TECHNOLOGY
SOFTWARE THAT IS designed to direct business operations – Enterprise Resource Planning ( ERP ) software – has earned a bad rep as an expensive and drawn-out exercise that often does not live up to expectations .
This is because software selection gets more attention than business strategy formulation . To counter this , here are ten questions that can help those planning to spend a significant amount of resources on new software to determine the true business purpose :
What is limiting your business ’ growth and competitiveness ? It is all about :
• Fast , actionable information
• the business agility to act on the information across the value chain , not just within the organisation
• automation and flow through the business .
What is stopping you from achieving this ?
What behaviours and rules gave rise to the existence of these business limitations ?
• Bureaucracy designed with accountability shifting in mind , not with serving the business purpose .
• KPI ’ s that are not aligned with the integrated nature of ERP
• Internally focussed thinking instead of thinking about your place and role in the entire value chain .
Thinking in terms of efficiencies or productivity , not effectiveness . For example , looking at whether staff or machines worked 8 hours a day , not at the outcomes they achieved for their effort .
How are you planning to overcome these business limitations with the investment in the ERP solution ? Start by :
• Focussing on improving overall business effectiveness and making these the project critical success criteria .
• Really understanding what the solution should do before deciding what software to purchase and before asking the system integrator to provide a fixed price quote .
• Retaining absolute ownership of the business improvement and not shifting accountability to the system
16 October 2016