Summary: Here in this post we have explained the most important ways custom NetSuite implementation can drive your business growth. We discussed the following points:
- Easy implementation
- Point & click change management
- Freedom from erroneous data entry
- Pay as use model
- Streamlined workflow optimization
- Automated approval
- Enhanced customer service
- Enhanced business intelligence (BI)
- Role-based access and controls
- Powerful reporting & dashboard
Thanks to technological progress managing business operations is now easier than ever before. In the market now we have all sorts of tools and software solutions to automate business operations. Among this multitude of software solutions, ERP has been the most popular. Modern ERP solutions help in orchestrating multiple business functions in an integrated manner and often they allow customization by integrating different software applications and by configuring business-specific features.
In recent years, we have observed a steadfast rise in the adaptation of custom ERP solutions. The interest in custom ERP solutions across businesses of all niches and sizes is growing exponentially worldwide. As per Statista, ERP spending has grown more than 40% just from 2010 to 2017.
Source: Statista
Custom ERP solutions accelerate business growth and as a catalyst for business process automation has proved their efficiency across organizations. Thanks to custom ERP the efficiency of business processes has increased to a great extent. Here through the length of this blog post, we are going to explain how custom ERP can become a driving force for business operation.
Business-Specific ERP Implementation
Since every business is characteristically unique and it has its way of functioning, the ERP implementation needs to address specific business needs. Through custom ERP implementation, the business processes and workflows can be pushed for increased efficiency. Thanks to this customization, it becomes easier for the employees to adopt ERP software in their work processes.
The custom approach makes ERP implementation easier since the new ERP accommodates the business process and workflow instead of forcing the company to change its processes as per the demands of the ERP software. This ultimately results in enhanced productivity and efficiency of the workforce. This helped many small and mid-sized companies to make a considerable savings on their spending resulting in higher returns.
Easy Point And Click Change Management
Many businesses experience difficulties with processing orders and other functionalities. The order screens offered by regular ERP software platforms can prove to be difficult for management. This is where custom ERP solutions can be helpful by offering a consolidated order screen with easy to understand and easy to interact commands and detailed reports.
Just think of customizing any of the ERP modules just with a simple click of a button, requiring no additional programming. Anyone in the development team can easily make the required changes. This is what custom ERP implementation allows you to do. This can help your employees save a lot of time while your business will be able to complete transactions with ease.
Get Rid Of Repetitive Data Entry Tasks
Entering repetitive data is a time consuming manual process and there are considerable risks of committing errors associated with it. Data entry errors are common to put your business at risk. From duplicate data entries to leaving data fields blanks to all sorts of unintentional errors, they can have a detrimental effect on business in multiple ways.
But many businesses rely on systems that need repeated data entry. Businesses requiring large scale data entry by automating such tasks can free a lot of working time and enhance the capacity to focus on other important tasks and projects to ensure business expansion and growth.
This is where the role of custom ERP solutions proves to be highly important. Most sophisticated and well equipped ERP systems that facilitate business process automation such as NetSuite can update business data in real-time. This results in freeing a lot of time that can be utilized to scale business growth.
Pay As You Use Model
Most of the ready to use ERP products come with features for which you need to bear a fixed cost whether they are used or not. By opting for such ERP products you also need to pay for the add-ons or additional features that you do not need. Considering all these cost components, these ERP products add up significant costs to your ERP budget.
In complete contrast, when you choose a custom ERP solution developed as per your business needs, you end up paying only for the required features. On top of this, it allows you to add features and functionalities tailored to the requirements of your business. With custom development, you get the best ERP software within the budget you have.
There are also ERP vendors who offer a bounty of customizable ERP modules to fulfil the requirements of your organization and allow you to custom-configure the required features. A highly customizable ERP suite such as NetSuite customization services can help you get the best of both worlds, off-the-shelf ERP and custom-built ERP software solutions. Ultimately, you only pay for the features and capabilities that you need, not for the other modules and features not required by your business.
Streamlined Workflow Optimization
For every business organization, there are specific operational methods and not always the off-the-shelf ERP solutions that can meet the demands of the workflow. This is why because of the new ERP some organizations may need to change the workflow. This also creates a new requirement for training the employees. For businesses, such disruption corresponding to the workflow and ensuing changes can result in a considerable downturn in respect to productivity and efficiency.
In complete contrast, an ERP solution developed to accommodate the workflow of the organization does not enforce any additional changes. The employees are already versed with the existing workflow and the only thing they need to be trained in is to integrate the ERP into their day to day tasks and activities so that dull and repetitive tasks can be reduced to a minimum. Instead of reducing productivity, such ERP solutions will increase it.
Read More: Why are ERP Systems Important to Organizations in 2024
Automated Approval Management
Generally, off-the-shelf ERP software solutions remain in the darkness of the different hierarchies and approval processes followed across organizations. Naturally, they still rely on manual approval processes that consume a lot of productive time apart from making a business vulnerable to increased chances of committing errors and mistakes.
With custom ERP software, you can have complete control of the approval processes and can easily allow keeping track of different things that need approvals. From invoices and bills to time-off requests to expenses, to all others, streamlined approval processes prevent you from getting lost due to the overloading of approval requests.
As the entire approval system becomes automated with streamlined workflows, an organization can also ensure enhanced transparency besides ensuring that the requests of an organization are approved quicker. Custom ERP suites allowing automated approval can help an organization with templates for various kinds of approval workflows, enhanced compliance with an easy saving of records that can be reviewed quickly and a collaborative way to handle complicated approvals.
Enhanced Customer Service
Custom ERP software in many ways can help businesses to get a competitive advantage over their competitors. One of the key ways it can help the companies in getting ahead of the competition is through streamlined customer service and support. Through custom ERP a business can provide better, proactive and more timely customer service.
Just by adapting to an off-the-shelf ERP solution, your business may not be able to address all your customer expectations and needs. The custom ERP features help your business to meet the specific requirements of your customers and provide them support and services on time.
Huge Gain Regarding Business Intelligence (BI)
The custom ERP software solutions are not just designed and developed as per the requirements of a company, but they are loaded with data analytics and business intelligence (BI) capabilities to automate decision-making processes. While the business workflow and the operational processes remain almost the same after custom ERP implantation, there are significant enhancements regarding data-driven decision making.
Just because custom ERP software solutions provide a 360-degree view of the business data in real-time and proactive analytical capabilities to help decision making promptly, a business can thrive and scale up its growth with data-driven and intelligent decisions geared for growth. The streamlined decision making with optimum accuracy and least lag time is a crucial positive outcome of custom ERP implementation.
Role-Based Access & User Interface
Custom ERP solutions can also meet the needs of specific user roles across departments and different processes resulting in higher productivity and efficiency. The custom ERP can also allow key employees to personalize the user interface at their end to get the tasks completed and achieve the results faster. Such role-based accessibility also prevents employees from accessing extra information other than the ones they are entitled to access.
The role-based access to data and functionalities completely does away with the worries concerning overlapping tasks, responsibilities and decisions. The custom ERP software works much like a well-orchestrated processor that integrates different departments of a company and administers the data access and operational tasks in a well-defined manner based on the roles and responsibilities of each department and employee. This besides enhancing productivity and efficiency reduces the chances of errors to a great extent.
Powerful Dashboard & Reporting
The last but not the least of all the major advantages of custom ERP software that we must mention here are the comprehensive reporting capabilities and ease of access to data as well as features through a powerful dashboard interface. A custom ERP can incorporate data from a multitude of departments of a company including sales, marketing, purchase, Human resources, customer support, finance, inventory, warehousing, supply chain and production facility and present them through instantly accessible reports. This unified reporting makes decision making and strategies a smooth process.
On the other hand, a comprehensive dashboard to help all employees navigate to their required features, functionalities and business data in real-time offers a great boost to productivity and efficiency. Though dashboards are parts and parcels of any ERP product, they can be much improved by accommodating business-specific requirements and roles through custom ERP development. When building custom ERP software, specific attention can be given to ensuring ease of access and smooth navigation to features, functionalities and data as per the user role and need of the hour.
Read More: A Detailed NetSuite Dashboard Guide & FAQs For Beginners
Wrapping Up
Custom ERP software development may involve significant expenditure but for achieving long-term growth objectives, this is worth investing in. Through custom ERP software, even a small and medium-sized business can optimize its operational workflow and enhance growth. In more than one way, custom ERP software solutions have created a level playing field for businesses across sizes and market dominance.