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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software exists to help businesses manage, collect, store, and communicate data across all functions of your organization. ERP solutions work for many different types of businesses and manufacturers, but for this piece, we’d like to talk specifically about distributors.

How can distributors benefit from ERP software? Let’s take a deeper look.

What Is Distribution ERP Software?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems allow businesses to share real-time data across all departments and manage their back-end processes. This can help streamline your operations and automate common, time-consuming tasks. An ERP solution does that by putting all areas of a business, such as product planning, development, HR, accounting, supply chains, inventory, manufacturing processes, sales, marketing, and more, into one complete enterprise system.

ERP systems are intimately tied to the manufacturing and distribution industries. With an ERP distribution system, all of your organization’s data will be kept in one safe, organized, accessible space. One program keeps track of all the moving parts and gives you a clear picture of your day-to-day operations.

When we’re specifically talking about distribution, this is helpful for order quantities and volume. Depending on the size of your enterprise, you may deal with small or large orders and therefore have a different volume to manage.

Your distribution ERP software can help you through every step, from placing the bulk order with the manufacturer to selling the smaller quantities to stores or end-users. Your ERP will help with logistics and marketing that are difficult and time-consuming to handle in-house. These are vastly different areas of your supply chain, but the right ERP will be flexible enough to manage these needs.

You’ll also be able to take advantage of tools that provide insights into your customer buying habits in addition to ways to optimize your end-to-end solutions. Distribution ERP software can help with inventory management, fleet management, marketing, shipping, and more.

Why You Need Distribution ERP Software

Your distribution ERP software will streamline your processes into a single database and be there to catch issues before they spiral out of control. No matter where an error occurs, whether it’s product issues, shipping, supply chain, or fleet management, your ERP system will alert you to a problem and help you take immediate action. This response time could save your company thousands of dollars.

Your ERP software can also help you manage pricing and forecast changes in your marketplace, helping your business to stay competitive in the rapidly-changing distribution marketplace.

Here’s a quick rundown of the many benefits of having distribution ERP software in place:

• Keep everything in one place — accounting, sales, operations — everything! Stop wasting time tracking down all of your different departments and moving parts. Let your ERP keep you organized and make faster, better decisions.
• No more data errors/redundancy — When your data is all over the place, repetition and mistakes are common. But when you integrate an ERP into your distribution business and gain complete visibility into your operations, you can greatly decrease the opportunity for human error.
• Increase revenue and scale faster — You can use real-time sales and revenue data to make better use of your resources and manage cost variances, leading to increased revenue. When revenue grows, you’ll be able to scale fast without feeling overwhelmed, focusing on managing the increased volume while your ERP handles the data.
• Improve your customer experience — An ERP allows your team to use accessible, real-time data to better serve your customers. Keep your customers up-to-date without ever putting them on hold.
• Make smarter decisions — By now you see that an ERP solution helps you make difficult decisions, fast. Not only faster, but armed with real-time data, you’ll also consistently make the best possible decision. That’s a powerful distribution tool.

See How aACE Is The Distribution ERP Software You Need

Want to learn more about how an ERP can benefit your business? Check out our success stories to learn how real customers have been able to take their businesses to the next level with aACE.

If you operate a retail or wholesale business, you could assuredly benefit from inventory management and accounting software.

When you’re able to take full control of your inventory and finances, you’ll be well on the right path to optimizing your business performance and profits.

Just what are inventory management and accounting software and how can they help your business? Let’s take a look.

What is Inventory Management & Accounting Software?

Inventory management and accounting software are vital components of a high-performing retail or wholesale business. Those that have them installed already know, but those that don’t yet will wonder what they’ve been waiting for.

Your inventory management software will track how much product you have on your warehouse shelf, in your store, or sitting with other retailers and distributors. When you know your stock amounts, you ensure you have the right number of units in the right place, at the right time, for the right price.

Effectively tracking and controlling your physical inventory helps you know when you’re running low on certain items and replenish your stock in order to keep sales moving. Busy business owners need to be able to do this at a quick glance, or better yet, with automated software that does it for you. That’s what inventory management software does.

Meanwhile, full-featured accounting software integrated with your CRM and ERP handles many business owners’ least favorite task — working the books. Accounting software allows you to track a sale from the lead to the balance sheet without duplicate data entry.

Accounting software defines the current standing of your business while inventory management maintains your inventory health. You can see why each is a must for a business of any size. They will give you a competitive edge, minimize risk, save your money and make your business more efficient, smart, and profitable.

Here are seven ways how:

1. Maintain The Proper Stock

When you optimize your inventory, you can maintain customer satisfaction and avoid wastage. When you have too much stock, excess inventory will become costly as it becomes outdated or obsolete. Excess inventory costs your business money just by sitting there. Likewise, a shortage leads to missed sales opportunities and disappointed customers. This can be harmful to both your bottom line and business reputation.

Inventory management and accounting software will maintain accurate inventory by providing accurate, up-to-date counts at all times. You can use data to make sales forecasts to help predict when you require more or less stock to avoid running into any shortages or overages.

2. Eliminate Missed Sales

You never want your business to lose a sale because you don’t have the item in stock. An accurate inventory report helps you never run out of products and miss out on sales. Clearly, it’s a much more efficient system than relying on your memory or a warehouse visit to determine what you need.

Your inventory management software will allow you to set minimum inventory levels for each item, automatically generating purchase orders for more when you hit the determined threshold. You’ll always be on top of what you need before you need it!

3. Use Your Money Wisely

Having the right amount of inventory is essential for retail success. Remember, your inventory is an investment, and buying the right quantity of each product ensures you keep sales going and avoid outages. It also ensures that items don’t just sit on the shelves and increase carrying costs.

Accurate inventory reports help you quickly identify slow-moving products, mark them down, and clear them out to free up cash and make room to invest in new products, marketing efforts, or whatever else your business may require.

4. Catch Problems Early

When you have inventory management software, you’ll always have an eagle eye on your inventory levels. This enables you to catch problems immediately rather than months later during your annual inventory counts. By then, the discrepancy may have already cost your business a lot of money!

Sometimes, steps in the warehouse process can be missed or errors have been made on sales orders. You need to catch these errors as quickly as possible so they don’t become bigger problems. Bullet-proof inventory management is the way.

5. Make Your Customers Happy

When you have exact inventory reports, you can provide better customer service. How?

Let’s say a customer claims they haven’t received a product they ordered. Rather than just checking in with your supply chain management, you can check your inventory report and see whether or not you have one sitting in the warehouse. You’ll also be able to catch incorrect shipments sooner.

When you’re up to date with your purchase orders, you can sell customers on the products they need because you’ll know inventory is on the way. That kind of upfront communication gives your customers confidence that they can trust you, an incredibly valuable asset for any business.

6. Reduce Your Costs

Labor and warehouse expenses can add up quickly. Relying on staff to manually keep track of your inventory is a costly and time-consuming endeavor. When your inventory management software handles it, it saves you loads of time and money.

And when your staff isn’t wasting time counting your inventory, they can be grabbing product and shipping it out your door, bringing more sales revenue into your business. Accurate inventory levels and accounting software help you optimize your warehouse and reduce labor costs.

7. Provide More Accurate Reports

All businesses must check their inventory stock with accounting data to avoid discrepancies. Your stakeholders and investors rely on you to provide accurate reports and accurate financial statements for tax purposes. When discrepancies become the norm, it tells your stakeholders that you aren’t running a tight ship.

You also need to be able to manage your balance sheet and have a good handle on your cost of sales. These will be vital to management decisions. Accounting software removes complications and helps you provide the accurate reports you need.

Summary

When you’re able to automate each of the above processes, your business will operate much more efficiently. Your staff will be freed up to work on other more important tasks, and your business will always have accurate inventory and accounting numbers.

This is why integrated inventory management and accounting software is so important for the performance and health of your business. They’ll help you assess your needs, optimize your sales, make smart decisions, and make plans for future growth.

Ready to get started? Then see how aACE can streamline your business today!

If you aren’t careful, inventory control can easily slip into disarray. Every organization should have the right system in place to optimize its merchandising process. This can help you keep track of your products, better organize your inventory, provide accurate data and reports, and improve your warehouse efficiency. Best of all, inventory control does all that while increasing your revenue!

But inventory control only works if you put it to proper use. Let’s dig in on some best practices to help you optimize your warehouse.

What Does Inventory Control Do?

Inventory control tells you what’s currently in stock. It operates as part of your inventory management system. Inventory management handles things like purchasing, production, sales, and reporting while inventory control maintains and manages your stock.

Inventory control will tell you the condition and location of your products and determine when they arrive and leave the warehouse. Your inventory control system will detail not only how much of an item is available, but also when supplies are coming in or going out. This monitors and controls every item that comes in and out of your warehouse.

Inventory control, therefore:

• Improves loss prevention
• Optimizes inventory spaces
• Creates less over- or under-stocking

Now that you know the purpose inventory control serves, let’s take a look at some best practices.

1. Organize Your Floor Plan

You need to organize your warehouse in a way that makes sense. Place your most popular items near the shipping area to maximize efficiency and productivity. As supply and demand change over time, make sure to modify your floor plan accordingly.

2. Improve Your Efficiency With Clear Labels & Signage

When you have labels that clearly state where things are, your warehouse team will be able to find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. This creates more efficient fulfillment. Clearly (and concisely) label all of your racks, bins, and products. You can even use tools like labeling software, RFID systems, barcodes, inventory tags, scanners, and more that assist with real-time inventory control.

3. Utilize Cycle Counting

Counting everything all at once is an overwhelming task. Instead, use cycle counting where you count items in small sections according to a set cycle. This helps you effectively maintain inventory control and find mistakes quickly.

4. Implement A Warehouse Management System

A big cause of issues in the warehouse is human error. With warehouse management and an inventory control system, your team can easily track all of your items, reducing the potential for mistakes. These systems will include barcode scanners, tags, apps, and other tools that provide real-time tracking of your inventory. Your inventory will always be easily accessible within the systems you put in place.

5. Automate Your Inventory Control

When you automate your inventory control, you will greatly reduce the potential for human error and gain greater oversight into your stock. You’ll have more complete data, which leads to more productivity and revenue potential.

aACE can help you take full control of your inventory by giving you the means to track your products from the moment they enter the warehouse until they go out for shipment. You’ll get tools like barcode scanning, label making, reporting, data management, and other features to help you operate a more efficient warehouse.

Not only that — but automated inventory control will free up your staff for other projects, like landing new business. When things run more efficiently in the warehouse, more product can move out the door, and you’ll never run out of inventory.

Implement Inventory Management Software To Reduce Costs and Control Your Business

aACE business management software helps you manage your entire warehouse process from beginning to end. You’ll be able to plan more productively and accurately, which helps eliminate costly mistakes and reduces the need for excess inventory. Of course, inventory control is seamlessly integrated into the platform.

If you’re not yet convinced you need inventory control, consider the following:

• Without an organized warehouse and clear labeling, staff will spend more time searching for items, leading to more man-hours and expenses.
• When you aren’t consistently up-to-date on your stocks and what products or supplies you need to order, you’ll run into shortages or overstock issues.
• When your data isn’t reliable, you can’t accurately forecast your inventory.
• If there is a break in your supply chain, you won’t have a backup plan in place and your items may not go out on time.

All of these issues cause your operating costs to go up. Plus, your customers will notice the mistakes and will take their business elsewhere. But with efficient inventory control in place, you’ll have a backup plan for when problems arise, and will always be on top of your inventory.

Check out our feature highlights to see how aACE can streamline your business today!

Today’s business world has shifted from an in-person experience to the convenience of shopping online. You can find everything on the web — any product and service you need is there on the Internet.

This means your business needs to be prepared. Are you providing a user-friendly web experience that boosts your business profile, or do you have a bare-bones website that only serves to make you look illegitimate?

You can’t afford not to give your online presence proper attention any longer. Thankfully, it’s not such a daunting task when you have customer relationship management (CRM) software in place. In this post, we’re going to cover why your business needs CRM software and give you five powerful reasons why it will change your business for the better.

But first…

What Is CRM Software?

Keeping your customers happy is a basic principle of good business, no matter your industry. A long-held belief in business is that if you provide high-quality customer service, you will build customer loyalty.

This is where CRM software can help. CRM software can help you run your business more efficiently by managing your customer relationships. You can build connections, attract new clients, and retain your current customers in a much more personal, impactful way.

CRM software is able to provide enhanced service and convenience through automation. You’ll be able to streamline your business operations and organize your customer interactions in one central platform. Here, you can store all of your customer and prospect data to leverage to increase satisfaction and sales, in addition to boosting your staff or team's productivity.

CRM software is highly customizable and can be tailored to fit any business, large or small.

So how can it change your business? Let’s take a deeper look.

1. Improved Customer Relationships & Service

Good customer relations is about much more than just a friendly hello when your customers come in.

Today, it mainly refers to the service you provide before a customer ever sets foot in your business – if they ever will at all. That means you need to provide an incredible user experience online.

A CRM helps you manage your online presence by analyzing and interacting with those who visit your pages. You can keep your prospects and customers engaged by using their data to nurture stronger relationships and provide them with what they are looking for.

A good CRM gives you a 360-degree view of your customer and can manage business tools like document signing, accounting, billing, and more. Identify new leads quickly and turn them into conversions through the power of data and automation.

2. Harness The Power Of Automation

When you have an automated CRM, you can save your team valuable time often spent on repetitive administrative work. A CRM takes care of these tasks and improves your overall productivity and efficiency.

A good CRM puts your entire team on the same page and gives them access to the same information. Everyone has access to the central network and can make informed decisions for marketing campaigns. Your CRM will make it easier for you to convert a lead into a customer by handling the tedious tasks along the way and helping you build stronger customer relationships.

When time-consuming tasks are automated and addressed properly, your team can collectively use its time more wisely and focus on more important tasks while your CRM handles the busy work.

3. Smarter Reporting & Analytics

Generating reports is one of many time-consuming tasks that your CRM can handle for you in seconds. You can easily track how your campaigns are performing, segment audiences, and determine if you are meeting your goals or if changes need to be made.

CRM reporting and accurate revenue forecasts help you make informed decisions to grow your business. You can customize the settings in your CRM to generate reports for only the most important information. This enhanced reporting keeps you up to date on the health of your business and the success of your campaigns, so you can learn what works and what doesn’t, where and when to meet your target customers, and more.

You can even keep track of your team members to see how each are performing, learn what products are selling best (or worst), and what marketing strategies are delivering the most or least ROI. Then, you can keep optimizing to find the best course of action to stay on target to meet your goals.

4. Enhanced Collaboration

Having all of your data and marketing efforts stored on one central system allows for enhanced collaboration across your team and with your clients and customers.

When you have a CRM in place, all of your team members have access to the same information in real-time. This allows your team to work together on campaigns, chat with each other, provide instant feedback, and get things done faster.

With a good CRM, your team can collaborate on documents, share important data and insights, and automate tasks and communications that would otherwise need to be done manually. This streamlines your processes and allows for higher productivity, freeing your staff to work on bigger picture tasks, all while building better customer retention.

Likewise, when working on a client campaign, you can keep them up to date with the progress of your project and allow them to provide feedback and suggest changes along the way, rather than waiting for a final product. This transparency builds trust with your clients and assures them that the project is being done to their preferences.

5. Targeted Marketing Practices

You know your marketing efforts are key to the success of your business, but a CRM helps you and your team work smarter so you can make better choices.

Your team can use your CRM to access your prospect’s data and give them customized marketing content. You can use data gathered in your CRM to tailor your customer experience, meeting your target customers at the perfect time with exactly what they’re looking for. You can modify calls to action, alter product details, and more.

Your CRM can also segment your customers to get the most out of your campaigns. Divide your customers into groups based on things like age, location, gender, preferences, and other categories. Then, you can give them detailed information that is geared specifically for that target group.

Doesn’t that sound like a better marketing plan?

Summary

With detailed insights provided by a robust and reliable CRM, you’ll never miss an opportunity to build a new customer relationship again.

Despite the shift in today’s business moving mostly online, people still value content that feels personal. A CRM allows you to do just that and will strengthen your relationships with customers, vendors, partners, and more.

Check out our customer success story below to learn how aACE’s CRM can streamline your operations and manage your business relationships today.

Brick and mortar retailers and ecommerce retailers alike lean on inventory management processes to manage fulfillment, orders, and supply chain management. The demand for accurate inventory counts is ever-tightening — an inaccurate and inefficient inventory management process can end up affecting the entire business, from accounting to sales.

In a matter of time, poor inventory management can and will affect customer experience. For example, a customer is on your site and decides to purchase an item. Despite being readily available in the online marketplace, the item is actually out of stock. One of two things has to happen: you need to spend extra resources, time, and money in order to fulfill that order or you have to disappoint the customer with a long wait time, risking your customer relationship and your reputation.

The risks involved with poor inventory management have only heightened during the global pandemic. A change in dramatic consumerism has caused many challenges including imbalance, scarcity, shortages, and overstocking. According to a study by the IHL Group, the estimated value of out-of-stock items in 2020 was $1.14 trillion.

An automated inventory system, or the use of software that tracks current inventory levels without manual intervention can help your business scale while saving money. An automated inventory management system represents an end-to-end improvement in business functions. Not only can automation help you streamline workflows, it can generate actionable documentation and analytics, and streamline supply chain operations. Here are some other ways your automated inventory management can benefit your business:

Increase Visibility

Inventory is constantly shifting. Just minutes after a manual inventory count, a sale comes in, and inventory numbers shift – leaving your inventory spreadsheet inaccurate. With automated management, as soon as a sale comes in, real-time counts of active inventory update, even while the item is still in the warehouse. Once the item has shipped, the numbers are updated again to reflect the current on-hand inventory.

With new stock orders, inventory is added to your availability as soon as it arrives. This not only reduces the need for manual inventory checks, it minimizes the time between order and customer availability, ultimately saving you time and money. This visibility is crucial and decreases the risk of over-selling or under-selling your products.

Decrease Human Error

In manual inventory management, there is always the potential for human error. When updating spreadsheets, mistakes can be made and data can be distorted. There are a number of ways human error can have a negative effect on inventory management. One, counting errors can occur if an employee misses a product or mistakenly counts a product twice. Fatigue can also set in and mistakes can happen while writing and recording data. Finally, human error can cause workers to forget to save valuable data, distorting information for many users

A decrease in human error has trickle-down effects for the whole order process. According to EasyPost, an integrated order processing system can increase productivity by 25% and lead to a 30% improvement in stock use efficiency. Wireless barcode technologies are an easy and cost-effective way to improve accuracy, rather than error-prone counting by hand. Barcodes create an intuitive way to use numbers and letters to transmit inventory data in real-time.

Organize Processes & Integrate Disparate Systems

As a business leader, you are always looking for ways to save time and reduce labor costs. Extra time spent manually counting inventory or pulling data from siloed systems and multiple locations is not a good use of time and does not contribute to the well-being of your employees or the business as a whole. An inventory management system can operate as a single hub for inventory and warehouse operations.

With one centralized hub, you can standardize systems from order processing to shipping procedures. A future-proof system will allow you to integrate existing systems to achieve an omnichannel sales and supply system. A unified system will allow you to not only have one source of truth for inventory and quantity, but also all of the data stored about each of the products in your inventory. Within the system, workers will be able to find valuable info about the products, including SKU, weight, dimensions, supplier information, add-ons and alternatives, and more.

Features to Look for in an Inventory Management System

When it comes to inventory management systems, the market offers a few different types. What system is best for your business depends on who it is for. Two of the most common types are standalone inventory management software and an inventory management system within an ERP system.

Standalone IMS is sold as specialized software. This software can have advanced features that typically suit huge enterprises such as a wide array of warehouse options and cycle counts. Despite some integration ability, these systems can be siloed and not integrate properly with other factions of your business such as Accounting and Sales. Because the systems are inherently disconnected, there can also be a lag in real-time analytics. Finally, these systems are more expensive and therefore suited for complex and specific needs.

Integrated IMS is a solution included in your existing ERP. Because of the existing integration, the inventory management function shares the same database as all your orders, accounting, CRM, and reporting. This centralized data will empower your teams with the same real-time data, accuracy, and consistency. Your workflows will also be simplified because of their ability to all live in the same system. Finally, your overall technology spend will be lower compared to purchasing, implementing, and onboarding multiple systems.

Wrapping it Up

Inefficient and ineffective inventory management strategies could be costing your business valuable time, resources, and money. An automated inventory management could improve the workflow of your team and reduce the propensity for human error. The aACE Inventory module seamlessly integrates with other core business functions like accounting and CRM. To learn more about aACE's inventory management engine, check out our success story on Restylers' Choice.

COVID-19 has changed our daily lives in many ways. More than ever, consumers around the world are relying on online shopping and ecommerce businesses to safely shop from home. This has led many sellers to embrace ecommerce or expand their online presence. According to Signifyd, ecommerce sales were up 104% in June 2020 over June 2019, and 99firms reports that 80% of Internet users in the US have made at least one purchase online in 2020.

While some of the world’s changes during 2020 will prove to only be temporary, the rapid increase in ecommerce will have a lasting impact on businesses around the world. As a result, governments around the world are implementing new tax policies for 2021. Although taxes can be overwhelming, they are a necessary aspect of running a successful business. In this article, you'll get a quick rundown of ecommerce sales tax and compliance and regulations to be aware of in 2021.

What is eCommerce Sales Tax?

Sales tax is calculated by tacking on a small percentage of a sale by an online retailer. There is no national sales tax in the United States, but 45 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have a sales tax. Additionally, many cities and local areas are allowed to tack on a special sales tax. Online realtors will need to be aware of different sales tax laws and rules when calculating sales tax for consumers across the country.

Online retailers are responsible for charging the correct amount of sales tax and remit the taxes collected back to the appropriate state. To know if you owe taxes in a certain state, there are two concrete rules: your business has sales tax nexus in the same state as your customer and the product you are selling is taxable in that state.

If you are an online retailer with some connection to a particular state (nexus), you are on the hook for paying sales tax. However, there are certain exceptions for some states. Additionally, you’ll always have nexus in your home state. Here are some factors that determine whether you have nexus in other states:

• Physical location: office, warehouse, branch, etc.
• Inventory: storing inventory in a state will cause nexus (even if you have no physical presence of personnel there)
• Personnel: employees, sales people, distributors, or any other person doing work in a state for your business will qualify you for nexus
• Economic nexus: you exceed a mandated amount of sales in a state or you make over a certain amount of transactions
• Affiliates: If someone who advertises your product in exchange for cut of the profits lives in a certain state, you qualify for nexus in that state

For more specific information about sales tax nexus by state, check out the Economic Nexus State Guide.

Stricter Enforcement in 2021

Economic nexus laws (as described above) and marketplace facilitator laws were originally implemented in 2018 to drive revenue for tax authorities through the collection of taxes owed on online sales. However, enforcement of these laws has been minimal because authorities wanted to give sellers and marketplaces time to understand and comply with the new regulations.

However, in 2021, the grace period has ended. The increased consumer interest in ecommerce and the economic impact of the global pandemic has catalyzed enforcement for 2021. Many states have utilized AI and data mining techniques to efficiently pinpoint non-compliant businesses and remote sellers.

Get Compliant

Before applying for a sales tax permit, determine that you have a nexus in a state and that you’re selling taxable items there. Now it is time to get compliant and register for a permit. To do this, contact your state’s taxing authority. Next, set up a system to start collecting sales tax online. Determine whether you should collect “origins-based” or “destination-based” taxes. Finally report and file sales tax according to a predetermined schedule (monthly, quarterly, or annually).

Wrapping it Up

Taxes are an essential part of any business. If you are selling a significant amount of products or services online, it is worth it to invest in software that automatically calculates sales tax for transactions. aACE enables you to easily set up tax profiles for every state and individual jurisdiction where you do business. And for more complex requirements, our integration with Avalara AvaTax uses geolocation for precise, up-to-date tax rates every time you make a sale. To learn more about the aACE+ AvaTax integration, check out our feature highlight.

For companies across every industry and function, 2020 will forever be a defining year – and as we transition to a new normal, 2021 is shaping up to be just as pivotal. Although some businesses have struggled to meet changing customer expectations, it’s safe to say that some behaviors prompted by COVID-19 are here to stay. According to a recent study by Blake Morgan, post-pandemic, consumers will care even more about customer experience.

Companies that are stuck in a routine and fail to adapt to new demands will be left behind. One critical way to modernize operations and enhance customer satisfaction is to simplify processes and pinpoint redundancies that need to be eliminated. Minimizing the amount of steps to accomplish tasks allows businesses to save time, costs, and focus on high-quality products and services, with fewer errors and delays.

An efficient and automated enterprise resource planning (ERP) software solution can help streamline multiple disparate systems into a single easy-to-use platform. Now more than ever, ERP solutions are critical for enterprises who are looking to improve efficiency and better serve customers. Here are a few ways to use an ERP solution to streamline operations, save time, and delight your customers:

Deploy an Advanced CRM

Strengthening the relationships with your customers requires an understanding of who they are and what they want. However, your relationship and understanding of your customers can not be separate from the rest of your business — you risk data duplication, decreased visibility, limited cross-departmental collaboration and more.

With data aggregated and key business functions collaborating on the same platform, customer service can significantly improve. While an ERP and CRM solution can offer benefits on their own, an integration allows you to take advantage of what both have to offer. Seamlessly move customers from lead to conversion within a frictionless environment — track customer journeys, manage communications, and get insights on behaviors that will help you better meet their needs.

Optimize Customer Facing Workflows

By integrating your sales and service data with marketing and finance, you’ll be able to identify pre- and post-sales processes that need attention and improvements. A strategically implemented ERP can help you eliminate the pain of waiting for updated sales figures and inventory schedules. Instead, real-time reporting will allow you to reduce bottlenecks and adopt a flow. According to a study forecasting the growth of ERP software through 2026, the primary factor driving the growth of the ERP software market is the rise in need for operational efficiency and transparency in business processes.

One of the best ways to optimize workflows and boost performance is to standardize processes. Standardized workflows enable automation, reducing the need for manual labor and the possibility of human error. It’s important to remember that standardization requires careful thought and must be balanced by customization. Once properly implemented, however, your business can grow sustainably and meet customer expectations.

Get Your Time Back

A recent study found that small businesses with ERP systems can make decisions in 36% less time than businesses without these vital solutions. By centralizing previously siloed systems, time becomes a readily-available resource. A well-designed and strategically implemented ERP will centralize essential business functions, automate processes, and make daily operations more efficient. This newfound time and freedom isn’t reserved for one department — sales, operations, finance, IT, production, marketing, and more will all benefit. With less time spent on manual and routine tasks, your team can focus on the most important objective: the customer.

Create a Seamless Path to Purchase

Loyal customers are created during an efficient, transparent, and automated order fulfillment process. By centralizing operations in an ERP solution, enterprises can utilize data to create an expedient, cost-efficient, and frictionless order process. A smart ERP will enable comprehensive automation capabilities, modernizing the order capture process and accelerating order fulfillment. This enhanced efficiency helps to delight new customers and retain existing ones.

Looking Forward

In order to maintain the momentum we built in 2020 and grow in 2021, businesses need to look for software and tools that can help them build more efficient processes and prioritize servicing the growing expectations of their customers. In order to streamline processes, siloed systems have to begin to talk to each other and a business flow needs to be uncovered and maintained. A sound ERP solution can help your business grow sustainably, decrease bottlenecks, and foster meaningful relationships with customers.

Choosing the right ERP system starts with evaluating the goals of your business. At aACE software, our mission is to help small-to-midsize business owners increase their efficiency and improve their bottom line. Our single, comprehensive business management solution is easy-to-use and is meant to compliment your long-term vision. For more information, contact us to be connect with an aACE partner.