Once upon a time, way back in the 1960s, Enterprise Resource Planning (or ERP) was originally a concept applied to inventory management and control. By 1990, the system had expanded well beyond a few inventory and operational activities: it developed into a multi-functional solution that performed essential back-end processes, such as accounting, financial reporting and even regulatory compliance. Present-day ERP software has streamlined operations throughout all aspects of a business, including inventory, financials, CRM, marketing, and beyond. Functions that once required multiple platforms can now be automated through a single system. 

In business, forecasting tells the story of what the future holds. Lately, that story has had more plot twists than a Hollywood blockbuster film. With so many what-ifs on the table, CFOs need to prepare to shift direction without much warning. That's why we're sharing three tools to help you make confident business predictions. 

The Holy Grail of any entrepreneur is that elusive objective known as profitability. The formula to achieve this goal is pretty straightforward: ensure that revenues exceed expenses. The economic climate had previously allowed for a plus-side bottom line to be attainable. Following a robust 2019, there were high expectations that things would continue along a positive path.

For many financial teams, planning and budgeting takes far too long and can exhaust resources rather quickly. This department often spends too much time on administrative tasks related to collecting, consolidating and reconciling data, and not enough time on analysis and strategic development. 

Growing a business requires you to be in many places at once. From tracking manufacturing and distribution to inventory management and eCommerce to overseeing administrative efforts and payroll, it’s your responsibility to ensure all these components flow together in harmony. And so, you employ a software application to reduce the burden and help streamline a specific aspect of your business for better efficiency. As more sales come in and business takes off, you’re incorporating additional software platforms to keep up with the demand.

In the food and beverage industry, market conditions and business models are ever-changing. Upon launching your own business, you are right to focus on building market share and creating sustainable business models. However, once the beginning stages are over, it’s time to think about scaling up, expanding markets, and increasing sales and customers. To achieve this, businesses must have software that quickly adapts to the needs of an expanding organization. 

Business managers today face a variety of complex challenges. From keeping up with the day-to-day regulations and processes, customer data, and visibility of operations to make optimal business decisions, these barriers can get in the way of growing an organization. 

Software-as-a-Service provides upfront saving over on-premise ERP solutions but the real benefits go much further. There are many factors that prove cloud-based computing is much more beneficial to a company than on-premise servers. You can download the whitepaper for an in-depth analysis, here are some highlights.

Cloud-based ERP software helps businesses identify operational inefficiencies and develop best practices to becoming more productive.

As they reflect on 20 years, there’s been extraordinary progress and innovation made in the way business is conducted with the advent of the internet. For neo3, a Canfield-based business software solutions company, they’ve been influential in helping organizations become more productive and profitable through operational efficiency in the digital transformation.

For warehouses and distribution centers, it can’t be stressed enough the importance of having inventory management to help lower costs, speed up fulfillment and prevent fraud. If your assets are not precise, you as business are facing stock-outs and high carrying costs. So, how do you accomplish precise inventory management? It starts with a scalable software platform. This enables “high levels of inventory visibility on a real-time basis.” Scalable software platforms can be a remarkable solution for distribution organizations looking to better manage their assets and logistics. Growth is a great thing, but if you do not have the appropriate processes in place, you could be scaling in the wrong direction.

Enterprise Resource Planning, better known as ERP, dates back to the 1960’s and is a process that applies to inventory management in manufacturing. At the time, software was developed to serve as an asset management tool for businesses to monitor components and from there, generate detailed reports on the status of these products. Over time, the program evolved into material requirements planning (MRP) to help with production scheduling processes and ensure businesses did not encounter congestion within their product lines. Today, ERP is an essential business management tool for many industries and can assist in making an organization more efficient, leading to increased productivity that improves your bottom line.

ERP, an integrated suite of modules providing an operational and transactional system of record for business, has been touted as the holy grail of entrepreneurs seeking efficiency and profitability, but is it for everybody? If you are struggling daily with multiple software platforms to manage your CRM/Sales, Marketing, Financials, Inventory, eCommerce and just about everything else vital to the survival of your business—large or small—cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning must be at the top of your strategic ‘to do’ list.