The ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning Software is an application which streamlines the entire operation and help both employees and the management in effectively performing their day to day tasks. The ERP software can greatly maximize the outcome of the business by enabling them to effectively manage their resources. We have witnessed that most of the businesses in Dubai and all around the UAE thinks that an ERP solution is for large enterprises and production industry, however that is not true at all. In the modern fast-paced digital era the businesses need to effectively manage their resources to maximize their efficiency, which can provide them with the much needed competitive advantage and help them grow over the time. Another strong argument that most of the business leader has is that they are already utilizing a bunch of business tools and software solution, their manual processes and excel spread sheets based management methods or their small size or industry they operates in doesn’t require a sophisticated and advanced ERP software solution. It is true that the implementation of an ERP software solution requires a lot of research, efforts, and also have a cost associated to it, but the benefits and value it offers in unmatched.
Why Businesses Need an ERP Software?
The ERP Software is offers a central information management framework which links will all other third-party tools and systems and have ability to provide real-time updates, analysis, reports, performance, stats and much more. The enterprise resource planning software drives efficiency and productivity with automation and innovation which help businesses enhance the quality and quantity of the outcome of their resources and maximize their operational capabilities. Here are the key reasons why business need an ERP Software solution:
- Greatly increase performance and efficiency
- Reduce operational cost and eliminate waste
- Eliminate the inadequacy of the existing digital ecosystem
- Get rid of time-taking manual data processing via spreadsheets
- Significantly enhance functionality and help employees in day to day tasks
- Eliminate errors and problems associated with manual processes
- Get real-time updates, centralized information management system
- Enable real-time data synchronization and sharing with all internal systems
- Enhance and improve management by gaining more visibility into processes
- Maximize the growth rate and increase overall profitability
The benefits and advantages of the ERP or enterprise resource planning software solution far outweighs the implementation efforts and cost. However, when it comes to implementing an ERP software solution, businesses leaders often find themselves confused between the off-the-shelf ERP and custom ERP software development.
What is the Difference between Off-the-shelf ERP and Custom ERP Software Development?
The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf software solution is ready-made software application designed for a larger targeted audience often for masses and it is used to solve complex business problem(s). Every software serves a purpose, the business need a software to perform certain tasks or to support certain processes. The custom software development on the other hand is designed exclusively for a particular business or user group at a business who wants to solve their very unique and exclusive problems or to aid very specific business processes. That doesn’t limit the scope of the custom software development, in fact in terms of efficiency and impact the custom software development is the more beneficial method for businesses. It is the ability to cater to very specific business needs of various business processes or even the entire business which makes custom ERP software development more effective and highly efficient. The COTS ERP have limited adoptability and often require businesses to make changes to their workflows and processes, it is due to the design of the COTS ERPs as they are designed to meet the generic needs of a specific industry. However, the custom ERP software are far superior as they are exclusively designed by keeping in mind the needs, existing workflows and processes of the business.
What are the Advantages of a Custom ERP Software?
The custom ERP software meets the needs more effectively and are designed to solve the very specific and unique business problems. That is what makes them superior and more effective in the long term. Here are the key benefits of the custom ERP software:
Business Have Full Control over the ERP Features and Functionalities
In case of ERP software the one-fits-all is not applicable at all. The enterprise resource planning software is a core application which can have direct or indirect impact on each and everything a business does. Businesses over the time evolves differently, every business culture is unique and different form the others, even the businesses who operates in similar industries could have completely different organizational culture and business practices. This is why the generic off-the-shelf ERP solution is not enough and businesses need a very specific set of features and functionalities which can meet their exclusive needs. The custom ERP software development gives businesses full control over all features and functionalities, they can design the system according to their internal workflows and business processes which means the system will do exactly what the business needs. Aligning the features and functionalities of a custom ERP software can greatly enhance the productivity and efficiency and also improve the adoptability and integration of the system.
Businesses can Significantly Improve their Management Processes
Although the management structure and framework could be similar but every business leader have different preferences, priorities and management methodologies. This is why the custom ERP software development is great to improve and enhance the management processes. As it offers exactly what the management and managers needs and help them with their tasks to improve their efficiency. The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are designed for generic use that is why they missed this flavor of personalization and couldn’t meet all the needs of the management. The custom ERP software development on the contrary allow management to customize their administration dashboards and everything else. They can have customized features, customized data dashboards, and real-time updates according to their preference and priorities which significantly increase the visibility of the management and provide them a better framework to accomplish their desired objectives through the ERP system. Thus the businesses can apply their personalized methodologies and management structure which enhance their performance and improve the overall management process.
Flexible Scalability, Updates and Changes According to the Needs of the Business
For any software solution the scalability, future updates and upgrades and on-demand changes are the most important aspects to consider. The commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are designed for masses, there are always fees and charges attributed to scaling and customization. If a business needs some changes, they will have to bear hefty charges and even then the scope of the changes is very limited, as the structural changes, or customization in the application core are never possible, they COTS ERP software provider always limit such changes and customization. The custom ERP software development on the other hand offers more flexibility and control. Businesses can scale up or down whenever they want, they don’t have bear additional fees and in case they want to customize a feature or even the entire ERP software, they can do that. There is no restriction associated to changes and customization. Businesses can also update and upgrade the system whenever they need. That flexibility and control is extremely important for businesses growth and competitiveness.
Businesses will own their Customized ERP Software
The COTS or commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are always designed and developed by a vendor or service provider who holds the ownership rights to the software application. The businesses/users are always bound to an agreement, which in most cases favor the service provider. The service provider can change their policy anytime they want, they can increase the cost, they can drop certain features which you might be using and they might not introduce the features that you may need. This is what limits your control over your ERP system and have various other drawbacks. The custom ERP software development doesn’t have any such limitation or problem, the custom ERP software are exclusively designed for the business, either by an outsourcing partner, vendor or internal software development team. The business/user holds the full ownership rights to the final product, the vendor or outsourcing partner doesn’t own anything, they will have to deliver all the source codes, resources and everything utilized in the software. This also eliminate the dependency on a particular service provider, business can acquire custom software development services and then they can maintain the software in-house or they can acquire another business partner to do that for them. This also have cost benefits and help minimizing the operational and maintenance cost.
Custom ERP Software Development Offers Better Data Privacy and Protection
The commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are owned by the vendor or service provider hence they have more control over the data storage, protection, privacy, and recovery polices and the business who is using their software must have to comply with those policies. More importantly in case of an off-the-shelf or ready-made ERP software the business’s data will be stored in vendor’s data centers. The data that is stored in an ERP software is of great importance, any data breach or such compromise could permanently damage the business’s reputation and can have dire consequence. The custom ERP software development allow businesses more control over these policies and help them protect their data. Businesses can store their data in their local data centers or they can acquire a trusted cloud service to host their data from them. There is another important factor to consider is that the commercial off-the-shelf ERP software are available to tens of thousands of users all around the world, which means their structure and a lot of other aspects are well-known and this is what makes them more vulnerable. However, a customized ERP software is only available to the one user which means no one else is familiar with its structure which makes it more protected against common internet threats.
Custom ERP Software Development Provides a Great Competitive Advantage
As the commercial off-the-shelf ERP software solutions are available for masses and if you are using a popular ERP system the chances are your competitor might also be using the same. If all the tools and features that you are utilizing are available to your competitors too then you can never gain any competitive advantage. For any business the business tools, methodologies, practices and processes determines the outcome, performance and quality of the work. If you are your competitor are using same tools, then the chances are you can never gain a significant competitive advantage over them. There is another important thing to consider is that the commercial off-the-shelf ERP software solutions can never fulfill the 100% needs of a business, in fact when acquiring an off-the-shelf solution businesses often seek 80% compatibility, this means they compromise on the 20% or slightly less of the functionalities and features. However, the custom ERP software development fully aligns with the business needs and offer 100% solution of all you problems. On top of that the features and functionalities you will be using are exclusive to you, no other competitor will have access to those features and tools, which will give you a great competitive advantage.
Conclusion
The ERP software solutions are a great tool for modern businesses, no matter who large or small you are or which industry you belongs too, every business needs to streamline their processes and workflows. The modern businesses will have to ready to adopt to the highly dynamic market and customer trends and abrupt changes. Businesses need to optimize their productivity, performance and efficiency in order to optimize resources and minimize the expensive without compromising on the outcome and quality of the work. When businesses need to implement an ERP software they have two possibilities, either they can go with a commercial off-the-shelf ERP software or they can take the route of custom ERP software development. The packaged off-the-shelf software are easy and quicker to implement but have limited compatibility which not only prevent businesses to reach to their full potential but could also cause problems down the road. The custom ERP solutions are exclusively designed for the needs and specifications of the business and help businesses achieve the maximum efficiency, performance and productivity.
The custom ERP software development offer great competitive advantage, superior performance, better adoptability, more future readiness, and increase adoptability. In this blog we have listed the key advantages of the custom ERP software solution, if you want to learn more about the subject or if you want our help to design a customized ERP solution as per your needs, please feel free to contact us through our Contact Us or leave a comment in the comment box below and we will get in touch with you soon.
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