How an ERP Solution Helps Facilitate Growth for Manufacturers and Suppliers in the Building Product and Commercial Equipment Industry

One of the biggest challenges facing manufacturers and distributers of building products and commercial equipment is deciding how to grow business without simultaneously growing costs. And yet expansion is almost a necessity for the industry—contractors and clients expect faster service and more options or they’ll happily take their business elsewhere.

Growth must be handled extremely carefully, or you risk ballooning costs and shrinking your profits at the same time. Thankfully, an ERP solution can help facilitate growth for your business without a corresponding rise in expenses.

Expand your business through “Work Small, Win Big”

“Work small, win big” may seem simple, but it has powerful implications. It’s the idea that you can expand your business without having to raise costs, resulting in increased profits. But how do you “work small” when your current workforce is running at max capacity?

ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software has been around for a long time. It’s currently integrated into countless businesses, helping to improve employee productivity, accounting, and many more functions.

The main function of ERP software is to increase employee efficiency and automate repetitive tasks. However, for ERP software to be truly effective it must be tailored to your specific industry. Otherwise, it may only help moderately in some areas, while unwittingly creating problems in others.

Areas where ERP can help the most

Usually in business, it’s the bottlenecks that hold us back from growth. It’s through identifying and rectifying those bottlenecks that you can facilitate growth. Here are a few common problem areas where ERP software can help Division 8 and 10 manufacturers and distributors the most:

• Progress billing: with robust financial accounting tools like accounts payable and receivable as well as general ledger and asset management
• Order processing: tasks like order entry and inventory management, which usually are labor intensive, can be automated
• Project management: centralized tools for managing resources, projects, and billing

What to do before considering an ERP solution

Before investing in an ERP solution, it’s important to take stock of your current processes and identify potential bottlenecks. You won’t need to drastically change the way you do business; that’s not what ERP software is for. Instead, it leverages your current business practices by increasing efficiencies and automating repetitive tasks—so first you need to identify those inefficiencies and repetitive tasks.

Here are some places to look:

• Change orders
• Inventory management
• Purchasing
• Billing
• Project management
• Delivery management

Contact ContractERP for a free demo

Once you’ve identified bottlenecks and found areas where you’ll need to improve on to facilitate growth, you need to be sure that the ERP software you’re considering will be effective. Thankfully, we make it easy to request a free demo from ContractERP—just contact us today to get started.

Want to learn more about “Work Small, Win Big?” Watch our informative videos specifically designed for owners, general managers, and project managers.