Accountant Using E Invoice Software At Computer In Office

What’s the Difference Between ERP and Accounting Software?

Insights from Your Trusted ERP System Experts

Is your organization currently looking for a comprehensive tool that improves collaboration, reduces inefficiencies, and makes your business more productive and profitable? Are you exploring some of the modern Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems or Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems available on the market? 

A majority of small and medium-sized businesses are currently on the same quest as you, especially due to the drastic changes brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Even after the pandemic is behind us, our lives and economies will look very different, presenting several layers of new challenges in our core business processes and day-to-day work activities. It goes without saying that investing in digital transformation today will certainly go a long way in solidifying your business against future disruptions. However, it is important to understand what type of technology solution can make your business truly future-ready and profitable.

The Need for Digital Transformation

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we work and how we run our businesses. The repeated and extended lockdowns in countries that are at the heart of many global supply chains caused:

  • Massive disruptions in production and deliveries
  • Huge increases in logistics and warehousing costs
  • Continued labor shortages
  • Increasingly complex regulatory environments
  • Ever-evolving customer needs and expectations

However, with a well-planned technology roadmap, and the readiness to invest in robust, modern systems, every business can tackle the current onslaught of supply chain and operational issues. In addition, it will allow for creating a sustainable and successful business in the post-COVID world.

Differentiating Between CRM and ERP

Both, CRM and ERP systems focus on automation, revenue generation, and increased organizational productivity. However, their scope, methods, and features or functionalities to reach these goals are quite different.

  • A CRM system mainly deals with front-office functions, such as sales, marketing, and customer relationships. If one were to understand the specific meaning or definition of CRM, it is a technology platform for managing all your company’s interactions and relationships with customers and prospects. A CRM system can help your business generate and nurture leads, increase sales and revenues, retain more customers, and make all sales and service-related processes more effective.
  • An ERP system centralizes information and streamlines operations across both front-office and back-office functions. This includes finance, inventory management, production, supply chain management, human capital management, and sales and marketing. The integration of multiple processes improves collaboration and decision making, which in turn makes your business more agile, efficient, and profitable.

Nearly all growing companies, from small and mid-sized organizations to large enterprises stand to benefit from investing in ERP and CRM systems that complement each other, or a singular platform that offers

both. While many ERP systems offer the functionalities and capabilities that a CRM system does, the reverse is not applicable. Hence, the decision to invest in CRM versus ERP may largely depend on your organization’s strategic objectives, digital transformation goals, and appetite for investing in technology and change management initiatives.

  • If strengthening lead management and sales tracking are your key goals, and you do not need to streamline other business operations such as inventory, production, finance, risk or supply chain management, you may benefit from investing in a standalone CRM system with robust customer relationship management and sales features.
  • If you are looking for a holistic solution that integrates workflows across functions and enables smart, real-time decision-making, you may want to look at a new-age, optimally tailored, and feature-rich ERP system.

ERP Implementation Can Drive Post-COVID Business Success

The COVID-19 pandemic exposed a number of supply chain vulnerabilities that adversely impacted manufacturing businesses across sectors. Travel restrictions, quarantine rules, and labour shortages led to raw material availability issues even at established hubs or supply networks. However, an advanced, cloud-based ERP system, such as SAGE X3 can help your business in building a resilient digital supply chain through:

  • Greater Predictability: Whether it is weather patterns, geo-political affairs, currency fluctuations, local manufacturing issues, or some other disruptions in your supply chain, you can feed real-time information into Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered ERP systems that enable smart and efficient planning. From resource optimization and manufacturing operations, to inventory, warehouse and logistics management, your leaders and decision-makers will have greater visibility and control over all aspects of your operations.
  • Improved Traceability: The better your traceability capabilities, the higher the chances of building supply chain resistance. For instance, the Food & Beverage (F&B) industry faces increasingly stringent standards of food safety, which has pushed F&B manufacturers to adopt technology for proving the safety and quality of their products. This is where powerful and innovative industry-specific solutions of SAGE X3 come in. With advanced forward and backward traceability, including batch, lot and item tracking, your staff can do a significantly better job of handling recalls, expiration management, sustainability, labeling, or any other traceability concerns specific to your industry.
  • Flexible Access: The pandemic has put remote working and distancing at the forefront of business planning and processes, pushing even the most unlikely businesses to switch to a virtual working environment. A next-generation ERP system, such as SAGE X3 provides the collaborative technology to succeed in such situations. With a single source of the truth, and real-time data access across web and mobile platforms, those operating remotely have all the information they need to make efficient decisions on the go.

Remember, an ERP system implementation is not only about strengthening your supply chain, traceability, or remote working environment in the COVID or post-COVID era, but also about aiming for lean manufacturing, better product quality, reduced speed of delivery of the final goods, and expanded market reach.

How SAGE X3 ERP Can Help You Build a Resilient Digital Supply Chain

A holistic, next-generation ERP system, SAGE X3 enables faster, simpler, and more flexible business management. Here are some of the key features and functionalities of its supply chain management solution:

  • Seamless management of the end-to-end purchasing process, including supplier management, requests for proposals, purchase planning, and more.
  • Real-time monitoring of inventory status to keep up with demand and ensure optimal efficiencies.
  • Quick and easy access to product information, including pricing, discounts, and carriers, for an accelerated sales management cycle.
  • Complete integration between purchase, inventory, finance, manufacturing, and sales, enabling superior customer service and ensuring customer delight.
  • All documentation workflows are integrated into a single, cohesive, searchable library for improved collaboration and efficiencies across departments and functions.
  • Personalized and improved user experience, an intuitive user interface, and a range of deployment options that enable secure web and mobile access.

Essentially, the SAGE X3 ERP system is a unified business management solution that can help your organization:

  • Unlock efficiencies across various processes and sub-processes
  • Optimize resources and reduce production time
  • Proactively manage any instabilities across functions
  • Create a better product than your competition
  • Increase your speed to market
  • Keep your costs and wastage low

Make your Business Future-Ready and Profitable with the Versatile SAGE X3 ERP System

At Panni, we believe SAGE X3 can provide fast, intuitive, and tailored business management solutions for product-centric organizations that are looking to solidify their businesses and stay ahead of the competition. From finance, supply chain management, and production management to project management, business intelligence and analytics, and administration and support, the SAGE X3 ERP offers comprehensive solutions and superior features across each module.

Evaluating a first-time ERP implementation? Looking to upgrade from SAGE 50 or SAGE 300? Need an ERP system that complements and seamlessly integrates with your existing CRM system? No matter what your requirements, our enterprise consulting services can work with you and your leaders to customize and implement the right technology solution for your business.

Learn how the multifaceted SAGE X3 ERP system can help your business lead, innovate, and become more profitable. Contact us to speak to one of our experts at Panni Management today.

Transforming businesses since 2009

For over a decade, Panni has helped companies transform their businesses to lead, innovate and be profitable. With the right combination of technology and experienced developers and consultants, we help companies with Change Management to achieve the organizational objectives. We believe in long-term relationships with our clients and provide top-notch support with fast turnaround times.

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