Midsize businesses “pay” for their use of entry-level accounting systems by not having the essential information they need readily available and by using up valuable time that could be better spent generating business, finding issues or responding to opportunities sooner or simply enhancing the efficiency of the organization. Nevertheless, the transition from an entry-level accounting package such as QuickBooks to an on-premises system can be daunting for companies whose entry-level software no longer addresses their needs. Usually, the shortcomings start off as minor annoyances for companies that have between 100 and 500 employees and grow over time, and usually the pain grows with the number of employees and the volume and complexity of the underlying business. As business volumes expand and complexity grows, entry-level accounting systems are increasingly less able to support the underlying business. Yet finance executives usually don’t want to migrate to a new system until their old software threatens the orderly management of the business or becomes an overwhelming burden on finance operations. I know this firsthand, since not all that long ago I worked at a company where the CFO thought his biggest IT challenge was finding spare parts for the ancient Burroughs mainframe on which our financial system ran.
Midsize Companies Find ERP in the Cloud Increasingly Attractive
Topics: Customer Experience, ERP, Office of Finance, end-to-end, finance cloud, Cloud Computing, Business Performance Management (BPM), Business Process Management, CFO, finance, Financial Performance Management (FPM), Sales Performance Management (SPM), accounting software, business process execution, financial systems, FPM
Users Should Apply ERP To Manage End-to-End Processes
ERP systems not only collect information about transactions, they also automate processes. The latter includes managing the handoffs between roles and enabling electronic document creation and management associated with that. Indeed, it was the promise of improving process management and process execution that spurred companies to adopt ERP in the 1990s.
Topics: Customer Experience, ERP, Office of Finance, Operational Performance Management (OPM), end-to-end, Business Performance Management (BPM), Business Process Management, CFO, Financial Performance Management (FPM), business process execution
