As business environments become more complex, the demands on project managers and other decision-makers tend to rise as well. All growing businesses eventually reach a point where moving projects forward while still keeping an acceptable level of risk is unfeasible. This is when companies must reorganize their project management system and invest in technologies to make achieving their next levels of growth sustainable.
Though all businesses face this conundrum, the stakes can be higher for small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Modern technologies have empowered SMEs to make them more capable of managing vast amounts of resources. Nevertheless, the increase in capabilities also means that more is often at stake, especially within today’s era of hyper-competitive business.
Against this ever-present challenge, enterprise resource planning (ERP) software serves to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of SMEs, particularly those that are just beginning their digital transformation. ERPs are far from new, but the development of mature cloud computing systems has made them more accessible to a wider spectrum of businesses.
Here are several critical project management roles currently being filled by today’s cloud ERP systems:
1. Supporting Remote Work
Perhaps the most critical benefit of cCloud ERP systems is that they enable project managers to lead their teams effectively, regardless of geographical location. These systems facilitate seamless collaboration and resource tracking, ensuring that remote projects run as smoothly as in-office ones.
2. Cohesive Project Planning and Scheduling across Multiple Business Units
Cloud ERP systems make it simple to plan projects that fall under various channels and business units, facilitating a consistently optimized use of resources. With a better view of the available resources and challenges across the entire organization, the tradeoffs involved in management can be minimized by enabling accurate predefined deadlines for deliverables. This capability can be especially invaluable during major projects that require all hands to participate.
3. Enhanced Collaboration within the Organization
Cloud ERP systems embedded with project management modules remove roadblocks to collaboration by capturing data on a single platform, allowing for seamless data exchange among colleagues, wherever they may be. Removing old communication barriers keeps everyone updated on timelines and statuses, eliminating unnecessary delays and creating a culture of trust and transparency.
4. Streamlined Task Allocation
Automated cloud ERP systems can be set up to record employee information, making it easier to track available resources and assign tasks to the most skilled team members. This ensures optimal use of human resources across an organization and helps improve overall productivity.
5. Easy File Access and Sharing
Modern cloud ERP systems are designed with the lessons of previous generations’ systems fully in mind, particularly in areas of UX/UI (user experience and user interfaces). Most cloud ERPs available today offer a vastly simplified but secure experience when sharing and updating documents. These systems also maintain change logs, ensuring project transparency and trust between collaborators.
6. Smooth Integration of New Team Members
Fast-evolving projects often require new team members to be onboarded quickly. Cloud ERP systems simplify this process by providing visual overviews of project progress and maintaining comprehensive project logs. This makes it easier for new members to immediately integrate and contribute to a project, regardless of where they physically are.
7. Early Risk Mitigation
The faster diffusion of data across organizations enabled by cloud ERPs helps project managers spot risks before they have the chance to negatively affect the business. Properly configured cloud-based systems can provide decision-makers with real-time data, removing the guesswork in forecasting and avoiding costly disruptions.
8. Multi-site Inventory and Resource Management
Traditional ERP systems have been used to automate inventory management for decades. Cloud ERPs, however, take this capability to a new level by allowing project managers to track inventory levels across multiple business locations accurately. This ensures that levels of stocks for merchandise and production inputs are always visible, allowing managers to execute optimal ordering and warehousing strategies. This level of visibility allows the business to streamline its existing processes significantly and to prevent any subsequent project delays due to poor inventory management.
9. Budget Optimization
As with previous-generation ERPs, cloud ERP systems can keep track of various project-related costs and many can be set up to facilitate automated purchases. These functions can free project managers from tedious budgeting activities and help prevent financial overruns that delay operations.
10. Comprehensive Reporting and Analytics
Today’s cloud ERPs offer highly customizable reporting tools to aid project managers when making presentations to different stakeholders, including those based remotely. With clearer reporting, decision-makers at every level can make better choices that keep the business consistently moving forward.
Explore the Possibilities of Cloud ERPs for Your Business
Though SMEs are, perhaps, the class of businesses that are most likely to benefit from cloud ERPs, the decentralized structure of these systems makes them an excellent choice regardless of a business’s size. If an enterprise does not require on-site servers for compliance reasons, a pure cloud or hybrid model can give project managers a major boost in capabilities.
No matter the industry or business objectives, cloud ERP software can streamline processes, enhance collaboration, and ensure successful project execution. With suitable vendors offering sufficient training and support, a business of any size can deploy a powerful yet resilient decentralized ERP that’s tailored to their evolving project management needs.
James is the head of marketing at Tamoco
