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management solutions. For many businesses, ERP is an ideal solution for data analysis, automation and full-scale infrastructure integration. Yet, with many systems available, each seemingly tailored to different industries, selecting the right ERP software solution can seem overwhelming. But don’t get lost in the sea of bells and whistles; there are a few core ERP features every system should offer.

Key Features

The following is a list of the essential ERP features most commonly found in an ERP software system:

1. Integration

This ERP functionality is a significant part of what makes this solution different from other types of software. While many standalone solutions boast their ability to integrate with other systems, there’s nothing like a suite of applications built to work together. Integration ensures the numerous capabilities offered by ERP systems work together harmoniously.

ERP software provides a fully-integrated, intuitive platform through which you can analyze, monitor and conduct most data-driven tasks. Through a single database, ERP systems collect, store and analyze data across all departments. Storing and analyzing data across departments ensures seamless communication within your organization. Companies today no longer have to work in silos, thanks to ERP software. Working from a single source of information reduces your teams’ discrepancies along with the associated errors and costs.

Integration also allows your business to work with multiple components at once. For instance, with integrated customer relationship management (CRM), users can access order history and customer information in the same system. The analysis of data provides insight into business trends and can offer predictions based on past practices. Accurate predictions increase efficiency on an organizational scale, ensuring smooth operations and improved productivity.

2. Automation

When someone asks, “What does ERP software do?” the answer will likely always include automation. This ERP capability automates everyday, tedious tasks, including order entry, payroll, accounting, invoicing, reporting and more. Automation cuts down the many hours your staff would typically spend on these processes, allowing them to focus on more important assignments. Optimizing your employees’ time ensures more effective workdays.

Automating your processes can also reduce human error. When your employees spend most of their day on repetitive tasks, they’re bound to make a mistake or two. Automation allows data to be sent from one part of the system to another without any chance of error. Even small errors can end up costing your business, so why not eliminate them where possible?

3. Data Analysis

Since an ERP system is already collecting and processing data from all your business functions, it makes sense to capitalize on that information through analysis. Put simply, this ERP function finds trends and patterns in your processes. Finding trends and patterns in processes enables users to reflect on specific tasks’ effectiveness, and provide forecasts for future business decisions.

ERP software analyzes data relating to all business operations, including client data, production statistics, sales data and much more. For instance, an ERP system can help you predict demand, create a budget and analyze your HR functions. Data analysis offers easy access to vital business data and gives you the tools you need to track organizational productivity and efficiency. If you want a more specific system capabilities example of data analysis, check out some of our business intelligence articles.

4. Reporting

Many people use the terms “reporting” and “analysis” synonymously when talking about ERP software. While this isn’t typically an issue, it’s still valuable to distinguish between the two. You can think of ERP reporting capability as the tools needed to convey analysis to an end user. These tools often include customizable dashboards, Gantt charts, pie charts, bar graphs and other visual representations. Many systems also allow users to restrict access to reports, protecting valuable company information.

In addition to contact management, CRM tools also handle marketing automation, sales pipeline activities and lead management. With ERP software, you can design and implement comprehensive customer care solutions. You can easily create campaigns, track customers throughout the sales lifecycle and gauge customer satisfaction. ERP’s customer service management capabilities make it easy to improve long-term customer retention.

Reports should be easy to understand and should quickly communicate trends.

5. Customer Relationship Management

Customer relationship management (CRM) software is beneficial for a couple of reasons. First, a CRM tool is an excellent option for companies whose customer base has become too large for spreadsheets. Spreadsheets work well until you find yourself spending more time updating them than actually using them to find information. Second, CRM tools centralize customer information within an ERP system, allowing quick access when working with other system parts. For instance, an integrated CRM enables users to access billing information and customer addresses when processing shipments.

In addition to contact management, CRM tools also handle marketing automation, sales pipeline activities and lead management. With ERP software, you can design and implement comprehensive customer care solutions. You can easily create campaigns, track customers throughout the sales lifecycle and gauge customer satisfaction. ERP’s customer service management capabilities make it easy to improve long-term customer retention.

An ERP should allow users to access customer data in a centralized location for increased efficiency.

6. Accounting

Financial management is one of the most critical functions of any business. As such, any respectable ERP system should contain strong accounting tools. ERP systems help manage accounts payable, accounts receivable, fixed-asset management, risk management and tax management. Many systems can also manage multiple currencies and tax regulations if you regularly do business outside your country.

ERP platforms provide exceptionally robust tools to manage every aspect of sales and revenue for your business. A strong ERP system allows you to automate many accounting functions including payments processing, sales analysis, expense management and more. An ERP system improves the accuracy and processing time of the accounting functions, reducing the burden on your staff and their working hours. For an exhaustive finance capabilities list, see our accounting software requirements checklist.

Manage your finances with ERP to visualize your business’s financial health company-wide.

7. Tracking and Visibility

One of the most significant aspects of ERP solutions is their ability to provide comprehensive visibility. The most obvious example of this is supply chain visibility. Today, many ERP systems have the technology to track finished products and raw materials from manufacture to delivery. Much of this is made possible by the high level of integration ERP systems provide. Since all your applications can send and receive information, tracking materials is a simple process. The level of visibility the ERP solution provides allows users to understand and foresee issues such as delays and stock outages.

In addition to tracking tangible objects, ERP software allows users to track information. Tracking information includes sales, production statistics, staff productivity and more. ERP systems provide a multitude of tools to follow different sets of data. CRM tools track sales, HR module tracks staff productivity, and production statistics can be found in manufacturing analysis tools. ERP systems also allow users to set up alerts for specific events, keeping them up to date on the most critical activities.

8. Human Resource Management

A significant part of the HR business processes constitutes data entry and reporting functions. Data entry includes keying employee-related information such as demographics, contact number, designation, department, payroll, work hours, additional benefits and much more. Data entry is a time-consuming and a tedious process. Moreover, if you are trying to create reports from data, you need to pull data from dispersed sources like spreadsheets. Pulling data from spreadsheets takes a long time and is error prone. This time can be better utilized in other organizational activities.

With ERP software’s help, data is entered into a centralized database, making it accessible to all the departments throughout the organization promoting collaboration. ERP solution also makes it easier to pull data from a centralized location to create reports which are guaranteed to be accurate to make data-driven decisions.

Learning Management is a part of the HR module within the ERP software that enables employees to develop relevant skills to perform their job better. Skilled employees are likely to stay with the organization for more extended periods, increasing the retention rate.

9. Supply Chain Management

The manufacturing business needs to interact with several suppliers and partners to obtain raw materials and resources to bring finished goods/products to consumers. Supply chain planning not only includes the procurement of raw materials but also the selection of apt marketing channels to promote the finished products. It ensures determining the quantity of stock in the inventory, ensuring replenishment, optimizing the production process to keep up the demand and supply ratio, transportation and distribution of the finished goods.

ERP systems play a vital role in combating inefficiencies in the supply chain process. It enables the business to obtain a reasonable price quote from the suppliers, reduces waste by optimizing the production process and the inventory management and ensures that workers can channelize their efforts in the right direction. From manufacturing and inventory management to transportation and distribution, ERP software takes care of all Enterprise resource planning (ERP) software ranks high among the most comprehensive, powerful data management aspects of the supply chain process and offers cross-platform visibility in real time to ensure flexible and cost-effective operations, which impart a competitive edge to the business.

10. Sales and Marketing

The sales and marketing module of an ERP software provides functionalities such as contacting customers, tracking customer orders from placing an order to dispatching of products against the order, raising sales invoices, receiving payments and processing return orders. It also provides additional functionalities such as automation of tracking expenses against a particular customer, implementing targets for marketing personnel, tracking lost orders and preparing comprehensive reports for marketing activities. These reports enable users to analyze sales trends during a particular period, drill down against the consolidated data and predict sales for the next quarter/month.

ERP software maintains a detailed customer profile and sales history. The detailed customer profiles and sales history enable the business to understand the customer’s preferences better. Understanding customer preferences thoroughly leads to better product marketing and recommendations in the form of upselling or cross-selling. It thus provides enhanced customer experience, enabling them to make repeat purchases.