Why a book on ERP Selection?

A Quick Peek of what you will receive inside

Each chapter of Common Sense ERP is written for business executives and managers in business language. While the computer industry is filled with acronyms, buzz words and elitist jargon meant to intimidate Outsiders, the book eliminates the mysteries of the industry in fun, easy to understand language.

• Chapter 1

  Chapter 1

  The Life of a Company

  As the heart is the epicenter of life in the body, delivering oxygen to the whole; the ERP system of a company should pump data to the various parts of a company, delivering healthy and accurate information which can be used to grow the company and provide a healthier environment for both the staff and the stakeholders of the company. Without accurate data being regularly pumped throughout the organization, the company can become choked and will either result in lack of performance or lack of growth. A healthy company has a ERP heartbeat that delivers timely data to the right places at the right time. The recipients then can work in healthy concert for the purpose that management intended for the company.

  So how is the heart of your company? Does it pulsate with energy and provide accurate data so that all workers know what they should be doing next? Does management have the tools to know what is most important to the stakeholders of the company? Are priorities clearly defined and in view so that each member of the company is working toward common goals and standards? Are plans and strategies developed and road maps published so that workers know what the goals are and how to achieve them? Do the company’s current systems provide the information needed to run efficiently allowing for growth and advancement of the company and the staff within it?.......

• Chapter 4

  Chapter 4

  Where to Start

  Chances are you are not an IT professional and your strength lies in engineering, sales, design or some other skill that helped get you and your business to where they are today. You are most likely at the top of your profession and let’s face it; entrepreneurs pretty much feel that can do anything, right? Small business owners and managers are generally the type of people who are strong leaders and are not scared of anything (even when they should be). They tend to tackle every project head on with reckless abandon and passion. The results, along with a successful business is a trail of tears that is littered with wasted time and money, a section of the warehouse that stores the things that didn’t work and a damaged morale of the workers who tried to succeed in implementing the failures of the past. However, most of those failed items were project driven such as a CNC machine that wasn’t as good as you thought, or the shipping station that ended up not working with your shipping provider, or the time clock that was going to automatically keep track of breaks and overtime yet it ended up just causing resentment and mistakes or even the delivery truck you bought to save money on local deliveries only to find that UPS, FedEx and DHL might have a point about their rates being fair. We all have a war chest of failures and stories to go with them because we aren’t scared to try new things, we are explorers by nature and we understand that most rewards are preceded by risk. I get all of that......

• Chapter 6

  Chapter 6

  The Request for Information (RFI)

  At this stage we are finally ready to begin shopping for software but now we are fully armed with an understanding of what our needs are as a company. We are also positioned to objectively look at systems with an eye toward value and positive impact on the company rather than being swept away by fancy, impressive demos which often highlight functions and features that we might never use. I like using the RFI because it accomplishes several objectives that can save significant time and money. Implementing an ERP system is very expensive but even the search for a system can tie up significant time and capital.

  Take even a simple example of reviewing systems with your team. The average selection team within a company consists of at least 5 people and as many as 10. Even if the demo is performed online, the demo could easily last for 4-6 hours and might be broken up into multiple sessions for various groups within the company. Even an introductory demo will last 2 hours or more so if we assume an overall cost of our managers even at $50 per hour then a 2 hour introductory demo will cost us (5 people (x) 2 hours (x) $50 = $500) and this is assuming merely an introductory session online. If travel is involved the cost goes higher and this does not even reflect the opportunity cost of the team when considering what they could/should have been doing with their time if they had not been reviewing the demo.....

• Chapter 9

  Chapter 9

  The Demo

  We have all seen the situation where a few friends walk into a bar with the best intentions of just having a couple of drinks and hanging out with friends, but before you know it things get out of control. Two drinks become three then three becomes four and so on. Pretty soon the entire party has had too much to drink and there they sit, all of them drunk and no one to safely take them home. With a little forethought they could have decided on a designated driver for the evening or they could have even arranged transportation in advance while they were still thinking clearly. In most cases, however there is no forethought and there is no plan so the result is a crowd of confused drunks which in many cases end the night by making some really poor decisions.

  The Demo phase of ERP selection is much the same way without a plan and some advanced planning for the demos which will be viewed. While there are several very critical steps in the process, the Demo phase is certainly the most dangerous. Without a plan your entire team can become “demo drunk” and the result can be impulsive and ultimately poor decisions during the selection process. Getting demo drunk is fairly easy to do and is probably the number one cause of poor selection.....