Best ERP Features and Benefits for Manufacturing Companies.

Best ERP Features and its Advantages

One of the big challenge faced by many Manufacturing companies during a selection of an ERP is “how to integrate an Enterprise Resource Planning Software (ERP) with their existing process, excel tools and other old softwares. How to find a software that has Best ERP features and how it helps our Business?”. Having an Software with best ERP features helps the business to integrate the complete eco-system of the company makes sense.

Please note Best ERP features are different from Enterprise Resource Planning System (ERP) Modules key features. Please click here to know about Best ERP Modules.

Best ERP Features and benefits that could help the business Functions are as below (Summary of features)

1. Supply Chain Management with Order Processing with Warehouse management
2. Human Resources and Payroll
3. Integration to eCommerce tools and other Data inputs like Forex rates etc.
4. Customer Relationship Management
5. Business Intelligence
6. Manufacturing and IOT integration tools
7. Accounting Software and Financial Management with Tax Management.
8. Analytics and Data analysis
9. Project management and Cost Controls
10. Cash management and Asset management
11. Tools and Workflow automations
12. Integration with other tools like EDI etc
13. Report Generator tools
14. Enterprise Asset Management
15. Financial reporting
16. Inventory Management with Raw Materials

One major advantages of an Enterprise resource planning software is your team consists of HR team, Finance teams, Sales teams, Field service teams, Stores persons, Marketing team, Production and Project teaming your accounting teams work on single software and don’t need multiple tools. This increases operational efficiencies and also a single source of truth to manage and run business processes and Financial management tools. Having a consistent consistent user interface across different menus would reduce the confusions and increase business operations efficiency and increased customer service too. HR Compensation management for Project teams would be easy as the time and materials cost and revenue booked based on project task management and tracking would be easy.

Artificial intelligence and Machine Language capabilities for an ERP could help with better informed decisions and increased sales and Inventory control. These tools could help to increased integration capabilities with “Internet of Things” or “IIOT objects”.

Let’s analyse more details on these features that defines Best ERP features and Best Features of ERP System that helps us.

Each ERP has a selection of few good features based on it’s Industry Focus or the particular customer segments that it targets.

Few Best ERP features that are NOT common with many ERPs are Customer relationship management, Payroll, Fixed Assets etc. Few of them are kept out of ERP as many dont want these to be mixed with CORE ERP Works.

1. Supply Chain Management with Order Processing

   Sales, its order processing and despatch helps us to integrate Supply Chain Management (SCM) integrates with Finance and production departments to process the order and meet customer demands.

2. Human Resources and Payroll

   Few ERPs have an integrated modules of Human Resources and Payroll features to manage the Salary and others. These tools helps to integrate Manufacturing production costs, Overtime costs etc with salary and payroll. It helps in the long term automation process and helps to ensure that production people don’t miss their dues.

3. Integration to eCommerce tools and other Data inputs like Forex rates etc

   Recently few companies started to integrate the marketing and transaction data from external agencies. They wanted real time data from these service providers. There are cases of integration requested for Amazon, Flipkart etc to capture the sales details and move them back into ERP Software.

4. Customer Relationship Management

   CRM is a tool mainly helps to manage and work on Lead Nurturing and conversion. Few tools have the ability to generate Orders or Quotes and link to Customer master data. Few needs an integration between CRM to ERP and its production transactions.

5. Manufacturing and IOT integration tools

   As the business grows, Internet of Things (IOT) becomes a common instrument to help in seamless production processing and integration of data. Production data is moved into ERP in real time and analysis can be done on top of that. Manufacturing features helps to capture costing details, work-in progress stock details, Finished Goods costs etc. A difficult tasks to handle these manually is reduced immensely due to ERP tool.

6. Accounting and Financial Management with Tax Management.

   A standard, finance management tools with Payables, Receivables, Budgeting etc. Integration of different ERP features like Sales, Procurement, Manufacturing etc are tightly coupled with Accounting tools, helps to generate Financial details.

7. Analytics and Data analysis

   Once the data integration with multiple ERP Features are done, it’s time to find a way to analyse these details. What could happen, if a stock goes below its reorder level? What happens, if we change our selling price by USD 1.2? Like this there are many forward generating tools to arrive at the numbers to decide the future business actions.

8. Tools and Workflow automations

   Workflow automation helps to bring in DECISION MAKING process across the document that involves multiple departments and their decision making managers. Workflow data stores and informs details like who did, when its done etc. to make a decision.

9. Integration with other tools like EDI etc

   One of the major needs for an ERP feature is ability to integrate with other transaction processing tools like Electronic Data interchange (EDI), that helps to transfer order details between multiple tools. Integration tools needed not just internal, but also with other tools that helps to transfer data seamlessly.

10. Project Management with Cost Controls
    Project based tracking with Milestone completions, ability to invoice and billing to Customer etc. This helps to manage the Construction or Small Project based develop cost, how much was budgeted and what’s the current cost etc.

11. Report Generator tools

    Whatever we do, build or integrate, these data should be presented in a way to understand by management. So reports generation tool helps to achieve these targets. Challenge is, each company and person wants the data in their own way and many times, its not possible to meet these demands and this is where “Report Generator Tools” helps.

How ACTouch ERP meets Customer Demands of Best ERP Features needed and also affordable ERP?

How our Customers found success with ACTouch ERP?