As mentioned in our last two blog posts, the internet is filled with articles and websites dedicated to extolling at length on the “benefits of ERP”. However, many of them choose to focus purely on the vague surface-level benefits of “costs” and “productivity”. What we would like to do is show you some tangible, immediately recognizable advantages that you legitimately desire and need.

So without further ado, here is our third REAL benefit of ERP.

CUSTOMER SERVICE

Now this feature-benefit gets promoted quite a lot within ERP advertising, so it may seem like an obvious choice. However, I believe it needs to be stressed just how useful this the Customer Relationship Management aspects of an ERP can be a huge benefit to your business.

An integrated CRM tool within your ERP can improve both your communication with customers and your sales/ordering functions. Every step of the sales process is touched; entering a new prospect or lead into the system, creating an opportunity that automatically brings forward that prospect’s data, connecting with your product inventory to give an accurate estimate, and finally converting that prospect into a lifelong customer with historical data from the moment you connected with them. All of these aspects make your sales process more efficient and easier to handle.

On top of that, the different steps along the way can send out notifications to all parties involved, including internal and external participants. Vendors can know when you’ve pitched a certain product to the prospect, signaling to them that you will need collateral, or Sales team members can know when you’re about to send a contract so they can get ready to help close the deal. By connecting with a product configuration and quoting tool (such as CPQ), you can even manage the intricate details of a specific order on-the-go for the customer, allowing you to come up with an accurate quote for them without waiting too long for a response.

Customers stick with companies that treat them well and know what they want. The customer service features of an ERP not only facilitate the actual sales process, but they allow you to see valuable insight on each specific customer so you can serve them to the highest standards. It’s an ERP benefit that everyone wants, but some don’t fully “get” just how important it can be.

There are many, many more REAL benefits of ERP that we often explain to our clients. A new or upgraded ERP solution for your organization brings with it a host of new features and redesigned tools that change (and improve) the way you do business. We will present more of these relatable and more specific ERP benefits in later blog posts, but feel free to contact an ECI representative if you would like a full rundown of what to expect from an ERP implementation.