Nature duplicates life we create or is it really that the
life we create duplicates nature. It
really makes sense if you think about it, because we tend to replicate our
environment in the way we live, learn and grow.
Last time we looked at the life cycle of ERP solutions with a comparison
to Sunflowers and plant life. Sunflowers
are an interesting plant. The flowers
follow the sun through the day, supply food for birds and animals in their
replication cycle. Their plant-life-goal
is to mature, grow and plant the seeds for the next generation.
Dragonflies are also interesting in general and in their similarities to ERP solutions.
First there are some 5000 varieties of the species. There are a lot of Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) solutions too.
Each
solution has its benefits, limits and niche where they work best.
Dragonflies start as larvae in water where they spend the
bulk of their life. The early stages of
ERP is often a developmental stage where a lot of the work is not seen and
includes implementation, migration and training to fully take advantage of the
service offerings.
The winged version of dragonflies are what most of us are
familiar with and comes after growth and trials and struggles to survive. Once mature there is the need to stay alive, stay
current and continued growth. This is
similar to ERP as more and more function is utilized in the solution and give
need via growth and life cycle to a new generation.
The next generation is inevitable.
That next generation can be an upgrade or new solution,
but it will come. No new generation and
the solution will eventually wear out and perish.
Business needs and cycles change and ERP
solutions need to change and adapt to the way your customers prefer to do
business.
Choosing an upgrade or new solution is not always an easy
task even if what is currently in use does not work. Decision makers need to decide if they want
to keep a narrow focus on their industry such as manufacturing, distribution or
application like order entry. Or, the
decision makers need to take a more broad view of their applications and
embrace the ERP moniker and include more functional roles such as customer
service management which would include order entry, inventory, procurement, and
manufacturing applications, like capacity planning, in one big picture.
Enterprise solutions are optimized to maximize their
return when the entire enterprise is integrated.
Industry solutions are an important grouping of
applications that are used and optimized for specific industries such as
retail, wholesale distribution, or manufacturing. Decision makers now have to consider
traditional on premise or hosted solutions as well as more traditional
questions.
Some questions to consider:
How long has the particular software been
used and how successfully?
Total cost of ownership (TCO) is an important
factor. Most people realize that the
initial upfront costs are often outpaced by the ongoing administration and
operational costs.
What initial costs must be absorbed in your return on
investment (ROI) calculation? Hardware for on premise, software licensing,
maintenance, support, implementation, migration, and training?
What type of support is available? On line, documents, phone and what time
windows?
What skills are needed?
Who will provide training? Train
the trainers? How much time will it take
to get your staff up to date? Which
modules will you activate and in which order?
Do you need to know how to run everything all at once or can you train
as you go after having covered the basic modules first?
Should your solution be an open-source solution or is a proprietary
solution better? What size provider is
right for your business? Are you a global
organization? Do you need a global solution?
An open source solution may seem like a winner especially
with lower license fees, however, getting support may be limited or a challenge
when you get locked into a custom solution that few outside of the solution
provider know how to support. A proprietary
system actually can be more “open” in the sense that people that know how to
support the system will have knowledge of how to support any solution running
on this same platform.
Regardless there may be nothing worse than having a
solution that is not a fit for the culture of your organization and how your
customers prefer to be served.
Maturity of the solution may be a more important factor
that what platform they run on. How
responsive is the solution provider to listen and understand the nuances of
your operations? Or, do they just want to
pack you in a box that “works” and hope you can manage the internal changes
needed to fit their mold.
Conversely, be wary of too much customization. An over eager solution provider that will
customize everything will equally box you in.
With so many customizations, how will you take advantage of new
releases? How will they keep you current
with industry trends?
Too many modifications either means the solution is not
the right fit for your organization or you have highly unique business
requirements.
Where will you get support? Will it come from, is it available directly from, the solution creator? Are there local
dealers with expertise that can be onsite to help? How many of your staff will need to be trained
in support?
It is one thing to purchase a solution, it is entirely
another matter to maintain it. Like our
dragonfly, your ERP solutions need regular tending-to, environment, and
opportunity to grow. Likewise it also
has to be protected from and fend off predators. A dragon fly starts small and is usually
unseen until it has passed through various growth stages until it emerges
mature and winged. It is only then we
see and appreciate its beauty and appetite for the insects it consumes daily.
