What Our New Report Tells Us About Business Process and Organizational Change Management

May 15, 2013

We all know that ERP implementations can be very challenging and are likely to cost more than expected, take longer than expected, or fail to deliver expected business benefits. In addition, we know that business process and organizational change management are some of the more difficult aspects of an ERP implementation. We’ve heard the anecdotal stories and examples through our experience, but data supporting these hypotheses is few and far between.

In the latest installment of our 2013 ERP Report released today, we reveal some interesting data as it relates to the business process and organizational change management components of ERP implementations. For example, of the nearly 200 organizations that participated in the study, 65% said that the business process and organizational change components of their implementations were either difficult or very difficult, while only 45% said the same of the technical aspects of their implementations. Given this delta, we now have a quantitative understanding of just how difficult these “softer” parts of an implementation can be, especially when compared to the relatively “easy” aspects of technical configuration and implementation of ERP software.

In addition to measuring the magnitude of difficulty that most organizations face, our new ERP business process and organizational change management report highlights a number of additional interesting points. For example:

A majority of organizations let processes drive the software rather than letting ERP “best practices” drive the business processes. We’ve preached this for quite some time, but it is interesting to see data that supports our view that a company needs to define and reengineer their business processes first, rather than prescribing to the ERP vendors’ view that their software best practices will dictate how you run your business. Although it’s a fairly even mix, slightly more companies take a more process-driven approach to their ERP implementations rather than letting the software drive their business. In addition, our experience and research suggests that not only are slightly more companies taking this approach, but the companies that do are more likely to succeed in their implementations.

To continue reading, click here.

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Choosing the Right ERP Solution to Support a Global Business – Part Two

15 MAY 2013

Many organizations are becoming increasingly global. To support these efforts, they have established multiple sites or locations—manufacturing plants, branch and regional sales offices, distribution warehouses and national, regional, and even global headquarters—that may be distributed within a country, a region, or around the world.

As organizations expand into new territories, they face a number of operational challenges. They need to adapt to the business rules of foreign countries, including government regulations, reporting requirements and variations in tax and labor laws. They must accommodate multiple languages, multiple currencies and varying local best practices. And because companies operating in multiple countries are required by law to create separate legal entities, inventory transactions become more complex with intercompany movements being treated as purchases and sales between legal entities.

Cre8tive Technology & Design (www.ctnd.com) will be posting a three-part series on “Choosing the Right ERP Solution to Support a Global Business”

Part One                      Each Business Unit Chooses its Own Solution

Part Two           Consolidating the Entire Business on a Single ERP Solution

Part Three         Using a Combined Solution

Part Two – Consolidating the Entire Business on a Single ERP Solution

Organizations now recognize that internal operations must be integrated on a global scale to achieve global visibility and transactional interoperability, as well as ensure governance, risk management and compliance.  As a result, there is a growing trend among mid-sized to large organizations to consolidate applications, with many organizations attempting to deploy a single ERP worldwide. This strategy promises to provide a single repository for accounting, order processing, manufacturing, human resources and data from other functions as well as including advanced financial management reporting and analysis.  According to Gartner, roughly 70 percent of companies with multiple ERPs stated a desire to operate a single global ERP system.

The primary advantage of consolidating on a single ERP solution is that it integrates resources and eliminates redundancy.  A single database for all accounting, manufacturing and supply chain functions provides consolidated information from the head office down to the most remote subsidiary.  This enables managers and executives to drill down from the consolidated profit and loss statement to the underlying transactions at the point of entry, anywhere in the world.

In addition, when rolling out an ERP to several sites, costs can mount.  By reusing the same skill set, process models, methodologies, and deployment strategies at multiple sites, organizations can keep deployment costs under control.  At the same time, globalization requires standardized business processes whenever possible.  It’s simpler to harmonize and standardize business processes on a smaller number of production systems.

Read more: http://ctnd.com/choosing-the-right-erp-solution-to-support-a-global-business-part-two/#ixzz2TqJnwLJU

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Three Tips for Making the Most Out of ERP Vendor Demonstrations

May 9, 2013 | Panorama Consulting

We’ve all attended ERP vendor demonstrations that are more generic sales pitches than personalized and relevant presentations. Some ERP vendor sales reps are especially skilled at selling their software’s “best practices” as one-size-fits-all functionality. The key to finding the functionality best suited for your particular organization is requesting a scripted vendor demonstration based on its own organizational needs and differentiators.

At the very least, your organization should enter the vendor demo process with its specific requirements already defined and ask vendors on-the-spot how their systems can address those needs. If your organization appreciates ERP vendors that take the time to address ERP software functionality as it relates to specific business needs, The 17^th Vendor Shootout for ERP provides exactly this opportunity.

On June 12-14 in Chicago, Illinois, Panorama Consulting Solutions will moderate this unique event, which includes live, scripted ERP software demonstrations and ERP selection workshops for manufacturing and distribution companies. This event provides the perfect environment for organizations to conduct balanced and accurate comparisons between various ERP systems. The Vendor Shootout is a great opportunity to evaluate ERP vendors based on your organization’s functional requirements and competitive differentiators.

Following are three ways that your organization can improve its ERP software selection process prior to attending The Vendor Shootout next month:

1. Identify which business processes are most important to your organization. Perform some initial work by fleshing out which processes (or functional areas) bring positive differentiation to your organization. While standardization in areas such as financials and warehouse management is usually advisable, processes that have effectively served your customers (or bottom line) should be protected from any form of “best practices,”
2. Keep an open mind. You never know if Tier I or Tier II ERP software would be a better fit for your organization, and immediately ruling out cloud and SaaS ERP may be a bit hasty. Your organization should take advantage of the Vendor Shootout’s unique set-up to perform an “apples-to-apples” comparison of the software options demonstrated to determine total cost of ownership and short-term and long-term ROI.
3. Educate yourself (and your organization) on ERP benchmarks. ERP vendors’ estimated timeframes and budget requirements are often based on optimistic assumptions. In order to arrive at more realistic expectations, your organization should download industry research (such as our 2013 ERP Report or 2012 Clash of the Titans) to compare expectations to actual ERP implementation outcomes.

If your organization makes an effort to know what it needs, keeps an open mind and determines realistic expectations, its experiences at the Vendor Shootout, or any other demos, will be much improved. Your organization will soon arrive at a short-list of ideal vendors offering ERP software that can enhance competitive advantage and offer business benefits for years to come.

To learn more about ERP software selection, download chapter two of An Expert’s Guide to ERP Success. Also, don’t forget to register for The Vendor Shootout for ERP

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Countrywide has a cloud-based software system

Countrywide Tire & Rubber has partnered with SAP to produce the SAP Business ByDesign cloud-based software system.

SAP’s integrated end-to-end business processes have allowed Countrywide to become much more agile and efficient through a hosted web browser.

“Countrywide aimed to invest in an ERP system that would allow us to become more accurate and efficient,” says Countrywide’s president Chad Isaacs. “Through SAP’s capabilities we hope to continue to streamline more of our business processes in order to better serve our customers.”

With SAP’s web-based platform, employees can access secure, real-time companywide information from anywhere with a mobile device.

“Now that our information is centrally stored and available on-demand, Countrywide is much more flexible and functional than ever; our future business plans are limitless,” says Isaacs.

Countrywide Tire & Rubber is one of the nation’s largest international wholesale distributor of specialty tires, inner tubes and wheels. For more information, visit www.countrywidetire.com.

Read more: http://www.moderntiredealer.com/channel/retailing/news/story/2013/05/countrywide-has-a-cloud-based-software-system.aspx?prestitial=1&goback=.gde_4199296_member_239271056#ixzz2THZ0VQFF

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How Carolina Color Chose abas ERP

May 08, 2013

Abas-USA recently announced that Carolina Color Corporation has chosen abas Business Suite for its future planned growth and business. Carolina Color provides accurate matching services and eco-friendly, proprietary colorant solutions for unique customer applications.

Carolina Color reportedly started an enterprise resource planning (ERP) selection process in 2007 to replace a homegrown system. Abas was invited to participate and was shortlisted with two other solutions.

Central to its business is color matching. When customers need a color match, they send in a sample piece of plastic and Caroline Color analyzes it for pigments, additives, resins, etc. The lab collects a great deal of information, creates samples, and documents formulas. Carolina Color has pricing formulas based on quantities, current costs, future costs, and many additional factors. A color match record is created with a product formula.

Abas used one of the additional tables in its database to create this requirement for the prospect in a day. This is an example of the flexibility of the abas system, where a non-standard ERP function can be created or recreated, and integrated with the rest of abas ERP.

Despite the strong impression abas made in 2007, Carolina Color decided at that point, to write its own ERP system. Four years later, after significant expense and the lack of true functionality, the company reconsidered its decision. Abas-USA CEO Alan Salton was contacted by the company’s IT manager, who started the conversation with, “Remember me?” Not only did Salton remember, but he still had the custom table with the calculations in the system after five upgrades, untouched and still functional. He showed it to Carolina Color again, and explained, as a proof of concept, the upgrade capabilities, and the additional functions and features since the last demo.

To continue reading, click here.

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Collaboration: Knowledge Sharing and How it Impacts Customer Service and Revenue

Live Webcast Register to watch at your desk!

Regardless of whether they develop high tech components, consumer goods, industrial parts—or anything in between—every manufacturer faces the same basic challenges. What are the most efficient, cost-effective methods of producing the highest margin, best quality products? Please join us for a half-hour discussion to discover how some of the world’s leading manufacturers have achieved these objectives (and many more) through knowledge management. Learn about: How ‘knowledge ecosystems’ result in faster ramp-up times for new employees and minimize the effects of employee turnover Why creativity and innovation spike when teams are equipped to collaborate on ideas and solve challenges Where manufacturers turn for a single-source solution for consolidating the knowledge assets spread throughout company silos (and external sources too) Register Now Register Now Live Webcast: Customer Service in Manufacturing Date: Wed, May 15, 2013 Time: 11:00 a.m. PT / 2:00 p.m. ET

Defining ERP Success for Your Organization

All Articles From Eric Kimberling May 1, 2013

One of the interesting takeaways from our 2013 ERP Report released earlier this year is the apparent confusion between the perceived success and actual results of ERP implementations.  While most ERP projects still take longer than expected, cost more than expected and fail to deliver expected business benefits, our research indicates that most organizations are still generally satisfied with their ERP implementations.

This begs the question: how can companies experience such dismal implementation results yet still feel a sense of success at the end of the day? Our experience with hundreds of ERP implementations over the years suggests that there are a number of reasons for this dichotomy. First and foremost, most organizations don’t have a clear definition of success. Assuming the new ERP system provides at least an incremental improvement to their business operations, chances are that executives and employees are going to feel at least somewhat satisfied with their ERP system once the transition pains have subsided.

Below are three things that will help you and your project team achieve ERP success:

1.    Clearly define success. We hear it all the time: for some organizations, anything is better than the ERP system they currently have in place. However, most organizations also aren’t spending millions of dollars on new ERP software just to realize an incremental improvement. Instead, most are looking for a tangible return on the investment in that software, just as they would expect from an investment in an acquisition or any other major capital investment. The problem is that executives generally don’t clearly articulate to the organization what exactly they expect from the new ERP system and how they will determine whether or not the implementation is ultimately successful. The business case should be an important mechanism to not only justify the investment in the ERP system but also to define what will constitute ERP success.

2.    Articulate expected process improvements. Similarly, expected business process improvements should be clearly defined and articulated to the organization. It’s not enough to simply suggest that the software is going to make business processes better. Those process improvements should be clearly defined and documented for employees so they can enable some of the process improvements. Your people – not the ERP software – will ultimately determine whether or not the process improvements stick, so rather than assume people won’t revert back to their inefficient manual processes and spreadsheets, it is much more effective to define the expected business processes and communicate changes to employees accordingly. This will also make your organizational change management activities much more effective in the long-run.

To continue reading, click here.

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Choosing the Right ERP Solution to Support a Global Business

01 May 2013 | Posted by ACONTINELLI

IntroductionMany organizations are becoming increasingly global. To support these efforts, they have established multiple sites or locations—manufacturing plants, branch and regional sales offices, distribution warehouses and national, regional, and even global headquarters—that may be distributed within a country, a region, or around the world.As organizations expand into new territories, they face a number of operational challenges. They need to adapt to the business rules of foreign countries, including government regulations, reporting requirements and variations in tax and labor laws. They must accommodate multiple languages, multiple currencies and varying local best practices. And because companies operating in multiple countries are required by law to create separate legal entities, inventory transactions become more complex with intercompany movements being treated as purchases and sales between legal entities.

Yet even as they meet local requirements, organizations must also integrate their operations to gain visibility across all operations to support strategic decisions, enhance operational efficiency, and manage governance, regulation, and compliance (GRC) initiatives.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a mission critical component of any business’ globalization strategy. ERP solutions automate the functions necessary to manage a wide range of local operations, from accounting to customer relationship management (CRM) to supply chain management (SCM).

The information held within an ERP system is also the key to gaining visibility into accurate, consolidated information about the business and is the foundation of the key performance indicators (KPIs) necessary to achieve corporate objectives. A well implemented ERP solution can also provide transactional interoperability. Companies that automate and streamline workflows across multiple sites, including suppliers, partners, and manufacturing sites can reduce the total time from order to delivery.

Businesses have a variety of strategies to select from when implementing ERP systems across their global organizations.

• Each business unit or division can choose its own solution
• The entire business can consolidate on a single ERP solution
• The business can use one solution to centralize and standardize key operations while using a second standardized solution for select operations within the business units.

Read more: http://ctnd.com/choosing-the-right-erp-solution-to-support-a-global-business/#ixzz2SWOLoGdA

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Are Emerging Trends in ERP Software Flattening Industry Verticals?

 

All Articles From Eric Kimberling April 24, 2013

One of the most appealing features for purchasers of ERP software is industry best practices. Executives are often more inclined to spend millions of dollars on new enterprise software initiatives when they have the comfort of knowing that others in their industry vertical have spent countless years developing those best practices and navigating related lessons learned. In fact, these repeatable and proven business processes and software capabilities designed for their industries are what executives are really buying when they procure new ERP software.

On the other hand, executives are also likely to leverage ERP trends that transcend their respective industries. Mobility, business intelligence (BI) and SaaS ERP are just a few of the trends of interest to CIOs in industries including manufacturing, government, financial services and health care. In these cases, industry focus doesn’t necessarily matter. In addition, executives are often keen to leverage best practices outside of their respective industries as a way to benchmark to other industries that may have better ways of running their businesses.

Given this contradiction, the consolidation of ERP vendors and growth across multiple verticals begs an important question: how relevant is it for ERP software to focus on a specific industry?

The answer to this question boils down to three key points:

1.   There are too many ERP vendors to not have some sort of industry focus. Ten years ago, there were only a handful of viable ERP software providers, so industry focus wasn’t extremely important. Today, however, there are hundreds of options and ERP vendors need to do something to differentiate in the midst of stiff completion. This leaves most software vendors with two primary strategies: focus on function or focus on industry. Vendors such as Salesforce and Workday have taken the former approach by focusing on Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Human Capital Management (HCM) software, respectively, while other vendors have focused on specific industry verticals or niches.

2.   Aside from back office functions, most industries are different. Industry focus may not be important to companies that leverage ERP software primarily to automate back office functions such as accounts payable or general ledger. However, industry distinction and capability is especially important for companies leveraging software to automate their front- and back-end business processes. As different organizations deal with the relatively unique nature of configuring their products, forecasting demand, and fulfilling manufacturing business processes, industry focus becomes increasingly important. Even in cases where buyers choose ERP software tailored for their industry, executives are still likely to find the need to customize the software to accommodate unique competitive advantages that can’t or hasn’t been replicated by others yet.

To continue reading, click here.

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Vendor Shootout™ for ERP | Chicago

As the nation’s leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) software evaluation, comparison and selection event, the Vendor Shootout™ for ERP provides a comprehensive guide and framework for enterprise software selection and benefits realization within the manufacturing and distribution industries.

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