Enterprise management system and benefits

Enterprise Management System (EMS)

An Enterprise Management System is an integrated set of software applications that manages and coordinates all the major functions of an organization - finance, human resources, production, inventory, sales, procurement, customer relations and supply chain - through a single shared database. ERP is its core; CRM, SCM and business intelligence are commonly added.

Components

1. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) - internal back-office processes.
2. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) - sales, marketing and service.
3. Supply Chain Management (SCM) - suppliers, logistics, distribution.
4. Business intelligence / analytics - reporting and dashboards.

  Suppliers <-> SCM   ERP   CRM <-> Customers
                  \   |   /
                 Common database

Practical example

A manufacturing company uses SAP or Odoo. When a sales officer enters a customer order, the system checks stock in inventory, creates a production order if stock is short, reserves raw materials, tells procurement to buy missing items, schedules delivery, issues the invoice, and posts the entries to accounts automatically. Management sees live sales, stock and profit dashboards. Without EMS, each department would keep its own records and re-enter the data.

Benefits

• Integration of departments with a single version of data.
• Less duplicate entry and fewer errors.
• Faster processing and shorter order-to-cash cycle.
• Better inventory control and lower cost.
• Real-time information for decision making.
• Improved customer service.
• Standard processes, better control and compliance.
• Scalability for growth and multiple branches.