Do you find yourself gazing wistfully at new and shiny ERP systems while desperately trying to navigate your current antiquated software? If so, Trevor Dunne suggests that it might be time to break up with your ERP and find something better
Breaking up is hard to do, but breakups are an inevitable fact of life. Despite this, admitting that a relationship has run its course is never easy. However, if your organisation’s enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is holding you back or making your staff unhappy, it’s time to face reality. Here are five signs that your relationship with your ERP may be ending.
Everything starts to grate on you
Things you used to find forgivable or even quirky now have you tearing your hair out. Having to wait ages for an answer and dumb down every process or transaction so the system can handle it only puts pressure on you. You start to wonder whether the fault lies with the system, or with you.
Regardless of whose fault it is, you are seeing more and more complaints from frustrated staff who have to complete too many manual or duplicate tasks across too many systems or tools, and struggle to get the information they need. These days, people want to work with the latest technology and will vote with their feet by leaving if they feel they are being left behind.
It’s easy to get past the occasional minor problem – no system is perfect after all – but your relationship is on a downward trajectory when your ERP system’s user experience or functionality is lagging behind your business needs.
You no longer feel a spark
Do you remember when you first implemented your ERP software, and it was the centre of everything? If those days feel like a lifetime ago, and you now find yourself running processes outside the system (go on, how many Excel sheets are secretly running the business?), then it is a significant indication that the relationship is on the way out.
While it’s perfectly healthy to resort to Excel for some reporting requirements, if you are using it for transactional purposes or to generate new data, it is a sign that your relationship with your ERP system might be fraying at the edges.
Once you extract the data from the system and start changing it with Excel, you can never really go back. These old processes are less efficient and effective, and you’re keeping data to yourself where no one can report on it! This can only go one way.
Why must we always drag up the past? Can’t we look to the future?
Are the fights to get data never-ending and ultimately unresolved? While everyone will struggle at some stage or another, not every interaction you have with the system should end in a screaming match. You just know that other organisations are running prescriptive and predictive reporting—yet here you are, struggling to understand what’s already happened.
Rather than pushing the system away slowly and painfully, a clean break is often the best and kindest route for all parties.
There is no trust [in the data] whatsoever
Rule number one of relationships: trust is EVERYTHING. If you have no trust in your ERP software and what it’s telling you, this is a big red flag.
If the system is forcing you to pull together information from several spreadsheets to present a report—or even worse—if insufficient or incorrect data has led to embarrassment in front of senior colleagues, it will be a slow and painful decline. If you can’t believe what you’re being told and have to dig for the truth, moving on might be the best way forward.
You’ve started to look at other systems… a lot
It is normal for your eye to wander from time to time. Maybe you’ve started to look at bolt-on solutions, or you’ve started using separate tools to get your job done.
However, if you find that this is not just an occasional dabble and that you’ve got a proliferation of tools, applications, reporting aids, data models, robotics, and point-to-point integrations, you need to question the suitability of what’s at the heart of your business. Are you actually committed?
Moving on
The needs of any organisation (and its people) change with time. As we mature, our needs evolve. These days, everyone’s expectations are higher, and what was good enough at one stage of our development may not now be sufficient for where we see our company going and how we intend to get there.
Trevor Dunne is Partner and Head of Technology Consulting at Grant Thornton
LOADING...