Customer expectations and their interactions with businesses change quickly with the market dynamics. As such, business operators that can’t strategically meet these fast-paced changes and expectations significantly limit their business growth. On the other hand, disruptive technologies continue to shape transformation across various industries, making it even more challenging for businesses to meet the demands of these technologies. To keep pace with these changes, organizations must offer a streamlined and fully consolidated solution. That’s where Cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions come into play.
Cloud-based ERP systems enable enterprises to streamline and automate business processes. They are particularly beneficial to business executives as they offer an easier and more effective way of managing businesses with real-time visibility and a complete process control tool.
Legacy ERP Applications Struggle to Adapt to Today’s Changing Business Environment
Today, innovations occur almost every day, but legacy ERP systems are still frozen in time. Indeed, an outdated ERP system can’t be effective in a hyperactive business world. Technological advancements are transforming business software and customer applications. Employees interact through mobile devices and social media, and applications are becoming more connected over the Web. Unfortunately, many legacy ERP systems remain oblivious to these significant changes.
Therefore, it’s no surprise that CIO discovered that only 4% of IT leaders confirm that their ERP deployments provide the companies with a competitive advantage. That’s because most companies spend 50-90% of their IT budgets on maintenance rather than innovation. Instead of implementing substantive upgrades that accelerate real business innovation, they rely on ageing ERP systems, and that limits growth in many ways:
- Outdated ERP undermines innovation from your IT budget
- Business regulations call for fluidity and outdated ERP can’t keep up with the pace
- Legacy ERP draws back business velocity
- Immobile ERP restricts today’s mobile workforce
- Centralized outdated ERP slows down the increasingly decentralized businesses.
- Legacy ERP can’t satisfy the appetite for real-time information
- Old ERP blocks your business from channels, suppliers, and customers
- Stone Age ERP is a barrier between employees and self-service
Modern Cloud-Based ERP Applications Empower Business Growth
Most business leaders think that traditional ERP systems are cost-effective, especially during this inflationary period and the limited technical skills of employees in SMBs. But such an approach ignores business growth. When you want to scale up your cannabis operation on all fronts, how can legacy ERP handle that? It can’t!
With a cloud-based ERP system, you not only get a solution that helps streamline internal business processes and minimize resource waste, but the cloud infrastructure gives your small and mid-sized business access to the same tools as large corporations but at cost-effective rates with improved mobility, security measures, scalability, and opportunities to innovate and update, helping your business grow. The following are ways cloud ERP can fuel business growth:
Small initial capital investment
A cloud-based ERP application is based on an ongoing operating cost system, and software deployment or upgrade requires less upfront investment than an on-premise ERP platform. Besides, cloud ERP offers greater ROI on IT costs, cycle times, and inventory levels. Your business can overcome the financial challenges of an on-premise ERP system by implementing a cloud-based alternative, as the latter has reduced costs because of its ready-to-deploy systems and updates.
Cloud ERP is powered by analytics
Part of a business manager’s responsibility is to make critical decisions that help the business grow and remain competitive. That means they must have access to data, insights, and competitive metrics. Fortunately, a Cloud ERP system maximizes the power of business intelligence, providing cumulative data points and chart-based metrics that help managers understand their businesses and channel resources to the right places, propelling growth.
Enhanced data security for business integrity
Cybersecurity threats have become an existential problem for businesses. As indicated in Cybersecurity Ventures’ 2022 Official Cybercrime Report, the cost of cybercrime is expected to reach $8 trillion in 2023 and increase to $10.5 trillion by mid-decade. Therefore, businesses must think critically about protecting their data.
Cloud ERP software offers a solid data-security package comparable to any other cloud solution. With multiple layers of backup, automatic system updates, and protection tools provided by a team of experienced data specialists, Cloud ERP can guarantee your data is secured from costly breaches and cybercrimes.
Improved business scalability
Companies that rely on legacy, on-premise ERP solutions find scalability a huge pain point. Continuous technological upgrades and fast-paced advancements require substantial investment, which derails an organization’s scalability and flexibility. With Cloud ERP, you can improve your company’s overall operations and scalability through accurate resource planning and allocation.
Standardized business operations
As SMBs expand, they are more profit-oriented and less focused on their internal processes and workflows. That can significantly hurt synchronization between various business operations and departments. A cloud-based ERP platform streamlines internal business processes and enhances information flow across different departments, bringing uniformity and improving decision-making for your workforce.
Ways Businesses Benefit and Grow with a Cloud-Based ERP Solution
If your business leverages cloud services, you must have noticed that the greatest advantage of migrating to the cloud is cost-effectiveness. It’s the same case with Cloud ERP. Still, there are other ways businesses benefit from cloud-based resource planning platforms. They include:
- Streamlined deployment strategies via rapid integrations
- Improved transparency and collaboration opportunities
- Faster innovation pace
- Improved business mobility and agility
- Better adherence to financial compliance
- Improved business performance
Adopting a cloud-based system is more of a need than an option for every modern-day company. Outdated, on-premise platforms can’t match the reduced costs, ease, and seamlessness that Cloud ERP systems offer. It’s crucial to migrate to the cloud and deploy a cloud-based ERP system to remain competitive while meeting the ever-growing customer demands.
Summary
If you plan to upgrade to an ERP system that runs on cloud servers, partner with MaxQ Technologies. We are seasoned in working with various cloud ecosystems, such as AWS and Azure, and our expert cloud specialists can help you transition seamlessly to the cloud in a way to offer them most value to your customers. Contact MaxQ Technologies to learn more on how we can help you implement Cloud ERP software.
