Things You Ought To Consider When Choosing an ERP System
This is for anyone considering the purchase of an
MRP/ERP system in manufacturing, whatever the size of your organisation. It presents a short guide to the top considerations we feel are important during the selection process. After many years involved in the implementation of these systems, we would like to share our knowledge of what we see as key factors to take into account.
With the adoption of ERP systems over the past number of years, ‘lean manufacturing’ and ‘material requirements planning’ techniques have allowed both small and midsized manufacturers to become more competitive, by controlling stocks in line with production schedules, reducing wastage, improving transparency and less duplication of data when operating a single centralised IT platform for the entire business.
A recent positive impact in running an ERP has been the ability to allow manufacturers counteract the threat of low cost manufacturing centres coming from Asia. By providing new and innovative ways of interacting with customers via Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and techniques, ERP and CRM together can allow firms to differentiate themselves along customer service lines and help offset the impact of firms in low cost manufacturing centres relying heavily on price.
Look for agility and flexibility in your ERP system to adapt to current and future market leads. Businesses and technologies are changing all the time. Technological innovations enter the marketplace at accelerating rates and customer expectations are continually increasing. Your enterprise system needs to be adaptable to both of these factors.
Make sure that ERP software features add value and are not merely pretty bells and whistles. The critical processes of your business and future business need to be addressed first when looking at the robust features of enterprise solutions. These critical features must also be able to be integrated company wide, to every department, not just to a few of critical departments. As an enterprise system grows, and helps your company grow, it important to make sure that it will be able to synch with all departments down the road because it is inevitable that they will be if not already.
Look for an ERP vendor that has long history and experience with system replacements as this will be critical to your organization if you currently have an ERP system that is in need of being replaced. If you don’t have an ERP system on board, this criteria still holds true as you will inevitable need to replace, upgrade or enhance your enterprise system down the road. With that in mind speak to MXI and see what they can offer.