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When it comes to growing your manufacturing business, speed is the name of the game. When technology capabilities increase, customer expectations tend to increase at an even faster rate. Customers now assume that key team members working anywhere will have complete project information at their fingertips. Not with a fake cloud ERP solution.
Your bottom line depends on your ability to exploit new business opportunities before your competitors do. Consider why a cloud system is needed to deal with this challenge:
- Every decision you make on the shop floor or in the field is closely tied to accounting—and every accounting decision requires heavy input from the shop floor, sales, and service departments. Wherever your employees are working, they need speedy access to all the information that’s relevant to the decision at hand.
- Mobile technology has certainly streamlined communication for manufacturers— but they still lack the real-time visibility they need to answer a question or make a critical decision.
Installed in one central location and accessible by an extended team via desktop computers, laptops, or mobile devices, hosted or cloud solutions are designed to meet these challenges.
True or False- All “cloud solutions” are equal
False. Many legacy ERP vendors from the 1990s have not updated their applications to be true cloud solutions. In some cases, they moved their legacy software onto a server where they “host” it and provide access over the internet by way of adapter software. This is not true cloud software; it’s fake cloud software.
This is more than just a technicality. Fake cloud solutions can have severe consequences for those who use them, such as:
- Increased long-term ownership costs
- Hindered future business process improvements
- Difficulty accessing business data from the field
The bottom line: Not all legacy applications hosted on the internet are cloud software. Fake cloud software occurs when legacy applications are adapted and hosted on the internet, but never truly designed to be delivered and used via the cloud.
Eight Ways to Identify True Cloud Manufacturing Software
Even after you’ve identified what seems to be a viable cloud ERP solution for your manufacturing company, be aware that not all cloud solutions are created equal. Many fall short by not offering a feature or characteristic that’s easy to overlook.
Here are eight things your cloud ERP solution must offer:
- Full functionality and reporting offered on common mobile devices as well as on the desktop
- Personalization
- Full integration of spreadsheets, data services, apps, and equipment
- Software that was built using modern, commonly available tools and standards
- The ability to pay by resource usage, not by the user
- Industry-standard security
- Deployment options
- Easy upgrades
Your manufacturing firm needs real-time visibility into sales, order management, inventory, purchasing, production and services—and accounting information.
Cloud solutions can help, but only if they’re built the right way. Before you consider implementing a cloud manufacturing ERP solution, take the time to find out what constitutes a true cloud solution, and what distinguishes it from the many fake cloud solutions on the market.
To do so, download the full whitepaper True Cloud vs. Fake Cloud: How Manufacturing Companies Can Tell the Difference. Be sure to check out the sections “Four Ways the Cloud Can Enhance Productivity for Manufacturing Companies” as well as “Why Mobile Devices Alone Can’t Meet the Need for Real-Time Information”.
Are you ready to evaluate Acumatica? Contact CAL Business Solutions at [email protected] or 860-485-0910×4.
By CAL Business Solutions, Acumatica and Microsoft Dynamics GP Partner, www.calszone.com
