How Cloud ERP is the key to becoming an intelligent and sustainable business enterprise?

The COVID-19 pandemic forced companies, especially in the mid-market segment, rethink their strategies and pivot their operations to adapt to the changing environment. Some of these strategies that emerged during the lockdown proved to be critical to the functioning of enterprises. As companies moved towards a hybrid model, they depended on technology to enable employees to stay connected and access tools and data.

The story wasn’t any different on the customer side. Today, we are looking at a new generation of customers who expect faster delivery of products and services, nonstop product and service improvements, greater reliability, and lower costs. To cater to this growing population of customers, businesses need software that not only helps them handle increasingly complex internal processes, but also manage business networks all over the world. One of the most dependable solutions is cloud ERP.

The rise of cloud ERP

Companies are moving Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) to the cloud in order to leverage the benefits that come with cloud-based ERP. Cloud ERP is a software designed for the primary purpose of integration of the various areas in a business process into one system. It provides advanced functionality for all the core processes in an organisation. Modern cloud ERP systems improve operations, support changes to outdated business models and processes, and introduce new capabilities that support business best practices.

It comes with an array of advanced features and flexibility that make it a must-have in today’s digital world. As per an IDC report in association with SAP, 65 percent of organisations will invest in highly configurable AI infused ERP applications by 2023 to achieve greater autonomy in business processes. There are various reasons for this shift - Growing businesses have developed a core set of ERP software requirements to help them compete more effectively, grow revenue, and increase agility and resilience. As per the IDC report, these requirements include more focus on vertical markets, greater emphasis on ecosystem, better UX, more agility through collaboration, demand for greater process controls and more.

Cloud ERP enables organisations to focus on continuous business innovations, offers savings, fast flexible implementations, simplicity and automation, new functionality, better insights, secure mobile device support, access to new technologies, deeper security, and scalability.

Businesses choosing cloud ERP are accelerating their digital transformation journey by gaining immediate access to tools that can truly drive change with flexibility and agility.

A boon for the midmarket segment

For the mid-market segment, cloud ERP automates processes, provides insights using AI/ML, and helps them innovate constantly. Key reasons why India's mid-market segment suddenly began to take notice of the software are:

Improved agility: To continue growing, it is important to not depend on old systems that are not flexible. Cloud ERP enables remote workforce management and collaboration, drives quick reaction time, gives all organisational departments a unified and accurate picture of the business, and complies with accounting standards and regulations.

Visibility into cash flow: Cloud ERP integrates accounting processes with business operations, both internal and external – so absolutely everything can be accounted for with accuracy.

Ease of application integration: Midsize companies have been running behind in the race to change their core ERP. Adding additional solutions can be expensive and complex because not all tools integrate with their ERP choice. A modern cloud ERP makes integration easy, scalable, and agile.

Growing with ‘RISE with SAP’

SAP S/4HANA Cloud is the company's intelligent ERP system. It is intended for organizations that want to grow over time as well as for enterprise organizations that face complex industry requirements. SAP's intelligent ERP system allows organizations to be more productive and efficient by streamlining and automating processes. Various enterprises have utilised the solution, experiencing a drastic difference in their output.

For most companies, migration to the cloud is a necessity to not just survive, but thrive. It comes with faster processes, better information, and rapid ROI. Today, intelligent enterprises are the ones who are making the most of the ecosystem changes and staying ahead of the curve. And it will not be inaccurate to say that cloud ERP will be a gamechanger for many.