ERP Solution

ERP Solution Upgrades and How To Simplify Them, How To Minimize the Complexity of ERP Upgrades

ERP Solution Upgrades

ERP solution upgrades are critical if a company is to realize the full benefits and rewards of and ERP system. ERP solutions are a key driver for many companies in staying competitive and profitable. Enterprise systems that include on demand solutions such as with many of the popular CRM, customer relationship management, applications like Salesforce.com and the emergence of new SaaS, software as a service, based ERP solutions applications which are developed on open source platforms are no longer nice to have technologies for companies.

ERP solutions and software are critical for the growth and survival of the majority of companies around the globe today. Because of the elevated importance of these technologies, ERP solution upgrades are not just a nice to have tool controlled and directed by the IT department. ERP solutions and implementations are critical strategic initiative and are on the top of the list of priorities for the company’s senior managers.

A corporate strategy for maintaining, upgrading and utilizing ERP systems should be well thought out and refined just as any other high level tactical initiative should in any organization. The company should clearly understand and appreciate why an ERPf solution upgrade is needed, what the timing of the project is, how to effectively communicate the enterprise strategy, and what is required to deploy the upgrade. Significant resources, cost and business process disruptions occur in these company-wide upgrades and they should not be taken lightly.

Companies need to upgrade their ERP solution because while enterprise systems have long life cycles they are exposed to rapid technology advances and communication volatilities. The complexity involved with millions of lines of software code and their instability takes quite a bit of resources and effort to keep the data quality acceptable. That’s why most companies pay roughly 20 percent of their software price annually to keep up to date.

ERP Solutions and Company Strategic Plans Impact Upgrade Frequencies

ERP solutions and upgrade strategy involves getting consensus with senior management and the companies long term and short term strategic plans including budget forecasts that extend out 4 or more. An upgrade frequency policy should be created that will be governed by the company’s strategic plan and when the timing of new product releases of their respective software vendors. ERP solution upgrades on average range from every 2 years to 5 years depending on the company and the industry they are in. For many large organizations a software upgrade would not be feasible due to cost and business disruptions, while small to mid-sized companies may opt for an upgrade strategy every couple of years.

Collaboration and consensus among stakeholders in the company is imperative and is a key component of a successful ERP solution upgrade or software implementation and having a comprehensive enterprise systems strategy with timelines, resource needs, budget guidelines and return on investment analysis will help the communication process considerably. Getting and giving constructive feedback and communication with both employees and managers will improve implementation results and user adoption rates.

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