Organizations use enterprise resource planning or ERP to manage the important parts of the business and integrate them into a single system. The business processes that ERP software can integrate include planning, sales, marketing, human resources, finance, and inventory.

Given how ERP can increase efficiency and encourage growth and expansion, several businesses across industries have been using cloud ERP systems in addition to other software like customer relationship management or CRM tools.

With a cloud ERP system, different departments of a business can communicate and share information with each other easily, ensuring increased productivity and efficiency. Depending on the cloud ERP, an organization may have access to an array of features like production management, financial management, order management, and supply chain management.

Considering how much a business can benefit from enterprise resource planning, you may want to use a cloud ERP solution for your business as well. While you may first study various products and how well they suit your requirements, you must then choose a vendor.

With an on-premises ERP system, the IT requirements will be met by your organization while the vendor will manage a cloud ERP system as well as a cloud CRM solution and take care of the maintenance of the software as well.

The next element to consider is deployment. There are different ways in which you can deploy your ERP system and one of them is public cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) deployment. In this method, the software is delivered as a shared service and is hosted on a cloud platform. If your business opts for this type of deployment, you can access software tools and data online from connected devices. Remote access is one of the key benefits of this type of ERP deployment and is one of the main reasons organizations often opt for cloud ERP.

With this type of deployment, there is no technical involvement or IT requirement from the organization, and the vendor will manage and maintain the cloud ERP or cloud CRM solution for you.

In terms of a cloud ERP system, the vendor may also offer a private cloud SaaS deployment option and the customer can have the ERP hosted on their preferred hosting provider. With this type of deployment, an organization will have more control over their data while still having access to the benefits of a cloud ERP system.

As mentioned above, ERP systems can be on-premises or cloud-based. While a cloud ERP system has its unique benefits, enterprise resource planning can also be hosted on-site. With this deployment option, the software, whether it is ERP or customer resource planning, is installed on the customer’s internal servers and the management and maintenance of the software are carried out by the organization’s IT department. The vendor will thus not have control over the computing environment, software updates, or user support.

When you purchase an ERP system to improve the efficiency and productivity of your business, you may want to consider these different deployment options and what is best suited for your business. While the benefits of cloud ERP may seem interesting and useful to your business, on-premises ERP systems have their unique benefits depending on the industry and the business type.

While it is a choice that you must make in consultation with your company’s management team, what you need to look for in a vendor is deployment flexibility. This is important for several reasons, starting with regulatory compliance.

Different regulations apply to different industries and changes in regulations may require you to switch from a private cloud solution to a public cloud solution. If such a requirement occurs, deployment flexibility will be of great use to you.

While regulations imposed within an industry may change, the business may shift to a different industry or expand over time. Business processes may have to be changed depending on customer demand and growth and deployment flexibility will ensure that you can switch to an enterprise resource planning or customer relationship management system that can accommodate your requirements.

Deployment flexibility will ensure that you can adapt to a better-suited deployment option without having to invest heavily in the transformation and have business operations disrupted because of it. For instance, if you want to go from a cloud ERP system to an on-premises system, your vendor will be able to handle the transformation in a seamless manner. This is why ERP deployment flexibility matters.

.