TEXTILE ERP for smart working: why choose cloud management software
ERP and smart working are now an inseparable pair. Management software must in fact meet the needs for flexibility, accessibility, security and mobility that became particularly evident when working from home was mandatory. Whereas previously these were needs that companies could only partly meet, given the very small percentage of smart workers, it is now no longer possible to postpone the adoption of an ERP that fully supports them. “Agile working”, fully integrated with traditional working models, will tend to become the normal way of collaborating. This is why choosing technologies that enable employees to carry out their tasks regardless of location can no longer be put off. Cloud computing is the IT infrastructure that, better than others, has this characteristic and acts as the “natural” link between ERP and smart working. That is why it will become indispensable.
The cloud scalability that ERP needs for smart working
When we talk about the “cloud”, the flexibility mentioned above is called “scalability”. A scalable system allows resources, performance and features to be sized up and down. An ERP for smart working can therefore exploit this typical feature of the cloud to adapt to a variable number of users. Unlike on-premise management software, for which almost every change has to be accompanied by a new implementation of the underlying hardware, cloud ERPs can quickly increase or reduce CPU, RAM and storage as needed.
With the advantage that the investment does not have to cover the one-off purchase of the required hardware infrastructure, but is paid as a periodic fee based on actual use of the software. In recent months, with offices left empty, for locally installed ERPs this meant continuing to bear the related costs without being able to benefit from the asset.
ERP and smart working: access data anytime, anywhere
One might object that management software bought outright is in any case depreciated over time. The problem is that depreciation also coincides with a natural loss of value of the asset as the years go by. The cloud, on the contrary, slows down this process of obsolescence, because the same fee covers the use of the infrastructure as well as technology upgrades, backup, maintenance, compliance and help desk.
An ERP used for smart working guarantees efficient performance anytime, anywhere, regardless of the context in which users access its features. Whether administrative staff or sales people are in the office, at the company's headquarters or branch offices, at home or in the park makes no difference at all. The data they need is fully accessible, as are the software modules that govern the various relevant areas of the company: administration and control, procurement and warehouse, sales and CRM, production and job management, logistics and so on.
Security and mobility guaranteed with ERP for smart working
In addition to flexibility/scalability and accessibility without location constraints, modern ERPs for smart working offer native security features that mitigate the danger of vulnerabilities arising from cyber attacks. This is because IT security is one of the main areas in which cloud service providers (CSPs) compete today. This is often complemented by business continuity services that aim to minimise the risk of operational interruption. Protection against breach threats and possible incidents is not limited to data accessed from desktops, but also covers mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, which the company's employees can use as an alternative.
Mobility is in fact a dimension that cannot be missing from an ERP used for smart working, and it is expressed through the multi-device features of the software. In this way, not only are the boundaries of where to work removed, but the limitations on how to work are also reduced.
Smart working tools are today at the centre of the debate on how operations should continue in the “new normal”. After the end of the lockdown, in fact, most of the companies and employees who experienced, albeit by necessity, the benefits of agile working expressed their intention to continue along the path of flexibility and productivity. To do so, however, they need tools suited to smart working, which were often lacking during the quarantine. This is because in many cases companies' organisational structures were not ready to support activities carried out permanently outside the office perimeter. Today, however, the time is ripe to implement the technologies that make it possible to remove proximity constraints and enable people to collaborate from wherever they are. First among these technologies is the cloud, followed by state-of-the-art management software. Both, moreover, require a cultural change that goes beyond the response to the pandemic crisis.
The cloud comes first among smart working tools
As far as smart working tools are concerned, the emergency period made it clear that remote working cannot be fully enabled without cloud computing. The limits of on-premises systems affect accessibility to company data and security. In the absence of a centralised repository to draw on, files and documents remain jealously guarded in locally installed data centres. As for security, the levels of encryption guaranteed by the “cloud” are statistically higher than those offered by on-premise systems. Not to mention that the cloud natively meets compliance requirements such as those of the European GDPR regulation on the protection of personal data, requirements that the company would otherwise have to meet internally. Suffice it to say that business continuity and disaster recovery strategies are generally an extension included in cloud-based platforms, making it possible to protect data and systems in the event of an incident or downtime.
Why agile working needs a state-of-the-art ERP
The second fundamental smart working tool is an advanced ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning). Although in recent months attention has often focused on collaboration and communication tools, assessing the most resilient and cyber-attack-proof ones, a company's real information backbone remains its management software. All the main business processes, from finance and accounting to purchasing and sales, through to production and logistics, are governed by the modular architecture of an ERP. This is why organisations that were unable to access orders, quotes, contracts, signature registers, etc. during the lockdown were forced to stop almost all of their relevant activities. Management software that instead uses the cloud to deliver the resources each employee needs fears no limitation or social distancing. Whether they are administrative profiles or sales managers, anyone can work smoothly on the move and remotely.
A new mindset alongside smart working tools
The two smart working tools just mentioned are not enough unless they are accompanied by a change management process that redesigns the usual mindset with which work tasks are conceived. It is a matter of breaking deep-rooted habits around which the entire company organisation revolves. The use of badges to check attendance, the canteen, even the calculation of overtime are all examples of an office-centric system at odds with an idea of collaboration based on achieving objectives and on trust in people. Even Law no. 81 of 22 May 2017 on agile working, only three years after coming into force, is already showing signs of ageing. So much so that a decree was required last March, converted into Law no. 27 of 24 April 2020, to regulate smart working, but only until the end of the emergency. It is now up to companies, by equipping themselves with the right smart working tools, to choose for or against flexibility and productivity.