With growing sales, your wholesale distribution business will encounter numerous roadblocks. Whether it’s scrambling around to maintain accurate inventory records or tracking the orders from multifarious channels, things will get tougher. If not done in an organized manner, the business efficiency may take a hit. Besides, customers nowadays do not hesitate to take their business elsewhere if their expectations aren’t met. So, integrating wholesale distribution ERP software can be the key to unlocking your business’s true potential and streamlining the workflows with the growing demands. Below we have illustrated a few tips you can capitalize on to get the most out of an ERP software.
Clarify the business goals
Your goals will define the way you use the ERP software for your wholesale distribution business. So, use the SMART goals to quantify your progress and measure your success in real-time. This will include:
- Specific: All the goals defined should be specific, like the time taken to achieve the goals or the reasons for achieving the goals.
- Measurable: You need to set a few metrics that can quantify your success in terms of your goals.
- Achievable: The goals need to be achievable with the resources you have in hand.
- Realistic: Ensure the goals are achievable in real time with no expectations set beyond your business’s true capabilities.
- Time-Bound: Define a proper timeline to achieve the goals.
Aligning ERP features with the business workflows
As this wholesale software comes with numerous features and modules, you cannot go straight into integrating the application with your business’s core framework. Before doing so, you need to align your business workflows with the WRP features so that you can streamline the processes accurately.
For this, identify the key areas for improvement in your business given the goals you have to achieve. For instance, if scaling your business is making inventory management a hurdle, you need ERP software with an advanced inventory tracking and management module. Similarly, if you need more data insights and accurate KPIs, the ERP software should have a dedicated analytical and reporting dashboard module.
Focus on customization of the ERP software
Using an off-the-shelf wholesale distribution ERP software may not be right for your business goals and objectives. As the software will have standard features, your business’s capabilities may be limited. That’s why it’s better to invest in a customizable ERP model. This way you can modify the software and align its features with your business workflows and processes. For example, use a custom reporting dashboard of the ERP software to get valuable and accurate insights into your business’s sales and finances.
User training can facilitate technology adoption
The ERP wholesale software is a complex application with numerous features and modules, each having a set of dedicated functions. So, if the users are not trained enough, they won’t be able to leverage it to bring the necessary changes in your business. This can further delay your plans of achieving the pre-defined goals and may even lead to reduced efficiency and poor performance. So, you should invest in proper user training so that your employees get knowledge about using the ERP software and its modules with ease.
For instance, you can train your employees about customizing the reporting dashboard as per the needs of different teams so that reading the data can become easier. Similarly, your employees should be aware of automated processes like stock updates, order management, and others so that they can easily work on the tasks without resorting to manual workarounds.
Leverage analytics and reporting for better decision-making
Use the real-time KPI dashboards and analytical features of the wholesale distribution ERP software to stay ahead of time and understand the key pain points of your business in detail. Below are some of how this module will help you in the long run.
- The reports and analytics can be evaluated to identify patterns for business growth opportunities.
- You can identify the areas that require more improvements, be it the sales funnel or the marketing strategies.
- Decision-making can become more proactive once you gain valuable insights from the data reports.
Capitalize on inventory management to reduce unnecessary expenses
As the ERP software comes with an advanced inventory management module, you can use the same to cut down unnecessary costs and streamline the supply chain performance for your wholesale business. For instance, automating inventory updates will help you maintain stock levels across multiple warehouses or systems with ease. This can cut down the expenses on manual workarounds or the monetary losses due to errors in inventory tracking. Apart from this, the inventory management module of the ERP software will also eliminate the risks of overstocking and understocking through demand forecasting.
Conclusion
With this, we can conclude that if the wholesale distribution ERP software is used correctly, it can pave a new way for your business toward innovation and agility. However, for this, you need to plan everything and ensure your employees receive proper training about the software modules so that they can get started with the work after the ERP implementation.
