In our ever-changing and fast-paced lives, everyone seeks and enjoys the convenience of a one-stop shop. This is what has made big-box stores like Walmart and Target so successful. Shopping at one location is more cost-effective, efficient and convenient.
When searching for an ERP system it would only stand to reason that we should apply the same principles that we do in our everyday shopping experiences. A comprehensive ERP system (one-stop shop) provides greater value than multiple disparate systems.
In this blog, I will illustrate how SAP Business ByDesign, an all-in-one, cloud-based ERP system, proves to be more cost-effective, efficient and convenient compared to running multiple separate software solutions.
1. Cost-Effective
Have you ever considered the total cost of ownership of all your systems? Many IT administrators and CTOs are confounded in understanding the total aggregate cost of all of their systems. Obvious costs include licensing, hardware costs, consulting services and personnel costs. And obscure costs include upgrades, on-going training, integration, user error and on-going maintenance. The total costs can add up quickly and significantly when you have to apply these same costs across multiple systems used within the organization.
Let’s take into consideration licensing costs! Having multiple systems means you have to pay licensing costs for multiple systems and when a new system is added the number of licenses multiplies. If these systems are used company-wide then licensing costs can skyrocket. I have witnessed companies incurring exorbitant costs in having separate requisition, expense report, timesheet entry, project management, CRM, inventory management, warehouse management, manufacturing, fixed assets and accounting systems. Having to pay licensing costs for all of these disparate systems can be detrimental to the bottom line.
In addition to the licensing costs, many of these systems have traditionally been residing in on premise systems or a local server. Anytime a system has to reside in your local environment there is going to be hardware costs involved. Many of these systems require separate servers. As a new server is added, cost associated with acquiring the server and maintaining its health multiplies. Virtualization has helped to lower hardware costs, however, to a certain extent they are unavoidable and will rise when multiple systems are introduced.
Besides licensing costs and hardware costs, having different systems requires more manpower to perform separate upgrades, provide on-going training for separate systems, and deal with the cost associated with on-going maintenance of multiple systems. If you decide to integrate these disparate systems, there is an exorbitant cost to building and maintaining these integrations.
By now I think you understand my point. Having multiple systems is ineffective, unproductive and inefficient. I believe there is a better option. SAP Business ByDesign is an integrated ERP solution that provides requisition management, travel and expense management, CRM, project management, supply chain management, manufacturing, human resources management, financial and compliance management. All in one box! All of these components are fully integrated out-of-the box and have one licensing structure. The ByDesign system is also a cloud-based system which means that there are no hardware or IT costs associated with maintaining backups, upgrades or on-going maintenance. When taking into consideration the total cost of ownership, SAP Business ByDesign is an affordable ERP option for small to midsize businesses (learn more about).
2. Efficient
Time is money! ERP systems have the capability to save you a lot of time and money if well-chosen and implemented successfully.
Employees’ time is valuable and should not have to be spent on learning and maintaining multiple systems. Employees should be able to spend their time and resources performing their primary functions. Unfortunately, many employees are haunted with the reality of learning multiple systems that all function differently, and then constantly running into errors that are due to poorly integrated solutions. These errors and training hurdles result in lost time and employee frustration which in turn translates into lost profit, lower productivity and lower employee morale. It is difficult to monetize lost time and frustration but every minute counts, and if you ask your employees how much time they spend ‘fighting the system’ they will probably say ‘too much’.
SAP Business ByDesign can lighten the load related to training and integration prone errors. The same user interface is used across all of its modules. If employees learn one area of the application they will be able to swiftly grasp the concepts and apply to another area because of the consistency of the user interface across the whole application. The user needs to log in to only one system without having to manage 10 different usernames and passwords! This also makes it easier for system administrators who manage security from only one central site. All of the modules in SAP Business ByDesign are fully integrated out-of-the box resulting in fewer errors and less time spent maintaining integrations through bug fixes, service packs and upgrades.
3. Convenient
Everyone loves convenience! More and more CTOs are looking for applications that can be accessed anywhere without requiring heavy IT overhead to support them. SAP Business ByDesign is a cloud-based solution giving you quick, secure and easy access your data by simply opening up your web-browser, smartphone or tablet. No more VPNs, RDPs or Citrix frustrations. No more need for the IT department to go running around installing software on everyone’s workstation. SAP Business ByDesign lets you focus on running your business and not an ERP system.
VistaVu and SAP Business ByDesign will help you profitably grow your industrial field service business. Please contact us for more information: Lori.crawford@vistavusolutions.com
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