LogicData Blog

Choosing to move forward with a new ERP solution is a significant undertaking for any company, even more so when the company happens to be a small to medium size manufacturer that generally has more functional areas to consider and likely has more budgetary constraints. The hope is that for the money and effort invested, the implemented ERP system will provide the backbone of the business, connecting all the functional areas within the company to improve decision making, efficiency and the customer experience while also reducing expenses and redundant manual processes.

Over the past 30 years, LogicData has focused on assisting manufacturing clients in choosing and implementing the right ERP solution for their specific needs. During that time, we have engaged with well over 500 diverse clients possessing a widely varying level of understanding of how to evaluate their ERP needs. The purpose of this document is to leverage what LogicData has learned from past engagements in assisting our potential clients in their ERP evaluation process.

It’s apparent from the previous postings in this blog series, that implementing and maintaining an ERP system requires effort, not just from one person within your organization but from a team of employees. That expended effort is generally in addition to the day to day job responsibilities those employees have, so it’s easy to see how maintaining ERP health could quickly fall down the list of priorities. However, when you think about your company’s investment and how a fully utilized ERP system can benefit your business, letting the priority of ERP maintenance slip can be very detrimental. Unfortunately, many companies do exactly that. Often, the justification to not putting more focus on ERP health is that the system is “adequate”. Further investigation may uncover that it really isn’t.

You’ve successfully implemented a new ERP solution that addresses the needs you determined in your initial assessment. With all the time and effort your team has expended during the project, it’s only natural to want to take some time away and focus on other things but remember that there is almost always room for improvement. Even with a successful ERP implementation, there are likely some new challenges uncovered, some refinements to be made and some employees that need additional coaching or training. If you don’t consistently address these areas, you may find utilization of the system falling which in turn will negatively impact the benefits you are receiving from your ERP.

As mentioned in earlier blogs in this series, companies have a tendency to underestimate the scope of an ERP implementation and the amount of time and resources they will have to commit to the project. This misconception has only grown as more software providers offer programs for client self-directed implementations. Consider that an ERP system that will help you solve your business challenges, will interact with every functional area in your company and will have to be configured in such a way as to collaborate across those functional areas within the parameters of all your business processes. When looking at things from that perspective, it is probably apparent that an ERP implementation is a complex undertaking.

If you have read my recent blog with my thoughts on considering your ERP needs, then you are likely ready to move forward with exploring the many available options. Keep in mind that choosing the ERP software that best meets your company requirements is only one piece of the decision-making process. If you don’t implement the solution properly, or the software provider doesn’t have adequate support and stability, you may find yourself quickly struggling. At a high level, let’s examine each of these aspects and see how it may affect your decisions.

Unless your business is stupid simple, it’s highly likely that you need, and probably already have, some type of software system to help you manage your day to day operations. Now, you, or someone in your organization, has determined that whatever is in place isn’t good enough. Before you go charging into frantic web searches on available solutions that will provide you with more information (or mis-information) than you can possibly digest, you should map out exactly why you need an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solution in the first place.