This week I give the most brief set of criteria I can think of for ledger evaluation. Ledgers give us information in the form of balances. The number of balances it can maintain and the speed with which it can maintain them is a good measure of the richness of the information it can provide us. The number of balances a ledger can maintain is … Continue reading Brief ERP Ledger Evaluation Criteria
This week’s episode of Conversations with Kip continues the discussion of reference data in our financial system, specifically discussing how a great deal of reference data is embedded in ERP systems, but use of that data in rules and execution of those rules often requires ERP integration. ERP systems are very effective at managing lists or descriptions of fields which originate within the ERP system, … Continue reading Business Rules & ERP Integration
As Pete Galbo told me a few years ago as we discussed a client who had embarked on a long journey of evaluating ERP packages for General Ledger and related reporting problems, “Unfortunately, you can’t purchase an ERP package with your data in it.” Having lived through a major ERP implementation, he was completely right. Most projects begin by recognizing there are limitations in the … Continue reading Your Data is Key to Your New ERP Package
In my career, I have found that even for the largest organizations ERP packages create a great deal of value in two primary areas: They constrain choices in design and provide business process templates, thus creating greater efficiency of implementation. Giving business partners a blank sheet of paper upon which to do whatever they want often leads them back to what the current system does. … Continue reading ERP Package: User Interface and Your Data
Contrasting with last week’s prescriptive ERP Package approach, the other major vendor uses an integration approach to the problem. This ERP Vendor grew through acquisition of various products, and integrated them. This means that often one can select only particular functions or parts of the package to use, and then construct or use other components to solve other parts of the problem. This can be … Continue reading The Have It Your Way ERP Package
This week’s episode characterizes one type of ERP Vendor often used in major corporations for finance functions, which is highly integrated but also quite prescriptive in approach. Vendor’s specialize in particular processes or industries; competition means no one is great at everything. It the package does what you need to have done, then great. If not, it is most often expensive to buy something that … Continue reading ERP Package: My Way or Highway
This week’s episode is in response to a request from Brazil to assist a customer in ERP package selection. The first point I make when approaching such a question is asking the customer to be clear about what problem they are trying to solve. It is likely customers are hoping to solve problems in all three of these domains, and an ERP implementation project will … Continue reading Vendor Choice in ERP Selection
ERP systems perhaps were to deliver on three promises; Automate more business processes; perhaps approaching all of them. ERP systems have added great automation to a lot of new business processes since their introduction 25+ years ago. Consistent IT Tooling. ERP systems in some industries significantly increased the IT tooling consistency. Increase reporting ease and analysis. The thought was that with all the data under … Continue reading ERP Systems and Reporting Processes
