wk 7 article post Mgmt of Information Systems

Five Tangible Business Benefits to Expect from ERP

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Vanessa McDaniel posted Dec 6, 2017 1:22 PM

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This week I read Five Tangible Business Benefits to Expect from Your ERP by Eric Kimberling. He began the article stating that most organizations have trouble realizing the potential benefits from their ERP system and then explained each one in detail. The first benefit was how an ERP system can increase revenues. Any business owner, or manager, would be interested in that benefit, which is why I imagined he listed it first.  Organizations use ERP systems to decrease their expenditures, but fail to see the opportunity to increase the amount of revenue they receive. The second is decreasing inventory cycle times. The less inventory an organization has to hold on to, the better, and when ERP systems are used to its full potential it can allow the business to better predict customer demand and better manage inventory. The third benefit, more efficient business processes, means that a business will be able to tweak the way they run the business to flow better. Some organizations stick to the way they have done things since the organization first began and don't realize that there are better or easier ways to get things done. An ERP system can assist the merge of the old ways with new ideas. Kimberling warns that organizations shouldn't be completely reliant on the system to do a make over of their processes. Integrated business process is the fourth benefit and it seems like it piggy backs off of the previous benefit mentioned. If a business successfully creates a more efficient business process, they will have the benefit of an integrated business process. Kimberling believes that the fifth benefit, higher employee morale, would naturally fall into place after achieving the other four benefits. Employees would be more productive and efficient and the new system would be easier to learn.

I believe that organizations can benefit overall when they make the effort to keep up with new technology. The phrase "work smarter, not harder" came to mind while reading the article. I know there are people who refuse to change what they are already comfortable with doing and that could be why many organizations fail to use their ERP systems to their full potential. When I worked at Target, I learned that they have a system in place when the lines to checkout are reaching their clothing department. They would call other employees over the radio to stop doing their work and come help the cashiers check customers out. Customers love this system and it works to get people out of the store quicker, but other workloads are put on pause multiple times a day. They have finally added a self-checkout line to help alleviate this problem. I no longer work at Target, so I'm not sure how much that helps the store. It's probably not hurting their revenue.

Reference

Kimberling, E. (2015, September 23). Five Tangible Business Benefits to Expect From Your ERP System. Retrieved from http://panorama-consulting.com/five-tangible-business-benefits-to-expect-from-your-erp-system/