It used to be that only large businesses had the opportunity to improve their critical business practices and information flow by using enterprise resource planning software solutions. However, software makers now provide ERP solutions targeting small businesses. With successful ERP implementation, small businesses with definable data management needs can gain a major competitive advantage.

What Does ERP Do?

The goal of ERP is to have a computer system that is fully integrated: All of the applications talk to each other. Traditionally a business might have one computer system for inventory tracking, one for order management, one for accounting, one for payroll, one for marketing, and so on. If the computer systems cannot communicate with each other, the data must be manually transmitted by obtaining the data from one system and rekeying it into another. ERP eliminates this step by centralizing and standardizing the information that each system uses, so instead of having separate databases for each application, there is one central database for all of the applications. ERP also automates business processes that were once manual, for example, the transmission of an order from the front office to the factory floor. Finally, because all information is always available to every system all of the time, highly accurate real-time information can be obtained.