ERP software has become increasingly popular in recent years to the point where most businesses now have it, even smaller ones. Prices have come down and functionality is increasing every year, especially with the rise of AI. Because of this, everyone wants to be involved.
But which solution should you choose for your business? What’s going to work for you? The answer is “it depends.” Not all ERPs are designed for every business. Some work better than others. It’s simply a matter of figuring out which might be best for you.
Fortunately, in this review, we’ve done a lot of the hard work for you. We look at which enterprise resource management options are best for you, and which you should pick going forward.
Best For Management Consulting – Unit4
If you’re looking for an option that works for management consulting, then Unit4 is probably it. It reduces administrative burden while also boosting customer and people experience substantially.
Management consulting is all about ensuring your planning, projects, people and finances are in the right place. Unit4 assists with this by providing tools that cross-talk with each other, ensuring a better understanding of the business overall.
What’s nice about this approach is the sheer level of integration. Anyone can access information through the cloud and see where they stand in relation to the overall business position.
For example, Unit4 is a good tool to use when customer demands are rising. It enables added project complexity, including more tailored options. It can also assist with annoying changes, like updated regulations, which can push businesses off course and prevent you from reaching your target metrics for the end of the year.
Best For Consolidating Complex Business Operations – IFS
IFS is a good option for brands with complex and disparate business operations. If your team is all over the place, then this module could be the one for you.
IFS’s big promise is to help your team capitalize on changing markets by boosting efficiency and reducing costs. It also promises to provide you with plenty of insights via a central hub, meaning that staff can collaborate with each other and be more productive than if they were working in silos. What’s more, IFS will actually change how its solution operates based on the industry you’re in, so you’re essentially getting a more tailored tool that does what you want, when you want.
Part of the ability of IFS’s tool to integrate complex business processes comes down to the use of AI. The company is keen to make the most of artificial intelligence to have a more immediate impact across the organization. The copilot is a great assistant and can be used by any user on the network to get the most out of the solution and enhance productivity.
Best For Financial Management – InsightSoftware
If you want better oversight over your financial management, then you may want to take a closer look at InsightSoftware. This solution is great for brands with disconnected or inefficient systems, especially in the financial realm.
One of the problems that businesses run into, InsightSoftware points out, are disconnected point solutions. Companies will often find that they can find specific solutions to the operational issues they face, but they can’t bring them together.
InsightSoftware tries to solve this issue, especially in the realm of financial management. It offers pre-built data connectors that bring everything together.
More interestingly, these can be set up to pull from existing ERPs. For example, if your business is already using SAP, Dynamics or Oracle for financial data management, InsightSoftware can bring them into a single unified architecture.
Best For Managing AI Agents – Workday
With technology moving forwards all the time, the nature of ERPs is changing. Previously, they had been static, joining up various business functions into a single tool. However, they are now having to become more active, thanks to the rise of AI agents. Staff are now using solutions to give directions to artificial intelligence, telling it what to do and how it should proceed.
For example, Workday’s AI agents are being used by HR to improve workers’ skills. Workday allows agents to probe staff, ask where they need training, and then offer advice on the skills they should grow.
AI agents are also being used to optimize talent acquisition processes. ERPs are using them to actually go out and find the people who could work for the firm and make it more productive.
These technologies are no longer in the future, but a part of present reality, thanks to companies like Workday. The solutions are quite advanced, but also turn-key, similar to conventional consumer-facing chatbots, making them more usable and comprehensible.
Best For Procurement And Operations – Abacum
Finally, if you’re in an industry based on procurement, then Abacum might be the best choice for you. It’s built for companies that need to manage their stock levels and constantly reach out to suppliers to provide them with the items they need.
Abacum, however, offers more than a platform for making purchase orders. It is a full ERP in its own right, offering financial management, human resources management, and manufacturing insights, like quality control. It also comes with a rather helpful CRM, which focuses on improving customer interactions and enhancing the overall experience, something that is lacking in a lot of modern tools without this feature.
Furthermore, it comes with a bunch of handy integrations for companies that are already relying on multiple third-party softwares to deliver a high level of service. For example, it can slot into existing ecommerce operations, which is a nice touch.
Final Verdict
So, which of these enterprise resource planning tools do we recommend you try? Truth be told, all of them are worth looking at, but our top pick is Unit4. The reason for this is how the tool enables better management consulting. So few ERP solutions actually include this, which is one of the reasons why it stands out so much to us, and why we love it.
