When executed correctly, coordinating the efforts of interdependent departments such as procurement, inventory, marketing, customer relations, sales, distribution, and human resources means having an edge over less efficient competitors. This drive for efficiency led to enterprise resource planning (ERP) — the stitching together of separate management schemes into an integrated whole via enterprise-wide software. [...]
While the production facilities of small firms might not crank out the high volumes that mega factories do, the former can still benefit greatly from an approach that is driven by data. Processes such as inventory management, production monitoring, and quality control are made more efficient by the supply of relevant, real-time data. [...]
Cloud computing — that facility for outsourcing data processing — has been key to many cost efficiencies that businesses have been leveraging for a couple of years now. And because it enables organizations to make sense of huge volumes of data in a short amount of time, the cloud is also changing how operators manage their businesses. [...]
