How do social media trends affect ERP?

It is known among ERP users, and taken for granted, that these solutions integrate the essential operations of a business, from product planning and implementation to sales and marketing. Many of the applications already integrated, like HR and CRM, are linked to social media applications, even indirectly (for example, LinkedIn and Facebook).

This is a positive development, and it is very reasonable for ERP systems to continue to integrate social media add-ons. Among marketers, 84% believe that social media are important for businesses, and it seems that this trend will become even stronger in the course of time.

What are the benefits?

One of the main reasons for social media integration are the advantages it brings to businesses. Some of the most important are the following:

• Gathering information about potential and existing customers in a personalized way.
• Collecting data from social media regarding the company.
• Monitoring what other companies do.
• Improving communication both within the company and with the customers.
• Gathering information regarding what people say about the company and its products.

The success of social media cannot be ignored, as research shows that their penetration in modern marketing is exceptionally high. It is, thus, quite reasonable for ERP systems to add social media tools in their application menus.

For many years, social media have been leaving their mark on ERP solutions. Email, instant messaging and discussion forums have long been integrated, at least in part, with ERP solutions. Hence, it is no surprise that today’s mainstream social media apps, like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, are widely used in ERP systems.

Therefore, the key to making this trend work for your business is the successful integration of the complex and structured solutions like ERP with the more loosely structured social media apps. In fact, it has to do with setting the right strategy and attitude that will put the appropriate information at the fingertips of your employees, resulting in even better lead generation in terms of quality and, consequently, even more sales -given that it is all done methodically and with awareness of the advantages and challenges.