Mobile ERP: Beyond the Cloud

Innovations in mobile ERP technology are moving past the cloud and offering mobile programs and apps for total organizational information with a time-sensitive edge. According to a report by IDC, more than 1.19 billion employees across the globe will utilize mobile tools by 2013, a figure representing more than a third of the total workforce.

Mobile ERP Boosts Operational Cost Savings

From iPhones to iPads and Blackberry handhelds, employees across the globe are updating financial information, transportation statistics and even timesheets from mobile ERP programs. The extra value you can add to your ERP software through mobile technology can even further boost your savings in operational costs, efficiency growth and your ability to streamline all your organizational processes.

Using a mobile ERP system means you’ll achieve even further reach from your data without the need to recreate or rewrite your current business operations, and vendors like SAP and IFS are setting the pace for the benefits of mobile ERP.

Be Proactive Instead of Reactionary with Mobile ERP

Key information about production slow-downs or back-ups can make a serious impact on customer satisfaction, not to mention the ability of operations managers to request custom shipments or expedite workflow to match a delivery need. Mobile ERP allows your accounting team to also view the changes in the moment and to gauge the production ramifications.

The technology also allows your sales staff to know what production or inventory decisions are coming down the pipeline as they’re working to close deals. For those reps that not only sell your product but are involved in its maintenance at various locations, mobile ERP provides the as-built specs and data at the touch of a smartphone – information that might have been only previously available from an office visit.

SAP Uses Team Approach to Maximize Mobile ERP Benefits

SAP and Sybase, part of the SAP brand has worked with partners to provide new mobile applications that integrate into existing SAP structures and allow secure access to data from almost any type of device. The SAP Field Service mobile app, for example, allows your field team to use handheld information for resolving customer challenges on-site and finishing customer orders even quicker. Tools offered in the Sybase Mobile Workflow app mean users can make decisions related to workflow immediately, and mobile analytics features give your team the ability to make complex decisions from any location.

SAP Brings Team Approach to “Sales Cockpit” Tool, Part of a Mobile ERP Strategy

SAP recently worked with Procter and Gamble to address distinct sales order challenges –including product allocation, delivery schedules, moving raw materials and the sales approval process –by helping create a “sales order cockpit” that is built upon SAP standard applications. Using input from its Enterprise Services Community initiative, SAP invited other partners and clients to the table during planning of this mobile feature. The result is a precise, mobile sales solution that is creating solid new sales order efficiencies and increasing the ability of users to maximize the benefits of an enterprise-level system.

Reduce Data Errors with Mobile ERP

With mobile ERP, you can enter information about customer comments, feedback or product challenges in-the-moment, without delay, and then make that information instantly available to other reps and employees nationwide. These immediate benefits are not lost industry leaders. In a recent study of more than 281 manufacturing executives, 13 percent of participants said mobile capacity was their top consideration when looking for enterprise software and nearly 70 percent said mobility ranked just as high as other key software factors.

IFS Touch Apps Program Works Across Mobile ERP Formats

With its Touch Apps program, IFS is offering new mobile ERP options to IFS application users who access the software through Microsoft’s Windows Azure Cloud. Users can demo the mobile ERP app at no charge, with specific features meant to deliver ERP information from a plane, a cab or immediately following an appointment.

The ability to perform tasks quickly with automatic updates between laptops and smartphones is a key benefit. You’ll be able to run the IFS Touch Apps mobile ERP technology on the Windows Phone 7, the Android or the iPhone, without the extra overhead expenses of adding apps to your team’s multiple smartphone platforms.

Tools from vendors like SAP and IFS mean accessing mobile ERP can actually be considered a method for putting your strategic plans and your unique experience-based insights into action, wherever you are, with a direct impact on your organizational processes. The benefits of mobile ERP can be seen in enhanced service quality, expanded productivity, more productive client or partner relationships, and more finite, successful capturing of key data.