Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems were created for manufacturing companies decades ago, and they still have an important place in the software ecosystem within this industry.

While most users of a manufacturing company can benefit from using ERP systems, the software provides benefits and challenges that vary significantly by type of user, department, and job position. For instance, ERP is critical for the production department regardless of its size and the level of complexity of its operations. Other teams like sales and marketing also use ERP, often with different software solutions such as customer relationship management software or CRM software, or marketing automation software.

The core of a manufacturing ERP provides functionality for production managers to plan and monitor all stages of the production cycle. They also use ERP to track their department's performance and provide other departments with valuable information. For instance, the accounting department needs to know how much it costs to manufacture a product, then compare it with the estimated cost and the sales price, thus determining the profit or loss for each product.

This is the first post in a series of articles that will describe how ERP addresses the challenges faced by manufacturing companies and how the cloud delivery model makes it easier to implement ERP software and maintain it.