The term back-office may have you thinking of a cluttered, tucked away space, the one where things get dumped when people aren’t sure where something actually belongs. That’s not at all what we are referring to here, though. The term refers to the key processes that make everything else possible, such as customer service, information technology and data processing, human resources, accounting, and related administrative functions. Most back-office functions are encompassed in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software.

ERP systems allow for continuity and consistency throughout the enterprise. ERP performs daily business functions faster and more efficiently and accurately than previous manual processes. The automation streamlines the workflows, allowing for accuracy in real-time. The overall benefit is that internal operations are performed more cost-effectively. Employees are also able to remove the tedious, time-consuming tasks from their plates.

An ERP tool provides your enterprise with better processes.

Currently, a large struggle in the manufacturing field comes from the supply chain. Manufacturers are doing all that they can to stay ahead of the shortcomings, everything from new equipment, negotiating with material or component vendors to meet timelines, and pushing for the least amount of waste on the shop floor in order to make things as efficient, cost-effective, and high quality. What else is there to do?

Take a look at your internal organizations and overhead. These areas are truly what the back-office is aimed at, and they can paint a vivid picture of where your company’s assets are in regards to work-in-process, raw materials, and finished goods inventory. Often, businesses jump to automating the shop floor, as they should, but don’t forget to include that in your back-office as well. This is the part of the organization that controls manufacturing timelines and planning. Team members who work in the various areas of the back-office have the difficult task of managing jobs on the shop floor in the most efficient and cost-effective way possible. They must juggle what is happening on the shop floor and what is happening in the office to make sure one doesn’t get ahead of the other, especially when only the shop floor is automated.

When back-office processes and operations are more rapid and efficient, you will see a change in the entire organization’s inventory levels, billing, shipments, and record-keeping. An accurate, optimized back-office means happier, and hopefully returning, customers and a more profitable company.

Perhaps you have updated your back-office systems in the past, but is your enterprise streamlined? Often times, businesses just update technologies and processes piece by piece, either due to cost or the concern of too much change. While this makes sense in the moment, even from a financial standpoint, it isn’t the best solution if you want an efficient, streamlined technological ecosystem. The departments won’t be able to coordinate well with one another. Accounting will use one system, the warehouse another, then payroll has its labor-force software, and so on and so forth. When piecemealed together, the software and technology aren’t integrated. Instead, what you have are rather inefficiently tied together departments via reports and spreadsheets, redundant information, and a lot of wasted manual time and effort.

The piecemeal approach may make sense in the moment, but in the big picture of your enterprise, without integration and cohesion, it will drive overhead costs up and slow down the software/technologies’ ability to support the shop floor. However, with one uniform software system, a business can thrive because departments can share data and information, thereby allowing the company to move forward. This kind of cohesion and efficiency exists with Infor’s SyteLine ERP (CloudSuite Industrial/CSI). Infor reaches this level of accuracy and harmony thanks to software modules like:

Shop-Trak – Creates automation and visibility between the shop floor and the rest of the company

Doc-Trak – Eliminates excessive paperwork, and in doing so, improves record-keeping and live document access among departments

Factory-Trak – Helps manufacturers synchronize their enterprise plans with current plant activities; it has the capabilities to increase inventory accuracy, reduce inventory carrying costs, reduce overhead, understand the true cost associated with labor, and more.

Without question, technology can help businesses reach new heights. However, not all technology is the right solution. Things are not one size fits all.

Godlan consultants have decades of experience helping businesses excel using Infor’s solutions. If you’re ready to begin implementing the best practices for your enterprise, visit www.Godlan.com or call 586.464.4400 today.