When considering a new ERP system or upgrading your current platform, choosing a cloud-based option has become increasingly attractive to most businesses. The majority of ERP vendors offer cloud deployment, including Microsoft in the form of Dynamics 365 Business Central or Finance & Operations. However, there are reasons why certain businesses would prefer a traditional on-premise solution. A cloud-based solution is easier to implement and requires less investment, but an on-premise solution is more customizable and offers greater control in some cases. By understanding the benefits and potential challenges of implementing cloud-based ERP, business owners can better determine the value to their organization as a whole.
The Adaptability of Cloud ERP
In any competitive market, staying up-to-date on the health and well-being of your business is just as important as maintaining a strong relationship with customers. With a cloud-based ERP solution, you can rest assured that you will always have access to your data at a moment’s notice. However, connectivity issues may cause delays and affect productivity. Fortunately, most ERP software have offline modes, and periodically syncs to your network to prevent any loss of information.
This level of accessibility does come with increased security risks, especially if users are accessing functionality from a mobile device. As a result, ERP vendors with cloud solutions have developed stricter rules to prevent data theft and security breaches. Unfortunately, in order to remain secure, cloud-based ERPs may offer less customization options. To counteract this lack of out-of-the-box options, there are third-party add-ons capable of supplementing gaps in ERP functionality.
The relative low cost and easy setup of a cloud-based ERP makes it ideal for a growing company looking for a scalable solution. As a company expands and adds legal entities, a consolidated business view available through Independent Software Vendors (ISV) allows for comprehensive real-time insights across an entire organization. Therefore, despite the lack of feature flexibility, a cloud-based ERP is a great way to conduct the data analysis you need to make informed business decisions.
Maximizing the Value of your ERP Investment
Cloud-based ERP can provide cost-effective solutions to resource heavy tasks and improve various business operations. From the start, a cloud-based system requires no upfront infrastructure costs compared to an on-premise solution. IT labor costs would diminish due to the lack of physical on-site servers to maintain. In addition, the operating expenses of a cloud-based ERP are fully tax-deductible in the year they are made, unlike on-premise ERP capital expenditures that depreciate each year. All of the above would result into a net savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars per year depending on the size of the business.
Managing your ERP through the cloud can improve the efficiency of any business department by making it easier to conduct inter-company transactions such as invoicing, purchase orders, receipts, and more. This may require additional software in order to access data across different databases seamlessly. Once setup has been established, balancing books accurately and in real-time becomes as easy as updating a single ledger. As a result, data analysis for month-end, quarterly, or year-end reporting requires less manual resources and can be completed in a shorter period of time.
Some of these time-saving benefits only available to cloud-based ERP systems can easily reduce your cost of ownership. You can improve your ROI further by investing in additional software from a certified ISV to enhance your capabilities and streamline recurring processes to save time and money. Therefore, a cloud-based ERP reduces overhead by dramatically minimizing the amount of effort it takes to complete inter-company transactions and reporting.
Improving Security and Maintaining Regulatory Compliance
Keeping up with changing security and regulatory compliance can be costly on an on-premise ERP system. In some cases, IT departments would need to update their entire platform in order to comply with any new accounting standards. Cloud-based ERPs are able to adapt to changing regulatory standards thanks to frequent updates and specific add-ons to ensure compliance at all times.
A cloud-based ERP system is inherently safer for your files because sensitive information does not live locally on any device. In the event a computer is stolen or compromised, it is shut down remotely and none of the data is accessible without proper credentials to prevent further complications. Staying up-to-date with security and accounting regulatory compliance allows greater business freedom to grow and expand into new markets. With a cloud-based ERP system, you can be fully transparent in order to report financial health accurately to all parties, whether they be government, stockholders, or offshore offices. Since cloud-based ERPs are monitored 24/7, automatic backups are the norm and will be there in case of theft or natural disaster.
Security is critical to a company’s success. Ensure the safety of your business with additional add-ons and third-party software your trusted ERP provider can recommend.
Enhance your Cloud-Based Microsoft Dynamics ERP with Binary Stream Solutions
Discover seamlessly integrated solutions for your Microsoft Dynamics ERP by Binary Stream. We simplify your various accounting procedures for inter-company Multi-Entity Management, Subscription Billing, Property Management, and more. These enterprise-grade ERP enhancements extend your Dynamics ERP to help your organization improve productivity and propel growth. We are an award-winning non-selling Microsoft Gold Certified ISV with 20+ years of experience creating scalable solutions for over 1900 customers worldwide in the finance, healthcare, hospitality, real estate, manufacturing and software.
Start enhancing your cloud-based Microsoft Dynamics 365 platform to do more with Binary Stream. Ask your ERP service provider for more information or visit binarystream.com to learn more.