Choosing the Right Software
Some basic requirements in the selection process
- Solid Company – Microsoft
- Strong software foundation layer – SQL Server based, Client-Server Architecture
- Scalable – From 2-1000 users it is the same software, no migration needed.
- User Friendly – Intuitive interface and ability to find data easily and export to Excel if needed.
Choosing the right ERP software can be a difficult task. This is not a task that is performed very often by companies. It may have been several years the last time anyone in your company went through this process. Systems are constantly changing and to research and understand all the issues that go into fitting software to your companies needs can be challenging. It is hard to really understand through a demonstration and a couple meetings with a vendor if the software meets the needs and requirements of you company.
Needs Analysis – It is critical that a proper needs analysis is performed. This is often where companies have failed in the past. They try to tackle this alone and sometimes don’t know the right questions to ask or the parameters to include in defining their analysis. Because companies are looking at things from the perspective of how they have always done things they look from a limited perspective. If you don’t understand the possibilities for a technology it’s hard to define what you would want it to do. If a car could turn into a boat at the push of a button and take you over a lake to the other side rather than waiting on a crowded bridge that would be nice to know wouldn’t it. In improving business productivity it is important in understanding what is possible, and understanding the cost to see if that is beneficial.
Software Proficient – It is also critical to work with a firm that is proficient with the software, understands the strengths and weaknesses, so they can do a gap analysis with the requirements to make sure there is a proper fit.
Ethical Standards – Finally, we believe one of the most important and undervalued components in the software selection process are the ethical principles that we will do business the right way, and treat your firm as it was our own. We will be clear if the software does not meet your needs. We will walk away from it if it isn’t a good fit, and have done it before. How many times have you heard, “yes we can do that”, to later find out that meant with a customization. We do not like to do a customization unless absolutely necessary and it is clearly understood the development costs and if there are on-going maintenance costs. If there is too much customization needed that probably means there is a better product out there for you. If there are custom reports that are needed for your line of business to make the solution fit better for you we will be clear on that in the proposal process.
Lastly, very important, we have seen this before, too many firms can get dazzled by a demo and go forward to make a decision to implement a system and forget to go back to the requirements document and make sure there is a fit. Because we have seen that companies get worn out by the process of selecting a system we will look out for your interest and make sure it’s a fit and that you have evaluated everything in making your decision.
