From ERP to AI: It's Time to Unlock the Goldmine of Information in Your Manufacturing Business
You have spent years building your ERP data. It's time to make it work harder for you.
Back in the late 1990s, ERP systems began making their way into India's SME manufacturing sector. Until then, most businesses used software primarily for accounting. But as the new millennium approached, customers began demanding ISO certifications, documented processes and better control over business operations. Manual systems were becoming increasingly cumbersome, while Excel spreadsheets had their limitations in handling growing volumes of business data.
ERP was the natural answer.
The initial expectation was simple: connect all departments, ensure information flowed seamlessly across the organisation and eliminate repetitive data entry. For many businesses, being able to generate invoices, purchase orders, GRNs and production documents was a significant achievement. But ERP gradually became much more than a documentation system.
As the volume and quality of business data improved, progressive manufacturers began using it to analyse performance, improve margins, reduce delivery delays, control costs and stay ahead of competition.
And then came AI!
What if all the information accumulated in your ERP over the years could actually tell you what is going right, what is going wrong, why it is happening and what you should do about it?
The next chapter in the ERP journey
OurSys customers have experienced this evolution since 2001. Over the years, we have continuously upgraded OurSys, introduced hundreds of analytical reports and recently empowered customers with Do-it-Yourself (DiY) reporting.
But conventional reports and dashboards still require someone to study the numbers, connect the dots, investigate exceptions and arrive at conclusions.
AI changes this equation.
It can uncover relationships between seemingly unrelated business parameters, identify patterns that may escape human attention and help management focus on what really needs attention.
However, two important concerns stood in the way of bringing AI to manufacturing businesses:
1. Is my business data safe?
Manufacturing companies understandably hesitate to share sensitive information such as customer details, product costs, BOMs, purchase prices and profitability data with external AI platforms. Business data is a competitive asset and must remain under the company's control.
2. Will AI become an expensive recurring cost?
Many AI solutions work on token-based consumption models. Predicting the volume of AI usage and the resulting monthly expenditure can be difficult. This makes it challenging for SMEs to adopt AI with confidence.
We wanted to overcome both these barriers.
Introducing Ziddle – Your AI-powered Management Advisor
Ziddle is designed to unlock the intelligence hidden in your OurSys ERP data.
It sits on your own server, processes your OurSys data and presents meaningful business insights without requiring you to share your underlying ERP data with external AI companies.
Instead of making you go through hundreds of reports and dashboards, Ziddle brings important information to your attention.
Ziddle helps you understand:
- What's going right? Identify areas where your business is performing well and understand the factors contributing to that success.
- What's going wrong? Highlight weak-performing parameters and exceptions that deserve management attention.
- Why is it happening? Discover possible reasons through built-in statistical correlations and AI-based correlations between different business parameters.
- What should you do? Get suggested management actions and understand why they matter.
- What should you ask your managers? Get relevant questions that help management investigate problems rather than merely review numbers.
- Is the situation improving or deteriorating? Examine supporting trends and understand whether corrective actions are delivering results.
Less time analysing. More time deciding.
Business owners and CEOs often spend considerable time collecting information, reviewing reports and asking different departments for explanations. Ziddle helps declutter this information.
Instead of looking at hundreds of numbers, management can focus on the exceptions, opportunities, trends and decisions that really matter.
The objective is not to replace your managers or their judgement. It is to help them ask better questions, investigate faster and make more informed decisions.
Your ERP data is a goldmine. Start extracting its value.
You have invested years in building your ERP database. It contains valuable information about customers, suppliers, products, production, inventory, costs, deliveries and business performance.
Ziddle helps you turn this accumulated information into actionable business intelligence. For meaningful insights, Ziddle requires at least one year of OurSys ERP data. The richer the historical data, the greater the opportunity to identify meaningful trends and relationships.
This is just the beginning!
Ziddle is in its first release, and we intend to make it smarter and more useful with every version.
We believe the future of ERP is not just about recording transactions, automating processes or generating reports. It is about helping businesses understand their performance and make better decisions.
If you have been wondering how to safely harness the power of AI without exposing your business data or committing to unpredictable AI costs, it's time to explore Ziddle.
Don't just use your ERP to run your business. Use it to understand, improve and grow your business.
Ziddle – Turning Your ERP Data into Management Intelligence.