Today’s businesses face pressure to remain competitive in an ever-changing landscape. Data is a crucial asset for companies shifting to a digital environment. With information flowing back and forth from different channels, companies need technology capable of integrating data into a centralized platform. That’s led to an explosion in the use of enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. One big question enterprises work to answer is whether to go with a cloud ERP vs. an on-premises setup.

In manufacturing, managing a global supply chain requires a proactive and agile approach. Market factors force supply chain changes that manufacturers must quickly overcome or run the risk that the entire delicate infrastructure will fail.

The cloud migration is well underway. Gartner says the worldwide public cloud revenue will take another 21% jump this year. According to MarketWatch, the category of platform experiencing the biggest growth in the cloud in the coming years is enterprise resource planning or ERP software. They predict, “that the global ERP Software market will register remarkable success in the coming years.” With revenues expected to exceed $47 billion by 2022, the growth of cloud-based ERP is a virtually guaranteed. In fact, Panorama Consulting’s latest ERP report shows cloud ERP adoption rates have surpassed on-premise deployments for the first time in history.

This may be a bit of an understatement, but implementing enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is not easy. When the software connects with almost every aspect of your business, there is a lot of potential for disaster. Unsurprisingly, ERP implementation failures are common.

Understanding whether your small business needs an ERP is the first step. If you’ve done due diligence on enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms, you already understand the efficiency and cost savings they can bring to any business. Small business owners are increasingly adopting these sophisticated platforms because they’ve become less cost prohibitive under the newer cloud-driven software as a service (SaaS) subscription models.

One of the questions we’re asked by small to mid-sized business clients is why they should consider investing in enterprise resource planning software. The chief question seems to stem from the idea that ERP software is overkill for such the small company. But here’s the rub; small businesses often teeter on the edge of insolvency; Small Business Trends says more than 50% of all small companies fail in their first four years. We believe any software that helps these ventures achieve competitive advantage during this treacherous time is a necessity.

The 2017 Report on ERP Systems and Enterprise Software surveyed organizations on their ERP experience to determine best practices that could be utilized by others in their implementation journey. Here are some statistics that will give you a sense of how often the transition to ERP can go poorly:

“ERP systems are essential to enterprise operations. Yet this core organizational workhorse may not get as much attention as your other systems. That’s a mistake, as significant opportunities to improve cash flow and reduce risk await those who attend to the health of their enterprise resource planning systems.”

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Companies that haven’t invested in business profitability and productivity tools like an ERP platform or a CRM will likely have no idea of the differences between these two powerhouse types of software. To start understanding ERP vs. CRM, we must first define the acronyms: 

The types of ERP systems on the market today can be confusing. This post will help you pick the right one for your business.