8 Reasons Why Cloud ERP is the Right Solution

You’ve probably considered moving to a cloud ERP solution.  You may have already moved some of your office computing to a cloud solution... your website, email, and maybe Office 365 instead of standard Office or SharePoint instead of intranet files.  If you’ve been considering the cloud, here are 8 reasons why cloud ERP is right for your business.

1.     Access your data anytime, anywhere, on any device. Cloud computing allows you and your employees to access business critical data when and where you need it.

• Sales can access up to the minute pricing and inventory in a hotel, or in client’s office.
• Purchasing can check inventory levels to make accurate decisions during a successful vendor visit.
• Service and maintenance can receive work orders, update client records and invoices in the field.
• Work from home, the hotel, the train, or a client or partner's office.

2.     Leveling the playing field.  A Cloud Enterprise Resource Management system like Acumatica helps your business play at a higher level.  When you only pay for the services you need, your business can have access to software tools and computing power that used to be cost prohibitive for all but the largest companies.

3.     Scalability  If your company is planning for growth and working toward the next stage, choosing a cloud ERP system that allows you to purchase software that fits your company now, with the ability to easily scale up for more employees, more products and more revenue without the burden of changing your software or hardware again.  This is also a great feature for companies that experience seasonal growth and don’t want to over purchase on software and hardware that aren’t necessary to sustain their business the rest of the year.

4.     Security. One of the most frequent fears we discuss is the security of data that isn’t housed on site, however your company probably doesn’t specialize in creating and maintaining secure servers with the latest security measures... and that’s okay, because here, specialization is key.  This why a cloud ERP provider like Acumatica and data centers such as Azure specialize in cloud computing and network security.  Their organizations devote significant resources to security in ways that wouldn’t be practical for a single company.

5.     The latest and greatest functionality.  With cloud solutions, you don’t have to wait years, or pay huge fees for upgraded systems.  You can also add new applications and functionality quickly and easily, often times within days or hours, instead of weeks or months.

6.     Disaster recovery and backups.  When your companies critical data is stored safely in a secure off-site data center, severe natural or man made occurrences such as snow and ice, flooding, earthquake, cut power lines, etc. happening locally don’t have to affect your entire company.  Employees can work remotely or from their mobile devices, and satellite and branch offices will still be able to access your software and data with no interruption.

7.     Focus on your business, and save money!  Don’t become overburdened by the costs of servers, their cooling systems and the IT staff to maintain them when you can host your cloud ERP software off-site and use the savings for revenue growing activities.

8.     Data to the people who need it (even if they don’t work for you).  Cloud computing offers the ability for approved upper level personnel to stay updated on account statuses, sales numbers, inventory levels and other business critical reporting.  You can even share specific reports with clients and vendors that can populate with live data if you choose, and remove access if the relationship changes.

Achieve big results with a smaller investment

There are different ways to deploy a cloud solution that fit the size and needs of your company without a large upfront capital investment.  This can give you the opportunity to purchase the best software to take your business to the next level with increased functionality, improved systems and enhanced reporting so you can focus on growing your business.