According to a study by Grammarly and Statista, two thirds of all professionals lose 11.5 working days every year due to inefficient communication. The consequences cited by managers include increased costs and lost orders.
So the question is: how can internal communication be improved? As with many other challenges of our time, the solution lies in digitalization. An ERP system in particular can help to optimize cross-departmental collaboration. In order for this to succeed, however, there are a few things you should bear in mind during the implementation phase.
How an ERP optimizes cross-departmental collaboration
Increased communication BEFORE ERP implementation
Even in the early phases of software implementation, the ERP system ensures a lively exchange within your company. On the one hand, the ERP project forces employees to consciously deal with their processes, roles and data in the team for the first time. On the other hand, the decision-makers have to collate information from the various areas of the company. This gives them as comprehensive a picture as possible of the current situation and enables them to identify where processes are unclear or responsibilities are missing.
The focus is on these questions, for example:
- Who is involved? Who is responsible for what? Who decides? Who uses what?
- What do our processes currently look like?
- How do we actually work – not just on paper? (Is) How should we work so that the ERP functions sensibly? (Target)
- Who has to inform whom and when?
- Where does communication work well?
- Where do frictional losses occur?
- Which processes offer potential for improvement?
- What data is available?
- Who maintains them? Who is responsible for their quality?
You cannot simply request the answers to these questions from your department heads by email. This is because some decision-makers don’t even know what happens on the shop floor or in the warehouse on a daily basis. The reason: employees often proceed differently in practice than originally planned. After all, they know the day-to-day problems in day-to-day operations best and know exactly how to deal with them most effectively.
So in order to find out about the actual processes, you need to sit down with your employees and get their feedback. This automatically turns the ERP project into a communication driver – even before the system goes live.
Better communication AFTER the ERP implementation
Once the ERP system is in use, the software can further optimize internal communication within the company. The functions of the solution open up completely new possibilities for cross-departmental collaboration. Specifically, an ERP solution offers the following advantages for internal communication:
1. structured communication
Structures and processes play an important role in internal communication. Your departments must always be clear about which information goes to which people at what time. If this is not the case, chaos will ensue.
An ERP system automatically leads you to structure your corporate communication more strongly. After all, an ERP system cannot function without standardized processes. In other words, for your software to be able to map the underlying processes, communication within your organization must be precisely regulated.
When developing these communication structures, you can again use the predefined processes of the ERP solution as a guide. The processes between departments and business processes are already predefined, but can be individually adapted to your company if required.
2. fewer misunderstandings and duplication of work
An ERP system collects all relevant company data in one place and breaks down knowledge silos knowledge silos. This means that all employees always have access to the same up-to-date information and can make decisions based on reliable data. At the same time, there is no need to exchange data manually. This in turn minimizes the risk of information being recorded multiple times, incorrectly or not at all.
As there is hardly any contradictory or outdated information in an ERP system, misunderstandings and duplication of work are automatically reduced. This results in a more efficient way of working overall, which strengthens cross-departmental collaboration throughout the company.
3. more transparency
One of the most important tasks of an ERP solution is to consolidate and visualize business data in real time. The software therefore not only brings order to your key figures – it also inevitably makes your company more transparent.
The main aim here is to make decisions comprehensible. If you can trace back exactly how a certain decision was made, you can also draw information from it. For example, you can obtain answers to the following questions:
- What factors influenced the decision?
- What challenges had to be overcome?
- What was the result?
This newly created transparency is not for monitoring purposes. Rather, it is intended to improve processes and encourage employees to proactively discuss weak points and optimization potential. This alone significantly improves communication within the company – always assuming that everyone involved has
4. simpler and faster communication
As an ERP solution bundles all important information and makes it immediately accessible, collaboration across departments and locations is automatically accelerated. Your employees can find all the necessary data directly in the system and no longer have to wait for e-mail responses or make cumbersome queries, for example. This reduces unnecessary coordination loops and leads to significantly faster communication channels.
As a result, tasks and processes can be coordinated more efficiently, which has a measurably positive effect on your company’s productivity, process quality and reaction speed. In addition, the loss of information is reduced as everyone involved uses the same digital database.
5 Mobile access to information
Nowadays, modern software solutions offer your employees the option of accessing the ERP system via a web portal or app. This allows users to call up company data at any time and from any location – whether they are in the field or on a business trip. As a result, decisions are made more quickly and customer inquiries are processed immediately.
Mobile ERP also makes collaboration between teams more flexible, as data and updates are shared directly via mobile devices. This not only increases responsiveness, but also efficiency in the daily workflow. All in all, mobile data access also helps to sustainably optimize communication within the company.
6. modern communication functions
The functionality of modern ERP systems now goes far beyond pure data management. Today, an ERP solution also functions as a communication platform that actively supports cross-departmental collaboration. Smart features ensure that employees stay up to date without having to manually search for information. These include, for example, workflows, automatic notifications and the provision of information from the customer base.
APplus Flow Mode goes one step further: the innovative usage concept allows many coordination processes to be mapped precisely and handled noticeably faster. In service, for example, the corresponding flow enables tickets to be assigned to the responsible employees particularly quickly.
| Advantages | |
| Structured communication | Clear processes ensure a regulated flow of information. |
| Fewer misunderstandings | The shared database reduces incorrect communication, duplication of work and time-consuming rework. |
| More transparency | Decisions are comprehensible and results are measurable. |
| Faster communication | Central data access shortens coordination paths and increases the speed of response. This also speeds up the processing time of the offer. |
| Mobile access | Employees remain informed and able to act while on the move. In addition, the initial response from the field service is much faster. |
| Modern communication functions | Automatic notifications and workflows keep teams up to date at all times. |
Improve internal communication: The biggest stumbling blocks
As you can see, an ERP solution can certainly help to resolve communication problems within the company. However, digital collaboration usually only works smoothly if you have ERP implementation with targeted measures. Otherwise, you may end up creating completely new problems with the software.
This is not about technical challenges, but about the human factor. Setbacks in an ERP project are almost always the result of communication problems. If you don’t manage to involve all employees in the project, you are guaranteed to encounter a stumbling block or two, for example:
Resistance among the workforce
Sometimes employees see an ERP system as a threat to their position in the company. After all, the software creates transparency and ensures that tasks can easily be taken over by one person. This understandably fuels the fear of being replaceable. If the individual is replaceable, their own job security automatically decreases.
Atrophy of social structures
Ironically, the structured exchange of information using an ERP system can become so efficient that employees hardly ever talk to each other. As the ERP system makes many coordination processes superfluous, the personal level is quickly lost. However, when social interaction decreases, the sense of community suffers. Over time, cohesion decreases and mistrust develops.
Overregulation
Many processes are already too rigid or unnecessarily complex before the ERP implementation. Before they are transferred to the ERP system, they need to be revised, streamlined and modernized. This is because digitizing old and inflexible processes causes new problems and frustration for employees.
Unresolved issues
ERP systems create transparency – this immediately raises questions among the workforce, for example about roles, authorizations, data protection (GDPR) and coordination with the works council. If these issues are not clarified and communicated early on, there is a risk of blockages or delays.
Too many players
If too many people are involved in the ERP project, responsibilities must be clearly defined. Otherwise, endless discussions, delays and misunderstandings will arise. A clear overview of responsibilities and decision-making powers is therefore essential.
Valuable tips for smooth digital collaboration
To ensure that the ERP implementation becomes a communication booster and not a productivity brake, you need to actively involve all departments and their members. Right from the start.
In other words, they not only have the project implemented by the IT department, but also take care of the needs and emotions of the employees. Experts refer to this practice as change management.
Anastasia Gomer, Asseco Solutions
Only if your internal communication is already good can it be made even better by the ERP software.
We would like to provide you with the following tips:
1. present the ERP solution to your staff in detail – as early as possible. Right at the start of the project, show which departments will benefit from the software and how.
2. obtain feedback from your employees. Take into account the individual requirements that each department places on the software.
3. respond to employees’ questions and concerns. When people feel heard and understood, fears are less likely to gain the upper hand.
4. share the timetable with the workforce. It shows an overview of the individual steps of the changeover. This gives all departments sufficient time to make backups and adapt their processes in good time.
5. be sure to offer your employees training. This will ensure that the software is used optimally and can develop its full functionality.
6. keep an eye on personal interaction. Make sure that your employees don’t just communicate with each other via the ERP system. A bit of small talk in between is important both for cohesion and for the development of creative ideas.
7. revise your processes before digitization. Critically review existing processes and streamline them if necessary. This will ensure that no outdated processes are transferred to the ERP system.
8 Clarify all framework conditions at an early stage. Define roles and authorizations, involve data protection officers and talk to the works council. This will prevent uncertainties and blockades later on.
9. define clear responsibilities. Determine who is responsible for what and how decisions are made. Clear roles and short decision-making paths avoid delays and reduce the coordination effort.
Last but not least, it should be said that comprehensive internal communication is not the only decisive factor for the success of an ERP project. You should also communicate openly with the provider on a regular basis to avoid misunderstandings. In this way, many problems can be avoided before they even arise. ERP reinforces what already exists – it is worth clarifying communication principles in advance.
Examples from practice
BayWa r.e. Solar Energy Systems
In the past, order approvals at BayWa r.e. were carried out using paper documents and manual signatures. Today, the solar energy expert handles its approval processes completely digitally using APplus workflows. This has accelerated the flow of information while reducing waiting times.
| Formerly | Today | Result |
| Order approvals were done manually via paper and signatures | Internal communication and approvals run entirely via APplus workflows | faster information flowless waiting times400 instead of only 200 processed orders/day |
AMOHR Technical Textiles GmbH
The German and Austrian sites of the textile company were once digitally separated from each other, meaning that numerous manual interventions were necessary. This led to time-consuming, inefficient coordination. Thanks to APplus , centralized data maintenance and automated collaboration between the two clients is now possible. As a result, the company benefits from trouble-free communication across locations and convenient internal collaboration.
| Formerly | Today | Result |
| separate clientsmany manual interventionsefficient reconciliations | Both locations work together automaticallyInformation from the customer base is maintained centrally and is immediately available to all parties involved | Convenient internal collaboration without friction Coordination between the locations |
Conclusion: An ERP system improves internal communication
An ERP system is more than just a tool for data management and process control – it is a communication driver for every modern company. By providing a standardized information base and creating transparency, all departments work with the same level of knowledge. This results in seamless, cross-departmental collaboration that is characterized by speed and productivity.
However, it is important that you see the introduction of an ERP system as a cross-company project from the outset. Only if you involve your employees at an early stage and maintain open communication will you lay the foundations for efficient digital collaboration and improve the company’s ability to provide information.
