How to Design the ERP System: UX/UI Best Practices for 2022

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software is an extremely powerful tool serving numerous business needs. However, it will hardly manage to perform its core functions without a consistent UX design. Regardless of their IT literacy, every employee should easily and effortlessly use and understand the system. That's why applying user-centered principles when designing ERP software is vital for its success.

ERP software is effective when all the employees broadly apply it, and all the important functionalities are exploited. So, let's talk about the best ways to design an ERP system that will improve and speed up your business processes.

Drawing on Aspirity's rich experience in business processes automatization, we decided to provide you with a comprehensive investigation of the key challenges, UX best practices, and guidelines on how to design an ERP system.

ERP systems are extremely complex and multifunctional, so providing good UX for such software is not an easy task to complete.

At the same time, ERP's convenience is vital. The employees and managers whose needs the system serves should have no difficulties in learning how to use it. With the right approach to the design, an ERP speeds up the processes instead of slowing them down because of their complexity.

Due to the nature of ERP systems, they should satisfy the needs of many stakeholders. Here are the users who may take advantage of well-designed ERP software.

Junior staff, accountants, sales representatives, HR consultants, and other employees use the platform to perform their everyday tasks.

Sales department managers or marketing managers need a transparent platform to build sales forecasts yet do not have a direct line of communication with developers in charge of UX design.

The decision-makers will substantially impact the future ERP user experience; however, they are unlikely to use it daily.

Сustomers, analysts, and business partners may also benefit from such software. Some ERP systems will be used by both customers and business partners. In contrast, analysts can influence decision-makers.

Now, let's see how to design an ERP system, keeping in mind its potential users and trying to satisfy everyone's needs as much as possible.

The approach to designing an ERP system has significantly changed since the first solutions were introduced. It is vital to meet the core needs of big companies and eliminate challenges that regularly occur in their business processes. The system's usability is the key principle that can make the difference.

Implementing the following ERP design best practices will take your organization's daily activities to a new convenience, speed, and efficiency level.

Making a great ERP user experience can be challenging and complex; however, it is crucial to keep the result easy and user-friendly.

Overwhelming and difficult-to-perceive systems are left in the past. Nowadays, employees and managers understand the benefits of modern software they use every day. So the system serving them during working hours should be no less convenient than the apps intended for other needs. Moreover, ERP should make their lives easier and accelerate the workflow.

ERP interface design intuitiveness can be achieved with at-a-glance access to important data, clear navigation, and the ability to drill down and get more details if needed.

A minimalistic approach will balance out the system's complexity and thus enhance productivity.

Integrate drag-and-drop solutions to enable working with the system without extensive coding knowledge. Make sure that navigation is intuitive and easy to grasp — it'll shorten the learning curve and save money on training.

As an example, take a look at the ABAS ERP workflow editor. It's got a drag-and-drop feature that enables double-clicking for direct editing.

Time is vital, so make sure that your users can quickly find and access important information. Integrate a powerful search functionality to help users find what they want easily and instantly.

SAP S/4 HANA is a robust ERP system that incorporates revolutionary features like RPA and AI, providing a powerful search engine.

Ensure extensive role-based training for your employees to help them learn the system quicker and more efficiently. While some users will utilize only a few ERP functions, power users need more in-depth insights into the system and its functionalities.

Finally, don't underestimate the importance of an ongoing learning process by organizing regular training for your employees. Teach them about new features and help them enhance productivity.

When a problem occurs due to ERP systems' complexity, immediately refer to your vendor's customer service. That is why it is crucial to work with well-established companies to ensure a quick and helpful response.

Waiting too long might result in a decrease in ERP usability and, thus, overall efficiency. If your vendor does not provide adequate support, you can seek help from certified consultants.

A well-functioning ERP system strives for a high level of personalization so that its multiple functions don't overwhelm the users. That's why it's important to come out with an efficient solution of how to split working modules' screens.

Here, well-thought-out User Personas and User Stories will come in handy. With their help, you will clarify who will be using the system and how they can do it. Simply put, deep analytics is a must-have when building an ERP system.

With ready-made ERP solutions, it's often hard or even impossible to tailor the system to a particular company's needs. That's why the software based on templates like Oracle Cloud may look monstrously and incomprehensibly.

Visual representation of certain metrics displayed as charts, tables, or graphs, makes them less overwhelming and more intuitively clear. According to Aberdeen Group, 74% of companies that use data visualization tools enable their managers to make more efficient and timely decisions.

Thus, a large and complex ERP system can benefit from using data visualization dashboards.

Depending on their daily tasks and workflow, every user needs certain information to collect, monitor, and build predictions. Custom dashboards allow them to select the essential information, add role-based metrics, and monitor KPIs to facilitate and speed up access to the required data.

Visualized information provides users with at-a-glance access to what they want to learn instantly, with an option to drill down where necessary.

Enterprise employees and managers majorly work with PCs and laptops. However, the responsiveness of an ERP system and the ability to access data from various devices, including smartphones, would be a great advantage.

Operational variability, real-time updates, and customizable screen features will make the platform more available and versatile.

Redesigning existing ERP systems and improving certain UX components should be implemented if software lacks usability or doesn't meet the audience's needs. Otherwise, updates would be a waste of time and resources. Any ERP system redesign should strive for a certain goal.

That's why it's crucial to determine the objective and ensure makeovers will bring particular value and solve specific problems the users face.

The key goal of ERP redesign is to speed up certain business processes. So when improving your system's UX, define what will indicate if your ERP design is functioning better or vice versa. It's worth conducting comprehensive UX research and investigating the current challenges.

Here are a few steps to determine if the system needs to be updated:

Finally, to know what exactly should be updated in your system, carefully examine the best practices of ERP UX design described above in this post. Improving any of the mentioned UX components will help accelerate workflow within the system.

Take a look at the following best ERP UI design examples to see how such a complex system may look and feel intuitive, easy-to-navigate, and fresh. What is more, UI here goes hand in hand with UX, so the users of such systems get a seamless experience.

This example of an ERP system dashboard contains a calendar, list of tasks, project-related documents, and messages. The interface design looks fresh and readable, which is vital for a complex system that increases employees' coordination efficiency. A calendar helps visualize key events and milestones, displaying them in a non-overwhelming way.

This example of an ERP system design represents a dashboard for an online healthcare marketplace. The solution includes an extensive database of customers, hospitals, medical staff, suppliers of medications, etc.

The design looks clean and concise, visualizing core data related to the latest orders, sales, and earnings. Empty spaces and information blocks ensure the page's simplicity and consistency.

This example of an ERP system designed for a logistics company contains a list of the latest planned deliveries. It provides the employees with key information on the routes, estimated distances, delivery address, time, etc. It also enables easy access to data about vehicles for efficient fleet management.

With such a platform, logistics company workers have at-a-glance access to all required details, significantly saving them time.

First, let's tackle the most critical question: to build or not to build?

Developing a full-fledged ERP system is often not the only option. The first thing you need to do is conduct research and define your business needs.

It's often enough to purchase a fully functional ERP system from a third party, which might save you money and nerve cells. However, you may suffer from a lack of customization, which will eventually outweigh the cost savings.

Ready-made solutions sometimes look cumbersome and inconvenient. For instance, a complex SAP ERP system requires a lot of time and effort to figure out how it all works.

So if you want to stay flexible, consider building your own ERP system.

After defining the goals you want to achieve with the help of your future ERP platform, the most reasonable strategy is to rank them by importance. Then, implement the prioritized features module by module, starting with the crucial ones and finishing with nice-to-have functions.

Here is a brief step-by-step guide revealing how to mitigate the risks and provide a professional ERP User Interface design and efficient UX for your company.

Building an ERP system from scratch is quite challenging. On top of that, you need to keep in mind the importance of a solid user experience.

Aspirity is a full-cycle development company with a focus on UI/UX design and front-end. We have an in-depth knowledge of dashboard design and a deep understanding of ERP specifics.

From the following case studies, you will learn how we dealt with automizing certain business processes, tailoring the software to our clients' needs.

We worked on UI/UX design and web development for a web application of the Arctic Group, an authorized external accounting firm that provides various services to investment- and project companies. Our client wanted a clear and intuitive project management tool to facilitate and speed up internal business processes.

Our designers came out with numerous solutions to make the employees' lives easier and automate many aspects of the company's workflow. In particular, we managed to create a well-functioning UX that meets the client's needs. Here are a few key points that helped us achieve the desired result.

After developing project management software from scratch, we continually optimize its functionality by adding new features and capabilities. Thus, Arctic is turning from a customized PM tool to a full-fledged ERP system.

Working on EDMOS project, we built a document management system to minimize data entry and reduce human error risks. Our client, a US-based company, needed three separate systems for calculating insurance quotes.

The goal was to provide software for internal and external clients, integrating the system with accounting, websites, and third-party management. Also, we had to develop APIs to integrate various programs and ensure functional flexibility.

As a result, we updated the existing platform and improved its operational capabilities. A large document management system included more than 15 integrated services. All calculations were provided in semi-automatic mode. The business automation significantly reduced the processing time for incoming customers, increasing the CSI (Customer Satisfaction Index).

As for other internal processes acceleration, we reduced the time spent by the managers working with the Resware and automated the process of documents creation.

Despite the initial cost and effort of developing your own ERP system, it will pay off in the long run. The modern world of technology forces us to stay flexible and ready to innovate to outrun competitors and win the market.

Do not underestimate UX parameters that impact ERP performance. Having such a complex system to be built or updated, you should pay extra attention to its usability. A great ERP solution should speed up your business processes and efficiently serve your company's goals.

We at Aspirity have deep expertise in designing and building products of different nature and complexity. With an individual approach to each client and a reliable discovery process, we can provide you with the best solutions that will serve your business objectives.

So if you need UX design services for ERP software, feel free to contact us and get a free consultation on your project. Let's build robust ERP software for your company together!

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Aspirity is an offshore web development agency. We specialize in management, admin, and dashboard software.

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