In last week’s ERP implementation tip, I outlined a 7-part structure to draft effective blueprint whitepapers.
This week, I explain how to build a Gaps and Issues Database to keep problems from torpedoing your ERP implementation project. The Gaps and Issues Database is the third of four deliverables that must be completed during the business process mapping phase.
In last week’s ERP implementation tip, I explained how to build a Gaps and Issues Database to keep ERP problems from torpedoing your project. This week and next, I delve into the fourth and final deliverable of the project mapping phase: the change management plan.
If your business is like most, it’s probably paying between 18% and 25% of its ERP licence fees annually for maintenance and support. To put this in perspective, a mid-sized business paying $300,000 in license fees would see a yearly maintenance bill of about $54,000. The big question is: “Is this business getting $54,000 of value out of its maintenance contact?”.
Canadian manufacturers and distributors are increasingly turning to ERP to help them improve their fortunes, especially in the face of low-cost foreign competition and the high Canadian dollar.
As we move deeper into 2011, it’s important to reflect on the good, the bad and the ugly of 2010.
Plex Systems Inc. develops and markets Plex Online, an ERP system designed exclusively for manufacturing companies. Plex only offers its software as a service (SaaS is defined below), in the cloud. In other words, companies don’t have the option to license the software and install it on their own servers. They can only subscribe to it and access it via the internet.
After we implemented the ERP Action Plan, this aerospace manufacturer improved planning and shop scheduling accuracy by 20%. It cut budgeting and forecasting labour time by by 75%. Learn how we helped this manufacturer drive business benefits by optimizing its ERP system.
The Company: The client is a privately-held international manufacturer of polyethylene bags. It operates sales and manufacturing facilities in North America and Europe.
These days, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) to be competitive. ERP helps companies manage their global supply chains and forecast demand. SMBs, though, are advised to approach ERP very cautiously. Casualties from failed ERP implementations are like bodies strewn across a bloody battlefield.
Industry reports and promotional materials make ERP sound like manna-for-business, dropped down from the heavens above. They say that ERP can make your business more efficient, responsive, integrated, transparent, profitable, productive… and the list goes on. What you really want to know, though, is how ERP can help your business. And, what’s the catch?
