Sarah Henry, VP Strategy & Business Services for EMEA Applications at Oracle
The UK economy is expected to grow in the next few years but “lacks momentum”, according to the latest findings by The British Chamber of Commerce. Consumers are cautious, with households still spending less than they did in 2019. In the current climate, the stakes are high, and if brands don’t become efficient and productive, they may fall behind. This begs the question; how can businesses deliver exceptional customer service, and do more with less – all while finding opportunities to innovate and stay ahead of the competition?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the backbone in enabling businesses to use their resources in a smarter and more efficient way. However, historically, on-premises ERP systems have been highly customised for each organisation. As a result, this can make many organisations hesitant to invest in migrating to a cloud-based ERP environment.
In actuality, the move is not only worthwhile, but also necessary in today’s business environment. This is due to the flexibility and scalability of cloud, and more specifically, Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, which help organisations become more agile by providing a continuously updated, vendor-managed platform. Building on this, modern SaaS ERP solutions are also embedding AI and generative AI into the business processes to help finance teams automate manual processes, react to market shifts in real time, and gain a competitive advantage.
The leaders who embrace SaaS ERP and the continuous innovation it offers could reap greater benefits than those who sit on the sidelines.
The value of centralised data
With numerous SaaS offerings available for specific business functions, some organisations have taken an à la carte approach that requires complex and costly integrations, limiting automation and insights. To gain the most value from SaaS, organisations should look to consolidate on an integrated platform with a shared data model. In this scenario, an update in the procurement system automatically registers in finance applications. This becomes even more important as organisations look to leverage AI, which requires more and better data to deliver optimal results.
The ERP system acts as a central hub for an organisation’s data, providing a secure environment to protect this valuable asset. It provides the tools to collate, sort through and leverage large amounts of data, to help drive smarter insights and informed decisions, such as more accurate forecasts from the finance team.
Increasing productivity and innovation
Economic pressures mean organisations must find ways to achieve more with their existing resources. This means finding ways to improve operational efficiencies and reduce costs while continuing to meet customer needs.
AI and automation capabilities embedded in business processes can have a meaningful impact on the speed and accuracy of business processes, helping organisations eliminate manual and time-consuming tasks. For example, one of our automotive customers achieved greater than 90 percent automation with near–perfect, first-time accuracy across millions of transactions using AI-powered invoice matching in Oracle Cloud ERP.
According to Keith Causey, Senior Vice President, Cloud ERP Transformation and Development at Oracle, customers running on Oracle Cloud ERP regularly decrease the time for their accounting close, and those using its embedded AI capabilities can see even greater benefits.
“Transactional processing has become heavily automated and is on a path to becoming fully touchless,” said Causey in a recent blog post. “One hospitality customer saw upwards of 50 percent efficiency gains, including substantially reducing manual journal entries and reconciliations, and the use of manual spreadsheets. Beyond these productivity gains, the company reaped the added benefit of reduced audit time and effort due to the resulting higher quality finance data.”
Enabling scalability
Finally, scale is an important consideration when evaluating SaaS ERP solutions, but it is frequently overlooked. In scenarios where businesses process hundreds, if not thousands, of transactions per second, the ability to manage large data volumes becomes critical.
A proficient SaaS ERP can effectively manage large data volumes with ease, contributing towards smoother operations without sacrificing speed or reliability. This capacity not only ensures the maintenance of high-performance levels, but it also reduces dissatisfaction caused by service interruptions.
Ultimately, introducing an integrated SaaS ERP solution can help businesses do more with less and navigate consumer expectations in a highly competitive market. With centralised data, streamlined and automated processes, embedded cutting-edge technology and the ability to scale the business with demand, SaaS ERP equips businesses to be agile and adaptable.
