Choose the best ERP Software for your Business
Whether you are buying an ERP system for manufacturing, eCommerce, distribution, or education, finding the right ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system can be daunting, especially when multiple stakeholders are involved.
ERP systems help businesses manage an expansive range of business functions such as accounting, invoicing, payroll, warehousing, logistics, human capital management, and other additional industry-specific applications.
With so many ERP options on offer, selecting the right one for your organization can be daunting. Many companies underestimate the necessary process of doing their due diligence in choosing the right ERP system. Organizations often settle for the less than perfect option, working around the system's shortcomings. Well known ERP disasters indicate that this ends up costing more in wasted time and workarounds. When the perfect match is made, ERP should be a positive force for business transformation and give your organization a critical competitive edge.
Here are our top considerations that will guide you to the process of selecting the right ERP solution for your organization
- Conduct a process review and analysis.
- Research and define and document your current business processes, pain points, and strengths. Think ahead and consider what processes in your organization will look like in the future.
- Use this information to define and rank your business requirements. Ensure that all relevant stakeholders collaborate to do this. Later you will use these requirements so that potential software vendors can demonstrate their product's capabilities within the context of your business needs.
- Evaluate technical requirements.
- Consider how a potential ERP software solution will work within your company's current infrastructure.
- Understand the actual cost, and be aware of bias during the sales cycle
- Software sales reps will always try to bias the decision in their company's favor, so it's essential to be aware of this when reviewing vendors. Hidden costs and risks associated with purchasing their software may arise after the deals are signed. At this point, you must do your due diligence to uncover "hidden costs" associated with ERP systems, including implementation costs, hardware upgrades, backfilling your project team resources, software maintenance, limits to the number of users, etc.
- Develop an Implementation project rollout plan
- Remember that vendors are trying to make a sale, so make sure you dig deep into implementation duration estimates with them. Develop an implementation project rollout plan that includes activities required to install the software, along with necessary actions to ensure that the solution is tested, actually works, and is accepted by end-users. Do this before you choose a vendor, so you understand the resource cost involved for project success. This plan should include everything from business process and workflow design to data migration, multiple test iterations, and critical organizational change management activities.
- Measure the benefits against the costs of the new system.
- Your organization might be looking for an ERP system to reduce costs, increase revenue, or scale for growth. Measure the benefits against the system's costs so you can understand the full potential of the new ERP system.
- Remove Bias from the Process
- Googling the Best ERP system will deliver results based on other companies' needs. There are more than just a few "Best ERP solutions" on the market, and one of the 70+ niche solutions may be much better for your company's requirements. Don't choose based on a brand name or what your competitors have. Consider the options that are going to best meet your unique business requirements and sources of competitive advantage.
- Asking colleagues, employees, and other contacts what they use or recommend for a company like yours will deliver a biased result. No matter how confident they are, they cannot know your organization's individual needs or be able to consider and rank those needs against your business objectives. Many will research on the internet or hire an ERP consultant when looking for the best ERP solution. Keep in mind that many vendors pay to participate in some of these well-known software evaluation spaces.
Selecting the right ERP software can be a collaborative and innovative process, free of bias
Using Olive's collaborative portal and use case libraries, companies can ensure they identify and manage all stakeholder's needs, getting broader and deeper than ever before and ensuring everyone has a voice in the decision. This collaboration and agility speed up stakeholder management gets you out of spreadsheets and allows you to drill deep into your specific requirements.
Olive is a software evaluation platform that's efficient and free of bias, revolutionizing the process of buying and selling technology. Because Olive is the only software evaluation platform that does not charge vendors, so you can ensure you will find the best ERP solution for your needs, without bias.
Make the best decision on an ERP system, faster than ever before
Using a tool like Olive takes the best digital transformation practices, shortens the process, and puts it all in one platform. Using Olive, you can be sure that your organization ends up as one of the ERP success stories rather than one of those well known ERP failures.
Acknowledgments
16 famous ERP disasters, dustups and disappointments
7 steps to choosing the right ERP software
