We need help

This is such an important realisation for most people – knowing when you cannot cope anymore. Now, I’m not a psychologist, so cannot help you with personal issues but am more than capable to guide you from that point when you’ve put your hand up for some assistance to going live a supporting a new solution.

We all seem to look to Doctor Google for answers these days, from the mundane to understanding what you can do to house-train your new puppy. But, when you Google the following terms:

• Enterprise Resource Planning
• Business System
• Customer Relationship Management
• Business Reporting
• eCommerce (or Commerce as it’s called lately)
• Or anything similar;

The results are absolutely astounding. I’ve learnt a thing or two recently – one of the latest being how Google Adwords work. Basically, the organisations/vendors with the deepest pockets will get the attention grabbing, top-ranked ads that will try an entice you to click. Next you will submit some details in order for them to collect contact information from you and then have a reason to include you on an email list or start calling you. I am realistic and realise that for low value commodities that is not a bad approach. As a business though, you are here because you need help and do not need to be bombarded with jargon, demos or junior sales people trying to tell you about how they will solve all your problems, without ever having had a ‘real’ job themselves.

It is important to spend time to understand what is out there, but understand your key competencies are to design new products/services, selling the aforementioned and ensuring that your customers are happy. Remember, there are people that you can engage with to help you through a systems evaluation process, and more often that not they will be biased towards one solution over another – but rest assured, the ultimate decision is yours and never be afraid to get another opinion. Ask around: the guy renting the building next to you, friends industry groups, there will always be others that have some experience is systems selection and implementations, the same as you would when buying a new car. I do firmly believe though that business owners or decision makers should keep abreast of trends and read up on how and where Industry Bodies like Gartner, Forrester Research and the IDC rank solutions.

Having been in the industry for quite a number of years and observing various changes, the most prevalent for me is that in the mid-90’s it was all about having ‘One System’, but as technology improved and business models changed the trend seems to be to still have the core system but to integrate specialist packages as required. Now, some of these newer packages can be installed on your servers or have the solution looked after in the Cloud for you. Generally this means that you pay some form of periodic subscription to access these Cloud based systems which means your barrier to entry is a lot lower.

This is where things get interesting or complicated depending on how you look at it. There are really good vendors out there who will have your entire ERP in the Cloud or parts thereof, and those that require you to install it all on a server at your office or with a hosting provider. Or, anything in between. There are pro’s and cons to both scenarios but as a business owner or manager it’s important to understand the differences.

The table below, a revised version from the Cloud Industry Forum’s Buyer’s Guide to ERP, addresses some of the main differences between on premise and cloud based solutions.

As per the short summary above, there are some hefty considerations to be taken into account. When you need help, do not hesitate to contact an expert in systems evaluation to help you navigate through this minefield.

You have to be realistic in your expectations in terms of what you can get from an ERP project; that these type of projects generally aren’t turnkey and make all your problems go away at once, but they can make a lot of noise disappear and you need to accept that you will have to continually keep investing in the solution to get more out of it or adapt it as your business changes. However, the additional investment should be seen as ‘maintenance’ as opposed to capital expenditure.

When you engage with someone to guide you through a selection process, as the business owner or responsible person your key responsibility would be to involve the right people from your side to help explain your business and requirements to those that will potentially help you select and then later on implement a solution.

The key is to break down a problem or your business processes into manageable chunks that can easily be digested by all involved. When you have to explain to people what you do in a logical sequence of steps, it can be quite confronting, to firstly do it and secondly observe their reactions to the madness that is your everyday life.

As discussed in the first session of these posts, the money you spend on systems in the business is just as important as investing money into capital items or people. You cannot neglect what should become the backbone of your organisation’s growth and success.

For the next session, we will be looking at the process of getting a request for proposal done and going through a vendor selection process.

As always, if you have any suggestions or questions please do not hesitate to ask or get in touch.

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