New years offer a great moment to make positive changes. It is usually a moment of self-renew with persons seeking to make a career move, get a new skill, and get fit. It is even more inspirational for business leaders to effect changes in their business, from business leaders seeking to achieve more significant cost savings, more efficiency, growth of profits and margins, and improved ability or visibility to changing existing business solutions with more advanced Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. This can be a great way to seek to achieve change in an organization. Modern Cloud-based ERP solutions are technology-enabled, offer multiple functions and features, and offer ease of use. Particularly, they offer the agility that a business requires to adapt to the modern, fast, changing world and can be accessed from any location.
It is essential to be wise on implementing ERP in your organization. Don’t just take it as a simple resolution; instead, take it as a project to improve your business outcomes. Know what you need and break the bigger picture into small achievable milestones that are well defined. This offers greater chances of achieving the milestone when you achieve each milestone; you are motivated toward the bigger picture. This ensures that your decision is careful and well-informed. Ensure that you choose the Right ERP system for your business. The correct choice should be a system that can evolve as your business develops and grows.
Why the change?
Research has shown that in today’s technologically advanced business world, business leaders believe that their business faces the danger of being disrupted by; new pricing models, new ways of selling services or products, new innovative products, or even a combination of all these factors. In addition, the global pandemic in 2020 led businesses to seek ways to cope, and adopting innovative technologies was vital. Thus, choosing a modern Cloud-based ERP could be the best choice to cope and stand out from competitors.
Inefficiencies that led to ERP adoption
Companies proved to have experienced some of the common factors that necessitated new ERP systems. Particularly, the inefficiencies experienced led to a cluster of disconnected spreadsheets ad applications. Also, companies with older legacy solutions face the challenge of outdated technology.
While these challenges aren’t new, 2020 exposed them in painful ways. Collaboration and communication were virtual. Companies that were able to adopt the right technology have been able to overcome faster, while those that were unable were left behind. The ability to have prompt access to real-time data, digital transactions, connectivity, and instant communication have become not just competitive advantages but necessary aspects for a business’ survival.
Overcoming objections
Even when there are obvious limitations of the inadequate solution, businesses tend to get reasons for postponing buying a new ERP. However, it’s not always that there are legitimate reasons. At times business leaders often find excuses.
The company is too small
It was often problematic for small companies to decide how to invest for the potentially promising great return. For start-ups, they must get it right by investing in a foundation that is operational and which will help them build the business directly. While methods such as sufficient reporting, management by walking, and use of spreadsheets and manual data may prove efficient in a business’s early days of operation, when it’s past the early conceptual phase, failure to invest in a suitable enterprise business system can significantly hinder a business continued profitability and growth. More so, with the fact that businesses, including small ones, have been forced to operate virtually, having adequate technology and tools is essential.
It’s too expensive
Even when managers can perceive the desire and need to implement a new ERP system, most companies feel it’s not affordable. To understand what is at stake, these companies, especially the small ones, should reverse the question and ask themselves if they can afford failure to invest in ERP. Determine the inefficiencies and limitations costing the business. If the business is running on old legacy solutions with outdated technology, go to the extent of quantifying the cost of obsolescence. This way, together with your team, you’ll find out that adopting the new technology isn’t as expensive but has a myriad of advantages.
Defining goals to accomplish them
Here is where you practice the strategy discussed earlier of breaking down your goal into small achievable milestones. Typically, by defining outcomes and setting goals this way, it is possible to achieve success as it involves carrying out the broken-down milestones repeatedly, which eventually breed success.
Defining the business goals involves answering a two-part question. Start with general questions such as;
- Do we have the needed functions and features?
- How is the business changing?
- What are the limitations the old technology is causing?
- Will it be a waste of money?
Then you need to define your business’s outcomes and goals. Ensure that there’s a correlation between what you need to accomplish and the reasons for growing this way. Below are some examples:
- Ensure more agile systems
- Transform your business digitally
- Achieves cost avoidance
- Automates processes
Choosing the correct ERP for your business
The most important consideration you should make while choosing an ERP for your business is the functions and features that you need. One of the most imperative aspects is ensuring that the ERP is technology-enabled without necessitating invasive customization. Also, it is crucial to make sure that your decision is based on your current needs and considers your future business needs. This will make sure that your business can cope with the fast-changing world and thus is competitive.
Look for a solution that’s complete
Whereas a one size fits all solution may not be the recommended option to meet the broad range of needs that a business has. You can always get a last-mile functionality that is more extensible and configurable to most of your business needs.
Conclusions and recommendations
Having a new ERP implemented in your business is a great decision that will need careful thought and justification. The article offers the challenges that a business may face while implementing ERP and seeks to help in the implementation process through how to go about overcoming the challenges and setting the goals. It can be concluded that with the appropriate ERP, the business is set to continuous improvement and thus technologically competitive.
Where to find your solution
Not sure where to start to find the right ERP for you? The answer is right in front of you, Cloud ERP Partners is an industry-leading ERP company that can ensure NetSuite is built just for your business. You can contact Cloud ERP Partners here and your business will get the right solution, the right price, and the right team behind you.