ERP and the data therein is the source of much insight if correctly displayed so that data-driven decisions can be used in both economic upturn and downturn. If you already have an ERP solution, you should be able to see where savings can be made to effect on the bottom line.
Making costly ERP investments is unlikely to be justified at the moment so what else can be done if your system is creaking at the seams? This is when a two-tiered approach may be appropriate whereby the existing system continues to tackle all the manufacturing challenges while a new finance-centric ERP delivers the benefits of commercial and economic components.
The objective here is that you only invest in ERP in the function that needs the most flexibility, for planning, for plotting trends and for managing the core costs of the business. Leaving a legacy ERP in place for manufacturing, when it has trundled along for years, is the right decision. Small tweaks and optimisations can improve the legacy system, while finance leads the decision-making.
Advances in integration means that the two solutions can work in tandem, or the introduction of a business process management (BPM), solution can buffer between the two. Also, consider the hybrid model mentioned earlier as the data and analytics system can sit in the public cloud (utilizing the cost benefits therein) while the other systems may sit on premise or in a private environment.
This hybrid or two-tier system doesn’t mean you have failed to upgrade or migrate all your systems to a single monolithic ERP, it means you have a tailored system to address specific needs. The author of this Digest article is none-other than Chirag Rathi the Infor Strategy Lead for Industrial Manufacturing.
How to Modernize Your ERP During a Downturn | Quality Digest