The term Smart Systems is often thrown around by vendors, but what does it really mean for an organisation?
To an organisation like Professional Advantage, it means having the right systems performing the tasks required in the most effective and efficient way; having data flowing between systems seamlessly; automating manual processes; and having safeguards built in for when things don’t go according to plan.
A sample of functional business areas that benefit from Smart Systems are:
- Budgeting and Forecasting.
- Business Analytics.
- Workflow Automation.
- Management Reporting.
- Integration Management.
Smart Systems generally align with each other, providing complementary functionality. The key to the effectiveness of Smart Systems are:
- Use and adoption throughout the business.
- User experience throughout the organisation.
- The ease of use within the organisation.
Microsoft are leading the pack with Smart Systems: they provide Smart Systems for the whole business, leveraging all parts of the business rather than just finance.
As systems evolve within an organisation, there is a need to bring those systems into an integrated platform. Microsoft delivers on this need by bringing together the ERP system, the CRM system, and Power BI into Office 365 and Dynamics 365 in an integrated solution platform, allowing people to work across platforms facilitating a smarter way to work.
Moving past the Microsoft offering, and delving into budgeting and modelling tools, Board budgeting and forecasting comes to the foreground providing the ability to undertake comprehensive budgeting and modelling, addressing the areas in which spreadsheets fall short.
Finance systems, such as the Microsoft platform, should provide an open architecture and integration capability so that information can be moved between the various systems. For example, budgeting information from the Board Corporate Performance Management platform into Dynamics 365, or actual information from Dynamics 365 back into Board for corporate reports.
How easy is it to leverage the data once it has been captured? Usually the data a business wants to analyse is sourced from disparate systems. Therefore, having smart tools like Microsoft Power BI allows for a multifaceted approach to bringing data together and providing the information that the different business units or employees require to drive their KPI’s, their decision making, and their day to day operations.
At Professional Advantage, we have carefully selected a portfolio of leading business software to address a wide range of business requirements and we are continually focused on providing software solutions that enhance the overall effectiveness and efficiency of our customers’ operations.
