EAM vs ERP: which works best for your organization?

Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software may seem interchangeable. However, there are unique distinct features for each and number of reasons for you to choose one over the other. In this article, we’ll explore EAM vs ERP software and help you decide which would better suit your business needs. At first, lets define the two terms in detail.

What is EAM?

EAM is specifically designed for maintaining and managing the physical assets of an organization. The key aspect of it to handle the complete lifecycle of the assets from purchase till depreciation.

The EAM is more beneficial for organizations that use expensive and complex equipment operations like gas & oil, mining, construction, contracting, facility management, etc. With the reports provided, you can also forecast future needs of the material requirements.

What is ERP?

An ERP software enables organization to store, manage and share information of all departments and in multiple locations through completely integrated business applications. It helps in managing all aspects of a day-to-day business process from asset management, financial accounting to project management, to HR and beyond.

The ERP software is unique from other systems that it touches so many different aspects of a business process. With improved data sharing between departments, collaboration and analytics, ERP software is a cost-effective solution to improve and streamline the business processes and productivity.

EAM vs ERP

Many organizations find them confused exhausted when trying to choose whether they need a EAM or an ERP. Researching the two solutions, how they apply to your business and how it can help your productivity can help you determine the one that suits you. Investing in an EAM or ERP software is the foremost business decision.

Which software is best for my business?

It depends on your business needs. If you are planning to go for EAM for time being, you need to make sure that it can be integrated with an ERP in the future. The challenge is to decide on how much you can invest on the software to buy and where you can buy the lite version instead of the best of breed version.

At first, the EAM and ERP difference is negligible. Both the software improves your business process and the way you access your data. However, while a EAM focuses more on the asset lifecycle management of an organization, ERP is more focused on activities such as financial accounting, project accounting, procurement and inventory control, fixed asset management and more.

In short, ERP helps an organization to streamline its business process, improves efficiency and cut costs. EAM is more specific on taking care of the complete asset management life cycle.

In addition, here are few things to consider before choosing the software that is best for you

• If you are looking for one solution to organize your entire organization process, ERP is more all-encompassing.
• If your organization is asset-centric and rely on heavy vehicles on daily operations, EAM fits your need.
• If you are mostly handling digital assets than physical asset, ERP is the answer
• If you are responsible only fleet vehicles or different facilities, you can invest in a EAM solution.

Keep in mind that implementing an ERP software is more challenging than implementing an EAM. If you have a minimum budget, consider trying a EAM first. It’s important to understand the budget and decide what fits your requirement.

Can I use both EAM and ERP?

Now that we’ve explored EAM vs ERP, you should have got a better understanding on the compare and contrast features of them. It also helps you to know how the functionality overlap between the two software. If you have resources to invest, the integrated ERP system with the asset management will work for you.

Integrating the two can help you keep all your data centralized and reduces the duplicated entry in multiple software. When the modules are integrated it drives collaboration and improves the over all proficiency of your business.

Conclusion

Determining which software is best for your business will save you money and time in the long run. The right choice of software to implement first is a good start. There are hundreds of ERP software to choose from, and making the right decision can be overwhelming.

Horizon EBS is an excellent bridge which has all the must need features of the two solutions. Its all-in-one ERP software with additional features that help you improve key performance indicators (KPIs) across departments. The decision taken in choosing the software is an important one. The information shared here will give you a clear foundation to start your research. If you need any further consulting, you can reach us at sales@fit.ae, make a call at +971 4 353 3727 or fill the form in contact us page.

 

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