5 benefits of cloud ERP

Cloud ERP is growing fast, especially within the service industry where it is driving the bulk of new revenue growth. Considering this progression, it is clear that cloud ERP is playing a major role in the modern business, from global multinationals to small-to-medium enterprises. Here are five reasons why cloud ERP is on the rise.

Cost savings

In general, cloud ERP can be deployed at a much smaller initial cost, which can be attractive to smaller businesses. Savings of 20%-50% in Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) alone could be achieved with a cloud ERP solution. Further savings could also be had with the aid of grants. Just look at the cost breakdown in the table below.

	On premise	Hosted	Cloud based
License Costs (One-time)	Medium	Low-Medium	Low
Software Maintenance Costs (Operational Costs/Year)	High	Medium	Low
Subscription Costs (Operational Costs/Year)	Medium	Low-Medium	Low
Overall Capital Costs	High	Medium	Low
IT Resources (Admin/Dev)	High	Medium-High	Low
Hardware/Storage	High	Medium	Medium
Upgrade Costs	High	Medium	Low
Implementation Timelines	12-26 months	9-18 months	4-8 months

Cloud ERP is significantly cheaper compared to on-premise or hosted solutions. This is because customers don’t have to pay for expensive hardware such as servers. Customers do not even have to be involved with managing the underlying cloud infrastructure including network, servers, operating systems, storage and application upgrades. This makes cloud ERP much more simple to deploy which cuts down on time needed for implementation.

Updates

One of the pains associated with an on-premise ERP is the need to fork out for the newest updates and bug fixes to the software. Quite often these updates are vital for the health of your business, and if you choose not to upgrade your software, it will quickly become outdated.

Moving to a cloud ERP will ensure your staff are always running the newest release with all the latest features and security patches, as updates are done automatically and already included in your subscription fee. With a true cloud provider, all customers typically access the same solution from the same cloud. This gives customers continuous and instantaneous access to the latest product upgrades.

Security

Security is often the top concern for prospective ERP buyers. Small wonder, considering how critical the information stored in an ERP system is which includes company financials, corporate trade secrets, employee information, client lists etc.

Though buyers were once wary of the security of cloud-based software, many today are becoming less skeptical. Reputable cloud vendors have strict standards in place to keep data safe. To further ease concerns, prospective buyers can seek a third-party security audit of a vendor they’re considering. This can be especially useful if the vendor is less well-known.

Flexible

Flexibility is a necessity for any fast-growing company, as adapting company goals to recurring business realities will keep businesses on their toes and on the lookout for what’s best for the future of their business. This is why Cloud ERP is a logical choice that enables companies to exercise that same agility to manage and grow their business.

Being accessible from anywhere and through any device, Cloud ERP means that as long as there’s an internet connection handy, organisations can access the key data they need right away – and so can anyone else in that organisation.

Scalable

Cloud ERP vendors are augmenting professional services automation, financials and human capital management suites to scale with the expanding needs. As opposed to legacy ERP providers, which cannot scale and adapt as quickly, cloud-based services are gaining a competitive edge. When paying month to month, businesses can easily add or remove users when the business grows or shrinks, ensuring they only pay for the licences they need. This makes cloud ERP a good fit for fast changing businesses.

For these reasons, cloud ERP has become more popular over the years and will continue to see increased growth. If you wish to learn more about ERP solutions, head over to the ERP solutions comparison page.