Cloud ERP: The Secret Ingredient For Startup Growth

Cloud computing is enabling businesses to operate at high levels of efficiency and productivity. Operational data, the key to business survival, can now be accessed from anywhere in the world, at any time, giving leaders real-time insights into every aspect of their business.

Basic methods such as spreadsheets are no longer meeting the needs of owners who desire growth and expansion.  Businesses all over the world are moving to Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions to automate their processes in order to ensure long-time survival. The case for cloud ERP adoption becomes even stronger for startups, entrepreneurs and growing businesses with benefits including reduced costs, scalability, and improved levels of security.

In India, market insights show that cloud adoption levels are high.  According to NASSCOM’s 2019 report ‘Cloud – Next Wave of Growth in India’, India’s cloud market is expected to reach $7.1 Bn by 2022, at an expected growth rate of approximately 30% CAGR. Over 13% of India’s workloads are expected to be moved to cloud driving up the adoption of cloud.

India’s startup ecosystem has evolved to become the third-largest in the world, and currently boasts more than 30 unicorn startups. The country is currently home to approximately 5,200 technology startups and is witnessing a rapid rise particularly in the business to business startup landscape. Cloud ERP is no longer a nice to have, it is a business technology must-have.

A robust Cloud ERP suite is able to integrate business processes, creating efficiencies and offering greater visibility of information across several business functions such as human resources, finance, accounting, supply chain, inventory and customer relationship management.

Here are the top four reasons why adopting cloud ERP is beneficial for startups in today’s dynamic business landscape.

Affordability and ease of implementation

Cloud ERP is easy to implement and cost-effective. It is the preferred option for start-ups and growing businesses as it eliminates or minimizes initial capital investment and hardware installation costs. The NASSCOM report states that start-ups keeping pace with technology trends and the latest innovations can greatly benefit as it enables sustained growth.

Flexibility And Agility

Cloud ERP offers improved flexibility, scalability, accessibility and easy integration, a must for start-ups as they are low on resources and budget while striving for high growth. Cloud ERP widens the scope for implementing features to meet specific demands while also compatible with, and easily integrated with new-age technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI). In fact, it has been proven that Cloud ERP plays a key role in supporting businesses to reach global markets with relative ease at an affordable cost.

Enhanced Productivity and business performance:

Cloud ERP allows employees to access information anytime, anywhere using any device with a secure internet connection. This means data, reports and dashboards can be accessed from any location, allowing real-time insights into business performance and the ability to make decisions that’s most beneficial to the overall operation.

In addition, Cloud ERP has functionality and user interfaces specifically designed for smartphone and mobile devices which allows for easy collaboration amongst employees. This means less time spent on tedious processes allows more time for innovation and higher productivity.

Improved security

Lastly, Cloud ERP enables cybersecurity measures which are centralized and flexible. The cloud offers security for remote access of data, systems that prevent the download of sensitive data, and on-site archival of sensitive information.

It also prevents data loss and ensures proper authentication of user access to the system as a whole. In addition, Cloud ERP vendors are required to comply with standard data privacy regulations and follow predefined procedures to forecast risks and respond to malicious activities.

For startups who are considering moving to Cloud ERP, you should consider engaging with an experienced and trusted ERP cloud provider like Oracle NetSuite who has helped more than 18,000 organizations grow, scale and adapt to change with a suite of cloud-based applications, which includes financials / Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), HR, professional services automation and omni-channel commerce.

Who knows, you just might be the next unicorn in the making.

Note: We at Inc42 take our ethics very seriously. More information about it can be found here.