In this economic environment, it’s not surprising to see companies scrambling to lower costs all across the board, in every department and cost center.  This challenging time has fortunately increased demand for ERP, enterprise resource planning, software but vendors and ERP consultants are keenly aware of the cost cutting initiatives priorities companies and very clear on tailoring their sales presentations around what their ERP software can do for small and large businesses to save money.  Going one step beyond that, enterprise solution vendors, whether it be a “big” ERP solution such as SAP or a smaller solution such as a SaaS, software as a service, product, vendors are also going out of their way to show companies how they can reduce implementation costs of an ERP solution as well.

In this economic environment, it’s not surprising to see companies scrambling to lower costs all across the board, in every department and cost center.  This challenging time has fortunately increased demand for ERP, enterprise resource planning, software but vendors and ERP consultants are keenly aware of the cost cutting initiatives priorities companies and very clear on tailoring their sales presentations around what their ERP software can do for small and large businesses to save money.  Going one step beyond that, enterprise solution vendors, whether it be a “big” ERP solution such as SAP or a smaller solution such as a SaaS, software as a service, product, vendors are also going out of their way to show companies how they can reduce implementation costs of an ERP solution as well.

As with any enterprise solution, the best way to lower implementation costs is to make sure you understand what your current businesses processes are currently, and what your business processes will look like, if all things go according to strategy, five years from now.  Armed with this information you are more likely to choose an ERP solution that is a fit with your business, rather than trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.  As anyone familiar with an ERP implementation that was not a fit with the company can attest, the cost of implementation, or lack of one, can surpass the cost of the ERP software itself by many times.

Assuming you made the right choice in ERP software for your particular organization, you can further cut your implementation cost significantly if you consider a “fast-path implementation. 

A fast path implementation generally means you are implementing a solution with a preconfigured menu of business processes.  This means that you are very limited in changing features or really anything for that matter.  This makes a great deal of sense if your business processes are a fit with the business processes already configured in the software, but if not, you will find that your new system will not be the essential tool you originally envisioned for reducing costs and maximizing resources and efficiency.

However, if your business, business processes, and industry are indeed aligned with the preconfigured business processes in your ERP software then you can pretty much guarantee that you can control the two most critical factors to ROI on any software implementation, cost and time.  With this in mind, the software vendor will have already configured what are considered the best practices in your industry in the ERP solution to allow for a seamless and timely implementation.

To help with this seamless implementation, a VAR or consultant with experience in your industry, chosen ERP application, and your current ERP system, if you have one, will also be critical in ensuring that your budget and timelines are contained and met.

Written by :

rich