How to Maximize Your ERP Strategy

Are you getting the most out of your enterprise resource planning (ERP) strategy?

A successful ERP strategy is crucial for businesses that want to remain competitive in today’s fast-paced market. These systems are the single source of truth to help streamline operations, automate business processes, and provide valuable insights into your company’s performance.

In this article, you’ll learn exactly how an ERP solutions partner can help you maximize your ERP strategy.

WHAT IS ERP?

Enterprise Resource Planning is a comprehensive, integrated system that aids organizations in managing their day-to-day internal business activities, such as accounting and finance. ERP processes provide real-time data insights and a common database across departments. ERP solutions are also customizable to specific industries and, when optimized with the support of an ERP implementation partner, can help save a business a lot of money and time.

CREATING AN ERP STRATEGY

STEP ONE: ASSESS YOUR COMPANY’S NEEDS

Companies should begin by auditing their current ERP processes and pinpoint their needs or key requirements. Companies can use the following questions as a starting point:

• What are the apparent ERP needs?
• What are the pain points being experienced?
• What are the key internal accounting processes?
• Who’s responsible for each process or task?
• How long does each task or process take to complete?

After a thorough internal assessment, companies should compile a list of 20-30 key ERP requirements. Then the company can focus on finding the right partner to help them create a new ERP strategy.

STEP TWO: FIND AN ERP STRATEGY PARTNER

A company should seek outside support to help them create and implement an ERP strategy. The right partner can provide the appropriate insight needed to evaluate the ERP key requirements and find the most robust solutions.

Marcum provides the accounting and technology expertise to make a difference in how you modify your ERP strategy. We utilize our extensive knowledge accumulated through helping clients across many industries to find areas of improvement; helping companies prioritize and find solutions.

Often that’s not reinventing the wheel, but instead maximizing the ERP software and processes a company already has in place. By having an ERP solutions partner conduct assessment research, companies can better understand how long it will take and what all is involved with implementing a new ERP strategy.

STEP THREE: CREATING AN ERP STRATEGY

When you work with an ERP expert, they can help you identify the parameters you can address with your current technology and what third-party solutions you may need.

At Marcum, we break things down into two categories: Core ERP and Extended ERP. Core ERP is what you can accomplish from your prioritized requirement list with your current ERP software. Extended ERP items are lower-priority tasks or issues you may need to address with third-party applications or tools.

We can recommend third-party resources useful for your personalized ERP strategy and help you implement those new resources. Additionally we help leverage your current resources. Also we believe in the concept: if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. We want to help companies save money and time by optimizing their current resources to the greatest degree possible.

STEP FOUR: CHANGE MANAGEMENT & EMPLOYEE TRAINING

After establishing new business systems, it’s time to implement those changes. To accomplish this, we work with our clients to create a change management and employee training plan to minimize the impact on their employee’s current workflow, whether for small or large changes.

We need to figure out how these changes will impact your team and the best way to introduce them to your team. The following are some of the questions we use to create a plan:

• What changes appear to be needed?
• What are the specific tasks, processes, or procedures?
• What individual steps are needed to carry out each change?
• What type of training is needed?
• How can we effectively incorporate team training?
• How will these changes impact other processes within the department or in other departments?

At Marcum, we can help guide you through the change management and employee training process to ensure all steps are properly communicated with your team and guarantee new procedures are running smoothly.

STEP FIVE: USING CONTINUED SUPPORT

Now that the ERP strategy is in production, it’s time to focus on what you need to support continued maximization of your ERP strategy. With a dedicated ERP partner, when questions arise, you have a specialist ready to answer your questions and guide you through any new challenges as your business grows and changes.

When it comes to ERP, there’s always new technology or resources. At Marcum, we are at your beck and call when needs arise. On top of our on demand support, we also offer our clients quarterly webinars to educate them on new and emerging ERP features and resources to always stay on top of the newest optimizations available.

CHOOSING THE RIGHT ERP SOLUTIONS PARTNER

It can be challenging and overwhelming trying to figure out where to start when it comes to maximizing your ERP strategy. At Marcum, our subject matter experts help you find areas of improvement, implement changes, and offer continued support so you can stay ahead of the changes in your industry during your digital transformation.

Learn about our ERP Automation solutions today or email us at [email protected].