12 Best ERP Software Systems of 2025
ERP systems are not just used by multinational corporations and large enterprises for quite some time now.
If you want your company to thrive and stay competitive, you will need to find a way to manage your manufacturing, financial, sales, marketing, supply chain, and HR operations.
While not so while ago you needed software for each of these, an ERP system will provide a solution for all of these business operations in one platform, and eliminate the tedious learning process and overblown pricing.
But, what modules do you require and what is the best ERP option depending on your business type and size?
This is what you will find out when you continue reading the article, as we have provided you with the best of the best in the ERP software industry.
Best ERP Systems
1. NetSuite
Best Cloud-Based, Feature-Rich ERP Solution for Growing Companies.
As a central platform for conducting key business processes, NetSuite will combine your inventory management, order management, financial planning, procurement, billing, revenue management, and more, and free up the time and resources needed to accelerate business growth.
NetSuite will manage all your financial records in time for you to examine the data whenever in need to make adjustments, and keep all your financial close, revenue, overall financial performance data at hand through real-time monitoring.
The robust financial management is supported by a built-in business intelligence system to help you handle your finance and accounting efforts, eliminate billing errors and drive fulfillment accuracy, report financial results on time through revenue recognition, but that's not all.
The software's elaborate financial planning functionality will shorten your cycle times, incorporate intuitive planning, budgeting, and forecasting solutions into the planning process.
The real-time reporting capabilities will elevate your decision-making, while the “close to disclose” capabilities improve close time and maximize transparency.
NetSuite's GRC solution will address the issues of corporate governance and compliance with technology and processes, as well as enterprise risk management.
Maximize your profitability with multi-currency pricing management across all channels and expedite your order-to-cash process through rules-based automation.
Run your manufacturing operations at the highest level with NetSuite's production management that includes product data management, work order management, resource planning and scheduling, automated quality control, MES, and causes increased on-time delivery and optimized cost of quality.
Manage your supply chain regardless of different time zones from within one platform and analyze demand, review sales forecasts, delegate your purchase, transfer, and work orders, and utilize automated case management, issue tracking, warranty registration and repair, all under NetSuite.
Pricing
The pricing will depend on the size and requirements of your business, but at its lowest, it is $499 per month.
Pros
- Keep track of all your financial records
- At-hand real-time performance monitoring
- Built-in business intelligence system
- Shorten your cycle times
- Intuitive planning, budgeting, and forecasting solutions
- Improve close time and maximize transparency with the “close to disclose” capabilities
- GRC solution
- Multi-currency pricing management
- Production management
- Supply chain management
Particularly well-suited for mid-sized businesses and divisions of large enterprises, NetSuite is a #1 cloud ERP provider and a cost-effective, flexible, and scalable solution for increasing your business's potential.
2. Odoo
Best ERP and CRM Software for Sales, Web Presence, and Other Integrations.
The fully-packaged Odoo ERP management solution has entire modules and frameworks specifically designed for finance, sales, website, human resources, marketing, project services, inventory & MRP, productivity operations.
Through its basic framework or native integrations, Odoo provides a centralized platform for key business operations including accounting, inventory, purchasing, manufacturing, website building, e-commerce, POS, CRM, sales app, and much more.
With over 1000 modules to choose from and the ability to develop your apps through the API key, Odoo serves as the ultimate source of sophisticated features that can arise for any business type at any stage of growth.
The accounting module enables you to sync all your bank statements, manage bills and expenses, create sharp and professional invoices, automate your reconciliation, and more.
In the same manner, the human resources channel will enable you to handle all your recruitments, appraisals, expenses, leaves, attendances in one place, track and sort all your employees' working hours.
Odoo's sales and CRM management functionality will enable you to track the most relevant leads and generate accurate forecasts, schedule activities based on your sales scripts like calls, meetings, mailings, quotations, and review your performances in real-time.
Through the powerful social marketing capability, you will be able to connect with your customers, boost leads, raise brand awareness, broadcast important company news and messages.
Pricing
Odoo offers a free trial, and the pricing will vary depending on the module you use and the volume your business requires, but the starting price is $20 per user per month.
Pros
- Finances and sales
- Website-building, e-commerce, POS
- Inventory and product management
- Marketing and human resources
- Over 1000 modules
- Create your apps through the API key
- Sync your bank statements, manage bills, and create professional invoices
- Handle recruitments, appraisals, expenses, leaves, attendances in one place
- Generate accurate forecasts and schedule activities based on your sales scripts
- Plan, monitor, and analyze your social accounts
- Send push notifications, chat with visitors, track links
Built to equip anyone from a simple blogger to an enterprise company with full-on ERP requirements, Odoo is a flexible business management and development software with thousands of available integrations.
3. Oracle
#1 Database and ERP Software for Handling a High Volume of Data.
A comprehensive business management solution like Oracle fits businesses of all sizes and the powerful package combines solutions for finances, project management, procurement, risk management & compliance, EPM, supply chain & manufacturing, ERP analytics.
The Oracle financials will give you a complete view of your financial state and provide you your performance results so you can respond quickly and stay competitive through tools such as an accounting hub, receivables, collections, payables & assets, expense & revenue management, joint venture management, and more.
The full-service project management capability enables you to plan and track your projects, assign the most qualified people, balance capacity and demand, and scale resources up or down depending on the requirements.
With features such as procure-to-pay, contracts, supplier management, business network, Oracle's procurement functionality will allow you to simplify supplier management, provide the best supplier selection, enforce compliant spending, and elevate profitability.
Through automated monitoring, Oracle can help you reduce risks and time spent on labor, with the built-in risk detection and intensive security and compliance tasks strengthening your financial control, stopping cash leaks, and streamlining audit.
Oracle's complete ERP cloud system will enable you to construct and plan across finances, sales, supply chain, HR and streamline your financial closures.
The resilient supply chain management mechanism will increase your business's agility and allow you to be ready ahead of any change.
Pricing
The financial reporting feature will cost you $175 per user per month.
Pros
- Procure-to-pay and supplier management
- Integrate source-to-pay with an intuitive interface
- Security design during ERP implementation
- User security, critical transactions, and configuration changes monitoring
- User access certification, SOX, audit, and enterprise risk management workflows
- Drive better decisions through accurate and actionable ERP insights
- Tax and narrative reporting
- Enterprise data management and profitability and cost management
- Account reconciliation and financial consolidation and close
- Connect your supply network with an integrated suite of cloud business applications
- Prepackaged use cases, predictive analysis, and historical trend-based KPIs
Covering everything from financials and project management to analytics, Oracle will handle all your accounts payable and receivable as well as streamline and optimize the entire sales pipeline information, without you having to maintain or update any features.
4. SAP
#1 ERP Software for Multi-Operational Enterprises with Complex Workflows.
A total ERP system that will streamline all the processes and leverage role-based access to critical data, applications, and analytics through financing, accounting, and treasury management, as well as procurement, manufacturing, sales, HR, and more.
Built to support companies of all sizes across 30 different industries, the SAP ERP will manage the product life cycles, finances, supply chain, human capital, customer relationships, and all other parts of your business.
The SAP S/4HANA Cloud intelligent ERP system will equip your team with industry-specific capabilities and best practices, business processes through machine learning and automated group processes, real-time analytics.
With extended financial, strategic, operational planning, granular profitability and cost analysis, embedded self-service business intelligence, SAP's real-time financial planning, analysis, budgeting, and forecasting capabilities will deliver faster and more accurate predictions.
In SAP, you can automate your reconciliation, consolidation, compliance, and reporting with a streamlined financial close process, fast and transparent financial consolidation, and full governance of your end-to-end processes.
Accounts receivable, billing and revenue management, as well as cybersecurity and governance, are all parts of SAP's total package for optimizing working capital and cash flow, accelerating financial closure, and delegating governance for the virtual workspace.
Pricing
Without the officially-disclosed website information, we can share the insights from the third-party implementation consultants noting the licenses for $1.666 for limited users and $3.213 for professional users.
Pros
- Supports 30 different industries
- Deploy the software via the cloud, on-premise, or in a hybrid capacity
- Consistent uptime during demanding periods with full web-enabled support
- Live material requirements planning and delivery delay prediction
- Embedded self-service business intelligence
- Granular profitability and cost analysis
- Streamlined financial close process with enhanced quality and control
- Manage working capital, payments, and financial risk through treasury management
- Working capital management and payment streamlining
- Built-in compliance and analytics operations
- Reduced financial risks
With SAP, you will easily sustain business continuity throughout the financial closures and enable agile international trade compliance management with minimal economic disruption.
5. Microsoft Dynamics
Best ERP Software for Small-to-Medium-Sized Enterprises without Enough Manpower for Daily Business Operations.
The modular, cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics ERP system includes advanced CRM capabilities along with its versatile sales, marketing, service, finance, operations, commerce, HR functionalities that boost productivity and build long-lasting customer relationships.
Through optimization of manual tasks through intelligent workflows and data-driven insights and recommendations that drive more profitable decisions, the software enhances the modern ERP approach with AI, machine learning, and mixed-reality tools.
Apart from the extensive CRM functionality, Microsoft and Linkedin integrations, the platform gives clients the ability to unify data with the Linkedin Sales Navigator, coach your sales representatives through onboarding and analytics dashboards, and tailor customer experiences individually.
In the sales module, companies can prioritize prospects, optimize the sales process, tailor customer engagement through personalized relationships, and deploy actionable insights and predictive guidance.
Target prospects in multichannel campaigns and increase qualified leads, and deploy marketing trends through web and social insights in the tool's marketing module.
Without the additional labor cost, deploy intelligent virtual agents for tailored service assistance.
Access the centralized financial dashboard with real-time business intelligence and embedded analytics, and plan and deliver projects successfully through resource demands anticipation, profitability forecasting, and collaboration tools.
Pricing
Each module is priced differently according to your requirements.
Pros
- Optimize manual tasks through intelligent workflows
- Make profitable decisions with data-driven insights and recommendations
- AI, machine learning, and mixed-reality tools
- Predictive sales guidance and virtual sales agents
- Product visualizations and holographic guides
- Automated fraud protection
- Mixed-reality remote assistance
- Email and chat communication between Dynamics 365 and Teams
- Showcase products in the mixed-reality module
- Intelligent virtual agents provide tailored service experiences
- Optimize the store management, merchandising processes, inventory, and customer fulfillment in the commerce module
- Resource demands anticipation and profitability forecasting
Capturing all the tools for effective sales, marketing, customer insights, finance, supply chain management, field service, and many more operations, Microsoft Dynamics will enable you to adopt a portfolio of business applications to deliver excellence to every customer.
6. Sage Intacct
#1 Cloud Financial Management Software for SMBs.
The rich set of modules Sage Intacct offers at your disposal is more than enough to cover all your transactional processes, applying to a wide range of industries like healthcare, wholesale, retail, nonprofits, SaaS, and more.
Interactive videos and introductory webinars are there to ease you in on the onboarding process, after which you can access your graphs, charts, and dashboards to display your key business performance metrics, with the ability to automatically calculate the recurring figures like sales and purchase orders, commissions, returns.
Integrating with other top-of-the-line ERP apps has never been easier with Sage Intacct's Marketplace connecting you with different CRM, online payment, tax management, fixed asset & leasing, and even travel management tools.
The powerful financial management solution incorporates advanced workflows and reporting functionalities according to your unique requirements to help you achieve an average 250% growth in ROI, 79% close-time reduction, 65% productivity improvement, and 6 months payback.
The configurable accounting functionality enables you to streamline inter-company financial processes and shorten the monthly close significantly, along with improving financial visibility with a multi-entity, multi-dimensional general ledger.
Sage's laser-focused financial reporting capabilities can help you save 40+ hours per month and quickly access all the key stakeholder data like investors, executives, sales, finance at any time to respond adequately and quickly to any changes.
For dynamic allocation, revenue recognition, fixed assets, and other advanced capabilities, you can scale up Sage Intacct's functionality palette.
Pricing
Since each person's requirements are specific, you will have to write a request to tailor your subscription plan to your goals.
Pros
- Easy onboarding with interactive videos and introductory webinars
- Access various online payment, CRM, fixed asset & leasing, and other integrations through the Marketplace
- Multi-entry, multi-entity general ledger
- Manage your accounts payable & receivable, cash & order management, and purchasing operations
- Shortened monthly close, and reduced A/P and payroll workloads
- 24/7 real-time visibility into custom dashboards for numerous executives
- Real-time budget-to-actual information for better decision making at yearling sales
- Cut audit preparation time exponentially
Sage Intacct will allow you to gain real-time financial and operational visibility, streamline your business processes through powerful automation that will cut labor costs and accelerate your business growth.
7. Infor
Versatile ERP Solution with End-to-End Functionality to boost Performance across the Entire Team.
All distribution and manufacturing companies in need of a powerful line of ERP features to run their core business operations will avail from Infor's supply chain, workforce and asset management, HCM, financials solution.
The platform comes in three different deployment options, including on-premise, cloud, and a hybrid where some of the customer's applications are hosted on-premise and others in the cloud.
Each Infor's CloudSuite has an integrated list of features that offer accounting, project sourcing, HR, CRM, supply chain management options.
At the same time, the software's analytics capabilities accelerate processes and use the data gathered through preconfigured dashboards, KPIs, and other reporting functions to enhance further actions after gaining accurate insights.
Through advanced planning and scheduling, the users can determine if they have the workforce, tools, and materials needed to manufacture a product.
Aside from tracking product demand as it rises, Infor users can set expectations with existing customers and the effect that the unplanned order can have on their resources and schedule before committing to anything.
Also, if an equipment piece fails, the users can easily alter their schedule, allowing for enhanced productivity, frequent on-time delivery, and higher order accuracy.
With Infor, you will always have the right number of staff members at the right time, with workforce planning allowing you to optimize the scheduling criteria and manage production line requirements, and handle plan and actual coverage gaps.
Infor's HCM solutions provide a comprehensive view of the available talent for the right staff to be attracted, hired, and attained, matching the personnel to customers' demands.
The prebuilt industry analytics data allows the users to easily access crucial information by domain or industry with a set of predefined chart templates and widgets, configurable dashboards, operational metrics, strategic KPIs.
Pricing
Infor doesn't publicly disclose its pricing information, but reliable sources can confirm that the one-time license cost falls in the range between $795 and $1.095 per user.
Pros
- On-premise, cloud, and hybrid option
- Each CloudSuite comes with a specific set of project sourcing, CRM, HR features
- Preconfigured dashboards, KPIs, and advanced reporting capabilities
- Set customer expectations to forecast the resource requirements and schedule changes
- Mange production line requirements and handle planned and actual coverage gaps
- Determine the number of workers required for direct and indirect labor for a demand forecast
- Match the personnel to customers' demands through HCM
- Chart templates, widgets, dashboards, operational metrics, strategic KPIs
Infor is an industry-leading analytics, comprehensive customer view ERP software that will boost customer productivity and cut down manufacturing costs across whole organizations.
8. Deltek
Best ERP Tool for Tracking Purchase Orders and Fixed Assets.
Helping companies capitalize on new business opportunities, Deltek will provide robust purchasing and asset management modules for you to track purchase orders and fixed assets, streamlining all your business operations in the process.
The cloud-based solution is designed specifically to simplify and accelerate the life cycles of complex projects while helping you form new relationships, create enticing proposals, and close sales.
Deltek's resource and project management module allows you to create new projects, assign staff and resources, balance the project requirements with the budget, and make the most profitable decisions.
Through time & expense management, the employees can record their worked hours via PC or mobile device, which will be automatically synced with other modules.
Deltek delegates the full accounting and financial functionality, including general ledger, accounts payable and receivable, revenue recognition, financial reports, overhead, multi-currency and multi-company support.
Track any purchases and requisitions done for whole projects as well as resources like materials, services, supplies, and more.
With its unique asset management capability, Deltek enables you to track the entire life cycles of a company's fixed assets, such as buildings, vehicles, and other equipment.
Automate the workflow of an entire billing cycle and access billing requirements such as time & materials, fee-based & percent-complete billing, as well as multi-currency support.
You can access the real-time analytics on specific projects with detailed insights into each component and the reports from over 200 standard templates can be printed and sent via email.
Pricing
Without any pricing displayed publicly, we have found the average subscription costs through Google search.
Pros
- Employees can record their worked hours from anywhere
- Full accounting and financial functionality
- Multi-currency support
- Purchase and requisition tracking
- Track entire life cycles of a company's fixed assets such as buildings, service vehicles
- Automate entire billing cycles
- Microsoft Outlook integration
- Service estimates
- Proposal automation
- Performance management
A leading ERP solution for professional services and project-based businesses, Deltek will provide an extensive repertoire of project management, finance and accounting, marketing, HR, and other services, relieving you from administrative tasks.
9. Macola
#1 ERP Solution for Manufacturers and Distributors handling Materials, Labor, Compliance, and Resources.
Macola ERP is full of versatile project management tools like document management, inventory management, automation capabilities, process workflows, but the functionality doesn't stop there.
Quality supply chain distribution, payment and order processing among other finance and accounting capabilities, personalized workspaces for handling issues with specific roles in mind, and much more contribute to the growth-generating on-premise and cloud platform that is Macola.
You will gain full visibility and control over manufacturing and distribution and access to configurable views into real-time data, business function integrations, and all of this will be accessible on any device.
One of the platform's most powerful features is process automation through which the users can conduct actions instantly after an event has occurred within the software itself or third-party apps.
A built-in CRM allows the users to check every client email, lead, brochure and quote request, completed phone call, or sale from any location.
Identify important customers by analyzing past opportunities, connect leads with qualified sales representatives, and measure orders to conversions.
Ensure that everyone has access to the updated guides, manuals, fact sheets, policies, meeting notes, and more with Macola's document management functionality
Pricing
Without any public pricing information displayed, we searched Google for license cost data.
Pros
- Unrestricted HR and customer relationship management
- Reduce excessive entries, delays, and errors through automation
- Alerts for workflows that action is needed before resuming the process
- Check client emails, leads, brochure and quote requests, phone calls, and sales in CRM
- Analyze past opportunities and forecast future ones
- Supply chain distribution
- Payment and order processing
- Personalized workspaces for tasks with specific roles
- Configurable views into real-time data
Macola has equipped medium-sized manufacturing, wholesale/retail distribution, field service, building & construction businesses for years, and it can help you plan, manage, analyze, and control your business's path through innovative software, expert consultants, and complete customer support.
10. Acumatica
Best ERP Choice for General Ledger Accounting and Inventory Management.
Those looking for scalable financial and ERP software will be more than pleasantly surprised by Acumatica and its well-balanced, feature-rich environment handling your ERP solutions, general ledger accounting, and inventory management.
Depending on the user's assigned role, the software will display the appropriate dashboard, and defining roles and permissions is an easy process.
The design and feel of the dashboards will vary with performance dashboards consisting more of KPI widgets, financial dashboards of process charts with available tasks laid out, individual dashboards for specific employees, and so on.
Navigating the financial module on the task menu can help you access accounts payable and receivable, general ledger, cash management, and much more.
In a comprehensive accounting suite, you can manage multiple companies, currencies, and branches, with role-based access ensuring that every authorized staff member has the access to business insights they need to make growth-accommodating decisions.
Allow all users full visibility into customer interactions including pre and post-sale contacts.
The platform lets you track project costs easily with projected vs actual budget comparisons, revenue recognition, and more.
Through distribution management, you can track inventory in transit, inventory costs, and reorder quantities, along with the options to determine real-time profitability by warehouse, product line, location, and business unit.
Set rules and manage complexities such as multiple warehouses, credit limits, returns, and drop shipments, and create a sales order for cross-company transactions.
Coordinate your business activities in real-time in one location through manufacturing management, and track material and labor costs, while managing make-to-stock, make-to-order, engineer-to-order, project-centric, job shop, batch, and repetitive manufactures.
Determine how many units of an item will be available by date with advanced planning and scheduling logic of the CTP (Capable to Promise) functionality.
Pricing
To access the pricing information, you need to write a request to Acumatica.
Pros
- Determine how many units of an item will be available by date with CTP
- Calculate availability dates for several items based on finite capacity constraints, material availability, and vendor lead times
- Forecast and manage costs, payroll, profits, cash, and taxes through revenue balance, percentage completed
- Check cost to complete, cost at completion, and percentage at completion through job cost accounting
- Connect with other construction solutions like ProEst, Procore, DocuSign
- Optimize your stock levels through automated replenishment
- Automatically print barcode labels and pick tickets to reduce shipping and packing errors
- Use single-stream fulfillment for the online, counter, kiosk, catalog, and telemarketing sales
- Automate shipping and receiving workflows
- Wave and batch picking workflows
- Matrix items
Acumatica helps manufacturers manage resources, minimize costs, and drive consistent profitability with the business process data available for sharing anytime, anywhere through flexible deployment and inventory management.
11. Syspro
Best Suited for Small Organizations that don't need Advanced Scalability.
Deployed in the cloud, on the premise, or as a hybrid model, Syspro is perfect for small and mid-sized organizations, and since it is a modular system, you can customize other modules like warehousing and inventory management.
The end-to-end, fully integrated business solution includes CRM, production management, business intelligence, inventory and order management, planning and scheduling, warehouse management, supply chain management, accounting, a self-service portal, and manufacturing operations management apps in its package.
You can access any report you require and extract any data you need, and the system treats you with best practice recommendations right off the start.
Create customized features and external applications through easily integrated tools like Visual Studio, and enforce strict data schemas with business objects.
What builds the strong financial foundation are the accounts payable and receivable, general ledger, inventory, sales and purchase order entry, as well as bank reconciliation, cash book, and fixed assets.
With a flexible chart of accounts structure and a multi currency module, as well as features like Crystal Reports that allow you to customize your insights, it is no wonder the software is used in over 60 countries.
In Syspro, you can manage all your sales campaigns and pipelines and access the customer data capabilities in the sales order module.
The inventory management system is integrated with the materials requirements planning (MRP) that helps calculate what and when is needed for production and shop floor production.
Pricing
The pricing starts at $199 per user per month.
Pros
- Period ending trial balance report for displaying current and quick ratios, turnovers
- Up to 8 periods of comparative financial statements
- Create letters, incorporate email, and Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, charts, and graphs into sales material and customer contacts
- Multiple warehouses, Bill of Materials, kitting, bin tracking, barcoding, and inventory tracking
- Gantt charts and timeline displays
- Potential bottleneck alerts in the Gantt charts
- Inventory system forecasting
- MRP production calculation
- Product design and change control capability
With excellent production, distribution, warehousing, and retail capabilities, as well as its POS system and forecasting engines, Syspro is the best ERP pick for a smaller business.
12. Genius ERP
Best ERP Software for Custom Manufacturing.
Genius delivers a complete ERP solution that includes the software, implementation services, and field expertise for smaller and medium-sized businesses across the US and Canada.
With Genius ERP, you will handle all your make, engineer, custom, and assemble-to-order manufacturing operations seamlessly.
The centralized platform is equipped with product engineering, inventory management, CRM, account management, scheduling, job costing, production planning, and accounting tools that will reduce costs, increase productivity, and elevate your production.
Save time with automation, quote for more jobs, make the most accurate estimates, eliminate bottlenecks from the shop floor, and synchronize previous data with the upcoming campaigns to optimize production.
Genius ERP simplifies complex manufacturing, avoiding bottlenecks, stalled projects, and supply overstock, while lifecycle engineering, preliminary material buys, customizable BOMs, and other features help you maintain control throughout the whole engineering process.
The platform gives you complete oversight over your production, and it includes accurate estimating, product engineering, order and purchase order management, production scheduling, quality management, and so on.
Pricing
Subscription-based pricing starts at $1.500 per year.
Pros
- Implementation services and field expertise for the US and Canadian users
- Connect previous data with upcoming runs to optimize production
- Life Cycle engineering, preliminary material buys, and customizable BOMs
- Integrate timekeeping on the production floor with accounting, quotations, scheduling, and estimates
- View all info through a single portal
- In-person, live online, webinar training
- HR management
- Material requirements planning and MES
Genius ERP helps you gain complete oversight over your production and solves the complexity and time-consuming nature of moving data through the individual systems through amazing features like customizable BOMs, life cycle engineering, material planning and control, as well as a support team that is always there to take the call.
Benefits of ERP Systems
1. Unified IT costs
Instead of spending money on multiple systems with each needing their staff, infrastructure, support teams, and licenses, you can deploy these costs into a single ERP system.
Since the users only need to use one system, this reduces training requirements, while the ERP structure connects all the accounting, supply chain and HR management, ecommerce, CRM, and more modules to bind all the data together.
2. Complete data visibility
An ERP software will make any important data from all departments easily accessible to you and other authorized staff members, allowing you to monitor inventory levels daily, which then gives you more control over your working capital.
The total access to every important process provides more coherent workflows and enables departmental operations to be easily tracked through more prolific collaboration and mapped-out task completion.
3. Comprehensive reporting
An ERP system can generate insightful analytics and reports at any time, allowing you to compare functions across departments without multiple spreadsheets and emails.
Many financial reports such as income reports and cash flow statements are built-in while the custom reports can be quickly generated.
Business intelligence capabilities provide a deeper level of analytical insight into all operations for you to address the pain points and make more profitable decisions.
4. Modular structure
Most ERP platforms offer several business applications that can be implemented together, with most of the applications being able to be installed as a stand-alone or integrate with other business applications.
5. Performance optimization
An ERP software will reduce the time and effort required by your workforce to finish their daily tasks with average operational costs being reduced by 23% and administrative costs by 22%.
Over some time, an ERP tool will minimize repetitive manual processes while simultaneously providing and enforcing industry-specific best practices to facilitate the best campaign performances.
6. Use of advanced technology
AI, machine learning, robotic process automation are the building blocks of automation and intelligent suggestion capabilities, and they allow the business to utilize demand forecasting, purchase order generations, and product tracking from manufacturing to delivery.
7. Quality of data security
Intrinsic controls over data security are structured to ensure your data is shared safely across sales, marketing, customer service, and other channels, and one of the key factors for this high level of security is a single input system.
Both on-premise and cloud-based systems will equip your data with an advanced level of security, and the centralized backups of your sensitive data strengthen this structure further.
8. Simplified collaboration and improved workflows
An ERP platform will provide the authorized employees access to the data they need to finish a task when they need it, and this is done through an interdepartmental database where each department's information is available in one place.
The streamlined collaboration has a thriving effect on the overall productivity and work ethic, allowing the employees to see the big picture of projects through the wealth of data and make more proactive decisions which makes the work they do feel more valuable.
With higher employee engagement comes increased efficiency.
9. Enhanced supply chain management
An ERP system reinforces the supply chain management system in various ways, producing shortened lead times, a higher percentage of on-time deliveries, as well as generating a more responsive system through features such as demand forecasting, inventory management, procurement, and more.
Additionally, manufacturing innovations facilitated in a streamlined supply chain help you reduce costs and develop new products while reducing overages in inventory and production significantly.
10. Easy scalability
An ERP system will elegantly and expertly support your company no matter the scale of progress you experience, whether it is expanding your customer base, entering new markets, trying out new processes, changing departments, introducing groundbreaking products, or anything else.
What Features Should You Look for in an ERP System?
An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is among the most powerful data management solutions, handling data analysis, automation, and full-scale infrastructure integration.
1. Integration
One of the key elements that separate an ERP solution from other types of software is a powerful integration mechanism that equips you with a suite of applications designed to complement one another and cover all aspects of your business development.
Through a single database, you can collect, store, compare, and analyze data across all departments and conduct most of the data-driven tasks.
Companies don't have to work in silos anymore and seamless communication is ensured within an organization which reduces the number of errors and production cost.
The integration enables you to work on multiple components at once, so you can access order history, customer information, business trends from data insights, predictions based on past practices, and more in the same system.
Belo, you can see how the reduced production cost in an ERP system looks depending on the firmโs size.
2. Automation of all manual tasks
Automation will cut down a large number of hours from your staff on tedious tasks, allowing them to focus on more meaningful assignments while the order entry, invoicing, accounting, payroll, reporting, and everything else gets handled automatically.
Automation will facilitate more productive work days for everyone and minimize human errors, and you can see on the graph below how much of an impact this makes.
3. Data analysis
Data analysis tools help you capitalize on the processed information by finding trends and patterns in your processes which enable you to reflect on the effectiveness of specific tasks and generate forecasts for more profitable business decisions in the future.
The business intelligence and forecasting tools you will find in ERP systems are most likely to give a business the competitive advantage out of any tools in the business software industry.
4. Reporting tools
The reporting tools are used to convey analysis data to the user, and these come in the form of customizable dashboards, Gantt charts, pie charts, bar graphs, and other types of visual representation.
5. CRM
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) functionality covers a wide range of business requirements, including contract management, marketing automation, sales pipeline activities, and lead management.
Designed to improve long-term customer retention, CRM tools will allow you to create and implement comprehensive customer care processes, creating personalized campaigns and tracking customers and their satisfaction throughout the sales life cycle.
For companies with quickly expanding customer bases, spreadsheets will be outgrown in a matter of time which is why a CRM solution will relieve you from the constant updating.
With centralized customer information, an ERP system allows quick access when working with different system parts, enabling the users to access billing information and customer addresses for shipment processing.
6. Accounting and financial management
A strong ERP solution will provide you with refined accounting tools that will handle your accounts payable and receivable, fixed asset management, risk management, as well as tax management and regulations, and multiple currencies for regular business outside your country.
The accounting tools need to be exceptionally robust in handling all aspects of your sales and revenue processes, with a strong accounting automation capability for payment processing, sales analysis, expense management, and more.
An ERP system will improve the accuracy and processing time of accounting functions like the general ledger, billing, budgeting, multi-entity financial management, fund accounting, reporting & analytics, tax management, and other requirements.
7. Comprehensive visibility
Tracking and visibility are among the core aspects of ERP solutions, enabling users to understand and predict issues like delays and stock outages.
You can track finished products and raw materials from the manufacturing stage to delivery, and the supply chain visibility the ERP systems provide enable you to track individual components, sub-assemblies, and final products, all helping companies maneuver around inventory shortages and bottlenecks, meeting compliance directives, and tracking products through to delivery.
There are many supply chain strategies you can try to update your approach, and these include digitization and demand forecasts, nearshoring and reshoring for lowering transit and shipping costs, decreasing lead times, and detecting possible product defects, and various BI practices.
Apart from objects, an ERP system allows you to track information such as sales, production statistics, staff productivity, as well as set up alerts for specific events, and more.
8. HR management
A large part of the HR operations includes data entry and reporting.
Data entry constitutes employee-related information, like demographics, department, contact number, designation, worked hours, payroll, additional benefits, and more.
A modern ERP solution makes it easy for you to pull the employee data from a centralized location and create reports that are laser-precise every time and drive business-expanding decisions.
HR's learning management module enables employees to develop relevant skills to perform their job better, producing highly skilled employees motivated to stay with the organization for extended periods and deliver a higher quality of work.
9. Supply chain planning
An ERP software with an elaborate supply chain management capability will deliver procurement of raw materials and a selection of versatile apt marketing channels to promote the finished products.
Obtaining the raw materials from suppliers and partners is made much easier with ERP software that determines inventory stock quantity, ensures replenishment, optimizes the production process to balance the demand and supply ratio, and helps you transport and distribute the finished goods.
A capable ERP software will let you obtain a reasonable price quote from the supplier, reduce waste, and ensure that the employees channel their efforts in the right direction.
All aspects of the supply chain process along with cross-platform visibility in real-time make for adaptable and cost-effective operations.
10. Sales and marketing
No matter the business you run, you will need to contact customers, track customer orders, raise sales invoices, receive payments, and process return orders and all of these functionalities will be the most expertly handled in the hands of proficient ERP software.
You can automatically track expenses against a particular customer, place targets for marketing personnel, track lost orders, and prepare detailed reports for marketing activities that help users analyze sales trends, forecast future sales, and more.
With an ERP tool, you can also access detailed customer profiles and sales history to understand the customers' preferences better and facilitate more effective product marketing practices and recommendations through upselling and cross-selling.
ERP Systems FAQ
The integrated management of main business processes through Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) in real-time mediated by software and technology is what we call an ERP system.
An ERP system is comprised of a suite of integrated applications used to collect, store, manage, and interpret data from business activities to enhance business project performance and forecast the success of planned tasks and operations.
The ERP systems can be local-based, cloud-based, or hybrid incorporating elements from both approaches, with the cloud-based systems growing the most in popularity due to information being easily accessible from any location.
An ERP system automatically updates the view of core business processes that track business resources like cash, raw materials, production capacity and business commitments statuses such as orders, purchase orders, payroll.
The integrated business management system generates information flow between all functions and manufacturing, sales, purchasing, accounting departments, and maintains connections with outside stakeholders.
With the varied organizational system integrations, an ERP system achieves error-free productions and transactions, facilitating individual employee maturity and enhanced organization's efficiency which leads to higher profits.
Representing a multibillion-dollar industry, ERP systems produce components that enable a variety of business-expanding functions, which causes an increased surge in popularity and use with each year across the world.
At the moment, the ERP market is in a phase of rapid expansion, growing by 9% in worldwide value in 2019 and estimated market size growth of over $49.5 billion by 2024.
Scoring a wide variety of ERP vendors, the ones with the highest combined Value Index and Net Emotional Footprint scores are the two tools from this list, NetSuite and Acumatica cloud ERP and FinancialForce ERP and Unit4 ERP.
However, considering the user satisfaction captured by the Value Index metrics and the high-level user sentiment of the Net Emotional Footprint, it is safe to say that Oracle ERP is the biggest ERP system currently deployed on the market in the customer accountability sense.
The cloud-based Oracle NetSuite is catered towards small-to-medium-sized businesses, but it is not the most used ERP software on the market currently as that title goes to Deltek.
Apart from being known for its comprehensive purchase order tracking and fixed asset management capabilities, Deltek is widely regarded as the top pick for small business ERP software.
Around 2019 SAP has been the leader in ERP software deployment and customer base in the overall market size, but Deltek has taken over the crown since then.
These statistics change year to year, so choosing the biggest might not be the best choice for you, as the term may represent the biggest overall use, but you could not align with the requirements of that software's customer base which is why it's best practice to choose according to your present and future needs.
Since there are two major deployment types, the ERP vendors use two different pricing models, and these include perpetual licensing and subscription plans.
Through the perpetual licensing model, the users pay the one-time upfront charge that can vary on the number of users and level of customization.
Companies that want to host the ERP software on their server, usually pay the perpetual licensing fee.
With the subscription plans, the customers can access the cloud ERP software which will be maintained by the vendor and hosted by a third-party data server.
The fees are paid per user either monthly or manually, and unlike the perpetual licensing model, the subscription plans usually include recurring costs like upgrades, maintenance, and support.
The subscription plans come in various tiers that increase in functionalities and modules as the prices go up.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 allows companies to purchase individual modules for a specific business area, and the sales module will cost you $65 per user per month while the more advanced sales module will be increased to $95 per user per month.
NetSuite's pricing will be tailored to each customer individually, based on the ERP configuration, number of add-on modules, total number of users, and contract length, but the base access will cost you $999 per month with access fees of $99 per user per month.
An ERP report conducted in 2019 showed the average budget per user in an ERP project to be $7,200, with the mid-sized business along with the added costs requiring between $150K and $750K.
Which ERP System Should I Choose?
Through an ERP system, you will be able to run your entire company from a single platform while increasing your employees' productivity and making significant cuts on the production costs.
Odoo is versatile and offers a slew of business management, web presence, and sales integrations, as well as a website builder, and SAP is the ideal solution for multi-operational enterprises handling complex workflows, but the overall best-performing ERP software is NetSuite.
A feature-rich and industry-standard ERP software like NetSuite is the #1 choice for a scalable business management tool that offers an extensive suite of business operations management and employee productivity applications with delivered real-time data on multinational and multi-subsidiary procedures.