Many of the tools that startups and small businesses use to get their operation off the ground are perfect for their needs. They’re lightweight, easy-to-use, and cheap. But what happens as you start to acquire more customers? Many of the solutions suited for startups are not scalable and don’t provide the features a growing business needs to keep pace with demand, provide exceptional customer service, and make smart decisions about the future.
Common growing pains
Here are six signs that your current business management tools aren’t meeting your needs and may be holding you back:
- Manual data entry takes up a considerable amount of your time and results in frequent errors.
- Different teams or departments are working in different tools.
- Your various business management tools don’t integrate.
- You have to move data from one system to another just to make processes work.
- You don’t have visibility into your overall business performance at any given time.
- Your team is reactive in many situations instead of proactive.
How many of these challenges are you experiencing? Even if it’s only one, it’s probably causing larger problems downstream like low productivity, high operating costs, and poor business performance.
When in doubt, the best indicator that it’s time to look into a new business management solution is your team. How are they managing their workload? If they’re constantly on their heels, unable to plan or improve existing processes because they’re too busy putting out fires, your current tools could be causing the bottleneck.
What’s the next step?
When you’re dealing with separate systems that don’t speak to one another and reactive teams who don’t have what they need to be successful, it’s hard to deny the benefits of a complete business management solution like Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP).
ERP software consolidates all your critical business information and makes it easy for your team to work from one solution. Here’s how it solves some of the growing pains mentioned above:
- Data automatically flows through all areas of the system, eliminating duplicate data and the errors that go with it.
- An ERP has modules for all areas of the business, from accounting and contracts to service, purchasing, inventory, and more.
- All of your data is available at your fingertips, providing you with data analytics, reporting, and a complete picture of your business.
- You can set up advanced automation to streamline processes, so your team is proactively responding to customer needs.
- An integrated ERP solution centralizes and simplifies your complex business processes. It reduces errors and eliminates redundant tasks so you and your team can focus on running and growing the business, not putting out fires.
Connect with one of our solution specialists today to find out how and ERP can benefit you and your team.
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About the Author
Jenna Guy is the Field Marketing Manager for the Field Service division of ECI, responsible for planning, organizing and activating marketing programs for lead generation. A digital marketer with experience in content creation and inbound marketing, Jenna began her career in marketing after completing her Master’s degree in English Literature. In this time she’s developed and managed the content strategy for a global software company, designed editorial best practices and delved into SEO dos and don’ts. She’s an art lover, cinephile and avid concert-goer who enjoys reading and writing.
