Investing in ERP in times of crisis, a way to achieve the survival of a company

In times of economic crisis all companies in all sectors suffer. To a greater or lesser extent they all suffer the consequences of an adverse economic situation and are forced to take measures in order to be profitable, more competitive and, in most cases, to weather the storm and survive. Of course, there are always exceptions and there are always enterprising companies that use the crisis as a springboard to reinvent themselves or to detect new business opportunities in previously unexplored areas.

Regardless of the situation and the business of each company, in general, the organisations that are affected the most are those that do not have a defined business practice and which do not have tools that provide them with information to make fast and accurate decisions. These are the ones that end up being overwhelmed by a lack of control over their business processes.

At this point no one doubts that companies, both large and small, are mostly aware of the importance of investing in technological solutions that allow them to substantially improve their situation. These IT tools enable them to automate their business processes; to plan, carry out and supervise resources and activities; to coordinate and organise large volumes of information from different sources; and to manage it all not only to speed up decision-making processes, but also to make them more real, accurate and effective. An example of this would be ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning): solutions, which have become a strategic investment for any organisation because, as their initials indicate, they contribute to the management and planning of business resources by boosting operative efficiency, increasing the performance of the human team and by optimising their customer service, in addition to encouraging cost savings.

ERP systems help companies to progress in times of crisis, we find the inconvenience in the investment effort that has to be made in a scenario with a backdrop of constant cuts. This becomes more acute if we focus on the market of small and medium-sized companies, which are the ones that are suffering the most, despite being those that generate the highest number of jobs.

The situation is serious, true, but the short-term vision of the measures taken will not necessarily be a guarantee of an improvement for the business. In addition to this handicap there is the reluctance or poor habit of making investments in IT that small and medium companies have in our country and a culture of innovation that is relatively scarce or which is not currently a priority for many companies.

But it is now more than ever when we must invest in technology and innovation, because what usually happens is that the solution to adverse situations involves improving efficiency and productivity, rationalising processes and accessing information in real time, encouraging the participation of all the parties involved in a process and turning the data into knowledge. Here is where ERP becomes essential, because managing a business pro-actively during a period of economic recession is a huge challenge for many companies, particularly small and medium-sized businesses.

The excuse that extensive spending is necessary is no longer valid, as the market offers a variety of standard solutions, highly modular and with a great capacity for parametrisation, which are available under a licence or in the cloud, and where the quality-price and functionality-ROI binomials offer a high level of satisfaction. If measures are taken and coordinated action adapted to the business needs is planned, if methods that encourage efficiency are adopted, companies will be able to reinforce their organisation and, by extension, their results and jobs. The use of business analysis tools and integrated software facilitates this whole process, reduces the operative and financial complexity, and helps to coordinate operations, whether they are remote or not, in addition to providing a clear vision of the factors that influence performance.

Zuriñe Sáenz, Account Manager of Lantek Solutions.

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