3 Ways ERP Software Breaks Down Data Silos & Propels Growth

In the early days, when your team was small, it was easy to keep everyone in the loop on what was happening throughout the organization. Then you started to grow, hiring new employees in various departments, maybe creating new departments altogether. Before you know it, your team of five is now a team of 50. And keeping the entire organization on track, working toward the same goals and communicating effectively, is tricky. Each department quickly becomes a sort of mini-organization, working toward their own goals and setting their own priorities. Suddenly you discover that different teams have been working on similar or related tasks independently, doubling up on work and wasting time. And, worst case scenario, it filters over to your customers and they start to perceive you as being unorganized and scattered.

It’s a common scenario, especially if growth happens quickly. So, the big question is – how do you remove these silos and get your teams working in sync again?

Start by taking a look a your business systems. When you have separate systems for each area of the business, it's difficult – if not impossible – to share information. Here are three examples that illustrate how an ERP solution can bring your organization together.

1. Gain company-wide visibility

Many of the companies we work with struggle to get visibility within their business because their data is disjointed. With your sales data in a CRM system, financial information in an accounting program and your inventory data in yet another system...understanding your performance and identifying opportunities to improve is challenging. Garage Living, overcame this exact challenge with SAP Business One. With all core data in a single system, they gained a new level of visibility that allowed them to make more informed business decisions.

"SAP Business One has brought an overall increased level of visibility to our business performance. That's really critical in understanding exactly how the business is doing financially, as well as what the opportunities are."
– Aaron Cash, President at Garage Living

2. Improve your customer experience with easy access to information

The customer experience is becoming increasingly important – customers want an easy, seamless buying experience. The systems you run have a significant impact on your ability to deliver that experience. Using an ERP system to streamline your back-end processes has a waterfall effect to the buying and support process for your customers.

"The faster we can make that transaction, the better it is for the customer, the better it is for us. SAP Business One has allowed us to make those changes to make it more efficient and streamlined."
– Brad Kennedy, Branch Manager at Construction Fasteners & Tools

3. Enable your teams to work faster and smarter

Small and mid-size companies have the distinct advantage of being nimble – they can typically adapt quickly when required. But there's a limit to that advantage if your systems aren't setup to support that level of agility. An ERP solution helps you simplify your processes and gives your people easy access to information. The result is greater efficiency and a better use of your resources.

"Bringing SAP Business One on board, what we've noticed really quickly is that integrating our different groups together and sharing information is making us a lot faster and smarter."
– Liam Ellis, Executive Vice President at Lumenix

Virtually every growing business has dealt with data silos – the key is getting on top of the problem early. ERP software could be the answer you're looking for.

As a leading ERP partner, we've helped many other SMEs across Canada and the US streamline operations and fuel growth. We're here to guide you through the process – right from evaluation, through implementation and beyond.