3 Ways Employees Get More Productive With ERP
You’ve probably heard it said that a key motivator for ERP implementations is making employees more productive. In fact, studies show that at least 10% of companies, who’ve implemented a new ERP system, achieve just that goal. There is no doubt that a productive employee is a tremendous benefit to an organization.
But how does ERP improve employee productivity?
When you give an employee centralized computing, you are taking away the need to keeping backing up individual data. You’re also reducing the need to make information available to different parts of the company, as necessary, often at short notice. You further give them the ability to automate tasks that might be repetitive and time-consuming. All of this results in saved time! It might not be a lot, but it does add up. This freed up time can be directed into other activity that is potentially more useful, boosting productivity.
The first step to boosting productivity is to set productivity goals! Many organizations do not have these on their ERP business case at all. Quite simply, when you don’t know what you’re shooting for, you won’t know if you’ve got it. While it might be hard to quantify and easier to assume, a clearly defined set of performance metrics with assigned ownership for accountability goes a long way. Some possible metrics include the amount of time spent on non-value-added tasks and reduction of errors and downtimes, among others.
Here are some areas in which you will see productivity increase.
1. Improved processes that lead to better customer service
Today’s ERP systems can facilitate quick and agile communication in response to change. For example, they can offer retail customers, especially those online, the ability to make changes to orders, communicating those changes to the warehouse or production line, updating stock, as well as modifying shipping and invoicing. With this, employees are empowered to offer deadlines they can meet, make promises they can keep, and generally deliver a better customer experience.
2. Fact-based decisions
In the absence of an ERP system, decisions are based on experience and gut at best and guesswork at worst. In this scenario, a lot of time is spent on justification and back-and-forth discussions. Real-time reports keep the integrity of data (no duplication and multiple versions to worry about), give you accurate and actionable information and cut bad decisions significantly.
3. Happier employees
Complexities and struggles with everyday tasks are a huge drain on productivity. Smoothly functioning systems can make tasks easier to accomplish, less prone to error and overall boost employee morale. While this is not often quantified as a metric, a happy employee does equal a productive employee!
This is just a little list of ways to realize benefits. Many more industry and process specific ways exist. Making people’s jobs easier, ensuring accuracy and integration means you can do what you do better. That, in the end, is the core goal of most enterprise solutions – to make things better!
