When your organization decides to overhaul its enterprise resource planning (ERP) platform, you've already taken the first significant step toward meaningful business change. But as you navigate this process, two critical decisions await:
- Which ERP system is the best fit for your business needs?
- Which ERP implementation consultant or services provider will bring you the best result?
These decisions are crucial, as your ERP software selection criteria shouldn’t just be about cost—but rather about delivering value through operational efficiency and aligning with your long-term business goals.
According to a report from Zipdo, 47% of organizations say their current ERP system is not meeting their expectations.
To avoid becoming part of this statistic, your team can start by asking the right questions.
- What is the difference between available ERP solutions for my industry?
- Do I have the in-house expertise (and availability) to implement or modernize my systems, or should I work with a technology partner to fast-track this process?
- What are some of the most common ERP implementation pitfalls we should be aware of to minimize risk?
Keep reading to find out how you can turn your ERP implementation into a successful digital transformation project.
Evaluating Platform Options: Open Source vs. Proprietary ERP Software
Evaluating ERP platforms starts with a framework – which level of modularity versus flexibility is right for your organization? Unfortunately, there is no “best” option but rather a series of value-based tradeoffs that your team will need to consider. Selecting an open source or proprietary solution is really a matter of business model, desired flexibility, technology expertise, risk tolerance, and the amount of emphasis your team puts on systems modernization as a means of growth and profitability.
Proprietary ERP Solutions
Companies that have a relatively standardized operating model or have fairly common industry-specific needs often gravitate toward proprietary solutions. These systems are often considered expensive yet fairly turnkey and come with robust software vendor support, pre-built features tailored to specific industries, and a more straightforward implementation. However, they often come with serious limitations in flexibility, increased risks due to vendor lock-in, and higher upfront costs. These solutions are often ideal for companies that have simple, industry-standardized operating models, and who have a willingness to adapt processes to fit proprietary software architecture.
Some common examples of proprietary ERP software include: Acumatica, Epicor, IFS, Infor, JD Edwards EnterpriseOne, Microsoft Dynamics, Oracle/Netsuite, SAP S/4HANA
Open Source ERP Solutions
On the other hand, open-source systems offer the flexibility to develop solutions around existing processes, robust customization opportunities, and substantial ownership over your technology investments, making them ideal for businesses with unique processes or niche requirements. The trade-off is that achieving the desired level of custom development may require more internal developer resources or a closer partnership with an implementation consultant. These requirements are necessary to adapt the open-source architecture to fit a company’s existing operating model.
Some common examples of open source ERP software include: Dolibarr, Odoo ERP, Tryton, xTuple
Selecting the Right ERP Implementation Strategy
Whether you choose an open source or proprietary solution is only one part of the puzzle – your team will also need to decide how you plan to align your business processes and technology solution. This choice should be informed by a clear understanding of your business process mapping, operational goals, and the industry-specific challenges you face. Your decision should also be based on whether you have the technical resources required in your existing teams for the implementation process and technology maintenance, or if a technology partner is a better choice than creating software-specific expertise in-house for a self-implementation.
Self-Implementation Approach
A self-implementation approach is an option for businesses that have lower budgets or a high degree of technical maturity (passing those costs into overhead). When deciding to deploy an ERP system using internal resources, it’s important to consider how complex the new system will be to build for your operations. If your team is equipped with sufficient technical resources, this may not be an issue. If however, you don’t have a team with experience in ERP implementation methodology and the selected software, a self-implementation can result in considerable risk to your operational efficiency, data security, and technology investment. Weighing this decision against your internal capabilities and risk tolerance can help you save time and money, but is not recommended without a high degree of software expertise.
Partnering With an ERP Expert
If your organization doesn’t have a large internal technical team, advanced development capabilities, or knowledge of ERP systems, then working with an ERP consulting partner might be the best choice. In the process of choosing the right ERP partner, you want to make sure you’re getting involved with transparent collaborators who understand your business needs, have the technical capabilities to do the work (not outsource it to a third party), and have both knowledge of the specific software as well as your industry. This includes the knowledge required to determine when a business process should be adapted to standard features versus knowing where customizations are needed to accomplish a goal (or provide significant value to justify the development cost and maintenance (technical debt). Your ERP system should solve the problems within your operations, not create new ones.
Understanding your industry is another clear indicator of whether or not an implementation company is the right fit for your needs. Explore the previous customers they’ve worked with and what outcomes they’ve achieved with those projects. Don’t hesitate to ask specific questions to help narrow down whether or not they can achieve successful system implementation including the features and functionality your processes need in order to remain efficient.
Before you finalize your decision, let’s walk through what is entailed in a typical ERP implementation project and what steps you need to take for a positive outcome.
The Steps to a Successful ERP Implementation Strategy
No matter if you decide to partner with an ERP implementation company or take matters into your own hands with your internal technical team, you’ll need to outline the steps involved in this project from start to finish. This ensures that you establish clear expectations, milestones, and objectives along the way.
Project Scope and Objectives
Clearly outline what the ERP implementation will cover, including specific reports, processes, and departments involved. Establish clear, measurable objectives for the ERP implementation, such as improving operational efficiency, reducing costs, or enhancing reporting capabilities. What desired business outcomes does this technology investment support or solve?
Stakeholder Identification and Engagement
List all stakeholders involved in the project, including executives, department heads, and end-users who will perform testing and provide feedback. Each stakeholder should understand their role and responsibilities. Then, develop a communication strategy to keep stakeholders informed and engaged throughout the project. This includes regular updates, meetings, and feedback sessions.
Project Team and Roles
Form a project team with representatives from various departments, including IT, finance, operations, and HR. An ERP project manager should be designated to oversee the implementation. Clearly outline the roles and responsibilities of each team member to ensure accountability and efficient workflow.
Timeline and Milestones
Create a detailed timeline that outlines key phases of the implementation, such as planning, configuration, testing, and go-live. Include start and end dates for each phase. Identify critical milestones and deadlines throughout the project as it helps track progress and timely completion of key tasks.
Budget and Resource Allocation
Develop a comprehensive budget that includes costs for software, hardware, consulting services (if applicable), user training, and any other related expenses. Confirm that sufficient resources (both human and financial) are allocated to the project. This includes assigning team members to specific tasks and securing necessary tools and technologies. A majority of projects experience budget shortfalls, so planning for contingencies can save your team the time and frustration of sacrificing planned components due to budget misalignment.
Risk Management Plan
List potential risks and challenges that could impact the project, such as technical issues, tech integration with other systems, resistance to change from end-users, or budget overruns. Create strategies to mitigate the potential “what if” scenarios. This should include contingency planning for unexpected challenges, categorizing critical versus optional components, deploying proper change management approval processes, regular risk assessments, and proper documentation and communication of project progress along the way.
Change Management Strategy
Develop an approach to managing organizational change, including addressing employee concerns, managing approval deadlines, and promoting end-user adoption (and efficiency) for the new system. Outline a plan for training users on the ERP software that was selected, including training sessions, workshops, and ongoing support resources for things like bug fixes or critical system issues.
Data Migration and Integration
Building a strategy for migrating data from existing systems and integrating software that will be used alongside the new ERP system is a critical step to having a smooth transition and minimizing project risk. This will include data mapping, cleansing, and validation. Without properly mapping data flow, spot testing, and managing database accuracy, your team could experience a cascade of workflow disruptions and expensive regression on your project timeline.
Testing and Quality Assurance
Create a plan for testing the ERP system, including unit testing, system testing, and user acceptance testing (UAT). This thorough approach will help resolve identifiable issues before the system goes live and confirm that it meets user requirements, as well as provide valuable training and insights as the system becomes operational in a production environment.
Go-Live and Post-Implementation Support
Having a go-live strategy is crucial and typically includes a detailed schedule for the transition, cutover activities, and any necessary downtime. Outline plans for post-implementation support, including troubleshooting, additional training, and ongoing maintenance.
Evaluation and Continuous Improvement
After go-live, assess the success of the ERP implementation against the initial objectives and goals. Gather feedback from users and stakeholders. Expect to conduct ongoing evaluation and continuous improvement of the ERP system to address any issues and adapt to changing business needs. This will help your organization get the most value out of your ERP implementation and support long-term operational efficiency.
Now that we’ve broken down the implementation process, defined key areas for consideration, and outlined some best practices, we would like to answer another question: What makes OSI different?
About OSI's Proven ERP Implementation Strategy
At Open Source Integrators, our ERP implementation services are designed to guide you through every stage of the process, from initial analysis to post-launch support. Whether you’re leaning toward open-source or proprietary software, our goal is to ensure your system fits your needs and allows your team to work smarter, not harder.
Step 1: Comprehensive Business Analysis
We start by conducting a thorough analysis of your existing business systems and processes. Our team works closely with you in a requirements-gathering workshop to identify your goals, establish criteria for success, and develop a prototype system tailored to your unique needs.
One way we approach this is through a Business Optimization Study. This involves detailed data modeling to uncover actionable insights, helping to reveal the future potential and opportunities for enhancing your business operations.
Step 2: Process Optimization
Next, we focus on identifying optimization opportunities for your most critical business areas — whether that’s inventory management, staff scheduling, or materials management. This step is crucial, as it’s instrumental in crafting automations that streamline your current processes.
Step 3: Customized IT System Development
We then design and implement a customized solution. Our approach is agile, allowing for iterative development and fast turnaround. This helps reduce downtime and disruptions for your operations and gets everything running as quickly as possible.
Step 4: Transition Assistance
The deployment of your new ERP system is just the beginning. OSI provides ongoing support to ensure your team is fully equipped to use the new system effectively. Our goal is to help you achieve peak efficiency by offering the resources you need to succeed post-implementation. Smooth user adoption is key for an ERP system to be successful.
