MYOB ADVANCED BUSINESS

What Is Enterprise Resource Planning?

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution is used by modern businesses, both for-profit and not-for-profit organisations, be they private, public or government, to manage and to see what resources they have, and plan with said resources.

This requires looking across your entire spectrum of business processes and deciding what could be automated and streamlined to provide greater visibility and insight.

How does a business use ERP?

Every business, no matter the industry, has business processes that are used in conjunction with each other to produce some product or deliver a service. As a result of this, the business gets paid for or receives funding, or is made accountable by regulations to deliver.

Businesses will use an ERP system to automate these processes and to get data about these processes so that they can get a good understand of what is happening across the business. For example, If you mapped out what your business does, much like the diagram in the following section, you can see how an ERP will help your business achieve its goal.

For example, if your business has a lot of invoicing problems, maybe you need to get out 20,000 invoices a week but the process takes a long time and they are inaccurate – it’s costing you time, resources and having a negative impact on customer satisfaction levels.

Once an area has been identified as needing improvement, you can look across the other parts of the business and repeat the process. For example, it might be taking you a long time to pay your vendors because you have all these invoices that need to be approved.

Or, let’s say you would like to automate the employee life cycle: all the way from being hired to performance management and payroll.

The solution is simple; you need to automate these processes. That’s where ERP steps in. And wouldn’t it be great if there was just one solution that did it all?

Implementing a business management solution like MYOB Advanced across your business will do all of this and more. Since MYOB Advanced Business is an integrated solution that relies on one version of the truth, you will never face data problems where different systems are giving different figures.

At BusinessHub, we don’t look at the concept of an ERP solution as being one big master system. Instead, our approach is to see how best we can help businesses solve their key pain points, automate processes, and maintain data integrity and security.

Why is an ERP important?

Without an ERP solution, your business data often ends up in disparate silos of information.

Take the following example, your business may have good sales data in comparison to your accounting data. You may make a good sale, but you may not be invoicing correctly.

Most likely you rely on some manual processes to do all this. But what if you had systems in place that could help you better understand what’s happening in those areas? As well as help you automate those processes so that things got done faster and accurately.

Process automation and data management are two of the key areas where an ERP solution can really help.

That’s why at BusinessHub, we look across your entire business to ensure you utilise every single function, feature and benefit MYOB Advanced Business can provide your organisation.

It’s our aim to not only automate processes, increase accuracy but to give you visibility and insight across all every facet of your business, so you can make better informed decisions.

How do you know if you need a new ERP?

The best advice we can give you is to think twice about implementing an ERP solution. If you don’t need it, don’t buy it. An ERP solution can become complex and can be risky if you make the wrong choices. If you’re not going to get benefit from it, do not waste your time – No matter what salespeople will say, you have got to be certain.

So how can you really be certain? Draw a map outlining all your business processes and take a look at your processes and take note of your pain points.

For example, if you don’t understand what’s happening with inventory in your warehouse locations, you may have outgrown your previous solution. This usually happens when you start off with one warehouse and the software you previously had worked fine. But as your business grew, and your warehouse locations and branches increased, your software couldn’t keep up, because it was designed for 1 or 2 locations max. This often happens with off-the-shelf products such as xero.

So now you have a situation where your inventory software is cumbersome/inaccurate, and staff may also not know how to use it correctly. This would be considered high risk and a definite pain point.

Our advice, focus on where the business will benefit from making changes within your business processes with software. Delve deep and find where the real pain points are and decide if an ERP solution will help. Another good tip is to talk to your team members who are actually impacted by these processes and find out what their pain points are. 

The main thing you need to be certain of is that implementing an ERP solution is going to be of value to your business. 

What should I know if I am selecting a new ERP?

Implementing a new ERP system is not a decision that should be taken lightly. These are complex and costly processes which will bring a lot of change throughout your business.

When you start getting into the selection process, you need to drive the demonstration and know what your pain points are.

Do not let the salesperson do it. You need to tell them exactly what your pain points are and tell them what you want to see in the software solution.

To reiterate, you need to ensure they show the software to you exactly as you need to see it.

A good idea is to have all your pain points and concerns written down prior to the demonstration to ensure you do not forget to mention anything.

When you get into negotiations, look at all the terms and conditions. And get a good understanding of the complete pricing of everything, from monthly fees, support to upgrades and more.

The last piece of advice? Get to know the decision-makers and the people that will be doing your implementation to forge a relationship built on trust with them.

The process of moving to an ERP solution can be daunting at first, but if you follow the tips provided within this blog, you will do great!

Download free resources

To get a better understanding of the benefits an ERP solution could provide your business, download the following free brochures. We also suggest reading some of our client success studies here>

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MYOB Advanced is powered by centralised real-time data, helping improve operating performance, automate processes and empower critical business decisions.

We have trust in the MYOB brand and as it turned out their Advanced solution really did have everything we needed.

Marie Kapetanakis

CEO, Kosmea Australia

The functionality of MYOB Advanced met our many needs including customer special pricing, advanced stock management, a customer portal as well as CRM. 

Courtney Purcell

General Manager, Codecom