Unlock the value of your IT
Control and adequate use of information have become key strategic differentiators. Mastering information flows and exchange within organizations is an absolute driver of responding to clients’ expectations and of innovation and profitability. However, determining adequate IT for your business can be a challenge.
Response
Many studies concern themselves with the ways to get the best ROI, but they are most often contradictory, pleading to their sponsors’ interest. Nevertheless, they are consistent in one conclusion: one needs to take advantage of the off-the-shelf solutions that deliver “must-have” foundational processes and invest in technology that fosters differentiation and bolsters what makes your company better than the competition.
Get into shape
To avoid reinventing the wheel for everything you do, you need to benefit from evolutionary efficiency levers that are available and seize the advantage of good practices and economies of scale. Typical examples of technologies that don’t put you in the first place but would disqualify you if you don’t have them are finance and accounting, where timely cash collection or PO vs invoice matching are clear must-haves.
Differentiate yourself
Today’s information technology can do much more than just strengthen your key processes. Know-hows and strategic differentiators make each and every business unique and better. For these, the option of buying pre-developed packages simply does not exist.
The way forward is to establish the proper systems architecture, both technically and functionally. This will enable the effective development of the IT solutions supporting these processes. However, one needs to bear in mind that these IT solutions evolve rapidly as the business context is constantly changing, and companies need to respond to these evolutions swiftly and at a decent cost.
Moreover, in today’s world, where data guides decisions, one should also anticipate these evolutions. Hence, companies need to take advantage of pre-developed solutions and harness the advantages of efficiently tailored technology.
Methods
To unlock the full potential of your investments for an increasing number of midsize and for all companies focusing on digital transformation or advanced analytics programs, linking their new technologies to their ERP base is essential. New generation ERP solutions promise inexpensive enablement of seamless end-to-end integration across functions. They deliver simpler but even more promising capabilities, both functionally and technologically.
Members of the aXialyze founding team have SAP, Oracle, People Soft ERP implementation experience from their Accenture times. Our expertise and practical innovation, as well as new software, can help you bypass the old pitfalls of ERP.
Become agile through ERP
We believe that true functional agility is only delivered by the few ERP solutions that allow for an upwards compatibility of the custom developments and customizations (ability to benefit from an upgrade of the standard ERP without losing the benefits of custom developed modules/or customizations).
Solutions
On the technical front, cloud technologies and SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions have matured to a point where they truly can help resolve one of the key challenges of companies when it comes to investing in IT infrastructure, software components and application licenses. OnDemand (and SaaS) allow today for a very agile, almost risk-free evolution of the IT supporting business needs. The costs for these services are also so low that they often are overcompensated by the value of eliminating the risk and adapting almost instantly to growing demand or reducing needs. Given this tremendous progress, it is clear that basing a company’s IT backbone and strategy on the right ERP solution and approach is likely to be the best ROI one can achieve.
We worked with many clients and believe a few simple steps are crucial in evaluating the best strategy and can also give you a key advantage:
- Remember that “must-have” functions are a must and do not make you different.
- Evaluate honestly the economic value of strategically differentiating capabilities.
- Consider the choice between 80% of budget for the core functions and 80% of budget for differentiating functions.
- Go for a solution that will be capable of being the backbone of your IT strategy, both technically (integration of information) and functionally (integration of processes)
- Assess the need of considering OnDemand (or SaaS) to cope with the dynamics of IT support demand fluctuations
- Avoid “locked-in” (dependency) situations from the vendors, the integrators or the OnDemand/Saas providers.
- Prevent “tunnel effects” (long, everlasting implementation projects) by selecting a solution that allows for a truly agile approach (technically and functionally)
- Last but not least. Remember, information is strategic. We are in the information age.
Results
Integrating all key processes and the information they are bound to is an absolute driver of efficiency and effectiveness. Providing real-time, transparent where needed, reliable data and information is reducing effort, improving quality and eliminating waste and mistakes.
Concluding, smart ERP solutions today are attainable at a very reasonable cost and can provide tremendous benefits.