Way to Grow

This article discusses features of enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems that aim to help small engineering firms in managing their businesses. With the proliferation of ERP systems and vendors in the past decade, the big vendors as well as a series of small and niche players are now marketing their offerings for the small-to-midsize company and for specialized companies. Small companies often find that ERP systems give them better control of inventory and production scheduling. The engineer-to-order operation has unique needs that can be met by a specialized ERP system. Jobscope, a company in Greenville, South Carolina, makes ERP software especially for small-to-midsize engineer-to-order companies. In order to serve engineer-to-order type of engineering companies, the Jobscope system stores business information on a per project rather than a company-wide basis. It is because engineer-to-order companies batch and track jobs on a project basis. The experts agree that bringing in an ERP system might seem daunting to the smaller engineering operation. However, they also agree on another thing: it can help small companies manage the complexities of growing business.