Over the years, we have seen ERP evolving from heavy software consuming resources to a subscription-based model now. Earlier businesses had no option but to implement unwanted modules because it was part of the entire package. Industries and businesses cutting across sectors are increasingly turning to the new version of ERP (Sage X3, Acumatica, Netsuite, etc.) that has become light, flexible, and cost-effective.
However, the amount of time spent on data entry in routine processes such as invoice entries, purchase order updates, customer onboarding, supplier onboarding, etc. is still a lot and not free from errors.
According to a study, it is estimated that are approximately 2000 manual data copy-paste or data entry jobs in any ERP setup.
This is where Robotic Process Automation can make a competitive difference. It can handle high-volume, repetitive tasks, and free human labor for high-value work.
As businesses return normalcy post the Covid-19 pandemic, RPA will prove to be an imperative technology for scaling the operations and for business continuity planning. Cost savings are one of the most tangible RPA benefits, not to forget faster work completion with nearly zero manual errors in traditional data entry and management methods. RPA outputs more than its inputs compared with the fraction of cost behind the improved ROI for businesses.
Adding Value to an ERP System
Billions of dollars and millions of working-hours are lost through assembly line errors and defective products that involve much time, energy, and money that goes into rectifications. RPA is proven to cut manual error by almost 57% of employees focus more on customer service and delivery.
RPA is platform and application agnostic, adding value by automating multiple manual activities associated with an ERP system to:
- Perform repetitive and structured transactions processes
- ERP system migration
- User access reviews and controls
- System performance reporting
- Scale-up operations and processes in sync
- Interact with multiple applications and update them in a transactional sequence
- Validate data, perform calculations faster
- Update data manually by automating ERP data entry
- Data gathering from various applications into one place for easy access
- Processing bulk data error-free which may be prone to multiple human mistakes
Automating ERP processes with RPA
Robotic Process Automation finds its deployment in a range of work processes that are vital to ERP functioning. Rule-based processes like P2P Cycles or account payables can be easily accomplished to focus more on subjective, instinctive, and interpersonal tasks.
- Automated inventory management helps line managers to automatically get alerted when stock levels get too low or too high to maintain just in time inventory levels.
- Automated report generation lets the finance department to pull and send sales, financial, or custom reports to cross departments.
- Seamless CRM to ERP data transfers.
- Automating Customer Onboarding and creating a sales order.
- Supplier Invoice automation
The opportunities are infinite. Check out Digital Leaf’s and ElectroNeek’s robots working on Sage ERP to automate some of the laborious tasks that humans are involved in.
Robots handling Sales Quotation responses on Sage X3: Click here
Robots handling Misc Supplier BP invoices on Sage X3: Click here
Happy Automating!
