An enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is a strategic asset to any organization. A right ERP system should not only enable your employees to make better decisions, work more efficiently, and reduce costs, but it should also enable you to plan and manage long-term feasible growth.

Many small and mid-sized business make the mistake of confusing popular ERP software's with appropriate one's. Therefore, choosing your new solution wisely is imperative to the success of your organization. To help you with your ERP evaluation process, we've put together few tips in order for you to make the best selection out of all the products available in the market.

Understand Your Internal Business Processes

Full understanding of your business is the most crucial aspect for ERP evaluation. Document your internal processes and identify processes that could be automated. Which processes can be flexible and which ones must absolutely remain the same? Is there anything that is confusing or redundant? ERP automates existing processes, but it cannot fix bad processes.

Also, it is advisable to understand your organization’s strengths and weaknesses. If you do not understand these, it will be difficult to evaluate how the new ERP implementation will impact them. Will the new ERP make your weak areas stronger? Will it somehow damage your stronger areas? For instance, if you have a strong finance/accounting process in place, how will the new system affect it in terms of usability, convenience, reporting etc.

Define objectives

Defining a clear and extensive list of your requirements before you start looking for ERP software, is a good start. You need to dedicatedly invest time into research for evaluating each ERP vendor against these objectives and decide which system best serves your clearly defined organizational objectives.

Involve Key Stakeholders & HODs

Lack of participation and input from key stakeholders in the evaluation stage can lead to poor acceptance and resistance from top management. They must be aware of the implementation time frame, features, training required and budget. Department heads should also communicate what features the ERP should possess and what they can live without. This ensures better adoption of the system by the end users.

Check Compatibility with Existing Systems

An ERP system might be easy to use but the benefit can be lost if it isn’t compatible with your existing systems. Ensure that your ERP solution has the ability to integrate with other systems and technology that your company already uses. For example, barcode and RFID scanners.

Be Prepared for Growth

It is mandatory to select a solution that is flexible enough to accommodate evolving business processes and new initiatives in your organization as you grow in size and structure. It should also have the ability to be scalable enough to accommodate additional users and provide multiple add-ons in order to eliminate the need of purchasing new systems. An ideal ERP system should enable you to phase in new ERP functionalities as and when you need it. For businesses operating internationally make sure your ERP solution supports multiple languages and currencies.

Ease of Customization

You need an ERP that can adapt and adjust to your dynamic needs while still providing value. Having customization capabilities in your software is pivotal for achieving that. It is also important to understand the difference between “configuration” and “customization”. Configuration is usually easy to do and can be done by clicking on options available within your enterprise level software. Whereas, customization refers to the changing of the actual code of the software to suit your needs which is a costly and time taking process.

Reporting & Analysis

Another key factor many organizations miss during the selection phase of an ERP system is reporting and metrics. What do you want to be able to gauge from the system? Is this possible via the existing, prebuilt reports in the system or will you have to pay extra to get custom metrics that will drive your business, hiring and resourcing? Opt for a solution that offers inbuilt customization features in reporting & analysis so that users can pull out information as per their own requirements.

Ease of use

A good ERP should be easy for your people to understand and get accustomed to. This will eliminate extensive training time and costs and accelerate adoption. Benefits can be amplified when the ERP extends to all parts of your operations. Consistent, end-to-end ease of use helps everyone communicate and collaborate without much hassles.

Total Cost of Ownership

Identify long term and recurring expenses in order to avoid making the common mistake of considering only the upfront investment. Careful evaluation of the support and training cost is crucial and hard to estimate at the same time making a large difference in the lifetime cost of the system. Whether you deploy on premise or cloud, you need to think beyond the cost of just the software. The true cost of ownership includes implementation, customization, maintenance, regular training and hardware for an on premise solution. Cost of additional bandwidth required or additional user access is the case in cloud-based options.

Carefully Evaluate Available Options

Narrow down the strengths and weaknesses of each solution that can satisfy your needs. Diligently invest time into researching each vendor’s customer base, stability and experience in your respective industry.

If possible, ask your ERP vendor for at least three client references and then interview them about their experience with the ERP in terms of functionality and support. Similarly, if you are a member of an industry association, ask for ERP recommendations. Dig deeper and learn more about the breadth of offerings and how the system will grow and adapt as your business evolves.

The right solution helps you tend to business by providing integrated, end-to-end visibility across your operation; delivering timely, relevant information that keeps you on top of the details, and streamlining your business processes for peak performance. Make sure the solution offers a unified solution that goes beyond basic ERP functions to deliver a complete and timely picture of your business.

Does your ERP talks seamlessly with your existing accounting software?

EAZY ERP is the first highly customizable software that seamlessly integrated with the best accounting software's across the globe i.e. TALLY and QuickBooks. Its ability to synchronize with Tally and QuickBooks allow you to share data seamlessly between the two systems, giving you a feeling of working on a single software system.