Top 6 Reasons Why ERP Software is Mandatory for Quickly Double Sales

Peoples’ disposable income is increasing rapidly. They are buying homes in large numbers and are also investing money in purchasing the best-quality furniture. But different people have diverse furniture needs. Some look for affordable sofas, while others want a luxurious chandelier. 

Furniture manufacturers need to understand customers’ needs, wants, desires, and ambitions to provide tailored solutions. ERP software allows furniture manufacturers to understand the customer’s critical needs and what they are looking for.

So, let’s understand why ERP software is essential for furniture manufacturers. 

1. ERP software increases visibility to business processes.

Business visibility plays a vital role in getting a real-time picture of the operations happening across each department. It helps to improve internal communication that facilitates the free flow of information and allows departments to work as a cohesive force. ERP software has an easy-to-use dashboard that provides relevant summaries and provides critical business management information on the screen. This helps the senior management to make informed decisions and brainstorm effective strategies. 

2. ERP software manages the production process efficiently.

Production and manufacturing are the two most essential functions for a furniture manufacturing business. ERP software handles them efficiently by monitoring the entire manufacturing cycle — from the influx of raw materials in the inventory to the production of finished goods. Furniture manufacturing is a long chain of interconnected steps. The following steps explain the entire process:

1. The raw materials are brought from the inventory.
2. The dimensions of the final product are stored in the ERP software.
3. Badly shaped products are filtered from the final lot automatically. 
4. The finished goods that are manufactured precisely as per the predefined dimensions are sent to the warehouse.
5. ERP software manages the supply chain effectively.

Supply chains are complex as they have multiple touchpoints, such as:

1. Vendors
2. Suppliers
3. Distributors
4. Retailers
5. Customers

Furniture manufacturers cannot sustain and expand their business if they don’t maintain excellent relations with various business stakeholders. ERP software provides a shared platform to external stakeholders and frontline executives and managers in the industry, enabling them to collaborate and find real-time solutions to challenges. This process has dual benefits. Firstly, vendors, suppliers, and distributors get help from business experts in facilitating their operations. And secondly, companies receive attractive discounts and offers from vendors. 

3. ERP software handles the inventory and warehouse systematically.

Manufacturing companies have to pay special attention to their warehouse. Goods with low selling potential can eat up a lot of space that can lead to increased rents. Also, keeping a tab on the quantity of essential raw materials manually is a tedious task. 

On the other hand, ERP software monitors the real-time status of the inventory and sends detailed reports to the warehouse manager. The best part is that it automatically purchases essential raw materials if their quantity falls below the set threshold. 

Drone-enabled inventory management software picks up finished products from the warehouse and places them inside the supplier’s truck. The entire process is automated, so there is no possibility of human error. 

4. ERP software collects critical customer data.

We live in an age driven by data. Everyone uses a smartphone and has accounts on various social media platforms. People actively participate in conversations and post their reviews and feedbacks. This chest of information provides essential information about clients that helps provide tailored furniture solutions.

ERP software plays a vital role as it collects critical data points, such as:

1. Geographical details
2. Demographic details
3. Behavioral details
4. Psychographic details
5. Past purchasing pattern

AI-enabled ERP software helps collect and analyze data and reveal hidden insights in a fraction of a second. On the other hand, employees will take hours or few days to do the same. 

5. ERP software helps establish better customer relationships.

“Customer is the king” describes today’s business world appropriately. No company can survive in the market, let alone become an industry leader without robust customer relationships. 

CRM-enabled ERP software provides 24/7 customer support. The following points explain how:

1. It provides solutions to customer queries at any time and from anywhere.
2. It collects critical customer details, thereby allowing employees to focus on mission-critical tasks. 
3. It creates an FAQ, a repository of questions that can be accessed by customers conveniently. 
4. It identifies idle support agents and routes customer questions to them.
5. It prepares employee performance reports and sends them to managers. 

In this way, CRM-enabled ERP software helps create evergreen customer relationships that spread good word-of-mouth. 

Conclusion

Furniture companies are registering massive growth. And technology will play a vital role in taking this forward. With the help of ERP and CRM software, furniture companies can understand the changing customer preferences and market trends. They can align their financial resources and employee efforts towards creating products that have a significant demand in the market and keep other projects at bay. 

So, if you haven’t yet implemented an ERP and CRM software, it’s high time you do so. 

Author:

Nishant Joshi likes to read and write on technologies that form the bedrock of modern-day and age like ERP, CRM, Web Apps, machine learning, data science, AI, and robotics. His expertise in content marketing has helped grow countless business opportunities. Nishant works for Sage Software Solutions Pvt. Ltd., a leading provider of CRM and ERP Software in India to small and mid-sized businesses.

You can learn more about him on Linkedin