ERP vs Inventory Management; Which One to Choose?

When it comes to choosing the right software for handling your business’s inventory, you often have to face the difficult challenge of choosing between ERP vs Inventory Management software. While both may share many features that are useful for assisting in inventory management, they can be so radically different that using one instead of the other can either benefit or harm your business.

To choose the right software for the right purposes, you need to know what each application has and what each application lacks.

Also Read: Netsuite ERP’s Inventory Management Software

What Is Inventory Management Software?

An inventory management application is a standalone application that focuses on the management of stocks. It records and monitors all the data related to inventory movements and storage. The effective use of this software leads to the efficient management of stocks and warehouses. Businesses can avoid mishaps like understocks, overstocks, stock expirations, and other stock-related losses when they can harness the true power of this software.

Because an inventory management application focuses on stock management, its continuous development has led to the introduction of many advanced features that help optimize stock management tasks and predict trends. Newest applications monitor warehouse history to suggest the best locations for certain stocks and to predict market trends.

Also, because this application focuses solely on stock management, businesses may have to pair it with other software applications focusing on other business aspects to ensure seamless communication between inventory management and other business departments.

What Is Enterprise Resource Planning Software?

Enterprise Resource Planning software is an all-in-one application that covers various aspects of a business. Being an all-in-one application, it also includes inventory management as one of its functions, hence the ERP vs Inventory Management software confusion. At a glance, you might want to choose this all-in-one software instead of inventory management software that often has to rely on other applications.

Before you make such a decision, however, you need to understand that the all-in-one feature of an ERP application is always a good thing. Being a unified system, ERP has to focus on many things. If you want more focus on inventory management, you might not get sufficiently rich features from ERP. For example, you might not be able to smartly read the warehouse history and make predictions with ERP.

If you want to harness the power of both systems, the ERP for inventory management offers better integration and richer enhancements to your inventory management software, helping you make a better choice amidst the ERP vs Inventory Management software confusion. (pc)

Read more: Free ERP Software for Inventory Management