Pursuant to a Decree of the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, 25 April is marked each year as Entrepreneurs’ Day. Entrepreneurs’ Day was established to promote a supportive attitude toward entrepreneurship in society, taking into account the growing role of entrepreneurs in the national economy and the exceptional importance of entrepreneurial development in ensuring employment.

Ayxan Gadashov, Manager of the Azexport.az portal at the CAERC (Center for Analysis of Economic Reforms and Communication), answered questions regarding the opportunities created by the Azerp.az portal for entrepreneurs.

What was the primary role of ERP systems before the pandemic?

In the modern era, the success of enterprises or organizations is directly proportional to the extent to which physically occurring events are reflected in numerical data. For this reason, most digital solutions are oriented toward this objective. Widely used ERP systems serve precisely this purpose by transforming real-world events into Big Data. This plays a crucial role in enabling more flexible and accurate data analysis and in correctly determining future development directions.

To allow enterprises to benefit from these capabilities, the Azerp.az portal was launched in December 2019 by the CAERC. The portal is built on the open-source OpenERP system. With more than two million users, the OpenERP system is supported by over 2,000 professional developers.

What opportunities does the Azerp.az portal offer entrepreneurs during the pandemic-related crisis?

I believe that the Azerp.az portal is one of the immunostimulants for enterprises against the adverse effects of the pandemic. Currently, in order to prevent the spread of the novel coronavirus infection, most enterprises and organizations are compelled to conduct their operations online. In such circumstances, information exchange among employees slows down, which in turn leads to a weakening of overall workflow.

Thanks to the capabilities of the Azerp.az portal, it is possible to enhance information exchange between departments and employees and to ensure more efficient operational management. At present, by supporting enterprise resource planning, the portal offers the following functionalities: accounting, HR management, production management, multichannel sales, procurement, e-commerce, warehouse management, project management, fleet management, and CRM.

Which sectors can benefit from the Azerp.az portal?

With the onset of the pandemic, companies operating in the information and communication technologies sector were the first to rapidly integrate ERP systems. At the next stage, these systems began to be widely adopted in manufacturing, sales, construction, and the food industry. State institutions and enterprises operating under their supervision have also started to move toward the use of ERP systems.

In addition to the pandemic, this trend can be linked to the transformation of public sector activities from a control-oriented approach toward a service-oriented one. As is evident, enterprises operating across all sectors can currently benefit from the capabilities of the Azerp.az portal.

How is interest in the Azerp.az portal expected to change after the pandemic?

It is well known that ERP systems were widely used even before the pandemic. However, the existing necessity for remote management resulted in a much faster integration of these systems into business processes. I believe that by transitioning to ERP systems, enterprises have initiated a process of hyper-immunization for the post-pandemic period.

Modern digital solutions are designed not only to enable remote management of enterprises during the pandemic, but also to ensure more productive business operations and to safeguard data confidentiality.

Which services on the Azerp.az portal attract the most interest?

Currently, the portal offers nearly 50 modules covering various areas. One of the most in-demand features is the CRM (Customer Relationship Management) module. CRM enables the proper establishment and management of relationships between enterprises and customers.

Through this module, records are kept of all transactions between an enterprise and its customers, including phone calls, correspondence, completed and pending orders, contracts, invoices, and other relevant information. Centralizing data in a single system also eliminates the need to rebuild relationships when a new manager is appointed to the relevant position in the future.

It should be noted that the Azerp.az portal operates using Cloud SaaS technology. Users can access all required information or enter new data from anywhere in the world using only a web browser.