Two Ways to Optimize Your New ERP System [Evolution vs. Revolution]
We want our financial systems to come out of the box working just like we want it.
This can be easy to do with our TV, microwave, car, and other devices. But it’s not always the case with business software.
Over time, every business optimizes to fine-tune, reduce waste, and improve the data they have for making decisions. The question is: What’s the best optimization approach and roadmap for your business and the enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution you’re implementing?
Below we compare the evolution (“crawl, walk, run”) approach to the revolution (immediate integration and automation) approach as part of your planning and execution of a new ERP implementation.
The evolution approach
The evolution approach involves a manual effort that may include exports and imports that typically use Excel to tie systems together immediately following a new ERP implementation.
This approach saves time and money up front on the technical side but can increase labor costs at go-live if:
The volume of transactions is high
The complexity of the data between the two systems is cumbersome
NOTE: If an integration doesn’t need a lot of manual intervention, then automating a process during implementation is money that could have been spent elsewhere.
The benefit of the evolution approach is that you wait to see where the automation and refinement of processes need to be. The evolutionary approach optimizes your systems over months or even years, depending on the complexity of your processes.
The revolution approach
The revolution approach of immediate integration and automation optimizes your processes before (or immediately after) go-live.
Immediate integration requires time to design and develop interfaces that link systems together. This means that during your system and user acceptance testing, you’re evaluating how two applications can be integrated through middleware. This will eliminate the need for manual exporting and importing of files or duplicating data across systems.
This approach is mandatory when the volume of transactions or the complexity of a process far exceeds the manual capacity of an organization.
Complex data can challenge this process. Let’s say the time spent during system testing and user acceptance doesn’t verify 100% of the integrations. If the data processed from one system to the next is what your business needs, then you’ll need to do additional work. And that increases costs.
At the time of user-acceptance testing, many organizations know exactly (or close to it) what they’re getting with the system and its shortcomings in reporting.
Reporting shows the data that’s missing if an integration didn’t consider certain data elements from one application to the next, thereby requiring rework and more costs.
Why Roghnu takes the evolution approach
Roghnu’s typical approach to optimization is evolution. We find that most of our customers benefit from optimizing their systems after go-live rather than delaying the use of the software.
A better understanding of the areas of improvement are delivered simply by moving to Sage Intacct.
Many of the areas that cause pain to an organization switching over to a more modern ERP simply vanish. This makes the integrations and even the potential of just downloading and uploading data far easier..
This makes capacity available for more value-add tasks, such as identifying more opportunities for optimization after going live.
When considering a crawl, walk, run approach versus an immediate integration and automation approach, do the following:
Look at your overall business optimization effort pre and post go-live.
Create a well-thought-out roadmap for your future state enterprise to be able to scale or automate your business processes and systems integration efforts
If you’ve been thinking aboout switching your financial systems, we can help.
Contact us for a free consultation about your search for a new cloud-based accounting platform.