The demand for fast and agile enterprise management is increasing. Making quick and informed decisions is the key to avoiding loss and ensures sustained growth. Organizations tend to divide the responsibilities and decision-making abilities, and expect collaborative work and decision making from their employees in various departments. There is a need for systematic applications which will notify the concerned person for a specific issue, event or task.
Enterprise Resource Planning implementers need the information of stock availability, doc sharing and real-time data analysis application on their mobile devices. Regardless of time and location, whether on-site or off-site, this data needs to be accessed. And ERP service provider companies have designed their mobile products keeping this in mind exactly. Developers are making more efforts to integrate mobile devices with the ERP. Due to availability and even broader reach, ERP proves to be empowering tool for business management and resource planning.
Noteworthy advantages of going mobile
For any business, ERP acts as a central information hub. From end-to-end, ERP software is designed in such a way that it acts as the integrated view of core business processes. Specific access is given to employees from particular departments. The data is filled by these people is used in real-time for decision making by the management. Now, with ERP accessed via mobile, it will be easy and may cause fewer errors while accessing this data. Data will be filled immediately, resulting in correction in plans or decisions taken. Real-time access given to employees will prove highly beneficial.
Increased efficiency due to real-time access is one of the most important benefits. As per experts, mobile ERP will create a consistent, continuous communication hub. There will be managers and workforces involved in this communicative network which is always active. Interconnectivity between departments will be even more efficient. People operating via multiple locations and departments rely immensely on mobile devices for carrying out certain transactions on the go. Less wasted time, more efficiency will be archived due to time-flexible access is truly needed.
Customer satisfaction will increase due to ease of way of carrying out the orders. For a distributor company, it will be very useful to order the stock items by scanning the warehouses of a production company. There are online portals and ERP applications that are getting the work done, but it has restrictions on location. Also, the time taken for navigation through items is also going to a next level in mobile ERP. This will bring products to items more quickly, improving customer satisfaction. And this will be a significant differentiator at the point of sale.
Many organizations have employees working at distant locations. They may be traveling or working on on-site projects. With mobile ERP, these employees will be able to connect to the system regardless of their location. The off-site personnel will have access to previous transactions with the customers. They can access locations, contact details and all data, including solutions provided. And the best part is, anyone involved in the movement of products or execution of services can tap into the ERP and keep the rest of the organization updated regarding the state of various shipments.
With mobile alerts, managers will be informed immediately. To face the potential problems – such as raw materials relocation, or machine breakdowns or specific part hitting a min value, mobile alerts will prove to be extremely useful. Because without mobile ERP, managers will be able to get these alerts only while accessing systems on computers or by reading system generated e-mail alerts. With mobile ERP alerts, they can be informed about these problems immediately. This will enable decision-making team to make corrections immediately, improving accuracy in inventory optimization.
The sales team will be able to access the stock levels and will be able to plan their strategy accordingly. The sales force can work efficiently by knowing availability and stocking levels on products and by getting dispatch notification and brochures, documents like white papers without accessing the laptops. Ability to provide a quotation immediately after the inquiry is generated will give them a competitive advantage. With mobile ERP, sales force will be able to estimate delivery date and pricing.
Large to medium capacity warehouses are being managed, but for warehouses of big players in e-commerce industries or FMCG companies need faster options. In the era of the rise of automated machines, it becomes essential to go mobile for warehouse management. Since inventory management is one of the crucial issues, mobile ERP developers are also putting in the great effort to develop a suitable system and minimizing complexity.
Must know before implementing mobile ERP
According to experts, mobile ERP applications, when used with a mobile device experienced to be quite complex. Considering the operating features between PC and mobile, the mobile applications need to be even more user-friendly. It will not harm to add features like Auto-fill in these apps. The UI for the mobile device needs to be simplified and designed keeping mobile applications in mind. The mentality of a portable handset user also needs to be taken into consideration. This requires a thorough planning and constant improvement methods are needed for effective development of UI. This will help users choose mobile over PC application.
Data analysis and complex report generation need improvement as computers are always better at these operations. Mobiles need better RAMs and good displays for these functions. Because of this, analytical features in ERPs are strictly limited by the display and processing power in mobile devices.
Mobile ERP applications are in the early stages of adoption. They are growing rapidly as demand for mobile ERP is increasing. As businesses realize the advantages of making ERP available anywhere, it is indeed true that as the hardware improves, mobile ERP will be more popular.
ERP Implementers Going Mobile Proactively
