ERP systems are central to the goal of continuous improvement.
A wide range of new improvements, lowering costs and boosting efficiency, are available to companies that have a robust, integrated mobile component to their ERP system strategy.
Employees are increasingly mobile, both within the corporate walls and in the field.
Knowledge workers no longer want to be tethered to workstations.
Frontline workers, in the warehouse, on the factory floor or on a customer service call don't want to be offline and unable to access or input key data.
It turns out that for a very large portion of its raison d'etre, ERP want to be where the action is.
A successful mobile strategy supports timely, informed decision-making and greatly improves responsiveness to market changes and customer requirements.
Start with a process to define which ERP functionality and data need to be accessible through mobile devices.
The top five ERP modules to prioritize for mobile access with are, logically enough, sales and marketing, inventory control, order management, project management and workflow.
Mobile devices need to be tightly integrated into the overall ERP system strategy, not treated as an after thought.
Providing access is not enough.
Exception notices and priority alerts need to be sent to decision makers' mobile devices in real time and be instantly actionable.
The system needs to support email, text and SMS formats.
You'll want to consider customized applications for warehouse personnel, service reps and field sales.
What could be better than hearing new orders ping the system as they happen, all day long? Mobile devices need to enable data entry into the system in real time at the point of action.
In most cases they will need to have barcode or RFID readers built-in to facilitate data capture.
Key ERP users should have access to any needed information from wherever they are.
Home pages and dashboards should be created for all key roles.
And, of course, ongoing training is essential to assure that users have high levels of comfort and confidence in employing their mobile devices.
Think back to the dismal level of competence a typical spreadsheet user ever attains! Mobile ERP holds the promise of significantly broadening the base of employees who have access to the ERP system but many of these workers may have limited exposure or understanding of the system as a hole.
Accessibility without training is a recipe for disaster.
Having the right mobile device in the hands of the right user with the right ERP access will boost the benefits your ERP system is already delivering.