How to create an ERP system strategy

Follow these steps for implementation success

Make no mistake about it; deploying a new ERP Solution within your organisation is a significant project. Stripping out disparate solutions and implementing a shiny, all-in-one application is akin to open-heart surgery for your business. It’s something you want to get right to ensure the health of your organisation for years to come. So what is the best way to create an ERP system strategy?

Firstly, you’ll want to address the challenges you have within your organisation and how your chosen solution will overcome these. Typically, companies will begin searching for a new system when they have tried all other avenues to overcome business challenges. The planning stage is critical as you don’t want to find issues within your business that your new system doesn’t have the functionality to address.

During your planning stages, speak to all key stakeholders across your business. Speak to your financial director about their challenges in managing cash flow. Talk to your MD or CEO about the types of reports they’d like to analyse or your production manager about the bottlenecks that always lead to customer order delays. Once you’ve mapped everything out, you can start researching solutions and comparing functionality to decide what will be the best fit for your organisation – both now and in the future.

The average lifespan for an ERP solution is usually around ten years – if it’s not developed and updated regularly. SAP usually releases a new major version of SAP Business One every two years. There are also various patch releases in line with new innovations and regulations. But if you’re currently running an industry-specific or a legacy system, chances are you aren’t GDPR compliant and won’t meet the new Making Tax Digital regulations. It’s time to switch before your software leads to an unnecessary financial penalty for your SME. When researching a new solution, asking questions about its product roadmap is essential to ensure you future-proof your company.

How to choose the perfect ERP solution

When you search on Google for an ‘ERP solution’, do you know how many results there are? Over 100 million. This can be overwhelming, and you’ll never be in a position to read everything online. It’s always a good idea to check out an independent website first or to research solutions that other companies within your industry use.

Once you’ve identified a couple of solutions that might work for you, there are hundreds of videos or online demos you can check out. YouTube is an excellent resource for browsing potential solutions and getting a feel for how processes work. Buy-in across your company is often determined by usability. If your solution is too complex, users keep it at arm’s length.

Another thing to do before you decide on your next solution is to read some customer testimonials and case studies and see how solutions work in real life.

Next, you'll want to speak to deployment partners when you’ve identified a solution that could work for your business...

How to select an ERP implementation partner

You’ll need to make many important decisions when deploying a new business management system. Some are more important than others. But the most important one – and the one you can’t afford to get wrong – is who you select as your implementation partner. There are a few things that you should consider when picking a partner to work alongside your business.

Culture is key. It would help if you found an organisation with the ideologies as your own. If you can find somebody on the same page as you, it will make a massive difference. You’ll work closely with your chosen partner through the different sales, implementation and go-live stages. Then, they will be your first port of call if you ever need any support. Always ask yourself if you can see your company working with your selected partner for the foreseeable future. If the answer is ‘no’, they are unsuitable for your business.

You need to feel like you can trust your partner and that they’ll honour what they promised during the sales cycle. Always do your research into an organisation. Take a look at their website and their corporate social media profiles. See how many people are part of their project delivery and consultancy teams. Do they have the right skills to help you deliver your project? If something doesn’t feel right, then it often isn’t.

For many growing businesses, this is the first time they will have implemented a true ERP system. So they will rely on their chosen partner to lead them along the right path. That’s why it’s critical to work with somebody with the right experience and skills to deploy your chosen system. Make sure the company you decide to partner with has extensive knowledge of your business and the industry you work within.

Once your system is implemented and you’ve gone live, the partner's support team will be there to help with any issues. You’ll want to maximise your investment in your ERP solution and avoid any periods of downtime or where your system isn’t running at full speed. Always ask potential vendors how long it takes them to respond to enquiries and close support calls. It’s also worth finding out what their customer retention rates are like. You can decide what customers think about the level of service a company provides by how many choose to renew their agreements.

Work with an experienced ERP vendor

For many growing businesses, this is the first time they will have implemented a true ERP system. So they will rely on their chosen partner to lead them along the right path. That’s why it’s critical to work with somebody with the right experience and skills to deploy your chosen system. Make sure the company you decide to partner with has extensive knowledge of your business and the industry you work within.

Once your system is implemented and you’ve gone live, the partner's support team will be there to help with any issues. You’ll want to maximise your investment in your ERP solution and avoid any periods of downtime or where your system isn’t running at full speed. Always ask potential vendors how long it takes them to respond to enquiries and close support calls. It’s also worth finding out what their customer retention rates are like. You can decide what customers think about the level of service a company provides by how many choose to renew their agreements.

Finally, ask a potential partner if you can speak with some of their customers. The majority of companies now include customer testimonials on their websites – or will be able to provide a reference customer from the industry you work within. Alarm bells should start ringing if neither of these is available.

How to avoid ERP project failure

One of the biggest concerns SMEs have when starting a new project is how it’ll finish. Will the solution tick all the boxes when it’s live? Will the project run over, or will it cost more than budgeted? Thankfully, if you’ve selected an experienced vendor, you’ll be worrying about nothing.

However, it is essential to remember that ERP implementations are rarely straightforward or easy to complete. When your end-to-end solution, such as SAP Business One or SAP Business ByDesign, there are many cogs in the wheel that all have to align to get the solution firing on all cylinders. But don’t let that put you off. The reward will be a powerful business management solution to help your business innovate, grow and boost profits.

Any company that has implemented a new solution will tell you to expect some bumps in the road. And that’s fine. Certain problems when implementing a system don’t always result in project failure.

Usually, projects only fail when there’s conflict. Either internally when there’s no complete buy-in from senior leaders or when there’s a conflict with your chosen partner. If the problem is internal, then this is where things get tricky. If, for example, a new CEO or Financial Director comes on board halfway through the project, they may have ideas of their own that may not include your preferred solution or partner.

But if you’ve chosen to work with an experienced partner who has the right team working with you, they will have the knowledge of having been there and got the t-shirt – and that will get you over the line.

When planning your ERP system strategy, it’s important to remember that each project is different. There are no set timelines or schedules for these types of deployments. You’ll have a go-live date set with your partner when you want everything up and running. But just because one company went live in x-amount of weeks doesn’t always mean that it’ll be that way for your business.

When organisations initially consider a new solution, it’s either because the challenges they face with their existing systems continue to grow or because they have a compelling event. If it’s the latter, your partner should be aware of this from the outset. Projects rushed through often result in many issues when systems are live.

Your next steps

Once you’ve spoken to the key stakeholders across your organisation, have selected a solution that you feel is a perfect match for your business and secured a budget for your project, what is next? Reach out to one of our ERP experts, and we’ll work together to plan the next stages of your project. Our solution architects will give your team a demonstration to showcase how our software can help you overcome your biggest challenges and automate the critical process. We’ve got consultants with decades of experience to deploy your chosen solution and help you go live with the support of our skilled projects team. Then, when you’re live and enjoying the benefits of a fully integrated business management system for SEIDOR, our support and customer success team are always on hand to help you maximise your ERP investment.