One of the biggest difficulties that consultants going down-market have is getting the price for their services in the right ballpark for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Speaking from the perspective of an ERP vendor, we often come across prospective clients who have misleading expectations for the price of ERP set by a consultant who didn’t understand the lower end of the market.
We are told time and time again, we should not always be so quick to believe everything we hear, and this also holds true in the software industry – particularly ERP.
In my first blog on de-bunking common ERP myths, I discussed the fallacy that ERP is too hard to learn. In my second blog I explained why there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all ERP system. In this blog , I discuss why there is more to selecting an ERP vendor than just the technology and the functionality, and this is certainly true of SYSPRO.
In my first blog on de-bunking common ERP myths, I discussed the myth that “ERP is too hard to learn”. In this next blog I discuss how (despite marketing attempts to the contrary) when it comes to Enterprise Resource Planning, one size DOES NOT fit all.
Myth #2 – ERP is one-size-fits-all
Looking to the future, the variation of customer demand globally will require that manufacturers adopt production proximity – having a few plants around the world that produce standard platforms and components, then doing final assembly in local factories which can better serve local needs. This trend is playing out on two fronts – re-shoring of global plants, and local assembly. Both of these trends help manufacturers meet the demands of consumers who are increasingly expecting customized products delivered in a timely manner.
Continuing with our topic of manufacturing technology trends, fast decision-making will be one characteristic of successful manufacturing operations of the future, and technology is providing faster access to a greater volume of information both from the factory floor and from external sources.
As humans, we are often quick to believe speculation and establish opinion based on what often happens to be myth. As we are told time and time again, we should not always be so quick to believe everything we hear, and this also holds true in the software industry – particularly ERP.
One of the ways that manufacturers can be classified is as discrete or process; this describes the type of manufacturing processes involved (there is a third type, mixed mode, which combines both). Your typical small- or medium-sized manufacturer has better things to do than care about whether they are process or discrete. However these distinctions are really quite useful when choosing an ERP system. Knowing the differences will help you understand the types of challenges your ERP system will need to address.
The Internet has made competition global. Consumers now have more choice, and they exercise that choice more often, resulting in trends that move faster than ever before. The growth of the Internet, together with the emergence of new technologies, is having a major impact on the way manufacturers operate.
As we all know (or should know), SYSPRO ticks more functionality boxes than a Swiss army knife and part of the reason for SYSPRO’s ongoing product success is that it focuses on getting this core functionality right – whilst exposing this same functionality via business objects to allow easy software integration to other systems.
When a business implements SYSPRO, they often choose to implement other software tools available in the market too, with the aim of enhancing the solution and maximising the business’s return on its investment.
