success.

2. Improve Decision Making

Come decision-making time how available is business data with your present reporting? Do you have to wait five minutes to acquire what you need? A day? Two days? A week? Longer?

The longer the wait for data, the more opportunities you lose. With an ERP solution, real-time access to company data is possible. Making clear decisions that result in wins is severely hampered if you don’t have access to up-to-date data. ERP dashboards encourage quicker decisions making in addition to informed judgments.

Businesses that use analytics are five times more likely to reach conclusions quickly. The choices made by each team member have an impact on the direction your business takes, starting at the top. Employees at all levels need access to the appropriate information at the right time to achieve greater success. However, a lot of solutions create information silos that make it difficult for your entire staff to access the data they require to work more effectively.

3. Increase Agility and Competitiveness

SMBs have a competitive advantage over larger, more established organizations thanks to their agility and ability to pivot on the fly. Agility however requires immediate access to information that a modern ERP solution offers, allowing you to take quick action.

4. Improve Cross-Selling and Upselling

Many organizations like Amazon attribute a large percentage of their revenue to cross-selling. The “Frequently Bought Together” and “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” sections throughout your shopping experience are two examples of their incredibly efficient cross-selling. Many shoppers end up purchasing more goods than they had initially planned.

Some cross-selling opportunities are easier to identify. For instance, if you sell mobile phones, a phone case or screen protector would be a reasonably simple item to cross-sell. In other cases, you may be required to delve further into your data to determine which products to combine for cross-selling opportunities. In order to make your cross-selling and upselling initiatives more effective, you can track the following:

• Your top-selling items, to identify which products you can bundle together for promotions

• What time of year specific items sell the best, to offer seasonal product bundles

• Which of your offers receives the highest customer response/feedback, to refine promotions

• Which channel is the most ideal distribution channel for customers to receive offers

An ERP system can help you visualize and monitor your business performance in real-time, and allows you to lead your business to success. To learn more about how your business can achieve success with an ERP, contact us today to speak to a consultant.