
Some organisations in the UK’s waste and recycling sector have taken heed of the benefits enjoyed by many manufacturing and distribution companies by implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. An ERP system is a single software application that covers both financial and operational functions.
The aspects of ERP are numerous, but the two that generally make ERP a must have for the 21st century business are Single point of entry and Single data repository for reporting. By having a single point of data entry a company removes duplication of effort and, often, increases the quality of data thus removing costly errors from core processes. This reduction in cost can be significant.
Companies that do not have an ERP tool often rely on manual data shuffling and excessive use of Microsoft Excel. In a recent survey it was found that 87% of excel spreadsheets have errors in them – what cost does that have on a business? On the second point, one can only manage the performance of a business if you can report on it (accurately!). Having islands of data in various databases and spreadsheets can make reporting timely, difficult and prone to error. The quality of a manager can only be no better than the quality and accessibility of the information they have available to them.