What is the connection between business intelligence and ERP

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) uses software and technology for the real-time management of integrated business functions. Using these systems can streamline your business decision making and provide data-driven insights to inform optimisations and potential new revenue streams. ERP systems can be local or cloud-based, depending on your specific requirements.
With this in mind, we're going to take a closer look at the connection between business intelligence and ERP. But first, let's consider the benefits both of these provide.

ERP

A robust ERP system will provide a business with an integrated overview of key departments such as:

• Financial and accounting
• Manufacturing processes
• Order management
• Materials purchasing or hiring
• Inventory tracking
• Distribution and logistics
• Production and project scheduling
• Customer relation management systems
• Procurement processes

Benefits of ERP

Implementing a new system takes planning, but the advantages gained are worth the preparation and can be offset by future savings. It's good due diligence to do a proper cost-benefit analysis before selecting or implementing your chosen system. This will allow you to secure a budget and support for the project from the right departments as well as senior management.

Benefits of implementing an ERP include:

• The cost-reducing integration of business processes
• Facilitates' standardised product codes
• Optimised supply chains with improved inventory and resource visibility
• Holistic data ensures faster and more accurate decision making
• End to end revenue tracking
• A centralised system with integration for all key business areas allows for better multi-department collaboration, standardised processes and a more agile business
• Can improve data security in a closed environment
• Enables sales forecasting for revenue projections
  
  

Business intelligence

• Data mining, which is the use of statistics and machine learning to uncover trends or patterns in large datasets
• Developing Key Performance Indicators and benchmarking to measure success and track progress
• Data querying to look for answers to specific questions within a dataset
  
  

Benefits of BI

• Analysing customer behaviour
• Comparing competitor vs in-house data
• Tracking performance based on KPIs
• Optimising operations across the business
• Predicting success through improved forecasting
• Uncovering bottlenecks or problems
  
  

Data-driven decision making

ERP systems and BI processes complement each other as one supplies centralised, integrated data, and the other requires data to improve business functions. Without a reliable and comprehensive overview of your data, it's impossible to generate good insights for new opportunities or even optimise existing processes.

With a set of data that reflects the activity of all of the departments in your business, you can use BI techniques to make faster, better-informed decisions that rely on empirical evidence. Any queries made will be more accurate if your data is standardised, centralised and reflective of your end to end process and each department. This type of holistic data view is made possible by robust ERP software.

Using your historical data and benchmarks will also allow you to more accurately track your business’ growth, which often has implications for the value of your business. In addition, access to complete datasets optimises the opportunities to streamline processes from manufacturing to customer relationship management.

To find out more about the connection between business intelligence and ERP and how it could benefit you, contact us