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August 30, 2019

SaaS ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) explained

In our blog, we already published material about SaaS development. It specifically refers to business software applications that are delivered via the cloud. From human resources to business planning – nearly every type of business function now is available via SaaS.  By this article, we are going to expand this topic and to explain more what is SaaS ERP exactly is and why it can be useful for you.

(Software-as-a-Service) is a type of cloud computing, a software that is owned, delivered and managed remotely by one or more providers. Syndicode provides secure, reliable, scalable and efficient SaaS solutions since 2014! SaaS is not only about the software itself, but also about the appropriate use of the available resources. Syndicode plans and develops applications using the architecture suitable for your business. We relate our approach with your vision and deeply understand the problem you are solving. This allows us to provide rapid time to market and reduce product development risk.

1. What’s ERP?

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) is an integrated business process management software that makes it possible for a company to have a system of applications and automate many functions in the field of technology and human resources. ERP software usually is responsible for the integration of all types of operations, like product planning, development, design, sales, and marketing. It all happens in a single database, application and user interface. Today, it’s hard to imagine a software development management without ERP systems. They are managing thousands of businesses of different types and sizes and in all industries.

2. Types of ERP systems

Let’s look at the top ERP systems that exist today:

  • IPIX ERP
  • Odoo ERP – 4 Millions of users grow their business with Odoo ERP.
  • Optipro ERP
  • TC ERP – Integrated ERP Software
  • Infinite Creativity
  • SAP R/3.
  • Tech Cloud ERP
  • SAP B1.
  • LN(BaaN)
  • Microsoft Dynamics AX.
  • Microsoft Dynamics NAV.
  • JD Edwards
  • Oracle Financials.
  • PeopleSoft

SAP is one of the best-known suppliers of ERP software systems that offers 2 solutions: R/3 suite and the B1 suite. It can be used on many platforms, including Unix, Windows Server, and OS/400.

Baan ERP software is made for manufacturing industries working on complex supply. Such companies like The Boeing Company, Flextronics, Evenflo, Ferrari, Solectron, Fiat, and British Aerospace & Engineering Systems use it.

Microsoft NAV is mainly used for business with small and medium-sized business models. Its modules are used for e-commerce, CRM, supply chain management, manufacturing, and finance.

Oracle offers E-Business Suite Financials and PeopleSoft. The first one is used mainly by financial services and distributed organizations. Its modules are created for financial and operational information, planning, budgeting, etc. PeopleSoft supports complex business modules like with a wide range of database systems and hardware architectures.

3.  Advantages and disadvantages of ERP systems

You could just believe us if we say that using ERP systems has many advantages. But we like to prove our statements with facts. So let’s name some of the main advantages of this software:

  • It’s easier to manage most of the cross-departmental business processes
  • When using newer technologies, you can collect more useful insights from data, whether it’s about analytics, machine learning or industrial IoT capabilities.
  • You can save money from the management of long-term streamlining processes.
  • Using systems you can reduce IT-related expenses and user training costs.
  • The software has a convenient reporting and planning system.
  • It allows better compliance and data security, also the data, backup and the ability to control user rights are improved.

Of course, no system is perfect. And it wouldn’t be fair to say anything about the disadvantages of this software. Let’s take into consideration some of them:

  • The upfront cost of a system can be high.
  • You can face some difficulties with the implementation of the software.
  • There is a possibility you will need to change management after the implementation.
  • Its basic ERP modules may be simple compared to targeted software.
  • Sometimes companies may require additional modules to take more control in such field as supply chain or customer relationship capabilities.

But we are sure you are not frightened by its drawbacks and continue reading our article. That’s the right decision!

4. SaaS ERP purpose and advantages

If you are still wondering why do you need SaaS ERP at all, this section is here to shed some light on the matter.

ERP solutions were created to ensure one single source of data truth. With the help of SaaS-based solutions, this functionality comes to another level by expanding the ERP ecosystem out to mobile devices using modern interfaces that fuel productivity.

Such a system allows you to manage business processes at the organization level, collecting, unifying and sorting information from different departments. Today it is very difficult to find a large company that would not use an ERP system. At the same time, the growth rate of sales of such systems among small and medium-sized businesses is also constantly growing.

Benefits of a SaaS service system, such as low cost and scalability, are usually enough to change the minds of potential customers. It is much safer and more economical to issue a six-month subscription to the service than to invest a lot of money in installing a software package that may not pay off. Of course, the integration problem does exist, and the manufacturers of the ERP system must take measures to solve it, but the fact that even small businesses are starting to use SaaS ERP solutions indicates how effective the cloud service system is.

SaaS ERP advantages:

  1.  You can have workflows, processes and all necessary data integrations without working with the core ERP module. It provides you with the flexibility you need.
  2. In the standard model, the relationship between the buyer and the supplier most often ends immediately after purchasing the software. When it comes to SaaS, the user can contact the provider at any time for support. Regular updates are available to all customers of the service.
  3. For a large company, it’s a possibility to save some money. They don’t need to purchase a program and install separately on each computer, so several users can work on it. The main thing is to have access to the Internet, as well as a username and password.
  4. Some services are simply impossible to implement on the company’s own server. They cannot exist as traditional software, but only as SaaS. Such a solution, if desired, can be developed independently. But this requires significant resources.
  5. Not every SaaS ERP system works equally. You can bring this expertise to SaaS solution, providing the flexibility and power of a traditional cloud-based ERP setup.

4.1. How SaaS ERP is different from on-premise ERP?

It happened that ERP had to adapt to the cloud paradigm. On-prem systems were too big and it was hard to move them online at once. So, finance business teams had nothing to do except trusting SaaS solutions like Salesforce, Netsuite, and Workday to have the ability to cope with big quantities of important data. They were flexible and that was their advantage.

One of the challenges of setting up ERP on-premises was the inability to customize a huge software suite to fit one company’s use case. And finally, SaaS found a solution. Their applications started to integrate from the outset. Now, all of them could be connected to other components easily. Now, SaaS apps are easy to install and it lowers the risk of trying new software.

The era of AI and machine learning brought new opportunities. Now there is real-time data automation. The process of instructing finds a pattern, pass it to data and let the computer refine this model over many iterations. After many cycles, the software has patterns that wouldn’t be possible for a human. There is only one challenge, we need to correspond to this changing environment as fast as we can.

5.  Innovations for great Enterprise Resource Planning

If we talk about enterprises, the main thing to stay ahead of the pack is using innovations. If you run the business, you should know that you should constantly move and be aware of the new technologies to gain more customers and profits. 

There are many tech solutions that will definitely help you to reach new horizons. But we have more practical information on how these innovations can grow your business.

5.1. The role of cloud solutions in ERP

Cloud computing (“the cloud”) is the delivery of on-demand computing resources — everything from applications to data centers — over the internet on a pay-for-use basis.
There are the next benefits of cloud computing:

  • Cost efficiency
  • Scalability
  • Speed
  • Integration
  • Audit and compliance
  • Business continuity planning

Some of the main cloud solution’s benefits are that they give you access to the numerous tools to help you focus on building your on-demand application. Stackdriver Monitoring, Stackdriver debugger, Stackdriver Logging, security scanner service (App Engine) and many more. You can use them all immediately as part of your application lifecycle pipeline.

Nowadays cloud computing has become more cost-efficient, reliable and secure. All the major providers are now investing in their hardware, software, and global networking infrastructure to obtain more market share. Due to the competition between them, the DevOps teams received very sophisticated, easy-to-integrate, fast and hi-end solutions. As the quality remains almost equal, the difference between main cloud computing providers lies mostly in price and the number of options you get.

To enable IT operations, a software development company should provide the proper IT infrastructure architecture. Then, you have to apply all the best practices for infrastructure architecture available nowadays:

  • cloud-first,
  • containers,
  • virtualized platforms,
  • reusability.

Building your infrastructure architecture is a hard and slow process that demands a lot of dedication, passion, skills, and money. Even with the latest available solutions, you still need experts to guide you. That’s why we advise you to rely on some trusted guys who can provide you with Infrastructure-as-a-Service! And, of course, with SaaS ERP! Rely on Syndicode! No more searching and comparisons, we can build you a modern, secure, reliable and scalable product!

6. The future of SaaS ERP

Along with other technologies, a high-quality ERP system can become part of the digital transformation of the business. This solution will automate the internal processes of your company, while technologies like Big Data, business intelligence, data science add value to your data. This is the reason why many software vendors began to actively invest in ERP technology. Despite its appearance almost three decades ago, we can say that today ERP systems are experiencing their rebirth.

Thus, the choice of the right supplier of ERP-systems for the next step in business development is important and will soon be taken by the leaders of any business existing in the context of digital transformation.

There are predictions, that ERP system will not be a single system. It will be a complicated system with the architecture of the application that will integrate core ERP systems with point SaaS applications. This system will cope with a lot of functions such as sales, HR, recruiting, procurement, management, and logistics. And all this can work together as a single software system.

7. Hire Syndicode for SaaS Enterprise Resource Planning!

Why us? Syndicode is a full-cycle software development company which makes our services more reliable, sophisticated, and cheaper. The quality of our software development is well-known all over the world. Syndicode has a huge experience in web and mobile development for different industries since 2014. To check this please explore our portfolio.

Here there are points you need to take into account while choosing to work with a dedicated team of developers:

  • It is profitable to outsource your business to other countries where the taxes and salaries are lower.
  • Be prepared that it’s a time-consuming process as such partnership usually has a long-term ground.
  • Both sides need to ensure long-term guarantees.
  • Sometimes it’s hard to predict the quality of the services so take time to research the market and evaluate the quality risks.

At Syndicode, we are building strong relationships with our clients by showing all the stages of our work transparent and bringing great results. We also try to answer all of the client’s questions and reduce all possible fears. And we offer you one of the best dedicated software development team!