What constitutes a great managed services service provider?

I have been meaning to write about IT managed services for some time now. The concept of IT managed services is almost as important as the internet itself or as important as a mechanic is to the motor industry.

Just as mechanics are put on this earth to insure the “well-being” of our cars: oil checks, shock checks and wheel alignment, the same can be said about managed services taking care of all IT infrastructure. Yes, IT infrastructure also needs taking care of. Servers can crash, machines can break and data can get lost or compromised. This is why the concept of managed services came about.

The concept of managing data, making sure data is secure and machines are in optimal working order insures businesses can carry on with their normal daily tasks and in the end bring in the money. High demand for work that needs to be done quickly and efficiently creates the issue that needs to guarantee that your data centres can’t be down for any given period. This is where a good and reliable service provider comes in to play.

With this said, what constitutes a great service provider?

The first thing that needs to be assessed is the redundancy of your data. What does data redundancy mean? Redundancy is the duplication or re-writing of data, this enables systems to continue operations when parts of a system fail or when data is lost.

Secondly, you need to look at the security of your servers. The security of your servers is a company’s first line of defence in protecting that company’s IT infrastructure. It is essential that security procedures are set in place to safe guard said infrastructure, even at the slightest indication of third party interference. 

This brings me to firewalls. Firewalls can be software or hardware (depending on how much you are willing to spend, software being the more affordable option) installed into servers to keep all data secure. Firewalls are designed to breach the gap between an internal network deemed secure with an external network normally seen not to be secure.    

There are a lot of service providers out there, and the credibility of them should be considered when shopping around for the perfect one. When looking for the ideal service provider it is wise to choose one that resonates with your company’s ideals and values. Success stories, case studies, press releases and blogs on them is essential in helping you choose the right service provider with the appropriate credentials. 

It’s all good and well to look for a service provider that you are comfortable with using, but employing technicians with the highest level of qualifications is almost as important as the service provider itself. These technicians manage the overall well-being of any organisation’s IT infrastructure. Maintenance duties such as maintaining of servers, security issues and network connectivity are only a few of the services these technicians should be able to handle.

SLA’s or service level agreements, as with any other business transaction should be drawn up with commencement of the work these technicians will be undertaking. These SLA’s normally set the benchmark of what needs to be done and what is expected. 

Not all of us speak “NERD”, so it is very important for me, and I think for a lot of people when I phone my service provider for assistance that they speak a language I can understand.

What is vendor relationship management?

By now everyone has heard of the concept CRM (Customer Relationship Management), this is a complete process where you manage all your customer management needs. But what about managing your vendors?

As with a CRM system that is completely customer driven, VRM is a concept solely geared for the management of a business’ vendors or suppliers. Is there really a need for such a system? And will a system such as VRM guarantee cost savings to a company.

VRM can also be seen as supplier management, it is a help line designed to manage all your vendor or supplier issues, data and correspondence. VRM is not a stand-alone system but can be customised within a CRM system. VRM is a great helpline in setting up workflow systems customised to your specific business needs.

Order generation can be simplified and stream-lined to ensure better ordering processes and payment plans. Seeing that VRM is not a financial system, all data that gets generated from VRM can be exported to a business’ financial system for easy payment and accounting generation. Price negotiation can be set up according to the various vendors according to credibility or delivery time frames. Purchase orders can be set up to be generated automatically and systematically by the user’s specifications.

Escalation rules can be set up to automatically trigger and send emails or on-screen notifications to ensure follow ups, advanced warnings and certain processes that should be followed. All meetings with vendors and suppliers can be logged and reported on. Calendar based management for tasks such as phone calls, emails and documentation simplifies the user’s tasks even further. Any field or task that gets created in the CRM system can be reported on in VRM.

The great thing about VRM is BEE management, specifically aimed at the South African market. Vendors can be rated according to their BEE status, this rating gets done when creating the supplier details and is automatically part of the purchasing and ordering workflows. This workflow manages all preferred BEE vendors. 

This brings me back to the issue of whether VRM has the capabilities of saving businesses money. Yes it can and it will.  As explained, it is easy to set up price negotiation capabilities within VRM the price negotiation capabilities can be customised to suit the supplier and the customer.

If you are a business owner that already has a successful CRM system installed, why not take the plunge and customise your system to handle VRM capabilities? You have nothing to lose really, only greater ordering workflows and vendor relationships to gain.

CRM systems – organising expo chaos

Lately there has been a lot of hype around the Electra 2012 mining expo starting this week. As with any expo, whether it is a wedding, gaming or even a baby expo, these expos are there to showcase the best of the best. Expos can be seen as the mecca of a related industry or product, the crème de la crème are all competing to be seen as the leaders in their respective fields of business.

Expos are one of the biggest hubs of information and contact sharing. People go to expos with a specific idea of what they expect. More often than not, they walk away with the right information or product.

With all this traffic and information sharing in one place, is there really a system that can keep track of all your prospective clients or newly won clients? Is there a way to capitalise on this information?

Let’s take wedding expos as an example. Normally these exhibitors have visitor journals at their cubicle where prospective brides and grooms supply their contact details in the hope of the exhibitors getting into contact with them.

This is where CRM systems come into play, records can be set up with all the necessary info on prospective clients for future interactions. After a relationship has been established it is easier for the sales relationship to begin. Specific targeted marketing campaigns can be set up with the help of e-marketing where automatic emails can be sent to a specific target market. Schedules can be set up to send marketing emails automatically for if and when you are planning a certain marketing campaign.

After these emails it will be easier to gauge whether any of the information that got sent bare any weight, and if so, drip marketing campaigns can be set in place to narrow down your target market prospects even more.

Business owners can concentrate on better customer service through capabilities within the CRM system that indicate what level each sales process is on. This will give sales people a better understanding of what sales steps need to be taken next. It can also alert the user of any issue that may occur.

CRM systems will guarantee on-going customer service to your clients. All the information that has been accumulated during all campaigns and sales processes will aid in future marketing campaigns. This can also lead to repeat business through your existing client base that will ensure a return on your marketing investments.

I don’t think I will ever attend an expo again without thinking about the sales opportunities waiting to be created if and when business owners make use of the right CRM system. Imagine a business’ growth possibilities if each and every single person that attends a certain expo has his or her contact information captured and acted on.

 

ERP systems helping out the industrial and engineering industries

As we all know, ERP systems can and will take care of any company’s business processes, ensuring agility, profitability and responsiveness. The same applies for the industrial and engineering industries. After some research I have narrowed it down to three key functionalities that ERP systems can assist these two industries in.  

Daily accounting tasks and functionalities

ERP systems are capable of fully integrating debtors and creditors modules including invoicing, purchasing and even general ledger. As always, easy navigation of ERP systems assists the users to access key functionalities relevant to their tasks at hand. Tracking of key responsibility areas are easily managed by graphical dashboards within the ERP system. Multi-currency functionalities minimises administrative burdens. ERP systems can also manage all receivables through payment histories that can assist in payment optimisation. This functionality gives crucial insights into various delays that can put pressure on your company’s cash management.

Stock control

Multiple bin, lot and batch functionalities will result in transparent stock controlling methods. ERP systems have the ability to reduce the risk of your company losing business by implementing alternate stock item functionalities. Complete transparency is guaranteed throughout your whole warehouse thanks to functionalities that allow you clear view of stock movement from purchase orders to sales invoices. Integrated web portal interfaces allow customers to place orders directly into the ERP system this reduces turn-around times and speeds up delivery. Stock requirements can be properly planned due to over-all history on items, customers and purchased items.

Customer management

The functionality of full customer contact tracking gives users a clear view of all interactions with customers whether opportunities or issues. Sales pipelines give sales managers the ability to accurately forecast opportunities and to escalate these opportunities to the necessary departments. Quotes that expired or issues that have not been resolved are handled by integrated escalation engines to insure these issues are resolved in the necessary time frames. The integrated escalation engine insures that Service Level Agreements (SLA) is met.

This is just the beginning, in the following weeks to come we will be concentrating on these two industries. Exciting and insightful times ahead, hope you are ready.

Africa’s possible life line.

The saying that you are never too old to learn something new never made as much sense as it did today. I had the pleasure of being “job shadowed” by a student from a local high school here in Johannesburg today and boy did we have fun, well at least I did, I am not sure whether poor Brenda understood half of my mad rumblings about business to business marketing, ERP’s and CRM’s.

I take it most of the population have heard of genetically modified fruit and vegetables. I am happy to say that I knew a bit about it, but what a wonderful surprise when Brenda told me that this was exactly the field of business her dad is in. Imagine my child-like excitement when I learnt about this. Gone were the business and marketing talk and straight into the wonderful work her dad is doing in Africa.

If it was up to me, Brenda’s dad and all the other wonderful souls in Africa doing this wonderful mission should win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Brenda’s dad is a telecommunications director and what he does is travel all over Africa to countries such as Nigeria, Kenya, Rwanda and Burkina Faso, to name a few. He opens the communication channels between farmers, ministers and community leaders regarding their agricultural development. These talks are held in regions where famine and draught affect the lively hood of the people. Having discussed possible ways to improve agricultural growth in these rural communities he presents possible proposals to various companies around the world to help these scientists financially working on genetically modifying plants.

So what these scientists do is take the DNA of a cactus that has the ability to grow and strive in desert-like conditions and modify their DNA into the genes of bananas, wheat or corn so that these crops are able to grow in the dry seasons. By doing this it ensures rural communities can grow their own crops throughout the year.

Imagine the possibilities if this trend can catch on. No more horror stories of people suffering and dying of hunger.  It can uplift the continent’s people, give them an alternative way of life, but most importantly, give them HOPE.

THE 6 MOST IMPORTANT ERP QUESTIONS FOR THE MINING MAGNATE.

I have been talking about ERP systems and the mining industry for some time now, I am pretty sure that a lot of my readers would hope I stop. No such luck, the more I research ERP systems and the mining industry the more I learn and the more I want to share this knowledge. A while back I finished my white paper on the perfect ERP system and the mining industry and through that I realised just how important it is in choosing the right ERP system for you and your business.

As with any major purchase, you ask numerous questions and even take it for a test drive if it is a car you are looking to buy. The same should apply when looking for an ERP system. You need to ask as many questions relevant to your business and maybe look at a few demonstrations while you are at it. Let me help you out here, these questions will get the ball rolling for sure.

What is ERP?

Enterprise resource planning [ERP] is the complete system for your business that can run your company’s activities in one streamlined system. All applications are easily migrated into one system which makes it easier for your company to work more efficiently and more importantly to show a return on investment.

Will my financials be taken care of?

Yes, probably the most important question you will ever ask, your company’s financials should be your first and main concern, no business means no money and vice versa. It is crucial that you have a system in place that is clear and transparent in all the aspects of the business’ financial side. A clear view and indication of all the processes should be visible in the ERP system. Following are some of the key functions of an ERP system’s financial capabilities.

·         Financial accounting

·         Receivables and creditor accounting

·         Payment management

·         Cost accounting

·         Investment accounting

·         Controlling

·         Consolidation

How can an ERP system assist in my business’ production and the planning of my production?

In essence, production planning and production are the key components in any mining industry. Without any products being produced in the mine, can and will the mine not survive. Essential to this is the tracking of production and strategies on production. The secret to a successful production strategy is the transformation of resources to reserves and the managing of production units that in the end will contribute to a total production system. Following are some of the key production functionalities to look out for.

·         Work schedule management

·         MPS ( Master Production Schedule)

·         MRP ( Materials Requirement Planning)

·         Technical data configuration

·         Link to weighing scales

·         Cost calculation

·         Quality assurance

·         Capacity planning

Will I be able to distribute and sell my products, while managing my warehouse?

ERP systems assist in managing the complete sales cycles from open pricing, invoicing up to the delivery planning, shipping and even the distribution of products. As a bonus it can even handle new offers and contracts.

The only way in knowing what is going on in your warehouse is if you have a transparent warehouse management system. A system that can track orders coming into the warehouse and leaving the warehouse, this will determine the rate by which your stock in your warehouse needs to be replenished by. Picking strategies, inventory tracking, inventory planning and stock tracking can be set up by the warehouse manager with the help of the right ERP system.

What about my employees, will I be able to manage all of their Human Resource needs?

The all elusive and oh so difficult aspect of human resources, especially in a work environment such as a big mine, it is essential to have a system in place that can take care and manage all your staff and all the ‘baggage’ that comes with having a big work force.

Can an ERP system grow my business and eventually grow with my business?

Mining itself is made up of a number of departments that can be seen as industries on their own, but when it comes to mining all these departments should work together as a whole. That is why ERP systems were designed to handle all these departments in a single, transparent and all-encompassing system that will show you a return on your investment. What you as a business owner need to keep in mind is that the perfect ERP system can and will be able to grow your business and essentially grow with your business.

What motivates you?

Wouldn’t it be wonderful, no wouldn’t it be heaven when you didn’t feel like getting up in the morning to simply just stay in bed, with no consequences and repercussions? I can already imagine myself just lying in bed the whole day when I simply didn’t feel like work or were plainly just not motivated to get up.

I am pretty sure that most of the world’s population would agree with me that they would rather stay in bed than getting up and do something. What make this even worse are those cold winter months when productivity and the over-all morale of people are at its lowest, especially here in our sunny South Africa, where we thrive in the warm summer months.

I think it is safe to say that one of the reasons people are not very eager to get up in the mornings are just plain laziness and with a little persuasion and a few cups of coffee, they are good to go and eventually just get on with it. But what about taking it a little further and say that the other reason for not getting up and seizing the day is truly the lack of any motivation whatsoever? If you think about it clearly, laziness (procrastination?) is the biggest symptom of having no motivation. However, it gets a little serious when people get so demotivated and depressed that they truly lose their zest for life. But where does this stem from and why are people in today’s world so demotivated?

How many times have you heard people say they want to follow their dreams or do something constructive towards society or even leave their job and go live a secluded life in the mountains somewhere? Most people, including me have heard this so many times and we can’t help but roll our eyes at these hippies. But the more I think of it, the more I can understand why these individuals feel this way. Most people are just not following their dreams or doing what they love anymore. In the years when your father was a carpenter or stonemason and you just took over the reins are long gone.

This situation has a very negative outcome as well. It is all good and well to fantasize about a laid-back life somewhere on a golden beach or high up in the mountains somewhere, but in today’s fast paced life it is just not so easy achievable. Surely you must eat while you are living your ideal life or just simply lying in bed, but to eat you must work. Forget about food, there are also bills to pay, mortgages to honour and kids to put through school and university. So it is safe to say that your dreams get put on the back burner and you work to get by, to pay the bills and to take care of your family.

It is very sad to know that so many people struggle with this and sometimes I struggle with it as well, up to a certain point. I don’t really want to live a secluded life or anything. But every person has their own idea of a perfect life. A perfect life in one person’s view is to be a successful business man and another’s simply to be happy by earning a reasonable salary. Personally I think greed is the main culprit in this sad saga. If it wasn’t for the need to have more and more we would all have been happy with what we have right in front of us.

My advice instead of moping around and being all depressed?  Take stock of your personal life. Wake up in the morning and realize what you have around you, not what is in your bank account or the dreams in your head. Be happy to live in the moment and willing to change that certain moment. Start small, make someone smile or help a friend out. Change your outlook and your attitude and you might be lucky enough to realize that what is motivating you was in front of you all the time.

The mining industry’s biggest partner – ERP systems

I have been doing a lot of research lately on the mining industry and how beneficial and actually crucial it is the have the proper ERP system in place to assist in the everyday running of a mine and eventually to grow your business and to show a return on your investment. Mining is one of the most demanding industries out there and if not run properly it can leave communities devastated and thousands of people with no income.

ERP systems have been designed out of necessity as there was a need for a system to assist in the planning and running of big organisations such as the mining industry. Even as early as the 70’s was there a need for an enterprise resource planning system. Obviously have there been a lot of systems designed that made the processes of running a business easier, but only a mere ten years ago did the concept of ERP systems arise.

When starting your business are there a lot of factors to take into account such as financials, production, human resources and customer relationship management. All these departments play a crucial part in any business.  

Following will be some of my findings of what to look for in the perfect ERP system specifically aimed at the mining industry. Disclaimer: findings of a blogger, researcher and sometimes a mad man and not that of a mining mogul.

FINANCIALS

The most important factor when starting a business is the financials. A lot of money has been injected and probably a lot of investors took the leap of faith of investing in you and your mining venture. It is important that an ERP system can handle your mine’s financials. Financial accounting, creditor’s accounting, payment management, cost accounting and investment accounting are just some of the functions that an ERP system should be capable of handling.

PRODUCTION PLANNING AND PRODUCTION

After year one when the mine is up and running it is important to start looking at production to increase the revenue of the mine and also keep the investors happy. Work schedule management, technical data configuration, linking to weighing scales, cost calculation, quality assurance and capacity planning should be on top of your production wish list.

MATERIAL REQUIREMENT

All ERP systems should consist of a material requirement module that can assist in the categorising, arrangement and rearrangement of materials for certain production lines, a benefit is that these modules can be set up well into the future, this will be beneficial for companies to plan a whole years production in advance and even further if the need arises. These requirement modules can be customised in any way the user sees fit for him or her to execute the task efficiently.

SALES AND DISTRIBUTION

At this stage things are looking up and it shows that the mine is starting to show a return on investment and that the mine is ready to start selling its produce. ERP systems have sales and distribution software included that can assist in the managing of sales and taking care of distribution schedules to ensure these products get delivered to the promised destinations. Also look out for capabilities such as setting up of contracts, offers, order entries, delivery and shipping planning and invoicing.

WAREHOUSE MANAGEMENT

Warehouse management goes hand in hand with a mine’s production planning. Warehouses need to communicate with the production department in setting up inventories to keep track of what stock enters and leaves the warehouses. This in turn will trigger certain production notifications. Management of locations, workload analysis, preparing of orders and tracking of operations will be key functions that will help in running your warehouses successfully.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT (CRM)

CRM is a complete customer management system that will ensure open communication channels between all your clients and suppliers. And for the more adventurous people out there can CRM systems be used to run marketing campaigns and drip marketing campaigns.

HR

Human resources are essential in any major corporation, this will help you keep tabs on all your employees and also take the stress out of managing their pay rolls. Clocking in and out of staff is easily manageable. Training schedules can be set up and talent management can be tracked.

There you have it, a complete system that ensures transparency throughout all of your business processes. Most importantly, the right ERP system can and should show a return on your investment and this system itself is an investment as it can grow with your business.

I can safely say that I know a bit more about the mining industry and how crucial it is to have an ERP system tailor made to you and your company’s specific needs. Luckily do I not know enough yet to start my own mining company, but I am willing to offer my consulting services to any unsuspecting victim.

What CFO’s need to know about ERP systems

As a financial director it is your job to take care of a business’s financial well-being. In essence it is your task to make sure your business survives and that everyone within the company can keep their jobs. Each company is different and each company will need a tailor made business solution to help manage and run the business successfully.

Talking about business solutions, it is always wise to look for an ERP system that can show return on investment (ROI) and that can assist in producing a transparent view of your company’s financial situation. When a company gets started a few key factors should play a big part in the future of your business.

We at Synergy Group (Pty) Ltd have been studying the demand for a proper business solution package and we would like to share with you what we as a service provider think are the crucial factors to look out for while searching for that ERP system that will best suit your company’s needs.

Following will be the indicating factors that the CFO can’t over-look when searching for the right ERP system.

Financial accounting

Accounting should be made simple with a complete system that can do all the mundane accounting tasks like; recording, summarising and the communication of business transactions and formulating these processes in formal financial statements.

Receivables and creditor accounting

Essential to the successful running of your business, you will need ERP software that can regulate your creditors department.  Transparency throughout this department will ensure you know exactly who owes you what.

Payment management

Necessary tools within your ERP system will allow you to manage your accounts and monitor which transactions have been finalised. Real-time ERP systems will simplify the process of searching the history of your accounts, payments of these accounts and checking the statuses of payments.

Cost accounting

Cost accounting is a helpful tool that should be present in a proper ERP system.  It can assist in the management of your company’s budget and the setting up of cost control programs.  

Investment accounting

Managing of your accounts that are directly linked to investments can easily be executed through the proper ERP software.

Controlling

Systems must easily be set up where a company’s cost expenses can be managed in relation to the company’s budget for the financial year.

Consolidation

Consolidation or merging of all your financial statements should be an easy and uncomplicated task with the help of the right software.

Always ensure that you choose a system that will fit your company’s profile and take care when making your decision. Shop around and take part in a few free trial ERP systems to help you simplify your decision. Click here for a White Paper on the perfect ERP system.

Who run the world…..Girls

For a while I wanted to write about the gender ratio between men and women in executive positions of companies in our country. You couldn’t imagine my excitement when I came across an article that was exactly about this very subject. Before I start this article I just need to point out that I have no intensions to stir anything up or make waves.

It has been the age old debate of where the woman’s place is in the world. It has always been a blurred vision, somewhere between a house, kids and the work place. I grew up with both parents working, I was never fortunate enough to have a stay at home mom. And that is the reality of today’s times, only a few fortunate families can afford for the wife to stay at home and take care of the household.

Women are seen as the softer, more beautiful and more fragile of the two genders. This I think is the reason that so many people in the world have the idea of only men being the go getters and the ones bringing home the bacon. History has shown this. Men were the gatherers and hunters of our time. This is easily understandable then that this has been how we are meant to think. I beg to differ though, I know a few women that can sling a gun or a fishing rod just as well as any strong burly man I know, heck, even better than me. That said, my fishing skills leave much to be desired.

Okay, so back to the issue of women in the corporate world. Think about it clearly, how many men that you know of have higher positions in the corporate world than women, take it further, have you seen any male receptionists or male PA’s lately, my point exactly.

 Let’s look at the IT industry, Sarita Visser, CIO of FNB Commercial Bank claims that the world is lagging the gender equality curve. This is great news. According to her there is a lot of progress made in breaching the gender equality gap. Even in her work environment they are doing their part towards promoting women. Specific strategies were set in place to attract women in terms of equity targets and targeted development. The right candidates with the right potential are identified and enabled accordingly. They are making a concerted effort to develop and promote these women.

Palesa Sepanya, IS Operations manager for PetroSA, on the other hand claims that decision makers still don’t trust women to be technically capable of leading. She believes that woman should desperately start marketing themselves and to acknowledge their technical abilities. She strongly believes that women should start making noise about their achievements. I strongly agree with her. Well said lady.

From personal experience, one of the founding members of our company is a woman and 19 years on she is still going strong. My mentor and the person that I look up to for advice and guidance also happen to be a woman.  And for the record, I am a man.

Well done to the women who are making their mark in the business world, long live the power of women and thank you for bringing kindness, compassion and beauty to the business world.

How to choose an ERP system 

A lot of time and effort were put into taking the leap of faith in starting your own business, and like your child you will nurture and take care of this business. You would like to see your business grow, develop and show success and of course a return on your investment.

When starting your own business we can safely say that you have asked all the necessary questions and probably the most asked question of all, what is an ERP system and do I need it?

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is the beating heart of any business, don’t have an ERP system? We suggest you look no further. Welcome to the world of ERP and what it can do and mean for you and your business.

This question gets asked more than what we care to count, following will be the necessary information, all you will ever need to know about ERP software.

ERP systems are the complete business solution for your company handling all aspects of your business, from financials, manufacturing, distribution and customer relationship management. ERP software, designed for the sole purpose of growing and developing your business. ERP systems need to be transparent in all areas of your business, this will be key in tracking your business’ growth and success rate.

Businesses and business strategies are forever changing and improving. That is why choosing the right ERP system with the necessary ERP software should be the driving force when choosing an ERP system. These systems should be tailor made to your specific needs. Never has it been more clear that these systems should have almost ‘artificial intelligent’ like capabilities. Having the peace of mind that your money spent will be beneficial in the long run.

 For a company that has been providing business solutions for the past 20years we can put our stamp of approval on this ERP systems software.

ERP systems - what you need to know

ERP systems – what you need to know

The other day, while researching ERP systems and to see what our competitors are up to I came across a very interesting article. As we all know, ERP is a concept that serves as a benchmark for businesses to assist in the planning and maintaining of their business strategies. The implementation costs of these systems are normally astronomical. This said, when you have a system tailor made to suit your specific needs, this system can show a return on your investment and all the money spent on this can be seen as money well spent.

So back to this article I read: A gentleman by the name Dennis Gaughan did a bit of research on four major ERP and IT solutions vendors and his findings were quite bleak, to say the least. A lot of time and effort goes into finding the right ERP system. This system should be easily integrated into your business. A lot of time, manpower and care should be invested while implementing this system into your business. Following below are some of his findings. This might just be the tips you need before you decide on the right ERP system for your business.

Products that can’t work together.

Some service providers’ products do not work well together. Some companies push for their ERP systems to get implemented, only to discover later that this system has minimal integration capabilities which in the long run cannibalise all your other existing systems. Some companies do not disclose the roadmap of their implementation either, resulting in more than three quarters of the profits being earned by maintenance work alone.

Some companies might want to take over your IT strategy.

Some companies’ main business is to sell consulting services. Account managers try to take control over your company’s IT strategy so that they can push more of their own products into your business. Dennis suggests that a shared or partner approach should be taken between the service provider and the business.

Confusing pricing strategies.

A lot of companies struggle with figuring out the billing and licensing of their service provider’s products and services. The major catch is unusual billing methods that confuse the customer. A simple example of this is when an upgrade gets done on an existing system, no new policies get drawn up and customers still pay full price for an add on product where it could have been offered at a discounted price. What is recommended is that you as a client demand clear project plans, timelines and methodologies. This will ensure no nasty surprises come month-end.

I never saw the ERP market as so competitive, well maybe not competitive, but unclear when it comes to helping prospective buyers choose the right system for their business. I have always been of the mind-set that people and feelings come first when doing any business transaction. And this is no different. It is, after all, people that will be working on these systems. It is essential that account managers or the sales people be honest in their dealings when trying to sell their products to prospective clients. After all, honesty is the best policy. 

ERP - Invention?

Inventions: cars, telephones, radios, cell phones and computers these inventions happened in a time of need or necessity to make the lives easier for everybody using them. I can’t imagine my life without my phone or my laptop and I can’t comprehend how I ever managed without them. No wonder that inventors throughout history still gets celebrated today for what they discovered and invented even centuries ago. I wonder if the people that designed the 1^st ERP system also have a “Newton moment”, I don’t think they had an apple fall on their head though, but I can imagine that the breakthrough moment could have felt as amazing as realising how the apple fell.

If you look at it logically, ERP systems were developed for the simple purpose of running your company and running it successfully. ERP = Enterprise Resource Planning; it explains exactly what it does. It is a complete system that can assist in every aspect of your business. Sadly, a lot of businesses fail very soon after being established. This is almost always due to bad planning or not having the proper management or controlling helplines in place. This is the reason for ERP systems being ‘invented’. A bunch of smart people, through the process of trial and error, created a system that can possibly save a company from bankruptcy. I’m not saying that each and every business needs an ERP system to run successfully, but it sure makes the process a whole lot easier.

I did a little study of my own on how ERP systems can be implemented into a business to ensure productivity and agility from the beginning.

Following below, is the natural history and indication of how a business gets started and how an ERP system can assist a business from day one:

Year one

Year one of your business is probably the infantile year where a lot of your business is based on financials and ensuring your company shows rapid growth. A lot of businesses make the mistake of only buying and implementing an accounting package. This is fine and this package can and does work, but what of year two?

Year two

So after year one, your business is starting to take off and you can see some growth on your revenue. Now that your business is making money you might consider a manufacturing your own products. For this, you will need a manufacturing software package, but you only have an accounting package. So what happens? You scrap your accounting package and you move on to software that has the ability to handle both your financials as well as the manufacturing side of your business.

Year three

By year three you can already see a huge difference in your business and how your business is run. Workflows that got implemented in year one may not necessarily be of importance now. So now that your business is financially strong and manufacturing its own products you need to look at a system than can handle warehousing, managing of deliveries and controlling of your stock. So, once again, you scrap your previous system and implement a system that can handle this function as well.

Year five

This is the time where the business is doing really well and you have already reached your five year plan. You can see your business flourishing, but you need a system that will help you manage your client relationships more effectively. All your systems that you implemented are showing results. But a system to track clients, keep their records and who knows maybe even run successful marketing campaigns are now inevitable. But, surprise! Surprise! You need another system that can handle this aspect of your business as well. So your previous system gets scrapped once again and a system with CRM (Customer Relationship Management) capabilities gets implemented.

The future

Finally, you have a successful business and an ERP system that can manage all aspects of your business. Would it not have been easier to implement an ERP system in year one that could have handled all these aspects of your business and that could have saved your company millions? That is the beauty of ERP systems that are designed to assist in all aspects of your business from the start; they consist of all these functions, not necessarily activated, but readily available when needed.

Gone are the dark days where businesses are run without any proper helplines. What a breath of fresh air to know that an ‘invention’ as great and powerful as the right ERP system can improve your business and help it grow. Who knows, we might be celebrating this system in a 100 years from now; not that I will be around to see it, but here’s to hoping I will.