How Web Development Can Improve Your ERP

Worthwhile often helps companies better use their enterprise resource planning (ERP) software through web development.

ERPs are mission critical, but for too many companies they feel like necessary evils rather than powerful tools. We’ve encountered countless clients who are completely reliant on an aging ERP that lacks options and/or developer support.

Despite this less-than-ideal situation, it’s usually not feasible for a company to replace its existing ERP. These systems are too critical to everyday business to be offline, and the time and effort a change would require simply aren’t available.

At Worthwhile, we’re particularly sensitive to these issues. So we don’t recommend new ERP systems unless the business reasons are strong enough to overcome the unavoidable significant investment in such a change.

Instead, we look for ways to use web development to improve the experience of using your ERP. This approach opens the door to possibilities that can improve efficiency, limit complaints, and add capabilities.

Web development can create or improve:

Portal Access

Web applications create portals that provide visibility and access to the data in an ERP. They can:

• Help companies work around seat-license limitations and costs
• Make data available in new locations and to new users
• Automate tedious or unnecessary complicated ERP work

This approach adds functionality and flexibility to ERP use, with a much lower investment and shorter timeline.

Our team believes so much in this approach so much that we used it to enhance our task-management software. We created a web application that made it easier to see the work that needs to be done, and that added key functionality that showed how much time each task actually takes. The application is much more user-friendly, and saves our employees time on a daily basis.

Reporting

One complaint we frequently hear about ERPs is that they don’t provide enough visibility into reports and analytics. This forces companies to spend employee manpower compiling reports that guide important decisions and everyday priorities.

Web development can automate these reports and make them available in real time, upon demand. These reports have proven valuable to our clients and their customers.

Integration

Many ERP systems aren’t written to communicate with other key software applications. For example, if a company’s ERP system isn’t integrated with its e-commerce system, customers may see out-of-date inventory, or miss out on the most competitive pricing.

Getting ERP systems to integrate with other systems makes business workflow easier, saving time and reducing user errors through automation.

Mobile Access

Many ERP systems fail to provide functionality or access via mobile devices. Adding mobile access can add productivity and flexibility to the way companies do business.

For example, picture a salesperson arriving at a sales call 10 minutes early, and using a smartphone to access the ERP to find a couple of key calls she can make before the appointment. Or imagine a warehouse employee using a smartphone to scan a bar code, updating the inventory listed in an ERP in real time.

The proliferation of mobile devices creates new ways to work in a more productive, efficient, and profitable way. Your ERP system’s limitations shouldn’t hold you back from these advances.

—

If your company feels like your ERP system is working against your business instead of for it, then it’s time for a change. But that change may not be a new ERP. Contact us to talk about how web development can help your business save time and work better.

About Worthwhile Storyteller

We'll never tell you a lie, but we might tell you a success story that protects the intellectual property of our clients and partners. Our Worthwhile Storyteller is an amalgamation of all of our thoughts, experience, and expertise brought together to give you the facts about our relentless improvement in the software development space.