Four Reasons Growing Businesses Choose Cloud ERP
The decision to implement new ERP software is rarely an easy decision. Making such a large investment is often challenging, disruptive, and time-consuming, but compared with the alternative that is “doing nothing,” many businesses see that the option is not only preferable, it’s necessary.
As you look to make the move to improve your business processes, we are happy to share with you a report that surveyed companies just like yours on their journey to the cloud. This report, the SMB Group Clearing the ERP Clouds report, looked to answer a wide range of questions that business owners at growing businesses may need to ask en route to a new ERP platform.
Whether you are looking to move beyond entry level accounting software or replace an outdated platform, this report looks to address the challenges and opportunities that may come into the decision. This report touched on many concepts including deployment options, attitudes, security concerns, and best practices, including a look at the following—reasons companies like yours make the move.
Cost Efficiency
One of the most common reasons businesses have made the move to the cloud is rooted in cost control. Especially in SaaS applications, with rapid implementation and decreased reliance on internal IT, companies replace massive initial investments and lifetime licenses (paired with costly support plans) with a stable, predictable, and cost-efficient monthly fee.
The number one driver of cloud ERP adoption, the companies who have made the move are reaping the rewards; according to Computer Economics determined that on average “cloud users spend 21% less on IT as a percentage of revenue and 16% less on IT on a per-user basis.”
Ease of Deployment
Paired with the lower costs of cloud applications, many companies opt for cloud applications due to the ease of deployment and decreased risk of implementation. The problem for many companies deploying on-premises applications is the increased number of steps that go into such a deployment. Servers have to be bought and provisioned before the software is installed, creating more challenges for businesses. Additionally, the process that goes into implementing and integrating software has many more steps, as legacy applications are rarely built to integrate as well as modern cloud applications.
All of this adds up, and the companies moving to implement on-premises applications face additional risks, increased time frames, and more challenges.
Increased Flexibility
Another key driver for businesses is the increased flexibility they get when they move to the cloud. Rather than potentially business-breaking updates that occur annually, cloud vendors deliver new features 2-4 times per year, allowing organizations to leverage new features more often with less risk.
Added to this, the pricing model will allow companies to add or remove users with ease, and a resource-based pricing model will take this even further. Public ERP vendors can quickly provision a new instance of their solution to help your business become productive more quickly than if it were implementing an on-premises solution, and to scale resources up or down as needs change.
With a cloud ERP implementation, all of your business-critical information is stored in one database. This give everyone a complete, consistent view of the business, makes it easier to manage workflows, and ensured that you have the right data at your fingertips to make the best decisions for your company.
Improved Security
Innovation and flexibility is one benefit, but public cloud vendors are innovating on another front as well—security. Vendors of these applications understand that they are only as good as the service they provide and that years of building a reputation can be gone in an instant. Therefore, these companies invest heavily in security in order to protect both the users that exist and their reputation.
In the blog Is Your Data Safer in the Cloud, Acumatica author Bob Garofallou explored the difference between security on-premises and in the cloud, noting that cloud vendors work to meet or exceed current security standards such as SOC2 Type II, while equipping their facilities with network security tools that few small- to mid-sized companies can match.
Advance with Axiology
At Axiology, we understand that the path to improving your business is rife with pitfalls. We’ve been in this business for decades and know how important it is to look past the hype and the jargon to make a decision that positions your business for growth. As a leading Acumatica VAR, we have helped companies just like yours to select, implement, and operate business management software like ERP.
We invite you again to download the entire SMB Group Clearing the ERP Clouds here, get to know more about our work with companies like yours, and contact us for a free consultation.
Additional ERP Resources
How To Understand Options in a Postmodern ERP World
Business Intelligence in ERP: More Than Hype, More than Dashboards