WHAT is an ERP ? And WHY do I NEED to learn it ?
Tags: erp, sap, dynamics365, ax2012
Published: 2022-03-13 17:14:27


![Life of a DECAF Person](https://www.humorsearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/coffee-jokes.jpg)
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**Introduction**

Let’s suppose you open your _own textile importing_  business. How will it be run ?
![Textile Runs](https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0558/3725/articles/A_Brief_History_of_Fabric_and_Textiles_2ddd37b6-f749-4d71-9d37-60c2683a5435_1600x.jpg?v=1612474697)

You’ll first need to **procure and source** your own raw material for your business. You’ll then need to manage your **warehouses** and maintain an **inventory** where you’ll be storing them. Then you’ll need to plan your **transit movements** from one place to another, since you are working in importing. Now you’ll also be needing a platform where you can receive **quotations** for your orders, and a platform where you’ll be storing your **sales** and managing your **accounts**. Then since, you’ll be hiring people to work alongside you, you’ll also need **HR Management**. Now considering this, let’s think of how you are going to pan this situation out, in real life. 
Here you have 2 options. 

 You can either **hire an IT team**, and have them build you a customized software that will cater to all your needs, and also manage the international standards and including all the customized regulations that various countries have and maintain that compliance, which will take forever to build, and 

![So MUCH Work](https://media.makeameme.org/created/i-have-so-vp6cwc.jpg)

> **You’ll be better off without it.** 

 Or, the second option is you can use the already developed softwares for it. Like Tally to manage your ledgers, salesforce to manage your customer-relations, HRIS for your human resource management and more. 

![heaven](https://c.tenor.com/mpMhKozanDkAAAAM/heaven-im-in-heaven.gif)

> **This sounds heavenly.**


All you have to do is hire people that specialize in that field, and buy licenses.  However, think about all the money that will be invested in terms of licenses that you’ll be required to have since you can’t run an international business and use software cracks for it. And even on top of that, your data will still be scattered and it’ll give you and importantly your IT team a headache to integrate all of them to build a centralized system. Or I am offering you another option, which is to use an **ERP**!

![ERP](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/xnnmgukwqz9lu5rj5xws.png)
 )

Now the thing is, that just like me you’d never have heard of ERP, well until your company uses one. So, here chivalry ain’t dead. Let me help you, and get you accustomed to what an ERP is, and no it does not stands for E* role play. 

**The MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION : What is an ERP ?**

ERP stands for Enterprise resource planning, or simply it is a that manages a company's entire processing from _financials, to human resources, to logistics, inventory, sourcing and many more_. All of these are integrated together in the form of several modules to provide an end-to-end working for the company. Any company requires basic softwares for its finances, customer management, resource planning, and there are several famous softwares such as Tally, Salesforce and many others. However, all of these are independent softwares that specialize in either functionalities, thus the data is not centralized, as they cannot be integrated together fully. ERP sounds amazing, I should immediately get started with it. And before you go on, let me give you a few features of just how amazing it really is : 

**Features of ERP**

**Centralized** 
You need all your departments to work together, in order to attain a fully optimized work management. Using different tools scatter your data at 25 places, resulting in mis-management. With ERP you have a centralized system for all your workings from financial to CRM to human resource planning. 

![Centralizing](https://media.makeameme.org/created/centralization-here-i.jpg)

**Tracking and visibility**
Since all of your data is centralized, it results in better monitoring of your performance thus earning an optimal level of performance in tracking. Centralization also enhances your performance visibility and transparency, making the management all the more easier. 

![Tracking](https://i.imgflip.com/4ra7rc.jpg)

**Reporting**
ERP reporting modules give you standard and effective managerial reports and also gives you the option to make the customized ones suited for your business needs. Thus, making business decisions is all the more cost-effective. 

![Reporting](https://i.imgflip.com/2ncrr5.jpg)

Simply to say, a well-implemented ERP helps you in better management of your business, gives you cutting-edge performance, all the while keeping your data and your systems integrated all under one roof. 

![Happy-dance](https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcTTjNmR2QlbIXopKFk3-RB__pW7NB3-IYNmQPkt2h-f-vLOIwJlfXqiQ71ZEzMeBY9GorU&usqp=CAU)

Since I am an AX developer, the next of this blog series will follow on how to get started with Dynamics AX, and how to implement it for your business. 

![See-you](https://i.imgflip.com/34epjp.jpg)

**See you then**,
**Till then treat people the way you want to be treated.**