ERP Implementation and Data Infrastructure Management
An ERP system forms the backbone to creating visibility and managing many businesses. Your business is evolving and growing, as you take advance of different opportunities. You may add different products, open new warehouses, win new customers, expand into different countries or add different sales channels. Your business is constantly changing to enable you to continue competing effectively and winning.
Are your systems keeping up?
It can be so easy, with all the pressures and activities, to put off developing your ERP systems or undertaking an ERP implementation. There are so many other places the investment could go. And the perceived disruption of changes is an easy excuse to maintain the status quo.
It seems easier to add another person in operations or finance. Or to build another excel spreadsheet to manage a workaround, because the system no longer does what you need. Or to put up with slow response to information requests or reporting that says less about what is really going on each month.
The cost of not investing properly can be substantial
- Decisions made may not be quite as good nor reached as quickly
- Opportunities for improvements in operations, sales and marketing and other functions not spotted quickly or at all
- Inefficiencies creep in in lots of places, taking up more staff time and therefore cost are higher
- Market opportunities are missed or acted on later than ideal
- As business complexity increases, the cost of managing with inappropriate tools increases
- Lack of understanding of the complexities of the business build though worsening metrics and data
- The competition edges ahead increasing market share
We have seen too many businesses in this situation. The under investment in their systems costing far more than the cost of a new system. And this cost is paid every year!
Some options to consider for your ERP System
There are always a range of options to consider such as:
- Redesigning data capture to provide better reporting and visibility
- Changing processes around the system to improve efficiencies
- Turning on additional functionality within the current system
- Extending functionality with bolt on / additional software applications
- Significant develop with the current system
- Changing the ERP system
There are pros and cons with each option. We suggest assessing these in the context of what the business needs today and also what management aspirations might mean over the next 3-5 years.
Introducing our Outline Systems Review
Our System review is designed to assess how well your systems help meet the goals of the business. The review:
- Gives you an expert opinion from the business rather than a IT perspective
- Gives you options with their pros and cons
- Is quick to undertake and can be done remotely
- Great value – starting from £750
Complete the form and we will call you to discuss the best options for you.
Planning for an ERP Implementation or significant development of current systems
When planning for a successful ERP Implementation project or development of your current system there is a lot to consider.
Firstly, how well does your data and reporting align with the key operational and financial drivers of your business. Does the information you get on a day to day through to annual basis give you visibility and confidence on what is happen within your business and therefore enable you to make good evidenced based decision?
If yes, then great. You just need to replicate what you have.
In practice, this is rare. You are developing or implementing a new ERP because your current one is not meeting the changing needs of the business. It is likely that your information also needs redesigning and updating alongside your ERP system. Your data infrastructure spans all functions. Do you have a person with the skills, experience, and capacity to lead this part of the project?
Once past this hurdle, setting out exactly what you need – a ERP scoping document – is the next challenge. How many projects have you seen fail because the goals at the start were unclear or kept changing during the project?
The scoping document is a key tool to firstly gain business wide consensus and ensure that scope does not derail the project or see costs spiral.
Once the project goals and system requirements have been agreed, you are in a position to start selecting an appropriate system and IT partner to implement. There are multiple ways to approach this stage depending on business requirements.
Our Detailed Scoping Projects
The Emerson Nash Team has upgraded and re-designed the data infrastructure of multiple businesses and implemented ERP Systems including Microsoft NAV/Business Central, SAP B1 and Coins.
Speak to us about how we could assess and redesign you the data infrastructure to give you improved visibility to make decision making quicker, easier, and better. We are also Scope, plan and select Systems and IT Partners to take the pressure off you. We
- Reduce your workload and stress
- Use our experience to side-step typical issues and problems
- Manage the key stake holders and get the best result for the business
- Speed up the process with minimal “learning on the job”
- Deliver for the business today and for your business aspirations
Call us to discuss planning and scoping your ERP Implementation projects.
System Implementations we have done before
Project Managing ERP Implementations
When you have a business to run, getting distracted with project managing an ERP Implementation project does not make sense. This results in both the day job and the implementation of the ERP suffering.
Unless you regularly implement these projects, a good Project Manager is likely to implement the system quicker with less problems, simply because they regularly practice all the skills required and have dealt with all the typical issues that arise during these projects. Getting the right expertise in is usually cheaper, when you consider project overruns, mistakes and other issues that often arise when you can only devote a portion your time to the project.
The Emerson Nash team work at board level, are used to dealing with office politics and big personalities. We also have lots of experience of delivering these systems from business, finance, and IT perspectives – an unusual skill set.
Discuss our Project Management capability during the initial review of your systems or the data and scoping phase.
Why Emerson Nash
- Exceptional business experience at board level, in Finance and IT Functions
- Multiple ERP system implementations – SAP B1, NAV & Others
- Up to 100% Refund – via introductions to other business leaders
- Partnership – we treat your business as we would our own
- Very strong people skills
- Decades of line management experience in top businesses
- Hands on implementors – we get things done
- We only employ experienced experts (no “juniors”)
- Easy to work with – we listen and do what we say
