The Value Add of Mobile ERP Applications

What is a mobile ERP app?

Today, Enterprise Resource Planning is a dynamic, multi-faceted, and expansive process. Keeping up with operations, financial transactions, supply and demand is crucial to accurate production planning and sales success. Providing real-time, on-demand overview of all enterprise data is a key value-add of modern systems – and, as businesses and people have become more mobile, so have the systems. Mobile ERP solutions, or apps, are designed to work on mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets. They offer valuable real-time insights on-the-go, enabling more accurate business planning that is crucial in gaining a competitive edge.

 

Examples of mobile ERP apps

With the shift from on-premise to cloud-based systems, ERP software came a step closer to going mobile. Then, as web portals and platforms became apps, ERP went fully mobile, too, meeting customer demand for functionality beyond the desktop computer. Today, all big ERP solution providers offer mobile versions of their SaaS solutions, including Oracle, SAP, Microsoft Dynamics ERP, NetSuite and Sage. Most of them now offer both iOS and Android versions of their mobile apps, catering to the widest range of users. Even though some mobile ERP apps might not offer the full functionality of their SaaS equivalents yet, they make up for that in convenience, speed and efficiency gains.

 

Who uses mobile ERP apps?

The user audiences of ERP apps are wide-ranging – from bookkeepers, accountants and salespeople to financial planners, controllers, and C-level executives who need the latest enterprise data at their fingertips. Today’s business reality means that, often, staff and executives are on the move – whether they’re in business meetings, on business trips, visiting customers, visiting manufacturing facilities, or simply multi-tasking in-between.

 

Adopting mobile ERP in your organization

ERP software plays a crucial role in the daily planning and operations of mid-sized and large businesses; timely access to accurate, real-time data is key. Therefore, mobile iterations of ERP systems provide added business value; they extend nearly all functionality of the powerful software beyond the plant or the office, allowing companies to be proactive and offering them agile demand and supply forecasting.

 

Benefits of using mobile ERP apps

 

• Convenience and efficiency: there’s no doubt that having access to accounting, financial, stock and customer data anywhere and at any time is efficient and time-saving. Rather than asking an accounting clerk to generate and send them the latest financial snapshots, CFOs, COOs and CEOs can easily look up this information themselves. This saves the organization time spent in servicing redundant communications and requests.
• Auto-sync and real time access to important data: thanks to 4G mobile data speed and abundant wifi networks, the data displayed in mobile ERP apps is synced with the cloud-based system in real-time and is always up-to-date. This is especially important for staff and executives who often work outside the office and need the latest data ad hoc.
• Exclusive mobile features: most ERP apps offer additional features typically not accessible to desktop users as they make use of mobile devices’ native interfaces, including haptic feedback, geolocation, fingerprint reading, facial/voice recognition, camera, and more.
• Additional functionality: companion apps that integrate with your mobile ERP solution can come in handy when additional functionality, which isn’t included in the ERP app out-of-the-box, is needed. This is particularly useful when it comes to working with analytics and reporting, supply chain, logistics and marketing automation data.

 

 

 

Mobile apps that integrate with your ERP solution

In their early days, ERP solutions were somewhat static and less useful than they could be. With their transition to connected, cloud-based systems, the possibilities for usage and exploitation increased tenfold, and so did the opportunities for integrating add-on solutions, or apps. Today, integrating additional IoT solutions and apps into an ERP system or app is relatively simple, though the results can be tangible. Having access to real-time data from smart manufacturing machinery, or movable assets, directly in your ERP system, can help provide accurate production, supply chain and logistics forecasts.

As reliance on AI for business automation and analytics increases, ERP systems are starting to make use of it in data processing, analysis and planning, too. In mobile ERP apps specifically, AI can help cut down processing time – a crucial factor in the efficient operation of mobile smart devices with smaller processing power.

If you’re interested in supercharging your ERP system’s performance and getting the most out of your technology investment, adding functionality to your ERP solution through apps, IoT, or AI can be a game changer.

We’d be happy to show you how; contact us for more information today.

Copywriter inadanova.com