Visibility Blog

The Case For Mobile ERP

Written by Scott Cranford | Dec 4, 2015 2:20:52 PM

The workforce of today is becoming more and more mobile. As this has happened, internal and external business systems are increasingly required to support this mobile workforce. While it’s true that workforces are increasingly “remote”, mobility is not just an “out of the office” need. Within the four walls of an enterprise mobility is equally paramount. ERP companies are required to now offer “apps” for these mobile users.

Let’s talk about the two types of users; internal and external.

Externally, field sales personnel require real-time, web-based, 24/7 access to customer information, opportunities, forecasts, activities, quotes, sales orders and invoices. While alternatively, field service employees likely need similar information but also service call, warranty, service contract, product configuration, return and credit details. The mobile ERP need for external users does not stop there. Companies increasingly need access to business intelligence metrics, quality information, product costing, supplier performance and inventory control information.

Internally, for a manufacturing or distribution company, users require mobile applications to support managing time and attendance, inventory movements, production reporting, receiving, shipping and inventory transfers. A sample of some of those simple, “big button”, touch screen enabled apps are featured below. This internal mobility empowers to mobile worker to be able to capture real-time manufacturing information via any device, any web browser, any bar code data collection device, etc. And, these internal apps lend themselves quite nicely to being able to record these transactions via some form of bar code scanning. For example, a shop floor user could scan his employee badge; scan a Work Order Traveler so that the system will clock them in to a specific shop operation.

 

 

Visibility has fully embraced this mobile revolution and offers a series of apps designed to help the manufacturing ERP Company of today. To learn how Visibility can help you with your mobile ERP needs, please visit our ERP solution page