How to Create the ERP Software

The global ERP software market volume in 2024 was nearly sixty-five billion dollars and is projected to grow at a CAGR of nearly twelve percent over the next five years, multiple software market research reviews say. The North American market share was estimated to be thirty-eight percent in 2024 due to the growing integration of machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) into ERP systems.

ERP implementation in a company’s business processes has its benefits — from increased company productivity to better customer service. Experts from Belitsoft, an IT outsourcing company with 20+ years of expertise in custom ERP software development, tell about that in detail.

What Are the Benefits of Implementing an ERP System?

Information is more accessible. An ERP system helps collect, process, and store client/sales/product data centrally. Distributed data storage based on blockchain is also possible. No more constantly checking multiple databases and synchronizing them to remove outdated or duplicate information.

Productivity increases. Thanks to EHR integration all repetitive work is done automatically, not manually. ERP system helps businesses to eliminate cases of rework, error, and duplication. Employees perform better and spend less time on their tasks and repetitive work.

Cooperation between departments improves. If your enterprise has an affiliate network in several continents, countries or states, the ERP system that contains unified business-related data, helps all branches to communicate without delays.

You can make decisions faster. The ERP system offers real-time data viewing, and advanced analysis and reporting (client behavior, financial, tech maintenance, and so forth). The enterprise leaders can see which workflows are losing money and which are efficient.

Better customer service provision. The clear interface is designed for different user roles. For example, client support and sales managers can see all the needed info about customers and sales in a centralized data warehouse. Quick access to the histories of the clients allows you to carefully analyze data on their behavior patterns and predict precisely the demand that must be satisfied in proper time and accordingly.

Monitoring of regulatory requirement changes and built-in compliance. ERP systems help companies stay in compliance with specifications, relevant laws, and guidelines of the industry.

What Are the Most In-Demand ERP Modules?

ERP systems work more efficiently thanks to the variety of modules that are needed for certain business processes or functions. ERP systems include standard modules such as finance and accounting, the custom relationship management (CRM), procurement, supply chain management, manufacturing, the business intelligence (BI), etc. Enterprises can also choose sets where additional modules correspond to their specific challenges and operations.

The financial management module helps plan and analyze finances, manage the general ledger, oversee payable and receivable accounts, and perform billing operations automatically.

The purchasing module enables the maximization of operational efficiencies, and supply chain and inventory overhead reduction. This results in providing clear reports and improved demand forecasts.

Through the business intelligence module, specialists get personalized dashboards with up-to-date data. Information from different departments of the company is visible and readable thanks to interactive reports that can be created with a simple drag and drop.

The supply chain management module. Tracking stock levels, automating procurement and sourcing, managing and controlling suppliers.

The inventory module helps automate product movement in warehouses and quickly process online orders.

The manufacturing module allows enterprises to set schedules, and arrange production, possibly using sub-modules for quality assurance and product life cycle.

Via marketing and sales modules organizations can plan marketing campaigns based on data, automatize client order management processes, get visuals about sales dynamics, and communicate with clients.

The customer relationship management module analyzes and improves interactions with clients during the entire client lifecycle. This results in better client service that allows companies to retain customers and increase sales.

The human resources management module enables tracking processes such as hiring, onboarding, personnel attendance, salary processing, development and training of staff, etc.

Through the project management module enterprises can assign and monitor tasks, plan and track projects, and use tools for team collaboration such as shared file space and instant messaging.

The document management module allows the companies to establish a central warehouse system for different types of documents. This system provides users with document templates, ensures easy navigation, and makes it possible to share documents.

What Are the Main Approaches to Implementing an ERP System?

The first approach stands for buying an out-of-the-box solution when the ERP software is created for the mass market. These ERP systems provide no or little opportunities for customization. Each organization that buys it has to adjust such a system for its processes and train personnel to use it.

The second one — a custom approach — means that developers create an ERP system for certain needs of an enterprise and modify it to fit into the organization’s processes.

Out-of-the-Box ERP System: Pros and Cons

If you are operating a business without the desire to scale, an off-the-shelf ERP solution might be enough for you.

One of the benefits is the fixed cost of ready-made ERP solutions, hence the company can plan the budget.

Also, the ready-made ERP software implementation is beneficial for small and middle companies, because it requires less time compared to enterprises due to less complex processes, fewer data, and users.

However, the out-of-the-box ERPs can’t address the unique requirements and needs of a specific company.

These systems are harder and sometimes even impossible to integrate with current enterprise systems. Handling each part of the business on its own isn’t a good way to work.

Additionally, the ready-made ERP system price for those enterprises that have a lot of employees and pay licensing fees can be rather high. For example, some licenses can cost from tens to hundreds of dollars per month for each employee of the organization. If the enterprise buys licenses for one hundred users, it pays from thousands to tens of thousands of dollars every month.

Custom ERP System: Pros and Cons

Many companies and enterprises consider the creation of ERP from scratch useful for improving business key performance indicators (KPIs). A personalized system easily adapts to the specific business logic of a company, its departments and their processes. Tailored ERP modules respond to the ever-changing company’s business needs. Read about the other pros of a custom ERP system.

• Companies and enterprises can order the development of features for each unit. For example, the ERP system helps managers from the sales department analyze leads precisely.
• Developers design modules to link existing databases and programs of the organization or even with legacy systems.
• You can create your own software with a set of functions that suits your business, so as not to pay for a range of functions of a ready-made ERP system, not all of which you may need.

• Developers add any security features (multi-factor authentication, role-based access control, automated threat detection, etc.) according to your request when building ERP from scratch.
• You can integrate any needed third-party programs and plugins and get a logical progression of control.
• You are able to adjust the ERP system’s scale according to an up-to-date situation and need. The enterprise can reduce or expand on every level, and the ERP system adapts easily to these processes. It’s possible for the company to add new users, services or functions, and increase inventory or production.
• Ongoing support from the development team rapidly makes changes if you want to migrate data, remove current modules, or integrate new ones. It also guarantees you’ll get responses to all questions that appear.

What about the cons? The final price calculation may be complicated because it depends on the complexity of the project and the business demands of the client. Also, the ERP system covers the work of all departments of an organization, so the time for developing an ERP from scratch can be long.

Why Might Companies Need Custom ERP Creation?

There are several signs that an out-of-the-box ERP is not enough for your organization, and you need to create a custom ERP system.

• Software slows down the company’s development. Obsolete ERP software could satisfy the needs of the company, but over time it was necessary to expand the range of capabilities of the information system (too simple, without automation of processes, etc.).

• Disparate programs hinder data exchange and integration. IT specialists waste resources and time striving to make the outdated software compatible with a new solution.

• The existing software doesn’t support the mobile version on your employees’ and customers’ devices.

• Company deals with multiple contractors and has many transactions of different scales.

• Inaccuracies and meaningful losses in financial transactions are caused by human factors.

• Standard processes need to be performed on a large scale.

ERP Creation from Scratch: What Are the Main Steps?

Many companies consider creating an ERP from scratch as a suitable investment. Off-the-shelf software can’t guarantee that any company in the world will get the range of features needed for the effectiveness of its business.

Custom ERP software can save much money in perspective. Find out how to create an enterprise resource planning software step by step through the help of your custom software development provider.

Describe Goals and Requirements of Your Company

Communicate with the staff from various depts to understand their problems and think how to address them. Then report all the information you’ve collected to the development team.

Define the business activities you want to include in your ERP system. The majority of enterprises need such modules as Financing, Sales, Delivery/Distribution, HR, etc.

Find Reliable Developers for Your ERP Creation

In case your company lacks in-house specialists and seeking freelancers for each position seems a long process, you can go for the services of an outsourcing software development company, like Belitsoft, even on the stage of planning. The vendor’s experts learn the business environment and processes of your company and help to determine adequate requirements for your new ERP, considering the specifics of your industry.

SaaS startups and mature businesses get a range of services from end-to-end software building and data migration to full support after implementation. Let’s pay attention to each step.

• ERP designing. Developers design the architecture for ERP, as well as a range of features, UX, and UI for different user roles. They pick the right tech stack for your ERP and plan the project: scope, budget, timeline, key performance indicators (KPIs), etc.

• After developing the ERP system, the team integrates the product with the client’s existing business processes. Developers connect the custom ERP with the needed systems, like a vendor portal, CRM, or IoT control tools, and migrate the data from the previous resource planning system to the new ERP. Then they test (also during early stages) and deploy ERP.

• The team provides instruction and training to the ERP system’s end users for effective and capable system operating.

Manufacturing and Financial ERP System Development: What Does the User Get?

The accountants can figure out the payments only when they gather emails from multiple depts and enter the data into the system manually. Sales managers, due to lack of tools, can’t monitor the order’s status. Leaders of an enterprise don’t see the company’s real-time operation data in a single place. Among other challenges that enterprises face, calculating the costs of manufacture and verifying defected products could be.

For collecting the customer’s requirements on the business analysis stage, the Belitsoft developers use Service Desk. The team creates the needed amount of ERP modules according to the client’s order. Specialists design and deploy a web-based and a mobile app. While building the ERP, the team tests the software. Every two weeks, the Belitsoft developers meet the customer to show the intermediate results and update the actual project’s state. The completion dates at each stage correspond to the set goals and the client doesn’t have to pay for idle hours.

As a result, the order is visible across all depts, because it’s created in a single ERP database. Data between the procurement dept and the storage is synced through the native mobile app, the staff can get data about the number of current orders and raw materials in storage in real time. It allows the company to forecast warehouse shortage and schedule its fulfillment in time. Quality tracking and calculating the manufacturing costs are automated.

Leaders of the company get data about manufacturing and financial workflows in real time in a single place.

Automotive ERP System Development: What Does the User Get?

In the automotive repair and maintenance industry, suppliers may lack the necessary functions in general ERPs. They are forced to use numerous unrelated software solutions and do a lot of manual paperwork.

Developers from Belitsoft make a SaaS app with multi-tenant architecture and a subscription fee, a modern UX/UI, and a robust tech stack. Services also include building a minimum viable product (MVP) and custom APIs, cloud migration, etc. Software-as-a-service ERP system is able to be integrated with specific marketplaces (e.g., auto parts for auto repair shops).

Belitsoft programmers divide the workflow into several stages. After discovery and the MVP development stages, the next one includes cosmetic improvements, when the client sees the ERP product in action. Then comes the landing page development and launch of ERP into production.

Specialists integrate the CRM system in the ERP, and users can quickly give a quote for clients, manage leads and add orders automatically to the current schedule. They also build marketplace databases in compliance with PIES/ACES that are updated in real time.

Choose the Type of ERP Solution

There are three common types of ERP, that function with various options of deployment models — on-premise ERP software, cloud-based one, and the third type that combines the previous two, i.e., hybrid software.

On-premise ERP software is hosted on the computers of the company and has to be maintained in the office.

The customer company is able to get access to the cloud-based ERP through any device that has a connection to the internet. This type of ERP is also known as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution.

Hybrid ERP system is a combination of on-premise and cloud-based ERP solutions. Vendors offer various options of hosting and deployment services combining. Users of the ERP product can integrate benefits or migrate from one delivery model to another.

Speaking about cloud-based solutions, there are a variety of options for your ERP system storing — public or private cloud (based on where the ERP system is deployed), multi-cloud (more than one cloud provider at a time), true cloud, hosted cloud, etc.

Hosted cloud is widely used by enterprises and large companies. They buy the license, rent dedicated servers and equipment, and don’t manage the server infrastructure themselves. Data is stored on a private cloud, hence enterprises don’t share infrastructure with other companies.

Another variant is the true cloud solution. It’s popular among small and middle businesses. Customers don’t buy the license but pay a certain fee and get access to software and services the vendor manages. The SaaS ERP software is one of the true cloud solution versions.

Create a UX/UI Design of Your ERP System

You should research the target audience of your product, understand its habits and needs, how it interacts with pages and apps. It’s the first user-experience (UX) stage of the process. Learn anticipated or real responses of your target audience, investigate the actions sequence throughout the whole path. There are different points to investigate.

•  How your target client could search for the product.
•  What the click and transition algorithms are while the client uses the interface.
•  What the thoughts, feelings and opinions are during the click/transition/scroll process.
•  How the user experience could be described at the end of the process.

The second, a user-interface (UI) stage, is to graphically and functionally implement the concept, all solutions and ideas of the UX stage. For example, all system elements should be structured and connect with each other. All components that are logically related need to be grouped and the architecture should be respected. Don’t overload the website’s appearance with illustrations, content, or buttons, leave free space.

Choose the Right Tech Stack, Perform Integrations and Test the ERP

Technical stack depends on the platforms selected for implementation. If you need an ERP for desktop platforms, the developers use Objective-C or Swift for macOS and C# or C++ for Windows. For the web platform Node.js, JavaScript, and Angular are used.

Also during the development, various third-party integrations can be performed, so the specialists incorporate services like Office 365, G Suite, and so forth into your ERP. They use various third-party APIs to fetch and display the data in the ERP system.

Building ERP from scratch implies testing every component of your product. Your development team should have at least several QA engineers for testing the system to detect and fix all the bugs. It is good to involve your employees in the process. They can tell you what the weak sides of the system are.

How Can a Software Development Company Help?

Customers from various industries — from financial to healthcare turn to Belitsoft’s professionals for deep technical knowledge in .NET CORE, Vue.js, MySQL, etc. They also benefit from the team’s expertise in creating and carrying out ERP modules for complex projects rapidly. Belitsoft also offers:

• Building end-to-end EPRs that are specific for various domains.

• Creating and carrying out multiple modules in the SaaS ERP for running complex projects with trusted methodologies (e.g., Agile).
• Setting up pre-built productivity tools (ready-to-use templates), like checklists, labor estimates, projected outcomes, and more.

• Following specific security rules to meet GDPR, PCI, HIPAA, and other industry-related standards.

If you are seeking trusted assistance in developing a custom ERP solution from business analysis stage to post-implementation support, you can contact Belitsoft professionals.