5 Key Benefits of an Adaptive ERP in the Cloud

Manufacturing today is more complex than ever before because of the need to adapt quickly to changes in supply, demand, business conditions, and customer changes and product customizations. Add in local business practices, language needs, and customs documentation, and managing a global supply chain can be one of the most intricate challenges any company will ever have to deal with. That’s why companies who truly understand their business know they need an adaptive, cloud-based ERP solution.

Here are five key benefits of implementing an adaptive ERP solution in the cloud.

1. Differentiating Business Processes

Most people realize that having an ERP is a requirement for manufacturing companies of any size to enable consistent information and business processes, but the more old-school ERP solutions do their customers a disservice by enforcing specific processes that may—or may not—fit the business. Some business processes must be unique to a specific company to support differentiation.

For example, if a company differentiates itself based on quick order turnaround, that means the company must have processes that are more efficient than its competitors, or else there is no differentiation. But if every company using the same ERP system uses the same process, streamlining the process isn’t possible and competitive advantages are lost.

With an adaptive ERP solution, the company is able to adjust the process to eliminate or automate steps, and to personalize each screen to the individual user’s needs—without having to engage in expensive and time-consuming customization.

2. Timing and Availability

A global supply chain operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Suppliers, sub-contractors, customers—all stakeholders—need access at any time of the day or night to check on new requirements, new delivery changes, or to update existing data. 

Your ERP system can’t be down for backup or other maintenance when your stakeholders need access, and the time that’s convenient for you locally may be exactly the worst time for them. That’s why your adaptive ERP solution must be in the cloud, where it operates all day, every day.

And don’t be fooled by an SLA that states “only” 99.5% uptime. In a typical 30-day month, that equates to a little over two minutes of downtime. This substantially outperforms the service levels most on-premise IT teams can manage to provide.

3. Languages

Another important fact to remember about global supply chains is that many users will not speak the same language that you do. An ERP solution that allows each user to see screens, data and help text in their chosen language can enable each user to set their language, and screens are automatically displayed in that language when they log in.

Many traditional ERP solutions are available in multiple languages, but the language applies to all users across an instance, which is unworkable in a global supply chain.

4. Taxation and Localization

Accepted business practices vary by country and even by region within a country, but most traditional ERP solutions don’t have built-in support for localizations or even a way to create a localization without modifying existing code. 

An adaptive ERP system enables manufacturers to use whatever business processes their local stakeholders are required to use, again, without having to customize the standard code.

Countries and regions also have different tax regulations and reporting requirements. These need to be built into an adaptive ERP solution, but many traditional ERP solutions can’t handle varied tax rules, forcing users into tedious and error-prone spreadsheet analyses or the added cost of third party solutions.

5. Reporting

Above almost everything else, users must be able to make decisions and take actions quickly, which means the ERP system must provide actionable insight in real time, and in a format that works for the user. But what works for one user assigned to a product line, commodity, or region, may not work at all for a user with different responsibilities, so reporting must be flexible and personalized for each user.

With traditional ERP, reporting and screen inquiries typically have a few limited options. If those don’t work for a user, it’s a problem because it may require adding in a third party reporting tool and/or waiting until the request hits the top of IT’s priority list.

An adaptive ERP solution, on the other hand, must have a built-in reporting tool that enables each user to see the data they need in the format that works for them. The system should include an abundance of predefined KPIs and output formats, each of which can be personalized by the user.

Adaptive ERP in the Cloud

If your manufacturing company is undergoing digital transformation or struggling to manage a global supply chain, you may need adaptive ERP in the cloud. You’ll find complete customer, supplier and global supply chain management built-in, along with extensive personalization and extensibility capabilities. In fact, an adaptive ERP solution is as much a platform as it is a system, and as such, provides flexibility unheard of with traditional ERP solutions.