Social Media influence on ERP

Over the past decade, social media platforms became one of the core business strategies. Companies across the world have embraced the social networks for improving the internal communications, promotion of brand identity, connecting with the partners, customers or vendors. This resulted in social platforms like Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, Twitter, Reddit, etc. very vital in business growth. 

In the millennial era, hardly any youngster and even the elderly citizens can stay away from social media addiction. In such an era, how ERP or the most effective planning system to manage the business of an organization can stay from the impact of social media? The ERP businesses are not
out of the track of adopting social media for the improvement and growth in business. That means ERP systems are evolving to integrate with social media marketing for the sake of enhancing productivity as well as customer experience. 

Social media has been used for enhancing collaboration internally among employees as well as with customers. However, the implementation of social media solutions in the context of ERP business is still limited. This is because of the misconception of many employers that social media creates distraction more than its benefits. The concept is not totally true. The problem is mixing personal and professional life. Social media is an integral part of the modern day business and it is beneficial to add for the ERP business as well. Want to know how? Here it is:

The millennial generation is always on in the social media platforms and they have the eye to look for innovations and unique part of anything, be it a new gadget or the latest styles in fashion. Even a job seeker these days look for suitable opportunities in social media, whether in the LinkedIn pages or Facebook job listing groups. So, they have developed an eye for searching something latest, trendy, innovative and worthy at every corner. An ERP system integrates all the core processes like product development, manufacturing, sales and marketing, finance and accounting as well as human resource. Enterprise resource planning provides complete visibility into core business processes in addition to optimization of systems through resource tracking, database management, and data sharing, & improved information systems.
  
- SM helps to optimize communication: Social media plays the role of optimizing communication both internally with the employees and externally with the customers or clients. ERP business is mainly implemented in large and middle scale manufacturing units or enterprises. That means the
number of employees or staffs involved in the business are large in number. In such organizations, the amalgamation of ERP and social media improves collaboration and communication within the enterprise. Also, ERP combined with social media supported business initiatives.   

- SM boosts efficiency:  ERP is introduced in business to improve productivity within the enterprise. Social media enhances efficiency across different departments within the enterprise. The live chat plug-ins that are also used in social media chatting applications can be used to share and exchange project-related ideas instantly. This saves valuable time that would have been spent for face to face meetings and thus increases efficiency.   
 
- Improved customer service: Using social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, etc. can help in getting feedback from the customers. Customers can use the platforms to communicate their experience with the product or service. The feedback helps in controlling the inventory and altering
the stock list reports on the ERP system.

- SM tools save money: As in the case of marriages, there is a saying that ‘matches are made in heaven’. Similarly, in the case of social media integration with ERP, the amalgamation of ERP and social media is a match in the enterprise heaven helps the business with cost-cutting. The real-time insights into the business can be availed for free of cost. Posting new job vacancies on the Facebook page of the companies and updating the LinkedIn or other media pages on a regular basis is easier with social media and is charge free.  

- Market research and survey: The valuable information and data available on social media about the targeted customers, the product reviews, etc. are helpful in getting the insight. Usually, enterprises spend a lot of money on market research in the traditional ways. However, using social
media ensures cutting the cost in case of a business. 

- Employee productivity and engagement: When your staffs are restricted to use the social media platforms in the office premises or working hours, they will do that secretly. If they are involved in the customer relation team or support team, they will engage themselves in communicating with customers and vendors directly through instant messaging. This helps in getting instant feedback from the customers or connecting with vendors and saves a lot of time of the support team. Not only that, this ensures employee productivity as well as engagement in the enterprise resource planning program.    

Social media posting is the best form of marketing in case of ERP business in today’s scenario. The marketing posts on any of those platforms can affect people’s way of thinking. The features of the social media platforms like company profiles, conversation feeds and regular marketing related posts are very vital in creating brand awareness for any business. The collaborative effect of ERP and social media in a business can help in getting customer feedback, transparency in the business process and promotes selling a product or an idea. The most important feature of tying the knot between ERP and social media is that the workers get the latest updates from the system even when they are not in the office and can access the tools from anywhere. 

Closing thoughts: In the near future, the integration of social media with ERP in business will no longer be the option to choose, rather will be a necessity as like other business processes.  AIDOOS is the platform that offers a solution to ERP, CRM, Data Analytics and other system related issues in a simplified manner. Here, customers or clients input the problems and get the solution as an outcome from professional subject matter experts throughout the globe.