Is Your Accounting Software Holding Back Business Growth?

See why it’s time to upgrade to a cloud-connected business management solution.

These are the end times for small- and medium-sized businesses using basic accounting software and spreadsheets to manage resources. Today’s market demands a faster, more efficient solution. If you haven’t already, you need to convert to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) platform.

Recent research shows that organizations of all sizes view ERP as a foundation of managing operations.1 But change can be difficult, and not all ERP is created equal. Old-school ERP systems don’t integrate well with your existing technology and are difficult to adopt. They’re simply too slow, complex, and inflexible to keep up with today’s business climate. You need a modern, cloud-connected ERP solution that supports industry-specific best practices, ever-changing regulatory requirements, and emerging technologies such as mobile, cloud and analytics. Organizations that do not upgrade to a modern ERP system put themselves at risk as they grow, and miss out on opportunities to scale.

Top four reasons to upgrade your business management solution

1. Manage Growth

As businesses grow, manual spreadsheets and basic accounting packages become inadequate for managing the proliferation of locations, products, processes, regulations, customers, and competitors. With growth comes complexity.And with complexity comes risk. What you really need is a more adaptable and scalable solution that can:

• Collect, store, manage, and interpret data across the business.
• Give you the tools you need to manage products, orders, customers, finances, and operations.
• Provide insights to reduce costs, improve compliance, and deliver value to customers.

Cloud-connected solutions are highly adaptable and scalable—and accelerate all processes across the value chain. They can be implemented with minimal disruption to existing business processes, and are easily customized to meet the changing needs of businesses as they grow.

2. Reduce operating costs

Cloud-connected business management solutions simplify every part of your operation and are more cost-effective than typical enterprise ERP systems because they:

• Maximize efficiency of your team, increasing user productivity and ensuring each team member’s skills are deployed for the right tasks.
• Ensure compliance though automated tax table and regulatory updates, as well as recording all system changes in support of best auditing practices.
• Integrate all core business processes through workflows that enable tasks to be completed more quickly, and with less chance of error.

These solutions are designed to automate manual, time-consuming, error-prone processes—leading to increased productivity at a fraction of the cost.

Organizations that employ ERP and analytics have improved their profitability by 5 percent over the last two years.

3. Improve decision-making

Spreadsheets and basic accounting software create departmental siloes that inhibit the sharing of information and knowledge. To improve decision-making and maximize performance, your business needs one common data source that can deliver:

• Real-time data and information-sharing anytime, anywhere.
• Real-time analytics, along with alerts and notifications for quick responses to changing business conditions.
• Instant insight into costs and performance from one common data source.
• This appeals to executives looking for faster management and increased competitiveness with reduced overhead costs.

4. Foster internal and external collaboration

As your business grows, you’ll need technologies that make collaboration with customers and between employees easier. In fact, 15 percent of small and midsized businesses cite “lack of collaboration” as one of the key business pressures they face. A cloud-connected ERP solution enhances both internal and external collaboration by:

• Providing fast (often instant) access to data for anyone within the organization.
• Connecting employees for clear communication across geographic boundaries.
• Delivering real-time, anytime connectivity for employees and customers.
• Greater collaboration increases productivity, reduces costs, leads to more accurate inventory, and enhances customer service.

The time is right for you to work more effectively

You can’t afford to wait any longer. Upgrade to an integrated and cloud-connected business management solution so you can:

• Share and integrate data from your entire business.
• Improve collaboration across teams.
• Tailor your solution to reflect your business as it grows and changes.
• Increase revenue growth and reduce operational costs.
• Plan ahead and forecast demand.

The right solution will be easy to install, easy to use, and provide all the functionality you need at an affordable price.