High interest rates, rising business costs, and economic uncertainty are all pushing more companies to cut costs right now. Inflation is also at a 40-year high in the U.S., where the cost of labor, materials, equipment, and energy are all rising. Organizations are turning to technology to help them manage some of these variables, tackle challenges, and stay profitable.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) platforms like NetSuite help organizations save money and help to future proof your business, particularly when the software replaces aging legacy systems, disconnected solutions, and Excel spreadsheets. By streamlining the business management process, the modern, cloud-based ERP:
- Reduces the time and cost involved with manual data entry (and the errors that come along with it).
- Automates many repetitive, mundane tasks and allows team members to focus on more meaningful projects.
- Reduces inventory carrying costs by giving companies high levels of visibility into their current and in-transit inventory.
- Improves customer service levels and satisfaction which, in turn, drives more sales and increases revenue levels.
Modern ERP platforms also give companies a single, integrated platform they can use to manage all their core business processes. This not only improves efficiency and productivity but also drives down the costs of performing those processes.
A Powerful Cost-Saving Tool in Your Corner
Powerful tools that help businesses of all sizes save money, cut costs, and even create revenue opportunities, ERPs can help you cut costs while also creating long-term value and return on investment (ROI). “One of the most significant ways that ERP software can save businesses money is by streamlining and automating a wide range of business processes,” ERP Research states.
“By integrating all of the different systems and applications that a business uses into a single, unified platform, ERP software can help to eliminate the need for manual data entry and other time-consuming tasks,” it continues. “This can result in significant savings in terms of both time and money by reducing the time it takes to perform basic tasks, increase quality and beyond.”
Consolidating all of your existing business applications can also help reduce your IT and software licensing costs. “Sometimes, but not always it can be more expensive to run 5-10 different applications for finance, production, inventory, CRM and purchasing versus one ERP system as well as keep them integrated, updated and compliant,” ERP Research points out.
Platforms like NetSuite also provide real-time visibility into a company’s operations. For example, when decision-makers have access to real-time data—right in easy-to-use dashboards—on inventory levels, sales and customer behavior, they can make informed decisions that are better aligned with their goals and objectives. “This can help to reduce costs and improve overall efficiency,” the publication adds.
8 More Ways NetSuite Helps You Save Money
According to ERPnuggets, companies that use NetSuite effectively can count on these cost-saving benefits:
- Automated billing and invoicing. “NetSuite’s billing and invoicing capabilities are second to none,” the publication says. “It’s possible to automate most of the processes involved in sending out bills and collecting payments. This frees up time so you can focus on other important business tasks.”
- Integrates well with outside applications. NetSuite integrates with hundreds of different third-party applications. This allows users to pull data into the ERP from other systems. “This saves you time because you no longer need to enter the same information multiple times,” ERP Nuggets points out.
- Track key performance indicators. You can create customized reports in NetSuite and then use those reports to track KPIs and share them with employees, managers and other stakeholders. When these associates are on the same page and working toward similar goals, everyone wins.
- Better contract management. NetSuite makes managing contracts simple. You can set up automatic reminders when contracts expire, send notifications when customers aren’t following terms and conditions, and automatically renew expired contracts. This can substantially benefit your company’s bottom line.
- Know where you’re spending and where you can cut back. NetSuite provides detailed insights into exactly where your company funds are going. “You can quickly identify areas where you’re wasting money,” ERP Nuggets suggests. “Then, you can adjust spending habits to save money.”
- Streamline the sales process. With NetSuite’s sales process automation tool, you can build out automated workflows and simplify the order-to-cash process. NetSuite CRM sales force automation (SFA) capabilities power your sales organization with unified processes — from opportunity, upsell and quote management to sales forecasting, order management, fulfillment and commission payments.
- Get out from under that pile of paperwork. It’s no secret that paperwork and manual work are both massive wastes of time, energy and resources. With NetSuite, you can eliminate the need for paper forms and PDF documents and make it easier to manage paperwork. For example, digitization of the accounts payable (AP) process replaces hard-copy invoices and other important records with electronic versions that leading AP software with optical character recognition (OCR) technology can “read” and extract information from. In turn, the entire AP process can be automated, helping companies cut costs, boost operational efficiencies, improve working capital management and strengthen supplier relationships, among other benefits, according to NetSuite.
- Boost employee productivity. When your employees are empowered to do more, they’ll get their jobs done more efficiently and be able to take on even more projects. With NetSuite, employees will have access to the real-time information and alerts they need to be able to collaborate effectively with colleagues and do more with less.
If you’re currently assessing your technology stack and looking for a modern ERP to help fill any gaps and get your company to the next level, keep these cost-saving points in mind. Along with centralizing all of your business activities on a single, cloud-based platform, NetSuite and Vursor can help you save money, improve efficiencies and boost your bottom line in any business conditions.