There is no shortage of ways by which we measure the success of an ERP implementation. For years now , the results in terms of performance improvements measured since implementing a solution and progress achieved against company goals. While the ERP software providers might be tempted to take sole credit for these improvements and progress, we know that it is always a combination of people, processes and technology that really produces results. Today we’re focusing on the people part.
“Employee engagement” is a hot topic in Human Resources (HR) and Human Capital Management (HCM) circles these days. It’s right up there with talent management at a time when many manufacturers are facing a shortage of skills. While employee engagement might be hard to measure in a generic HCM sense, it’s pretty easy to measure in the context of ERP Systems. It all boils down to whether or not your employees really use it. If you can’t get your people to actually use the ERP software, then why bother?
If they don’t, there are generally some very simple reasons:
- It’s too hard to get access (think remote workers and distributed sites)
- It’s too hard to use once they do gain access
- They don’t see enough value to bother
- You haven’t purchased enough licenses to allow widespread use
None of these seem to be issues for customers using the ERPNext, which explains why they have been leading the way in terms of ERP engagement for several years.
Back in the early days of ERP Systems then, only a select few employees ever put their hands directly on a solution – perhaps 10% to 20%? Those ERP users were generally heads-down data entry clerks and a few “super users.” If anyone else wanted information they relied on reports printed on green bar, continuous form paper, or they asked those super users for answers.
SaaS Provides Easy Access Anytime from Anywhere
ERPNext was born in the cloud long before the advantages of SaaS were widely recognized or acknowledged. A SaaS solution inherently addresses the first reason for lack of employee engagement with ERP – difficulty in gaining access, particularly for remote workers.
Ease of Use
The second reason employees might choose not to engage with ERP, particularly at the executive levels: It’s just too hard to use. Of course everyone has his or her own definition of “ease of use.” But the simple fact is, the easier the software is to use, the more it will be used.
All participants in manufacturing companies place the highest value on intuitive navigation, efficiency in completing tasks, easy access, and the ability to get done what they need to do easily and naturally.
Gaining Value
Even if the software is dead easy to use, if it doesn’t bring enough value, the employees are likely to disengage
One More Thing…Having Enough Licenses
There is one more reason why many fail to have a high percentage of employees using ERP. They simply can’t afford to purchase enough licenses to open it up to all employees. Most ERP solutions are licensed or subscribed to (think SaaS) on a per user basis. You might have named users, which is exactly what it sounds like – you purchase a license or a subscription for every employee that might need access. Or you might have concurrent users. You might have 100 employees, but they work over three shifts, so you would never have all 100 logged in at the same time. Perhaps you buy a license or subscription for 35 concurrent users. When the 36th user tries to log on, they can’t until another user logs out.
In a real three-shift environment, this isn’t very limiting. But oftentimes companies purchase less than the optimal number of concurrent users simply to reduce the cost. In fact the same may be true of named users as well. This will have a direct impact on the level of engagement of employees and consequently the value derived.
Conclusion
The results you achieve and the progress you make in running a successful business always come from a combination of people, processes and technology, including the software that runs your business. But you simply can’t take full advantage of that software unless you actually use it. The more you use it, the more value you derive. And by “you” we don’t mean just a select few. It takes a full complement of employees to run your business. And therefore, a full complement must actively engage with the software. But it also takes business partners to optimize your supply chain, and of course, customers managing their own orders from you. The easier it is to engage with you, the stronger the supply chain and the happier the customer.
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