Areas to Evaluate When Considering New Business Management Software

You have decided to start the search for new ERP software to run your business. What now? How do you start? What should you be looking for? Who is doing the search? These are just some of the questions that should pop up immediately when considering new business management software.

Having been in the Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) business for many years, and party to many, many selection cycles, I have seen some pretty bizarre and non-effective methodologies by prospects. ERP implementations have a very good chance of going sideways, but some early efforts on your part can alleviate the chances of a failed selection and implementation. Here are some recommendations to help you:

1. Look at your current processes and accounting software. Are your processes there to accommodate your current accounting software, or is the process actually helping your business? This is critical. Do a high-level mapping of your business processes (pen and paper works for this) and see what can be automated, or what you would like automated. Don’t make things over complicated – see what you need to function efficiently.
2. Do you actually need to change accounting software or does your current accounting software do 80% of what you need with some tweaking? If so, then the Return on Investment (ROI) is probably not there yet for your company to switch. We will talk about ROI in a future post – for now just beware of the fuzzy ROIs that sales guys like to present you with. If you can’t do a mission critical process, then you should be looking at ERP software.
3. What happens if your ERP software stops working or crashes? Can you afford for that to happen? If there is even a small chance of that happening, get cracking on getting something new in. You are living on borrowed time.
4. Who on your team is going to drive the project? The question of using an outside ERP consultant always comes up at this point. I have been involved with both types, but my suggestion would be to designate an internal resource to lead the charge. After all, who knows your business better than you? The ERP software consultant may well also have an informal agreement with a favorite ERP software company.
5. Call your peers and see whom they are using. Ask them how they like their erp software and the level of service. You can always ask the erp software vendor for their references, but I guarantee that won’t be an impartial list.
6. Do you want to buy direct from the erp software vendor, or go through a Value-Added Reseller (VAR)?There are advantages and disadvantages either way, and those too will be discussed in an upcoming blog. Simply put, it is the one throat to choke theory when things go awry versus having multiple vendors point fingers.

So, the question of where to start. Start with a solid look at what you have. If it is stable, and supported, evaluate if it is doing 80% of what you need. If the remaining 20% can be done through an add-on, or a third-party erp software, then that may the best decision– provided it can offer the reporting and data you need. To better understand if your current erp software is working for your business, and to learn more about ERP selection, contact cloudERP