Enabling Employees to Work Remotely with Cloud ERP

We’re living in unprecedented times. The novel coronavirus has, for the time being, changed the way we live. We recognize and experience this in our personal lives and our professional lives as each of us adapt and adjust to a new kind of normal.  

In light of current circumstances, utilizing SaaS, which stands for software as a service, for your consumer goods enterprise could make the challenges of today’s work environment easier to manage. Even if your day-to-day work hasn’t changed too dramatically, your business model has likely had to make some adjustments. So much of the workforce is now working remotely, and utilizing a cloud deployment model for your business means you can access your data and information in any browser and on any device. This accessibility makes working efficiently outside of the office easier than ever before.

During this time of uncertainty, the cloud can make your working life simpler because of its reliability, mobility and security. The cloud allows for remote work during uncertain or disruptive times both now and in the future. If you’re a consumer goods importer or distributor currently using manual processes to run your operations or utilizing an on-premise solution, you may now be realizing that migrating to the cloud may be the best thing for you and your business.

Enabling Your Team to Work Remotely

Companies can enable their teams to work remotely and efficiently by utilizing the right business tools, like a cloud-based enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution, for example. As long as there is internet, employees have access to all the data and information to do their jobs no matter where they are, all the while presenting an opportunity for collaboration and open communication even from afar. Having your data in the cloud means you can access it from anywhere, and if you’re an enterprise that has multiple facilities and hundreds of employees now working remotely, having a cloud-based ERP could make your working life that much easier during challenging times.

With the cloud, not only can you access your data from anywhere, but you can also access it regardless of the device. Whether you have a Mac or a PC, a laptop or desktop, a tablet or a smartphone, you have access to the system to enter orders, move transactions forward, release a shipment and everything in between. In a non-SaaS environment, not only must you have an internet connection, but you’re also tied to a VPN or secure connection, which typically limits the devices you need to connect to. SaaS allows for anywhere, anytime access; it opens up the doors for accessibility and allows users to utilize the system to improve their productivity and efficiency.

Ensuring Your Data Is Secure and Backed-Up

During times of uncertainty, especially within your business, you’re looking for assurances and reassurances anywhere you can get them. An ERP can provide you with that kind of assurance. When your ERP is managed in the cloud, your vendor has teams dedicated specifically to monitoring, securing and backing-up your data.

When a hardware device fails, such a drive failing on an on-premise server, businesses will have to wait until a replacement arrives and IT can get it up and running,  and during these times, that could be a particularly challenging ask. Whereas with SaaS, your data is replicated across three server stacks, across the region and/or across multiple geographies to reduce the required downtime. The annual cost of downtime depends on many factors; it could be number of locations or number of hours running per week. The estimates range anywhere from $300/hour to over $1,000,000/hour. By ensuring that your employees have the tools and information to perform their jobs remotely, you’re positioning your company for smart transitions during times of unpredictability and uncertainty.

With SaaS, not only are you up and running with more efficiency and predictability, but the responsibility of ensuring that your data is backed-up and recoverable is on the vendor, not on your organization. And it’s secure. When your data is managed in the cloud, there are extensive security measures in place to protect your data from any kind of threat. And as more and more employees work remotely and access that data, it’s reassuring to know its secure and being managed properly by dedicated experts.

During times like these, when you don’t know when you’ll be back in the office, or the capacity at which you’ll be running or what consumers will be demanding, data accessibility, reliability and security should be the least of your worries. And with a cloud-based ERP, it is.

Conclusion

The novel coronavirus is top of mind right now. We never saw it coming, which is why it’s so difficult to prepare and plan. And though using a cloud-based ERP can help you with your business operations today, especially as more of your employees work from home, it also provides an opportunity to plan and prepare for the unexpected event in the future.

What we outline here is only meant to start the conversation about the times we’re in and how you and your business might be able to best acclimate. Aptean specializes in providing cloud-based industry-specific solutions for consumer goods companies.  If you’d like to learn more about how Aptean Apprise ERP can help your company better prepare for unexpected disruptions, please reach out. We want to help make your lives easier during this time, as well as ensure you’re prepared for any unexpected disruptions that may occur in the future.