When is the Best Time to Bring on a New ERP System?

A key to successfully manage a company is to learn how to manage change.  A good manager is proactive and anticipates changes in the company’s external environment to better prepare ahead of time.  A manager who is unable to anticipate change is reactive, causing unnecessary errors and adjustments.  In some cases, they are forced to make sudden changes, leading to an overreactive response that can be detrimental to the company’s health.

Bringing on a new ERP system will create change in your company. However, if done thoughtfully and strategically, it is a great boon to your company.  It will allow you to be more efficient, effective, and even boost your financial results.  This article will discuss various scenarios when it makes sense to bring on a new ERP system and how to recognize those scenarios.

When You Are Considering Other Changes to Your Business

Companies are ever-changing and seeking new ways to build and grow their business.  A company may open a new manufacturing site, relocate to a larger facility, introduce a new product line, or acquire another company. A company may want to revamp its internal processes to ensure continuity and streamline.

If you are going through one or more of these changes, upgrading your ERP capabilities is a natural part of this change process.  It is often more efficient to do these changes together.  One of the opportunities during an ERP upgrade is that it will allow you to rethink your business processes and help make improvements.  Oftentimes, a company may repeat the same inefficient processes and find manual workarounds.  They discover their current software cannot support or change with advanced technologies.  One prime example is a barcode system’s technological capabilities, which your current software cannot support or is too expensive to build out. If you upgrade to a software system that can handle this feature, you will improve productivity not only for your administrative activities but also for your physical activities.

 

Perhaps you are planning a major expansion and anticipate you will be required to onboard a large staff of employees to handle the increased business.  Do you really want to bring on the new employees, train them in an existing ERP system and then find out that the old system cannot handle the increased business? You may have to install a new ERP system to handle the increased business and then train them again just a short time later in the new system.  Consider adding a new ERP system that is efficient and can automate certain aspects of your business processes to justify low headcount costs.

For Cyclical Businesses, Transition to a New System During One of Your Slow Periods

Many businesses are cyclical, with both busy and slow periods.  If your old system had difficulty keeping up during your last busy period, taking advantage of the slow period to onboard a new effective ERP system is a great strategy.

When Your Administrative Costs are Higher than Your Operational Costs

A well-run business should have more people and resources devoted to operating your company than keeping track of it. These people consist of sales, production, and warehouse staff. The business will require other administrative people who execute indirect tasks such as keeping track of inventory, accounting, purchasing production planning, etc.

Inefficient ERP systems can cause more harm than good. You may find yourself in a position to hire more people to keep up with manual methods and workarounds due to the lack of ERP capabilities. These costs include the additional salaries and benefits and the costs of errors made by manual data entry, missed shipments, or having the wrong levels of inventory. A modern ERP system can help you keep these administrative costs under control.  It will allow you to do more with higher accuracy and fewer headcount.

The team at My Office Apps has great experience making changes in a business and using more advanced software to improve business operations.  We have been doing this for many decades, both for our own business and our Kechie software clients. Contact us, and we can discuss the challenges you face in your business and how we can help you develop a plan to make improvements using advanced software tools. To learn more, you can visit us at www.myofficeapps.com. Or better yet, give us a call at (714) 486-1487 and ask to schedule a demo to show how we can help solve the business issues you face, both today and tomorrow.