The term “digital transformation” has moved from the shadows into the mainstream in recent years. However, the ubiquitous presence of this term hasn’t added any additional clarity to what digital transformation actually is. Nor how to do it well.

For companies eager to implement a digital transformation strategy, mapping out a plan of action on where to start can be bewildering. That’s where an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution can help in a big way.

How can ERP help with digital transformation?

I recently interviewed Intact Software and they believe that digital transformation goes beyond a website or app. Instead, digital transformation is an entire approach to dealing with a challenging and fast-paced business environment.

Implementing an ERP solution in your business, provides you and your team with an opportunity to innovate.

But what does that really mean? “Innovate” has become as much of a buzzword as “digital transformation”.

Finding ways to innovate in your business includes realising ways to increase efficiencies. After all, time is money. Secondly, innovation also encompasses how your employees, customers, suppliers and all stakeholders experience your company. Making it easier to do business with you is an innovation everyone will welcome.

ERP helps you do both and provides you with powerful data and analytics to really get under the hood of your business. You’ll be able to extract information from your ERP system that helps you make smart decisions in real time, with full visibility over your whole business.

ERP also helps you automate certain tasks. Far from this being a dystopian scenario where robots eradicate human jobs, automation actually frees up your employees to work in a more strategic and value-added way in your business.

Future-proof your business with ERP

Implementing an ERP solution is a transformative opportunity. Part of the implementation process involves examining all of the processes within your business. This allows you to simplify your inventory management and find new ways to streamline sales, purchasing, finance and accounting.

But these are not the only ways that ERP can help you meet your digital transformation goals. The following opportunities to future-proof your business are also yours for the taking when you adopt an ERP strategy:

  • Increase your edge. Having a competitive edge helps any business flourish no matter what the market conditions are. Your ERP solution will be completely different to any other organization’s as it will be completely customized to your company’s needs, goals and business strategy, both now and in the future.
  • Integrate your business. Establishing “one version of truth” in your business is necessary to help you make the right decisions at the right time. You have to know the correct amount of inventory your company is storing, or the accurate figure of sales made this month etc. to accurately forecast plans and expenditure. An ERP system can be integrated with multiple other technology solutions to create a single truth from which your whole company can operate.
  • Support your scaling ambitions. Scaling sounds great in theory; in practise it can be a messy and complex affair. However, growing your business is easier when you have a customized ERP solution in place that can grow with you.
  • Improve performance. Imagine what you could do with more time? Now imagine what your business could achieve if each member of your team had more time? ERP can help you find this extra time, as one of its big values is driving efficiencies through automation.

Meet your business objectives through ERP

With all the benefits that an ERP software solution can bring to a business, you’ll be forgiven for thinking this type of technology is only for large corporates.

However, this is simply not true. Small, medium and large companies can be incredibly well served by ERP software. In fact, any business that wants to embark on a digital transformation strategy, no matter what their size, would reap great benefits from ERP.

This ebook shares more details on how you can extract the most value for your business when you implement an ERP system in your business.