There are two areas to consider when looking at whether or not your current ERP system is keeping up with today’s newer Manufacturing ERP systems – functionality available and system architecture.

Any ERP solution today must allow managers to track and manage production costs with the goal of allowing them to accurately price end items in order to generate a desired profit margin. If the system you use today does not provide that capability in an easy to use manner that produces tangible results in all probability you are not keeping up with your competition.

Don’t get complacent with the idea that using or augmenting your current system today with spreadsheets to analyze cost and calculate desired profit margins offline, then pricing your products accordingly within the system, will keep your business competitive. Hopefully that last statement is somewhat tongue-in-cheek and doesn’t describe your current business practices, but if you find after doing research that you aren’t taking advantage of the increased productivity options available in today’s newest Manufacturing ERP solutions you truly are falling behind your competition.

While many traditional ERP software solutions in use in today’s market may have their own capabilities to allow companies to track production activity and costs to help them make pricing decisions, are those solutions giving your business the competitive advantage you hoped when you purchased the system? Do you have as many users and departments taking advantage of the ERP system as you should? If not, it may be time to look at a system that will make your business more productive because today’s cloud-based Manufacturing ERP systems like LillyWorks make the cost and ease of use of Manufacturing ERP throughout all facets of your business very real.

With the advent of SaaS cloud computing (in this definition we are referring to true cloud computing, not aptly-named hybrid solutions where older client-server apps are hosted or somehow delivered in a browser) organizations are able to minimize or eliminate their in-house delivery of IT services and focus on what they do best – which is produce, sell and support the efforts that drive revenue and profit.

Five reasons to look at SaaS cloud based Manufacturing ERP systems:

  • Facilitates complete adoption of the Manufacturing ERP system throughout the business allowing manufacturers to focus their resources on what they do best – produce, sell and support their products.
  • Allows organizations to scale back or eliminate IT budgets by moving away from the high costs of managing traditional fat-client or thin client ERP systems.
  • With the advances in today’s latest web-based technology the system performance is excellent and access to the system extends securely beyond the four walls.
  • SaaS cloud-based environments offer subscription based solutions that eliminate expensive onsite hardware purchasing decisions, allowing businesses the flexibility to move in a different direction should they outgrow their current ERP system. The decision to move then becomes strictly a decision that ties directly to their ability to maximize revenue and profitability.
  • SaaS cloud environments tend to promise 99.5% up-time or greater with automated backups and built in redundancy which together strive to guarantee businesses are up and running all the time. Anyone who has experienced an in-house ERP system knows the challenge of meeting service levels that approach that percent of uptime.

Today’s new SaaS cloud-based Manufacturing ERP systems like LillyWorks, with its revolutionary new execution and planning methodology Protected Flow Manufacturing™, open up new levels of functionality to all facets of the business creating productivity advantages while providing availability, reliability and performance from the cloud at service levels not attainable with older, more traditional systems. It’s time to see what you are missing.