Knowing whether your ERP system meets your business needs depends on the answer to a series of key questions related to capacity, communications, information handling and analysis, monitoring, and software security.
Answering the following eight questions is the best way to know whether your software satisfies your needs or not.
1. Does your software require you to use another software in parallel?
If your system works in parallel with other systems that are not connected to it, you should consider this software implementation as class B. Generally, these are implementations that do not cover the entire company, although they may cover all users.
In this type of implementation, points of disagreement that generate doubts may occasionally arise.
However, it should be clarified that, in some cases, it is good to combine ERP with CRM, because with both, more complete business management is achieved. Everything depends on how the integration takes place.
2. If you use other software, is it possible to integrate them easily?
Sometimes it is not possible to avoid using ERP software with another external software provided by another provider. The combination of both may aim to achieve a higher level of automation, reduce time or costs, among other expectations.
However, meeting your needs will depend precisely on the way and ease with which both software systems are combined.
Both software systems must work in such a way that they do not generate conflicts and that the information generated by them is compatible, so it can be easily used by all users.
This integration will depend on the ERP system provider, since they must find a way for their solution to connect with the external software based on the integration of all areas for better management of your company.
3. To what extent does your software streamline communications?
It is essential that ERP communications be integrated in your company and that this integration be carried out in such a way that the transmitted information is reliable and accessible at all times.
This communication integration must allow not only real-time information transmission, but also ensure that it is trustworthy and reliable.
If this is not the case, you can be sure that your software is not meeting your business needs.
4. What data and in what quantity does your software offer for strategic decision-making?
It would be useless for information to be reliable if it were insufficient, just as it would be inconvenient if the available information lacked data from a department or area.
In other words, your ERP system must provide the greatest quantity and variety of data needed so you can make the most important decisions within your company.
For this, the system must be equipped with analysis tools such as Inventiva BI, which has the particularity of offering users flexibility and security for the use and handling of information.
Oracle offers advantages such as running analysis in the cloud, allowing greater data coverage. This would undoubtedly meet your information analysis needs, no matter how large or complex your database may be.
5. Does it present charts that make data presentation and analysis easier?
The way data is presented is also fundamental. After all, it is useless to have such an abundance of data if simply grouping it for analysis consumes a large amount of time.
Therefore, to say that ERP software meets your needs, it must be able to offer graphic representations that simplify the reading and interpretation of a large mass of information. These graphic representations must also be easy to understand.
6. How difficult or complex is it to adapt new functions to your software?
Companies are made to grow, and with them, the software should grow as well. Imagine if every time you expanded your organization, you needed new software. It would be impractical.
Therefore, your ERP software should accept the adaptation of new functions easily, without disruption and without requiring major investments of time, money, or effort.
7. Is your ERP system secure?
One of the aspects that best indicates the quality of your system is the security it provides for your company’s information.
The system modules must be integrated in such a way that they allow access to information for certain users and, at the same time, restrict access for others.
To meet your information security needs, the software must include fundamental processes such as information encryption.
ERP systems that have this encryption capacity are those provided with Oracle tools, for example, Oracle Advanced Security TDE.
This Oracle tool is so powerful that it is used to protect sensitive information by complex companies where a large amount of data is generated, such as healthcare organizations and universities.
One of the great advantages of Oracle Advanced Security can be seen in data encryption on the network. This tool protects data while it is in transit, blocking any possibility of network espionage.
It is very important that your software contains these tools in order to meet your network information protection needs.
8. Does your ERP software allow you to track activities? Do you know what each user does?
It is very important for your company’s security that your software allows you to know users’ movements, as well as the date and terminal where they were carried out. These records must be protected in the system database.
And to prevent this information from “disappearing,” just like any other information due to bad intentions, negligence, or electrical failures, your ERP system must have a tool for database backups.
In conclusion, only the answers given to the previous questions will allow you to know whether your ERP software meets all your business needs in terms of production, communications, information, and security.
Only in this way will you ensure that the investment you made is truly generating the results you want. And these results must be represented in numbers.
Discover the modules of the Inventiva ERP system that meet these 8 requirements. Among our more than 100 modules, you will find the ideal module to satisfy your company’s needs.
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