(Week 5): What is the purpose of an ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning allows for there to be one centralized system of data in a company or entity. Having everything centralized allows for much higher efficiency and productivity in the long run. For example if each sector in a business had its own separate system, then it would be very complicated to perform tasks across multiple sectors of the business. Having all the data of all the sectors of the business in one centralized system allows for various tasks to be done much more efficiently.
(Week 5 since week 6 questions do not show up): What is the purpose of a CRM?
Customer Relationship Management is like an ERP in that it is a centralized system that stores data for all sectors except it is for the customer side of the business. ERP is the internal system and CRM is the external system. CRM is very important because a business can store all the data from its customers into the system to allow for a much better purchasing experience for the customers.
I really liked the visuals you chose to share, I found them to be very helpful. I agree with the points you made when talking about ERPs. I think they make businesses much more efficient and are helpful when it comes to data storing. I also liked the last point you made, how CRMs can help businesses give customers a better purchasing experience. I think that data that CRMs store definitely help with this. When a business knows more about their consumers, it’s easier to provide for their needs.
I really appreciated your use of diagrams and the included link. The two separate paragraphs also made it very easy to understand the differences between ERP and CRM.