Beyond ERP software features and enterprise application features with respect to supply chain and business processes, companies looking to conduct business globally must be aware of international financial and legal requirements as well and ensure their ERP solutions

Going Global With ERP

Going Global With ERP – Tips for Comparing ERP Software and ERP Vendors

Small and medium businesses are going global in today’s market both out of need and the option to become a global player with new ERP software solutions and technologies. SMBs as well as large Fortune 1000 businesses must do business globally to compete with customer opportunities, price, costs of materials and affordable labor supplies. Only companies who are able to optimize these areas today will be in business tomorrow. Capitalizing on materials and resources abroad brings a new level of complexity and ERP software solutions and ERP vendors are delivering the technology and tools to make this endeavor a possibility. Beyond ERP software features and enterprise application features with respect to supply chain and business processes, companies looking to conduct business globally must be aware of international financial and legal requirements as well and ensure their ERP solutions can address these requirements. In other words, the ERP systems should enable operations to run globally as well as locally. ERP software must be able to handle multi site inventory transfers, multi currency exchanges, translations and localizations. The task to unify operations and locally and globally sometime becomes too complex to orchestrate under one unified ERP system and for this reason almost half of multi national companies use multi ERP software solutions and ERP vendors. ERP software solutions selected for global companies, whether it be for opening up new global supplier networks, global customers, international sales, or global manufacturing is a critical decision for managers and the backbone of information migration and operations reporting. Not all ERP vendors and ERP solutions offer the same level of international support and the functionality and delivery of the enterprise applications also vary widely. A critical piece for ensuring a well run global organization is to understand the countries supported by your ERP vendor and ERP software and how support and application functionality is delivered. Also, as was mentioned earlier, its important to know the pros and cons of running multiple or single ERP systems and how they will impact complexity and information flow and reporting consolidation to compete effectively in the global market.