Lipstick on a pig

So practically how do you make the most of your existing ERP?

 

Firstly, an assessment of your processes and procedures will most likely see that things have evolved somewhat more rapidly recently and re-evaluating how business decisions are being made may lead you to see where there are flaws in your current ERP processes and reporting. The key to a good ERP is the gathering and presentation of key corporate knowledge in a timely manner to all users. All your workers need to have the power at their fingertips to be able to make timely, rapid, effective, and correct business decisions. Can they? Or can improvements be made?

 

Doing a straw poll through your employees may assist in this evaluation as working remotely may have presented challenges for them of which you are unaware and pooling this information will enable you to prioritise and act. 

 

There are some pressures, drivers, and constraints we have never seen before:

 

1. Internal resources are stretched more thinly than ever before as individuals are involved in multiple projects alongside other issues such as holding down their day job while home-schooling the children. 

 

2. You may also have challenges around implementing change management from diverse locations.

 

3. You will likely need to build a new team from different departments, and they may not have worked together before. The new working practices can be a challenge to create a bond and an effective team

 

4. The pressure on time to benefit is intensified in the current climate and so the payback period must be shorter with a full Return on Investment (ROI) justification. For this, we recommend you take a “financial benefit and attainment focus” so you plot and report on the financial end-goals to ensure your system changes reflect the financial goals of the business. And then you measure assiduously, before, during and after to demonstrate how you have aligned. 

 

5. Add to all this the business pressures that have seen furloughed staff and redundancies, you may need to find a way to add resources without headcount. For this you may consider adding a professional consultant who can provide technical, functional, or business consulting. They also bring valuable fresh eyes to the task along with industry best-practice and experience of doing change management time and again.   

 

To minimise business disruption, add two important elements to the mix: communication and data integrity. 

 

If there are likely to be changes, issues and delays then set expectations and keep everyone in the loop. This may go without saying, but it is all too frequently forgotten. Have there been lessons learned in the past you can call upon and have you canvassed the teams? Set clear communication guidelines for everyone, with a regular rhythm to reinforce objectives, progress, issues, requirements, and expectations and ensure these are communicated inside the team and beyond. 

 

When you have done your internal straw poll, map the data visually and ensure that the flow of correct, timely data is maintained or improved. Stay focused on this as it should be pivotal to why you are doing this project. The intention is to improve the availability, accessibility and visual representation of timely data and information. But doing this alongside lowering costs and providing quicker payback and effective ROI. 

 

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ReInforce Technology can provide professional consultants who can steer these optimisation projects to improve solutions and increase system effectiveness. We reduce project risk by focusing on the data, communicating to all the stakeholders and teams, and ensuring the consultants are the very best you can find. Our people-first approach coupled with years of industry and technical experience gives us an un-rivalled ability to deliver the optimisation you need.

 

We knit together your systems and processes, with an integrated approach to data, that optimises efficiency for our clients. 

 

For more information info@reInforcetech.co.uk