Selecting and implementing a new ERP solution has traditionally been a long and painful process that most CFOs would prefer never to do again. At the same time much has changed over the years, and things that were painful 10 years ago, may not have the same relevance today. We are in the midst of a technology change to configurable and cloud based solutions, and away from customized on-premise ERP.
Most ERP projects are undertaken in order to reduce costs, improve efficiency of daily operations, improve access to financial information, and move away from outdated, inefficient systems with a lot of manual processes, double entries and cumbersome approval processes.
First, let’s start with a few common pitfalls when selecting and
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Equally essential is to take a structured approach to the selection process. First a method of gathering requirements needs to be developed. In order to ensure an objective decision-making process the criteria and scoring system must be agreed in advance, and a format of the demos and solution presentations need to be decided. It is important to involve relevant stakeholders, and those who will be affected by the project, early in the process. This could mean participating in developing the requirements list and attending vendor demos. Lack of participation by, and input from key stakeholders in the evaluation stage can lead to poor acceptance and user adoption. While it is important to consider the needs of all the stakeholders, one should be weary of getting bogged down with a single individual’s or group’s needs.
2. Technology research
The ERP landscape is rapidly changing. First step in any ERP selection process should be to assess what’s available in the market, and to gain understanding of how technology has changed. Schedule time with vendors especially those who have a reputation for being forward looking and innovative. Take the time to do some demos in order to identify new opportunities for efficiency improvement. The shift away from customization towards configuration is one example of technology changes that you risk losing out, if you think traditionally. Configurable standardized solutions are emerging as
Enterprise resource Planning (ERP) is any integrated cross-functional software that reengineers manufacturing, distribution, finance, human resources and other basic business processes of a company to improve its efficiency, agility and profitability.1 On an initial view, an ERP system appears to be the cure for any company’s issues. The installation of such a system offers an organization the opportunity to re-structure their procedures, to coordinate branches’ systems in other geographic locations, unify information and inspire employees via granting them permission to company information. Now these chances exist at heightened costs financially. There are also implementation horrors and labor issues with which must be dealt with. A
ERP projects are most definitely expensive and risky, nevertheless despite these potential costs KEDA decided to embark on its ERP implementation project in hopes of obtaining a high return on investment. One of the factors that led to this decision was the fierce competition of global and local competitors. In an effort to retain its position within the industry and combat the threat of other businesses, KEDA needed to evolve. Specifically, through choosing a new ERP system, KETA hoped that this strategy would improve operations and become a productive advancement to the structure of the company. Since the Chinese government stopped their support and the MRP-II couldn’t manage the multiple system operations, they had to seek out a new alternative.
This paper is an attempt to understand why TS Group chose JDE over SAP, SYSPRO, and Microsoft Dynamics. Within this paper all four ERP products (JDE, SAP, SYSPRO and Microsoft Dynamics) are evaluated for their strengths and weaknesses. From this evaluation a hypothesis is made as to why TS Group preferred the JDE ERP system. Considering any consultants available for these products, an argument is presented as to which constituents (stakeholders) had the most influence on this decision.
This article presents a clear understanding of the critical success factors, software selection steps and implementation procedures involved in successful ERP system implementation. This article majorly covers topics regarding evolution, benefits and significance and pitfalls of the ERP systems as well as critical success factors and ERP system selection. This article is a helpful resource for getting an overview of the implementation procedures and critical success factors of ERP systems and companies can use this as a powerful tool to develop strategies and techniques to manage their
To help ensure the best fit ERP is selected for your company, it is necessary to evaluate the capabilities and cost of an ERP system against your business processes and needs. Include an analysis of your organization’s budget for the ERP system to ensure it is a financially viable option and measure it against the projected savings to ensure that the ERP system will benefit your business financially. Be sure to get demonstrations of your final software candidates and ask questions about training, technical support, and cost of updates. ERP systems and implementation can be costly, so you must be diligent in your research when selecting an ERP
In order to survive in this competitive business world, every business must produce or provide not only a better product or service, they must also provide better customer service, minimize their production costs and overhead costs, have a more efficient management system, a highly reliable infrastructure…the list is endless. Many of these can be achieved through a customized enterprise resource planning system (ERP). ERPs serve as “one comprehensive database to house all of [the company’s] corporate information” so that “when you enter new information in one place, the system automatically updates related information.” However, if these systems are not implemented correctly with the necessary change in management of people and technology
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is now being hailed as a foundation for the integration of
As new technologies are developing at a rapid pace we must decide whether to upgrade our existing ERP system built on extremely outdated technology, or replace it with an entirely new ERP system. Using the completed decision flowchart I was able to evaluate whether upgrading or replacing the existing ERP system would be the best course of action. I started the flowchart with the most basic question of whether the system even needed to be upgraded or replaced at all. We know that the current software is more than 10 years old and it is based on is much older technology. We also know that the data entry screens are completely text based and the system doesn’t even have mouse support. With this knowledge we are able to determine that we
The following report is project analysis study for a typical Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) project. With the ever-growing dependency of firms on technology, ERP has been one of the most widely used strategic tools across firms of all sizes and stature. In which regard, implementing ERP successfully has been one of the most common project management issues in the present context. ERP implementation usually involves high degree of cost and resources to any organization. It also takes a lot of time to successfully integrate the firm’s business model with the ERP functions. Therefore, most ERP implementations are project based and are spanned across a certain timeframe and include separate interdependent activities like
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are one of the most current technologies that many companies adapted. Enterprise Resource Planning is defined as a software package that combines activities happening in different divisions into a single computer system. The ERP systems allow transparency in the organization and easy access of data, the software packages consist of several modules which are Finance, Sales, Human Resource and production, delivering an incorporation of transferable- based information management (Esteve and Pastor, 1999). The ERP systems is considered to be the most important management tool in the business industry because it producers real-time data and it increases level of production (Esteve and Pastor, 2001).
Alpha Enterprises understands that implementing an ERP system may force the reengineering of key business processes and/or developing new business processes to support the organizations goals. Also, ERP implementation requires a massive change in an organization’s structure and affects the way people use to do work and interact. Alpha Enterprises must carefully plan a transformation that is based on adequate strategy and well defined methodology and processes of implementation. The resulting changes may significantly affect organizational structures, policies, processes, and employees.
The modern solution to the issues presented above is the planning and implementation of an ERP (enterprise resource planning) system. The goal of ERP implementation must be understood, and a realistic set of expectations must be determined. An ERP implementation may be implemented in phases to reduce the impact to customers, suppliers and staff. The ERP system will allow the organization to share data across the entire enterprise, allowing each individual business unit to become more organized, efficient and responsive to change. Adoption of new processes often meet resistance, as does any change, within an organization. The support and strategy of Senior Management, including substantial financial outlay, must be clear and enduring. Outside consulting firms may be necessary to provide the proper expertise and guidance
Regardless of what industry your business is a part of, implementing an ERP system is a crucial venture that must be taken seriously for it necessitates strong commitment by the project team and solid support by the business leaders for guaranteed success. It is a known fact that ERP deployment is among the most costly, labour-intensive, lengthy, and complicated tasks a project team can take on.
ERP systems can improve the flexibility of the organization and can adapt the changing market situations continuously.
Due to dramatic changes in organisational management, technology plays an important role in today business environment. According to Groomer & Murthy (1989) incorporation of information technology solutions are becoming increasingly important for all businesses in order to operate successfully. One way that many businesses have implemented information technology on a large scale (Groomer & Murthy, 1989) is by setting up Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems to achieve their business transaction and data processing needs. According to the business need, selecting the appropriate information system such as Enterprise resource planning (ERP) will be appropriate and suitable because it improves efficiency. However it should be borne in mind that every business has its own dimension; therefore, there is the dire need of appropriate selection and need based customizations (Kleiner et al., 1999).