Your ERP Transformation Partner

An organisation’s ERP system is essential to connect teams and functions, produce and analyse data and inform all levels of decision-making. Their capabilities are now evolving at a faster pace than ever, powered by AI to make automation easy and accessible for all.

To maximise technical capabilities, ERP vendors have gone all-in on a cloud-first strategy. As a result, organisations are moving their critical components to the cloud as well, unlocking superior efficiency, connectivity and scalability in the process.

Conversely, companies running on outdated legacy ERP systems that don’t enable modern functionalities will have to integrate and manage additional applications to meet those needs, increasing the complexity, cost and risk of their digital infrastructure while making it harder to upgrade.

Ultimately, modernising is critical to long-term survival, meaning a cloud transition is inevitable. The prospect of an ERP transformation can be daunting; after all, it’s a once-in-a-generation change for any business. But with the right skills, knowledge and guidance, the change can be a seamless, productive and positive experience.

While any change to your ERP system will impact your processes and technology, the most significant impact will be felt by your people. Employees will need to adjust the way they work, potentially creating resistance to your change and hobbling its adoption and benefits.

Despite this, leaders commonly view their ERP from a purely technical perspective. And although ERP solutions have advanced rapidly, the way they’re implemented has not. As a result, the odds of successful implementation are not encouraging. Much of the time, productivity doesn’t improve, costs only go up and glitches or gaps compound this.

An ERP transformation is really a business transformation and therefore requires time, investment and collaboration across the project lifecycle. Decisions should not be based primarily on technical drivers; they should be based on user needs. If your users’ perspectives aren’t incorporated, they will struggle with the new system and fail to adopt it because it won’t solve their challenges.

For the same reason, ERP transformations cannot be solely led by IT. All affected functions must be involved from the outset so that all stakeholder needs and goals are understood, and only then should you consider the technology that will help you meet these. This is the only way to achieve true sponsorship for the new system, helping to break down silos, strengthen collaboration and empower your whole workforce.

Your ERP system is critical to your business, and therefore transforming it carries high delivery and benefit risk. Typically, these projects rely on a systems integration partner for many of the skills and experience needed to deploy successfully. While such partners are SMEs in the technical aspects of ERP transformation, a focus on the whole organisation, and particularly its people, is key to maximising adoption and results.

The magnitude of change when upgrading your ERP should not be underestimated. It will be complex and wide-ranging, and having access to the right strategic, technological and industry expertise throughout will save effort, time and money. Onboarding a specialist business change partner to support your journey will contribute towards a successful rollout, adoption, benefit realisation and ROI, while allowing your integration partner to focus on the technology – where they can add the most value.