The Value of ERP Software
ERP projects can require a significant investment in terms of software costs, implementation costs and your employee's time. Undertaking an ERP project can be exciting and full of promise.
The prospect of moving onto a modern platform that is fully integrated and can spare employees from tedious and repetitive tasks. It can make them more efficient, leading to getting more done and high morale.
Business process and the software can be aligned and in harmony, perhaps for the first time in that company's history.
The undertaking of an ERP project often brings into fruition open discussion regarding processes, problems, and solutions, old and new. It can expose weaknesses, flaws and open the door to handling them, increasing efficiency, security and outcomes. This open discussion increases communication between the team, and perhaps it may be the first time they really communicated!
The value of the software is based on how well it supports the business, the employees and facilitates the delivery of products and services. Configured properly, with the staff well-trained, with appropriate processes, it provides a foundation on which the company can expand.
The software in itself will not cause an organization that is disorganized to suddenly become organized. It will not turn an undisciplined team into a disciplined one. It is not a magical cure-all. Years ago, I recall walking into an IT director's office and there was a literal mound of paper on her desk. One could stand on that mound and throw pitches at elevation if one wanted to. The software did nothing to relieve that mound.
There is no replacement for competent, organized and well-trained staff. However, the software can enforce rules, prevent errors, support the business processes and increase speed of delivery of products and services.
As human memory is fallible, it can serve as a backup to one's memory through notes, reminders and tasks.
It can provide data to employee's efficiently, quickly so actions can be taken swiftly and customer demands can be satisfied.
It can assist purchasers and manufacturers with planning, ensuring product is obtained in time to meet customer demands.
It can provide timely reports to management and executives, who can review the data and make sound decisions based on that data.
It is a vital tool, used pragmatically, that can greatly enhance the operations, finance and reporting of any organization.
This is the value of ERP Software.
Why Business Central?
If you are in the market for a new ERP system, why choose Business Central over the competition? Here are a few compelling reasons:
One of the key advantages of Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is its comprehensive, all-in-one approach. Unlike some competitors that offer fragmented solutions requiring multiple integrations, Business Central provides a unified platform that seamlessly integrates financials, sales, service, and operations. This integrated approach fosters collaboration across departments, breaking down silos and enabling a holistic view of your business operations.
Scalability - Businesses evolve, and your ERP solution should grow with you. Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central is designed with scalability in mind. Whether you are a small startup or a large enterprise, Business Central can adapt to your changing needs. Its modular structure allows you to start with the functionalities you need and scale up as your business expands. This scalability ensures that your ERP system remains a strategic asset rather than a limitation as you navigate the challenges of growth.
Stable and secure platform, self-maintained, automated backups and point-in-time recovery, frees up your IT resources to focus on other areas of the business.
Seamless Integration with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform: Business Central isn't just a standalone ERP solution; it's a seamless part of the larger Microsoft ecosystem. Integration with Microsoft 365 facilitates smooth communication and collaboration, while the Power Platform empowers users to create custom apps and automate workflows without extensive coding knowledge. This integration ensures that Business Central aligns effortlessly with your existing technology stack, enhancing overall efficiency and user experience.
Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central offers robust business intelligence and reporting tools, providing real-time insights into your company's performance. With Power BI integration, users can create visually compelling dashboards and reports, turning raw data into actionable intelligence. Informed decision-making becomes second nature, enabling your business to stay ahead of the competition in a data-driven world.
Continuous innovation - Staying competitive in the digital age requires constant innovation and adaptation. Microsoft understands this, and that's why Business Central benefits from regular updates and enhancements. As a cloud-based solution, updates are seamlessly delivered, ensuring your business always has access to the latest features, security patches, and improvements. This commitment to innovation means you can future-proof your business, staying ahead in a rapidly evolving business landscape.
Strong independent software vendor community. Extensions are solutions created by the community that expand the functionality of Business Central for specific industries, features, integrations and more.
In the realm of ERP solutions, Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central stands out as a compelling choice for businesses seeking a unified, scalable, and innovative platform. Its seamless integration with Microsoft 365 and Power Platform, coupled with robust business intelligence capabilities, positions Business Central as a strategic asset for businesses of all sizes. Make the wise choice for your business's future success — choose Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central over the competition.
Contact us today 888-512-3195 or email us: sales @erpefficiency.com
Cloudy with a Chance of ERP?
The weather forecast today is cloudy with a 85% chance of ERP. Yes, here I go again, "borrowing from a movie title", but I can't help myself - my nine-year old son loves the movie and that's the end of that.
Should you run your business in the cloud? You probably are already to some degree and almost daily, a new cloud solution materializes in the ether. We are becoming more dependent on cloud-based services - banking, word processing, spreadsheets, payroll services, on-line tools and so on. ERP is undergoing the same evolution, though it has unique challenges. It is not a question of if, but when.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV is rapidly evolving and users are successfully running NAV in the cloud and with the release of Dynamics 365, Microsoft is clearly stating its intentions - cloud ERP is where we're going.
The main problem that needs to be solved is customization, though Microsoft is making great strides in this area. Customization may be a "feared" word with negative connotation, but I'm not one to mince words. Businesses are unique and therefore customization is often necessary to support a business in running efficiently. Being able to customize the software and at the same time receive automated updates and upgrades is the end-goal.
One school of thought states to change your business to satisfy the software. Wrong-headed approach in my humble opinion. Structure does not monitor function. Function monitors structure. In other words, your customers and your ability to satisfy your customer's needs are paramount. Everything else should be aligned in that direction.
Microsoft's latest release, NAV 2017 has some compelling features, leveraging Office 365. The In-Office 365 experience is a magical one. Here's a scenario - a salesperson receives an email from a new contact. Without ever having to leave Outlook, a contact is created and a Sales Quote is created and emailed using NAV in Outlook. Another scenario - your accounting department receives an email requesting a copy of an invoice. Within Outlook, with a single click, the invoice pops in view and is then sent to the customer by email. This is a game changer in increasing efficiency. Switching software and searching for documents takes time and this all but eliminates that time.
Microsoft Dynamics NAV has never been so cloud-enabled with deep Office 365 integration, improved Web client and continued improvements in supporting customizations without affecting the base product. Add to this the already excellent native phone and tablet apps for Android and iOS.
Embrace the cloud, but be smart about it. Research it and find a trusted partner who can advise you and steer you away from any pitfalls. There are many companies providing cloud hosting services, some are poor, many are mediocre and a very, very few are stellar. This can make all the difference in the world as you want your ERP experience to be fast, reliable and efficient. A lot of things need to come together properly to make this a reality.
Improving ERP Implementations - Part Two
In the last blog in this series, we covered some of the key areas in selecting the right ERP product. In this second part, we will discuss the implementation methodology. The first question to take up is “Why should you care what implementation methodology your ERP partner uses? Isn’t that their business?” After all, you may be shelling out a small fortune to have your ERP system implemented, so it should be akin to getting your car serviced or a room added onto your house. Sit back, relax and enjoy as your ERP system is implemented for you.
If only it were that easy. Successfully implementing an ERP system requires tight collaboration between the customer and implementing partner and it takes a lot of hard, dedicated effort on both sides. The relationship could be better envisioned as a partnership rather than strictly a client-vendor arrangement.
Consider a few of the key areas where your involvement is absolutely necessary:
- Requirements meetings
- Ensuring your business processes and requirements are communicated effectively to your implementation partner
- Providing data from legacy systems
- Obtaining data from third parties (Banks, other IT systems)
- Coordination, scheduling and management of internal project resources
- Attending training sessions
Not only that, you already have a full-time job! The implementation methodology used may impact not only the quality of the implementation, but your daily work-life for an extended period of time, and so should be given due consideration.
The two major implementation methodologies in use are:
- Waterfall
- Agile
Waterfall – the project is carried out logically in a series of steps. Once one step is completed, the next is taken up and so on. For example:
- Design requirements meetings are held
- Design specifications are written
- Design specifications are approved
- Configuration
- Data conversion
- Development (customization)
- User Acceptance Testing
- Training
- Final Data Conversion
- Go-Live
This is logical and fine and works well in smaller, simple implementations, where there is little to no customization. It also works fine for industry-specific software systems which very closely fits your business requirements. It is also fine for straight-forward cloud based software systems which are not customizable. It is not the best choice for complex ERP implementations as we shall soon see.
Agile – simply put, it is an incremental and iterative approach to product development. Work is delivered in periodic segments of time called “sprints”. For example, a sprint may be defined as two weeks. At the end of the sprint, it is expected that the work is functional and complete. From this, new feedback and understandings arise and the next sprint begins. Thus, each sprint takes the project closer to the end goal. The process is highly adaptable and anticipates and embraces change. Therefore, the term “agile” is well-chosen! Agile requires tight communication between customer and implementing partner and indeed, daily communication is one of its key benefits.
So, we can see if we are implementing a simple ERP system with little or no customization, Agile doesn’t make sense. Agile is for product development and we are not doing any development! If you are implementing an industry specific auto-repair shop system, you will simply use it out-of-the box and Agile doesn’t fit at all! A simple cloud-based payroll system - just plug in your employee data and start using it. Agile not required!
However, in a complex ERP implementation with customization, heavy data conversion, integration with third party systems, and so forth, development is required and Agile is ideal. Agile is best when complex requirements are not fully known up-front. At the outset of a project, the customer knows the least about the ERP system and the implementing partner knows the least about the customer’s business. The likelihood of writing a complete, and correct design specification as the first action in the project is low. Agile allows team members to adapt to change, new revelations come to light and feedback is used to improve to product.
There are several methodologies which fall under agile (Scrum, Extreme Programming, Crystal, are a few).
Agile is best for large, complex ERP implementations. Case closed. Whoa there! It may very well be, but it must be applied intelligently. Agile was originally developed for software product development. For example, a company creating an ERP software product. Therefore, its processes are internal to the company developing the product and not customer facing. An ERP implementation is customer-facing. The communication gap between the customer and implementing partner must be bridged as the customer will very definitely be involved.
With Agile, budget and timeline may be difficult to predict as a full design specification is not typically written up-front. Moreover, specifications and documentation are not highly-valued items in agile. Because change is embraced by Agile, the scope of the project may increase significantly and the budget blown. Moreover, with Agile, work is often estimated using obscure, arbitrary values which doesn’t translate well to real-world costs.
The bottom line is Agile must be adapted for ERP projects in an intelligent and thoughtful manner. Reading and following a book on Agile and applying the concepts strictly to an ERP project is inviting disaster!
So, if you are going to implement ERP using an Agile implementation methodology, the following guidelines may be of use:
The implementing partner must ensure customer team members understand Agile concepts and terminology. This is the biggest initial barrier to success. The customer team and implementation team must understand the concepts and terminology to be used in the implementation process. The good news is there is probably only a dozen or so common Agile terms that need to be understood.
Initial design meetings to create the initial product requirements list is highly recommended. Work should be estimated in terms the customer can understand which easily translates to dollars. This is likely, the good old faithful, hour. This gives you somewhere to start and will eliminate unnecessary and excessive change downstream provided the designer is competent and has a thorough and deep understanding of the ERP system being implemented. There is absolutely no substitute for this.
Ideally, the implementing partner has worked out all the kinks out of the Agile process and has adapted it for ERP projects. The biggest issue you may face with Agile is scope creep – the project scope expanding over budget, so both parties must keep a constant eye on this and use reporting metrics to predict and control the budget.
Use judgement when utilizing agile principles. Common sense and practicality override agile theory and principles.
Have fun. Implementing ERP Projects using agile can and should be a fun and rewarding affair.
Improving ERP Implemenations - Part One
ERP implementations often fall short of desired expectations. Indeed, the past-experience of an ERP implementation can leave a permanent mental scar of those involved, so much so that a new ERP implementation becomes a rather daunting and un-confrontable affair.
However, ERP implementations can be a positive experience from start to finish, with any minor bumps smoothed out by a strong partnership with those involved and backed with strong executive sponsorship. But let's cut to the chase, what can be done to ensure an implementation is successful?
Rather than attempting to address this broad topic in a single blog, we'll take this up in multiple parts. This will be part one of a series of blogs.
The first aspect of the ERP implementation is the software itself. Potential customers evaluating ERP software will review several products and will do its best to select the best possible product for the company.
The organization selling the product will naturally do its very best to sell the product. If the selling organization conducts itself ethically, it will not sell its products to a customer in which the product does not fit well with the potential customer's business or budget.
This is sometimes where trouble begins. In this case, the seller pushes the wrong product on the customer and the customer accepts the product. Although it may be possible to customize the product to fit the customer, the budget to do so is well outside the customer's reach. Nevertheless, the product is sold and implementation attempted and fails. Both parties lose.
One can avoid this major misstep by doing internal preparation for the demos, by selecting key personnel to represent the various departments of the company and having them determine how the software addresses their needs. This data can then be assembled and comparisons between products can be analyzed. Don't be swayed by salesmanship or promises, look at the data and evaluate based on the facts and the facts alone.
Find out what the system does out of the box, what requires customization, and approximately how much those customizations would cost. The selling organization may use terminology such as "configuration" and avoid the term "customization". It would be best to clarify these terms with the selling organization.
Configuration could be defined as something that can be accomplished by setting pre-built options within the software itself and requires absolutely no programming or modifying of source code. An example would be configuring a built-in approval system to approve purchase orders based on various dollar thresholds.
Customization could be defined as something that requires programming or source code changes to accomplish. Typically, customization takes longer than configuration and the cost is higher, sometimes significantly so.
In some cases, the software is not customizable at all or very difficult and expensive to, and you are expected to live with the functionality as-is. In this case, you are forced to modify your business processes to fit the software. This is not always possible and an important distinction and must be understood.
Another area that is worth delving into is third party add-on software. Be sure to clarify what functionality is standard and what is being provided by third-party vendors. ERP products, although rich in features and scope, typically do not do everything a potential customer needs and this is where third-party developed products can fill in the gaps.
The third-party products may be written in the native language of the ERP system itself or may be a completely standalone product interfaced with the ERP system. What is the track record of the third-party vendor? How many successful implementations have there been? How do upgrades affect the third party software? Who will be implementing the third-party software? Get references on the third party vendors/products as well as the ERP system.
Find out what implementation process the selling organization uses. Is it waterfall or agile? This will be covered in a future blog as this is an important topic. But for a few quick definitions: Waterfall is a traditional approach to project management where one step in the project follows after another in sequence. Agile is a cyclical approach to projects in which the delivery of the product occurs incrementally in predefined regular periods of time called 'sprints'.
How is the product deployed? Is the product installed on-premise or it is hosted in the cloud? You may not want your data exposed on the cloud or you may desire ERP hosted in the cloud. Many ERP products offer both options and some are cloud-only. You'll have to determine the best option for you.
Finally, ensure you get a detailed estimate of the software and implementation. Do not accept a general estimate which is just a range of service hours or dollar amounts. A detailed software estimate should include no. of users, software modules, third-party modules and recurring fees. A detailed service estimate should include design, configuration, customization, training, data conversion, user acceptance testing and support for the go live, at the very minimum.
This is by no means a full primer on how to select ERP software, but may give you some insights and things to look out for.