According to Krigsman, “You can measure anything that you can input data about. ERP is all about how to get data in, how to calculate data, and how to get it out. All these areas will be improved.”
Inside-ERP recently published this article. There are some timely topics inside and it is
worth the quick read. The first thing
that was designed to grab your attention was the article headline
“Where will ERP be
in 2 years?” Well, that is really not a
stunner of a question.
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are well utilized
now as they will be ever increasing in use and scope. It is how you drive efficiency in your
organization. What you are going to see
are organizations further integrating more and more of their operations under a
single “ERP Roof”. That is, they will
purchase and implement new modules and further learn and utilize their existing
modules. As a footnote here, most ERP
solutions are arranged in modules that match either departmental or functional
roles in the company. It actually is
this footnote that determines which tier of solutions are appropriate.
Many companies have systems that were purchased to
address part of their needs. It is what
they needed at that point in time or what fit their budget. They may have purchased different packages
from different vendors, say Inventory and Customer service from one and
Warehouse Management (WMS) from another.
They have invested lots of time, energy and money integrating the
multiple systems. This gets cumbersome and
costly as you try to upgrade one system and are forced to reintegrate the
separate systems or wait until updates are available for both. The same is true when a business makes too
many modifications or customizations.
The standardization is removed as well as the stability.
There can be a real loss of competitiveness from separate
systems, because the organization cannot implement new or needed technologies
quickly enough. For example, adding new
trading partners in an Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) system or adding or
enhancing Ecommerce solutions, or Business Intelligence Analytics, or integrated
logistics.
So this is the
area where companies are going to need to focus.
It really does not matter if the solution is in-house or
cloud-based. It is the functionality and
“completeness” of the solution that matters most. There are of course many details to consider
when deciding where you solution will run, but the business needs will be the
driving force.
The article talks about simplifying the installation and
user interfaces. The user interfaces can
always be tweaked to make them easier to navigate. Executive level dashboards are likely the
future for many. You can get a quick
snapshot of key metrics and then drill-down for details based on what is important
to you-the-individual.
Simplifying the installation is altogether a different
issue. There is always room for
improvement here, but do not ignore the fact that this is not “boxed”
software. It is often complex to
implement, because the business operations are complex.
You are not trying
to tie together a word processor and spread sheet.
You are integrating multiple departments, and lots of
people and functional roles. Good
software that is affordable is going to have multiple configuration steps so
that it closely matches the way you operate.
When the standard tailoring questions cannot configure well enough it is
either a choice of changing the way you do business to match the software,
modify the software to match your operations, some sort of compromise or
consider that you have not made the right ERP selection.
Simplified is a
great goal, but functionality is more important.
Enterprise efficiency is driven by the functionality and
fit of the solution. The more that is
integrated, the better the right hand knows what the left hand is doing and management
can make more intelligent decisions more quickly. Remember that great functionality must be
balanced with company culture. If your
people are used to working with spread sheets and you throw a major ERP
solution at them without training and support, you will have the makings of a
failure on your hands. In this case it
does not matter how good the solution is, it just does not fit. A majority of the work implementing a new
solution is up-front including the costs, which means that after you get over
the “hump” and if you have the right solution, you start benefiting from the
effort and investment.
There are a lot of decisions to be made and details
considered when selecting a new installation, upgrade or replacement ERP
solution. At Dolvin Consulting we believe you need a
trusted advisor to help you learn about your own organization and research the
appropriate solution. This is really the
first step. Solution providers can make
all the dazzling changes they want, but until you know the driving metrics in
your organization you have no way of knowing if the solution will fit.
Replacing an ERP solution is like an organ
transplant. Consider a Heart
transplant. Would you do the operation
if you did not really have to? Would it
not make sense to make sure you have the same blood type, RH factors and all
those other medical terms checked? How about the
surgeon and his team? What about the
hospital that is providing the support and recovery? Is there spare blood available?
You get it now.
This is risky and worth it, but you first need to know what you do not
know. Contact us today. We are here to help you. We care and want to help. We do not know who you are so it is your responsibility
to reach out for help. Perhaps even for
a second opinion.
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