Do you need a new enterprise resource planning system (ERP)? ERPs are often the least updated systems in an organization because of how much information they house and how big of an undertaking it can be to go through an upgrade process. However, a healthy and up-to-date ERP is one of the cornerstones of maintaining the backbone that drives operational excellence.
There are many possible indications that your ERP is no longer serving your organization well. To help you determine if your organization needs a new ERP, our retail technology experts have compiled this ERP health check. Ask yourself these questions to determine if a new ERP might be for your organization.
Health Check
1. Is your ERP old enough to vote?
An ERP that is older than 10 years is likely to create organizational challenges such as:
- Increased manual processes
- Excessive point-to-point integrations and customizations to compensate for deficiencies with and beyond the ERP
- Headcount inefficiency
- Data gaps and inaccuracies
- Elongated financial closing cycles
- Inaccurate inventory
If your ERP is old enough to vote in the last election, it may be time to consider an upgrade.
2. Are you experiencing increased expenses associated with maintaining your on-premises ERP software updates and customizations?
Highly customized ERP solutions, while once necessary due to lack of functionality, have become labor-intensive and costly to maintain and upgrade. If you need an immense amount of infrastructure to support your on-premises ERP, upgrading to a cloud-based solution could be very beneficial for your business.
3. Do you lack visibility and access to all data from a single source?
ERP systems function as a central repository and a conduit for master data management. If your ERP isn’t seamlessly organizing, analyzing and extracting critical data for your organization, you may be left with voids in your sales, inventory and customer data visibility that impede your ability to operate efficiently. If you’ve found yourself in this situation, you could benefit from an ERP upgrade.
4. Are you unable to integrate with other business systems or technology platforms?
A cloud deployment model is generally more effective for integrations. If you’re running a legacy ERP that is not in the cloud and cannot integrate with your other systems, you are likely facing many other business challenges that could be addressed by updating your ERP.
5. Are you dependent on a highly specialized IT professional for knowledge recovery and maintenance?
If your legacy ERP is so old that you are relying on a select few associates that have been with your organization for decades and were there at its implementation to maintain it, your business is facing severe risk. While these individuals may be the undisputed experts about your legacy system now, what happens when they leave the company or need to be replaced? In this case, the move to a modern ERP system in the cloud would benefit both your employees and your business.
6. Does your ERP lack the out-of-the-box functionality to support changing business requirements?
Antiquated ERPs lack out-of-the-box functionality and are behemoths to change. It’s beneficial to upgrade to modern technology that is easier to maneuver with robust configuration options, some customization ability and the ability to easily extract data. Modern ERPs contain modernized capabilities and are the backbone for enhancements and upgrades of supporting applications.
Conclusion
There are many reasons that companies continue to operate legacy business systems, but given the encouraging trends in the ERP market, the barriers to moving to a new ERP system are rapidly dwindling. While legacy ERP upgrades used to take four or more years, involved significant costs and had to be completed all at once – that is no longer the case. Upgrading is now much faster and less expensive than it used to be.
When considering a move from your legacy system, it is essential that IT decision-makers link business objectives to the overall ERP strategy. Additionally, the selection of an experienced implementation partner is a critical component of any ERP implementation project. When assessing your current ERP, if you are wrestling with any of the six challenges mentioned above, an objective technology assessment and strategic IT roadmap would be helpful to determine if a new ERP would address your business challenges. If that sounds like you – contact us today and have a conversation with one of our retail technology experts.