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Three ways food/drink manufacturers can use Mobile ERP

Three ways you can use your phone or tablet to take advantage of today’s mobile ERP technology to keep ahead of the competition.

Mobile ERP isn’t a new idea. Businesses have been updating and reporting from their ERP systems through mobile devices for a decade.

What’s new is the ability to integrate your ERP with today’s most ubiquitous mobile devices – the smartphone and the tablet. Through mobile apps, you can give your team access to the key information they need from your ERP system, from wherever they are.

Here are three real-world examples of how food and drink manufacturers are applying this technology for business benefits today.

You may read them and start to ponder – how can your food or drink manufacturing business take advantage of today’s mobile ERP technology to boost productivity and profitability?

1. Put CRM and sales order processing firmly into the hands of the sales team

The days of sales reps updating their customer records or completing sales orders when they get back to the office are numbered.

With a CRM or sales order processing app on their phone, they can now easily perform these critical processes on the spot. The result is data that’s more accurate and timely and, crucially, is immediately integrated into the ERP system.

The most effective CRM systems present an accurate and up-to-date picture of your relationship with your customers. Mobile ERP helps bring that picture into sharper resolution.

’On average, firms are already spending 10% of their IT budget on mobile ERP and this figure is rising.’ - IDC

’IT leaders believe productivity could be increased by 36% if key enterprise applications became mobile.’ - FT.com

2. Manage your customer product samples more effectively

Mobile technology makes it easy to maintain more than just data about clients. It can help you organise lots of fast-changing information, such as your product samples database. Through mobile apps, your team can monitor and report on key attributes such as quantity, quality, packaging, food hygiene, storage condition and more. Keeping track of samples becomes much simpler when information about them is uploaded to and accessed from your ERP system via mobile. Wastage is reduced and products can be targeted more effectively.

’The top three trends in food manufacturing:

1. Automation/robotics (including mobile).
2. Food safety.
3. Consumer demands.’

- Food Engineering

’The workforce see mobile as an additional channel for communicating with enterprise systems. People are not looking at the iPad as a replacement for their ERP user interface – they want it as an additional user interface, and still have the core system on their desktop.’ - Nigel Montgomery, Enterprise Software Research Director, Gartner

3. Improve regulatory compliance through mobile monitoring and prompt reaction

With mobile ERP, alerts can be triggered and communicated immediately, with delivery to mobiles helping to ensure action is taken right away.

Temperature recording is one such area where mobile ERP is making a difference. Records can be captured and uploaded in an instant through a mobile app. Even better, extend ERP to your machinery - automation allows fridges or ovens to report on their own status, feeding the data directly into the ERP system.

The result is more than just an accurate, up-to-date audit trail – it empowers faster business responses too.

’Almost 90% of CIOs say their staff want more access to ERP applications on their mobile devices.’ - FT

Remember, mobile ERP technology on your phone or tablet can:

1. Put CRM and sales order processing powers in the hands of the sales team, increasing efficiency.

2. Manage your customer product samples more effectively, reducing wastage.

3. Improve regulatory compliance.

To get more inside info from the experts to give you the competitive edge and understand what ERP can do for you, copy and paste this link http://bit.ly/1NbERes into your browser and read ‘Food Industry ERP: Cost Vs. Return on Investment’.

This post first appeared on the Sanderson blog.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Paul Bywater .