Applying internet principles to business tasks is a major advantage of ERP systems

11/17/2011 at 12:40 pm by The Sage ERP Team

Most of the technological solutions to common commercial problems of the past could only be solved with massive spending increases and intense investment and training in technology. Besides the fact that computers and software were very expensive and costly to maintain as recently as 15 years ago, most people didn’t know how to use them and therefore needed to be educated or replaced with more expensive substitutes.

However, the internet explosion is beginning to bear fruit in the form of low prices for many devices and more importantly, a generation of employees for whom sitting at a computer and manipulating data comes naturally. Enterprise resource planning can be used very easily by internet-savvy workers. Here are some ways that ERP applications work that is easy to understand for staff members and executives alike.

Searching
The most basic thing that people learn today about the internet is that you can search for everything. In the context of the online world, that literally means everything. However, with enterprise resource planning, it only means everything in a limited sense. That is, whatever has been compiled and logged by an organization can be searched for quickly and easily. This ranges from particular products, types of materials or even locations that may or may not have received shipments in the past.

Sorting
Anyone who’s ever manipulated a table or list of files knows the joy of sorting things. Fortunately, ERP programs excel at allowing companies to sort, making analysis and record-keeping quite easy. A very basic way of sorting might involve listing certain types of transactions chronologically to spot a discrepancy, while a complicated method could involve very specific search terms, tags and other information that narrows a query down to very specific criteria when data is needed in a pinch.

Chatting
An employee might need to search for a certain piece of information but becomes stymied by his lack of knowledge in that certain area of expertise. Fortunately, like on many commercial websites or social media sites, he can quickly bring up the name of a knowledgeable coworker who can help make his work easier. Enterprise resource planning not only facilitates this kind of collaboration but makes certain that if there is a blind spot in one staff member’s understanding of an issue, another will be able to compensate with his own knowledge.

Alerts
The human mind can only remember so many things. That is why computers are so helpful to we humans – they won’t ever forget so long as we program them effectively. ERP systems can be engineered to remind employees when certain criteria are met, from things as simple as a package arriving to situations as complicated as a number of pre-programmed variables coming to pass unexpectedly.