The COVID-19 pandemic has created massive turmoil for global economies and supply chains.
Making the safety of customers and employees the topmost priority amid sudden change in consumer needs and government policies has prompted manufacturers and distributors to become more responsive in a constantly transforming environment.
As businesses bounce back from this initial shock and find their way into the new normal, what their leaders should do, first and foremost, is to look hard at their existing operations. This applies to both big and small companies alike.
Most likely, these companies will find that if the old situations have not yet convinced them to use cloud-based Enterprise Resource Planning solutions, the pandemic has shown them they need such solutions, and fast. Only this way can they navigate the new normal.
A cloud ERP solution provides all the benefits of an on-site ERP solution, and adds flexibility and agility that are all too important in n environment made challenging by the coronavirus. Cloud operations, more than ever, are vital in a situation where there may be fewer employees reporting to a single location, or when managers need to collaborate and make decisions from various places from all over the country.
Here are five areas where cloud-based ERPs such as NetSuite help companies recover from the economic effects of the pandemic.
Improving the quality of your decision-making.
By providing real-time data to decision makers, cloud-based ERPs enable the company to reflect most current realities as they happen, and when they happen. Feedback to customers and suppliers are also accurate because movements are tracked as they happen.
Fostering teamwork – even from behind computer screens
Because of COVID-19, numerous organizations have realized that their employees do not need to be in the same room or same building in order to get things done, and to work together effectively. A cloud-based solution allows employees to stay connected to the workplace and to the various locations of their colleagues. They could look at the same information and appreciate the same real-time developments from their respective homes, discuss and deliberate in order to achieve a desired end.
Minimizing face-to-face interaction while staying effective
COVID-19 is a virus that spreads among people who are in close proximity to each other. Especially in danger in the workplace are those employees who need to be physically near others in order to perform their jobs – for instance, in warehouses or factories. Cloud-based ERPs provide the technology that assures the performance of their jobs even without the close proximity. For instance, there are handheld devices that can be used to sweep barcodes and other identifying marks to ascertain their location. Employees no longer have to communicate face-to-face with each other.
Bridging the gap between suppliers and customers
E-commerce saw a significant surge during the pandemic-induced lockdowns. People found that they could continue to participate in economic activity even if they do not leave their homes. For companies generating these sales, it became clear that there was hardly a need to put an employee behind a desk at the office building to type orders and see the transaction through from one unit to the other. Cloud ERP allows your business to automate these mechanical and error-prone tasks, linking customers’ demand to what the suppliers can provide, for an even shorter period of time.
Finally, accelerating change.
Re-organization, gathering of requirements, re-entry of company data into a system, training personnel – all these accompany the digital change that a company embarks on. These steps take time. Cloud-based ERP solutions provide clients with dynamic options through tools to perform all these tasks and more swiftly and accurately.
COVID-19 has provided the impetus for companies to accelerate their digital transformation, a large part of which is acquiring cloud ERP solutions. While countless organizations have been devastated by the economic effects of the pandemic, cloud ERP will help companies not just survive and recover, but in the long run, thrive.