Imagine you are running a company and every workstation in your office is an Apple IIe. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you’ve invested in top of the line computers for your entire staff, only for them to use them for email, word processing and nothing else. In the first scenario, you are at a competitive disadvantage, unable to harness the power of current technology. In the second scenario, your investment has been wasted as you aren’t maximizing your equipment’s potential.
Most companies running ERP find themselves in two very similar situations. They are either running legacy ERP software that inadequately integrates with modern technology or they have implemented a top of the line ERP system, but aren’t using it to its full potential. In either case, what your ERP is NOT doing for you is more important than what it is doing.
The Problem with Legacy ERP
First generation ERP systems evolved from MRP systems, and were designed to handle materials planning, warehouse management, production scheduling and other back office processes. The one thing legacy ERP systems didn’t do was integrate “front office” processes leaving an organization with no choice but to install multiple applications that didn’t integrate with the ERP, and thus leaving the company with multiple silos of information.
Modern ERP systems are designed to integrate the entire enterprise, including sales, accounting, CRM and HR functions. This is important for a number of reasons. Imagine a salesperson who can access inventory levels with the click of a mouse in order to provide accurate lead times to customers. Or a customer service representative who can see where an order is in the production phase to keep customers up to date. Certifications and quality tests can be stored in a document management system that makes compliance and ISO certification much easier to manage.
Modern ERP systems take this integration to the next level, providing near real time visibility into vital data, which is something that legacy ERP systems simply can’t do.
The Cost of Underutilization of your ERP system
The good news is that you have installed a next generation ERP system like Exact Macola 10. The bad news is that you didn’t invest in proper training, and the end users in your company are creating their own work-arounds and processes to get their daily tasks accomplished. There are horror stories of companies doing an ERP implementation, only for it to sit dormant and unused because people don’t know how to use it. Make sure when you are budgeting for any major software project to account for training. Without it, there is no way that you will be able to utilize the software to its fullest potential.
There are literally dozens of ways that front office and back office departments can and should be integrated to make operations run more efficiently, saving time and money. Whether you are looking to upgrade your ERP software or are just looking to maximize your current investment The Attivo Group can help. Call us at 877-428-8486 on contact us here to find out how.
