Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
Companies can greatly benefit from implementing or upgrading their core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software. Once the new software has been implemented, a standard, integrated view of core financial, HR, supply chain data can be very powerful, allowing businesses to make strategic data-driven decisions, often leading to a step change in business productivity.
ERP implementation is generally a complex and time-consuming process, not to mention significant one-off implementation costs and so would normally only be taken at key points in a company’s strategic lifecycle. Once a product is selected it is not unusual for it to remain at the core of a company’s operations for at least 10 years.
In recent years, the general trend has been for businesses to move to ‘Cloud-based’ platforms in preference to traditional ‘on-premise’ hosted solutions due to benefits in overall cost and support/upgrade activities. There are various providers in the market, with products all varying in breadth of service offering, ease and cost of implementation and ongoing subscription licence commitment.
Vendors such as SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, Infor etc. can all provide the core service scope, however will differ in areas such as the user experience, reporting capability, ability to integrate with other software systems. Implementation time and cost plus also ongoing support and maintenance vary greatly and so it is important that companies consider a Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) approach to avoid any subsequent budget issues.
For more general information, read Microsoft’s useful ERP guide here: https://dynamics.microsoft.com/en-gb/erp/what-is-erp/
Sunfish has significant experience in guiding companies through the ERP selection process, using our tried and trusted processes and templates. Contact us today to discuss further on how we support this key decision for your company.
