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ERP Business Process Problems and Solutions

Common Business Process Problems and Solutions

By:  Taylor Farnsworth

www.TekoaERP.com

There are several problems relating to business processes in todays enterprise. According to cmswire.com although many of these problems may be quite simple to take care of and eliminate, there seems to be five problems that continue to persist.

These five problems are: Bottlenecks, Paper Trails, Copies, Preparation, and Business Agility.

Problem 1: Bottlenecks

These information bottlenecks occur from "a lack of consideration of the value of particular information, or content, and its relevancy in the business process."

Possible Solution:
Research done by cmswire.com has found that enterprises must examine who needs this info, what info is essential, and whether or not it is needed in the current business process. Research also finds that enterprises must index or organize all of this information, and find a way to store the other information not being used.

Problem 2: Paper Trails

Today, enterprises are still using paper documents in their business process, which leaves valuable information vulnerable to loss, errors, and data theft.

Possible Solution: The research done by cmswire.com "recommends a planned conversion of paper documents and records into digital information that can be entered, or taken out of business process, as needed, and which can be more easily found in the event of audits or other legal processes." This is an excellent solution to this problem because in today’s world, with technology being so advanced and becoming easier to understand and use, simply switching your business to a digital format rather than paper makes things much easier to keep in order and to keep back-ups of.

Problem 3: Copies

So many enterprises today are keeping several copies of certain documents, whether to be safe or because they believe these documents to be vital to their business processes. With this, response time is slowed and business process agility decreases.

Possible Solution: Businesses that are keeping all of these extra copies, whether digital or paper, just need to stop. "They need to create business processes based on single documents, or to create minimal copies that are tracked and regulated within the processes. To do this, cmswire.com states, and I agree that a centralized, electronic storage that provides company-wide accessibility must be utilized.

Problem 4: Preparation

Research shows that many companies are only prepared for what they believe they will have to deal with. In turn, when something unexpected happens, companies are not prepared to respond without considerable business disruption.

Problem 5: Business Agility

Several businesses suffer from not being able to get the right information to the right people in a reasonable amount of time. This is mostly seen by those businesses that struggle with effective and efficient storage methods.

Possible Solution: To be a business with effective and efficient storage, according to cmswire.com, "enterprises should optimize workflows so they are able to flex with the changing needs of their company."

In Summary:

As you can see from the problems listed above, having an effective and efficient business and business process is not terribly difficult to accomplish. Many businesses just need to buckle down and take care of these little problems that keep occurring and slowing them down. If they are to take care of these simple-to-fix problems, they will be a much more effective, efficient, and in turn a more profitable organization.


Taylor Farnsworth is an accounting and business specialist at Whitworth University

Available link for download

How To Resolve Common ERP Business Process Problems

Tips and Tricks for Resolving ERP Business Process Problems

By: SoonKyoo Kwon
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www.TekoaERP.com

Numerous enterprises today suffer from many different business process problems. These problems can be very damaging since they may result in inefficiency, and possibly in loss of some data.

Business Process Problems - "The Frustrating Five"

David Roe, Covers Document Management, Enterprise CMS, GRC, listed 5 main business process problems (issues) and named them "The Frustrating Five." In this blog, I am going to discuss 4 of the 5 major problems that Roe mentions.

Bottlenecks

"Information bottlenecks are still common and result from a lack of consideration of the value of particular information, or content, and its relevancy in the business process." (Roe, 20 II) When enterprises have too many variables in a process, the process tends to have poor quality.  As a result, error rates will increase, and customers will experience confusion.

The Paper Trail

"Many enterprises still insist on using paper documents as part of business processes and printing that information out, which leaves in vulnerable to loss, errors or data theft." (Roe, 20 II) With todays advanced technology, enterprises (no matter small or large) are definitely able to store and share data online.  Nevertheless, they often choose to keep using paperwork since they have always used paperwork instead of technology.  However, by using technology, enterprises can be much more efficient and safe.

Copies

"Many enterprises are still keeping several copies of particular documents, whether those copies are digital, or paper-based, which reduces response times and business process agility."  Enterprises think that they need to make several copies of particular documents because they are important.  However, we are living in the World of Technology where servers (so that enterprises can just have one copy of each document and share it within the companies) and of course the ERP cloud (so that enterprises can upload one copy of each document and anyone within the companies can share the data) are broadly available.

Preparation

"Many companies are not prepared for the unexpected, which means that when the unexpected happens, companies are not ready to respond and recover without considerable business disruption." (Roe, 2011)  This is probably both the easiest and the hardest of the 5 problems to deal with.  Preparation can be really hard since no one can know for sure what will happen in the future.  However, preparation can also be really easy since all that enterprises have to do in order to be ready for some unexpected events is to make backup files, so that they can respond to the unexpected events and recover without considerable business disruption.

Ways to Resolve Business Process Problems

How To Resolve Bottleneck Problems

To resolve the Bottleneck problems, enterprises should index all information and sort all the data nicely so that they are not putting too much pressure on themselves when they try to get the data they need.

How To Resolve Paper Trail Problems

Honestly, I cannot think of one reason why enterprises should use paperwork instead of technology.  With technology available to todays enterprise, enterprises are well over being able to use the accounting software that they need to use in order to save time and decrease their error rates.

How To Resolve Copies Problems

As I mentioned earlier, we have servers and Cloud today.  ERP Cloud, especially, is very useful because enterprises can store their data Gust one copy of each document instead of several copies for each document), share their data, and do not have to worry about losing their data.

How To Resolve Preparation Problems

In order to be ready for some unexpected disasters, enterprises can make backup files of information so that their data and records can be restored quickly and without disruption.  If some enterprises use the internet to store and share their data, they can make backup files so that they can just replace their lost information with the backup files.  If some enterprises use paperwork instead of the internet to store and share their data, they can make some extra copies of their documents and data so that when something unexpected happens they will not lose everything they have.


For more information about Tekoa Software and ways to improve business processes at your company through technology automation, visit www.TekoaSoftware.com .

SoonKyoo Kwon is a business and accounting specialist at Whitworth University.

Available link for download