Choosing The Right ERP For Your Business

Choosing an appropriate ERP is an important decision to get right – So how do you choose the right ERP for your business and what makes a good ERP? Of course we’re going to tell you all about the ERP’s we resell, but that doesn’t mean they’re right for your business and operational needs.

Luckily a discussion is free of charge.

Before You Can Shop For An ERP

What are the real needs of your business? Are there things you absolutely cannot compromise on, such as; data sovereignty requirements and operating with a lack of consistent internet connectivity?

Then what are the reason that are driving you to look for a system in the first place? It’s worth writing these down somewhere – even if you never say them out loud to a sales rep.

The sorts of reasons we normally hear are:

• We’ve gotten too big to rely on spreadsheets. 
• The office lady who’s been there since day 1 is retiring & no one else knows where absolutely everything is.
• Our current systems have become too expensive and time consuming to manage.
• We’d like to improve our level of automation.
• We’re not getting the information out of our business that we need in order to move forward.

What Makes a Good ERP?

1. Integrated: Look & Feel (User Experience): Having a consistent look and feel across the business system is also an advantage and it is particularly critical that the system is user friendly and comes with training and support as well as regular updates and enhancements.

However, most importantly, the ERP must match any specific requirements of your business to ensure it delivers on the expectations and needs of your organisation. Its this last requirement that we can help you with, by sitting down with you and working through the different functional areas of your business to establish what you really need, what might be nice to have, and where you want your business to be once you have an ERP system in place.

Defining Your Needs & Requirements

Defining your needs is possibly one of the hardest things for an organisation to do for themselves, but you can start by looking at what industry you most closely align to.

On our side of the table, one of the things that makes us a trusted IT partner is that we listen and understand your business before we simply start making recommendations. As hard as it is for us to do, we will turn you away if your needs can’t be met by one of the ERP solutions we are licensed to resell and implement.

First we take into account the more obvious aspects of your business, such as;

• Annual turnover
• Number of end users
• Existing systems, workflows & business processes

Secondly we take into account the less obvious aspects of your business, such as your;

• industry
• need for customisation
• need for business process realignment
• alignment & capabilities of our most suitable system to your business needs
• your capability to work with us (partnerships go two ways).

This ensures that we provide our customers with a superior service level, carefully manage their implementation project and transition to the new system, so that we always deliver the benefits you expect from your business system.

Look & Feel (User Experience): Having a consistent look and feel across the business system is also an advantage and it is particularly critical that the system is user friendly and comes with training and support as well as regular updates and enhancements.

However, most importantly, the ERP must match any specific requirements of your business to ensure it delivers on the expectations and needs of your organisation. Its this last requirement that we can help you with, by sitting down with you and working through the different functional areas of your business to establish what you really need, what might be nice to have, and where you want your business to be once you have an ERP system in place.

Defining Your Needs & Requirements

Defining your needs is possibly one of the hardest things for an organisation to do for themselves, but you can start by looking at what industry you most closely align to.

On our side of the table, one of the things that makes us a trusted IT partner is that we listen and understand your business before we simply start making recommendations. As hard as it is for us to do, we will turn you away if your needs can’t be met by one of the ERP solutions we are licensed to resell and implement.

First we take into account the more obvious aspects of your business, such as;

• Annual turnover
• Number of end users
• Existing systems, workflows & business processes

Secondly we take into account the less obvious aspects of your business, such as your;

• industry
• need for customisation
• need for business process realignment
• alignment & capabilities of our most suitable system to your business needs
• your capability to work with us (partnerships go two ways).

This ensures that we provide our customers with a superior service level, carefully manage their implementation project and transition to the new system, so that we always deliver the benefits you expect from your business system.

An ERP system (Enterprise Resource Planning) is designed to enable the integrated management of your core business processes by creating a positive flow of information between all business functions, divisions and units.

Robust: An effective ERP is reliable (robust), provides information in real-time, and is easy and intuitive to use.

Modular Applications: It is typically modular with an open architecture so additional functionality can be added as required. Each module is designed, from the start, to work together with all the other modules, while performing the specific functions of the area it is designed for – such as supply chain and logistics, warehouse management, accounting & finance, or marketing.

Single Source of Truth: A good ERP works from a centralised and common database – this manages updates simultaneously across the business without the problems of duplicating data or creating inconsistencies that come from distributed databases.

Role Based Access: Levels of access can be predetermined to ensure that sensitive business information is corralled and controls can be built into the system to automatically generate information or trigger an event or process. For example early warning systems and trigger points for stock control can create automatic ordering from suppliers and exception reporting can flag potential problems and escalate them as required.

Look & Feel (User Experience): Having a consistent look and feel across the business system is also an advantage and it is particularly critical that the system is user friendly and comes with training and support as well as regular updates and enhancements.

However, most importantly, the ERP must match any specific requirements of your business to ensure it delivers on the expectations and needs of your organisation. Its this last requirement that we can help you with, by sitting down with you and working through the different functional areas of your business to establish what you really need, what might be nice to have, and where you want your business to be once you have an ERP system in place.

Defining Your Needs & Requirements

Defining your needs is possibly one of the hardest things for an organisation to do for themselves, but you can start by looking at what industry you most closely align to.

On our side of the table, one of the things that makes us a trusted IT partner is that we listen and understand your business before we simply start making recommendations. As hard as it is for us to do, we will turn you away if your needs can’t be met by one of the ERP solutions we are licensed to resell and implement.

First we take into account the more obvious aspects of your business, such as;

• Annual turnover
• Number of end users
• Existing systems, workflows & business processes

Secondly we take into account the less obvious aspects of your business, such as your;

• industry
• need for customisation
• need for business process realignment
• alignment & capabilities of our most suitable system to your business needs
• your capability to work with us (partnerships go two ways).

This ensures that we provide our customers with a superior service level, carefully manage their implementation project and transition to the new system, so that we always deliver the benefits you expect from your business system.