Enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions help companies of all sizes manage their operations more efficiently. Having an ERP solution enables your business to track many back-office systems, including financials, inventory, sales, customer information, and more.
In the past, businesses had to use multiple systems to keep track of all these different aspects of running a company. Nowadays, there are several ERP solutions available on the market. With ERP for small businesses, you can access all your critical data in one place.
Instead of spending time searching for important files or entering data manually using paper forms, you can enter the necessary information during the checkout process. And since everything is stored digitally now, having an up-to-date database is much easier. Digitized data means less stress when keeping up with changes and improvements.
There are many ERP systems that exist for small businesses, including SAP Business One, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Oracle EBS, Sage X3, NetSuite, and others. However, all of these products are generic in their design and support, with a one-size fits all approach.
Many ERP systems try to meet the needs of all types of organizations and provide the functionality to cover as many needs as possible. Still, that approach isn't always practical to support project-based businesses' unique needs and requirements.
Nucleus Research ERP Value Matrix
Ranked as a leader in Nucleus Research's 2025 ERP Technology Value Matrix, Deltek's cloud solutions help project-based businesses manage their entire lifecycle more efficiently.
SMB business challenges and opportunities
There are some key challenges facing SMB owners today that they must overcome if they want to succeed. Here are three key areas:
- Managing cash flow
- Keeping up with technology
- Maintaining profitability
1. Managing Cash Flow
Cash flow is often the most challenging aspect of managing a small business. It requires careful budgeting, forecasting, and tracking of expenses. Without proper cash flow management, enterprises run the risk of running out of finances before reaching their goals.
2. Keeping Up with Technology
Technology has become a critical aspect of running any business. As more customers expect companies to deliver high-quality services or products on time, businesses must keep pace with new technologies. This demand means investing in IT infrastructure, such as servers, laptops, tablets, smartphones, etc as well as business software that will enable success.
3. Maintaining Profitability
Profits are the lifeblood of any business, allowing companies to pay their bills, reinvest in itself, and grow. Unfortunately, profits aren't always easy to come by. Many factors impact a business's bottom line. These include competition, market conditions, customer demand, and government regulations.
Tips for Small Business Owners
Why Small Businesses Need an ERP System
Over the past five years, small businesses have been weathering economic storms, including the COVID-19 pandemic, supply chain disruptions, staff shortages, rising prices, looming recession, etc. However, through these challenges, small businesses have found ways to be more resilient. By leveraging technologies that support collaboration and growth, SMBs have become more efficient, improved customer insights, accessed deeper insight into operations, and more.
Small businesses smartly turn to enterprise resource planning software to help them communicate across departments and optimize their business processes. ERP systems help small businesses manage their finances and customer information within one integrated platform.
SMB ERP solutions enable collaboration, employee efficiency, business agility, production efficiency, error-free accounting, and business insights. Its no surprise then that business.com expects the market for SMB ERP systems to grow at an annual rate of 7.42% from now until 2025.
ERP System for Small Business Comparison Criteria
When you're evaluating an enterprise resource planning systems for your small business, there are several things you'll want to consider. You'll want to ensure that the software provides a good UI (user interface), usability, integrations, and support. You won't be happy with your ERP solution if it doesn't offer those key features.
Here's are the keys for selecting the best ERP system:
- User Interface (UI/UX): Are complex ERP tools and features presented in a way that's easy to navigate?
- Usability: Since many people in an organization use an ERP system, will employees in all lines of business find the software easy to learn and use?
- Integrations: ERP systems need to integrate with many other software solutions and data to be success. Does the solution offer integration services to on-premises and SaaS applications?
- Functionality: Does the solution offer all the essential functions needed by a project-based small business?
- Support: A sound ERP partner will have knowledgeable staff members willing to help you learn how to use the product effectively. Is there a robust communication and support strategy offered by the vendor
- Security: Your ERP system should protect sensitive data from unauthorized users. In addition, it should also ensure that only authorized people have access to certain parts of the system.
- Scalability: Does the ERP system offer scalability within the product to accommodate future growth without compromising performance?
- Data Management: The system should have robust data management tools to ensure that all your data is accurate and secure.
- Cloud: Does the software offer a SaaS - ERP cloud option that could be integrated into the architecture so that you can access your data from anywhere at any time?
- Analytics: Is there an embedded and predictive analytics tool powerful enough to analyze large amounts of data quickly and efficiently?
10 signs that your ERP system cannot support growth
If you've selected an ERP system that lacks any of the above capabilities, then your business might not be able to grow as quickly or as far as you'd like.
Below are ten signs that your ERP software isn't able to grow with your business:
- It's hard to get started
- There are too many screens
- Users don't know where to go
- It takes too long to do simple tasks
- Employees complain about the user experience
- People leave because they feel overwhelmed
- It's difficult to add new functionality
- It's slow to respond to changes
- It's expensive
- It's not flexible
ERP cloud as a competitive advantage and equalizer
The rise of cloud computing has made ERP more accessible than ever before. Even small businesses can benefit from the power of cloud technology. You no longer need to invest budget into hardware and software. Instead, you can pay monthly fees for the services you need.
Cloud ERP offers many advantages over traditional ERP systems, including:
- Accessibility: With cloud ERP, you can access your data whenever needed. No matter where you are or your device, you can always view your information.
- Flexibility: Cloud ERP allows you to scale up and down based on demand. As your company continues to grow, you can quickly expand your infrastructure.
- Cost savings: You can save money by avoiding upfront costs associated with purchasing hardware and software. Instead of paying for licenses and upgrades, you'll pay for the service you use.
- Security: Because data is stored in the cloud, you gain protection against hackers and cyber-attacks.
- Reliability: If your ERP system goes down, you won't lose any critical data. All data is backed-up automatically.
How Deltek Helps Small Businesses Adapt And Grow
We proudly serve over 10,000 SMB customers with our innovative Project-based ERP solutions and dedicated customer support to help them evolve their businesses. Our award-winning software solutions for project management, accounting and collaboration enable you to focus on growing the business instead of managing your technology.
Deltek ERP provides small businesses with everything they need to adapt and grow. We provide solutions for every stage of your project lifecycle, including finding and winning new business, project planning & management, financial accounting, asset tracking, quality control, manufacturing, human capital management, and more.
