Conquering the Complexity with Cloud ERP Solutions

Anyone who watched the Paris Summer Olympics saw some of the world’s best athletes. The winners who scored gold didn’t just beat their competitors, they also often set new world records in their sport. Advances in technology and training have upped the game for most athletes—and the same can be said for businesses today as well.

With advances in technology and increased competition from a global sales environment, business now is more efficient than at any point in history. Supply chains feed inputs and finished products to warehouses and stores as needed. Real-time data alters product development and manufacturing on the fly. Freelance and part-time workers are added or removed as demand changes. Software functionality changes and is scaled dynamically through cloud services.

But all of this efficiency breeds complexity, and today forward-looking businesses are conquering the complexity with ERP.

Conquering the Complexity with ERP

Cloud ERP such as SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition helps growth-focused businesses handle the complexity that comes from today’s competitive marketplace.

Through cloud ERP, a business works from a unified backend solution that serves as a single source of truth for all of a company’s data. This cloud ERP solution collects and analyzes all of a company’s data in real-time, and efficiently coordinates the various moving parts of a business through end-to-end integration, company-wide automation, and standardized business workflows.

Running a business today is not simple, but conquering the complexity with ERP can make it much easier.

Financial complexity. Businesses must handle payments and invoicing from a range of sales channels and suppliers, often in different regions or countries with different tax rules and currencies. They must also managing government and investor reporting, and increasingly complex business structures. Cloud ERP can automate most of these complex financial processes, and give businesses the tools for quickly making sense of the current financial picture.

Supply chain complexity. Inputs and distribution networks are now spread across a wide geography with multiple primary and secondary suppliers that require precise coordination even in the face of changing geopolitical and environmental shifts. Conquering the complexity with ERP, businesses can connect directly with supply chain partners and both enhance visibility and coordination with automation and real-time availability.

Sales channel complexity. Businesses today mix brick and mortar sales with a multitude of online marketplaces and direct to consumer sales channels. Managing this complex weave of sales channels requires a cloud ERP for connecting with these various channels, updating orders and inventory in real-time, and keeping track of everything even when different channels have their own ordering and reporting formats.

Manufacturing complexity. Just-in-time manufacturing and the rise of custom manufacturing have made the shop floor more complex. Conquering the complexity with ERP, businesses can automate sequencing and production, track inventory precisely, manage staffing and idle time more accurately, and ensure quality control and serialization with defined workflows enforced by the ERP system.

Regulatory complexity. The rules the ensure consumer safety, proper financial management and environmental protection are getting more complicated, even more so in a global sales environment. By centralizing all processes and data within a company and enforcing workflows that meet regulatory requirements, cloud ERP can both lessen the regulatory burdens and ease governmental reporting.

Data complexity. The data that businesses use for adjusting operations, refining product offerings and driving efficiency comes from a variety of sources and in a number of different formats. With cloud-based ERP, businesses can bring all this data together and automatically format it so the data is both collected and actionable.

GROW with SAP Helps Businesses Conquer the Complexity of ERP

Conquering the complexity with ERP only works if a business is running operations with a modern cloud ERP solution. But putting a full-featured ERP solution in place has historically been a large, expensive project that is complex in itself.

This is where the GROW with SAP program comes in.

GROW with SAP is a complete solution that helps a business of any size adopt a cloud-based ERP with speed and predictability. It bundles SAP’s ready-to-run cloud ERP solution, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, together with adoption and acceleration services, as well as access to customers, partners, and SAP experts that help businesses thrive in the cloud.

Through GROW with SAP, a business can roll out a complete ERP backend system in as little as 90 days that is ready for operations today and as the organization expands. This is possible through prepackaged industry solutions that come pre-configured with the functionality and best business practices for a given industry, and with the help of the SAP Business Technology Platform that comes with 750+ pre-built integrations and 700+ pre-built, open APIs for faster deployment.

With S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition and GROW with SAP, a business can roll out a complete cloud ERP solution without the pain and cost typically associated with ERP.

Learn more about GROW with SAP, or get your specific questions answered by calling one of our experienced ERP consultants at (801) 642-0123 or by writing us at [email protected].