E-Commerce Technologies and ERP Solutions for Managing Logistics and Information Systems by SMEs

Supply Chain Management for Small and Medium Enterprises is a big challenge. Setting a process based flow and ensuring that it is followed from the Raw Material to the Finished Good, till it reaches the end customer, is a challenge which every enterprise faces. And as business dynamics evolve, one of the key element of every strong and established Supply Chain, which has come out is Information/ data. Availability of business critical information is very crucial to the success of every business process today.

Technology integration: Challenge for SMEs
Though SMEs have always been known for creating disruptive innovations and achieving operational success, as business scales up to the next level, technology plays a major part in the operational decision making process. technology intervention helps in streamlining the processes.

For SMEs, what hinders the use of technology apart from being educated about the availability of such tools is the cost of implementation. For an emerging enterprise to use and implement proprietary technology towards strengthening business processes and operations is a critical decision.

One important part of the chain is the logistics, which involves integration of information, transportation, inventory management, warehousing, material handling and packaging.

Online Solutions for enabling logistics management and Information Systems
There are many online solutions (tools and services) available for SMEs to explore.

• E-Commerce Technologies

Before we actually drive the benefits of E-commerce through this post, one of the critical developments which have been seen in the recent past with SMEs adopting this technology is that SMEs need to ramp up their operations. They need to be faster, more responsive and align their distribution to the demand being generated from the market.

What does E-commerce do?

E-commerce in its basic sense, provides real time information for companies to reduce down cost related to logistics activities such as distributing, storing and retrieving. Having such updated information in hand every time enables the business to keep a strong check on order status, flow of goods and ensuring delivery through reliable distribution channels.

Eg: If you are a book seller with an offline local presence in one city and you want to grow your operations across the country. Launching your own online book-store could sure be one option, but tying up with an existing one to generate sales, while maintaining the inventory with yourself could help your business gain much needed brand recall and presence throughout the national markets. This also helps you understand the effects of E-commerce on your business and to strengthen your internal processes and systems.

What all do I need to invest into creating such a system internally?

All that you need to do as a business is ensure good Internet facilities in-house coupled with a staff which is trained and aligned to be operationally more swift, with the evolving business model. Hence essentially its a low cost and high return proposition for your business.

Enterprise Resource Planning: ERP is a software application which is modeled around, creating a smooth business management process flow, adding to the operational capability of a business. ERP affects a business across the business value chain. Putting simply, ERP amalgamates the various points of business information available into a more cohesive, readily available online resource, which is available on demand to business users across the various functions as: HR, Marketing, Finance, Administration etc.

Source: http://yehtechnologies.com/erp.jpg

Though ERP softwares have evolved overtime and there are large versions of the same available for large businesses. SMEs can use specialized ERP offerings which enable them to manage inventory control, order management, warehouse management, purchase orders and invoicing.

Pain points for the SME

For any emerging business automating smaller tasks which are repetitive in nature is a major challenge and a relief, once implemented properly.

Eg: invoicing: though for smaller businesses hiring a finance manager is a solution. Automating the invoicing process makes it more scalable and easier, while ensuring that the business raises an invoice always at the right time.

Similarly SMEs can look at either automating complete OR some part of the business functions by implementing smart ERP solutions.

But its a software: it will cost a lot?!

Now this is where education comes in handy. ERP is a software but burns no hole in your pocket. Compared to a proprietary software the free and open source ERP projects available for download online are a far cheaper and better option. All that you then require is the help of an Open Source evangelist who can help you install and customize the ERP according to your business processes.

Examples of Free ERP Tools, available online:

• Compiere
• Opentaps
• Jazz ERP
• Openbravo
• BlueERP

Many of these ERP solutions are robust and being Open Source, you can get them customized w.r.t your business processes.

Being operationally swift is one of the crucial most achievable for any SME and we are partners in adding to your knowledge of how your business can achieve it. IndiaMART Knowledge Services team of experts will be happy to help you grow.

Drop in a comment to know how?!