What is an ERP System and Why Do Governments Use Them?

Today's topic is what is E R P?

So what is an E R P system? An E R P system is a system that is modern that allows you to automate your work, that allows you to have ad hoc reporting that allows you to have business intelligence and moves you away from the traditional manual paper-based flows. In a modern E R P system, you should be able to track a transaction from its inception to the very end seamlessly. For example, traditionally, if you're running a paper-based process and you need to cut a from requisition to cutting the invoice for the vendor it traditionally takes about two weeks in my experience because you have to fill out the paperwork, you have to send it on for approvals, you have to wait till the person gets back from vacation and approves the form and signs it and sends it back via interoffice mail. All of that can end if you have a modern E R P system, and I'm only talking about the procurement process here.

E R P'S covered the gamut of your financial processes, all the way from accounting, general ledger purchasing inventory. A modern E r P system allows you and your operations to be seamlessly integrated with each other. There are no silos for data. Every department knows what the other one's doing, and every employee, depending on their security clearances, knows where their work is. For example, if I put in a PO or a requisition today and has been sitting on the purchasing director's desk, the system will tell me where it's stuck, and then I can have those conversations to move things along and change things if they need to be. E R P systems also allow you to have accurate and timely financial reports without having to build through K reports or manipulating financials on Excel. For days on end, if you set up an E R P system, right, it's going to have the right data in the right places that'll allow you to have reports as and when needed in a format that you need.

Modern E R P systems also allow you to do what's known as business intelligence, so the system knows what kind of reports you're looking for and intelligently can provide them to you on a timely basis, weekly, monthly, what have you. It also allows you to consolidate and automate processes to the point where when it comes time to do your CERs and annual government statements, it's all there at the bush of a button. As long as you've done everything right, it'll give you your CERs and your annual reports that can be filed with any agency that's asking for it. The E R P system is your workhorse. It needs to be modern enough to automate processes that'll allow you to use resources more efficiently. Where you have two people doing manual entries and Excel sheets and paper records, you can now consolidate that, automate that redeploy resources, that that can be used in a much better fashion using taxpayer dollars more efficiently.

And most importantly, an E R P system allows you to be more transparent if that's what you choose. Modern E R P systems allow government agencies to publish budgets on their websites, to publish approved budgets, the budget process, how things work in a government need to be transparent to the citizens. A modern E R P system allows you to do all these things and more. If you wanna know more about e R P systems and how to modernize your systems, how to take you from that green screen or an older system that you implemented 30 years ago, contact us at the information below and we can walk you through how to do this most efficiently. Thank you.