Archive for the ‘Software Evaluation’ Category

• Current software can’t match existing business processes – this may have existed from day 1 of installing your new software if you did a poor job of selecting software the first time, and the gap may have continued to widen over time.
• The business is changing and software can’t enable this change – as a business changes and grows, new processes can get introduced which help enable that business to be competitive in new markets with new customers.
• Lots of off-line processing (i.e., spreadsheets, manual processes, re-keying of data multiple times) – if the existing system doesn’t allow someone to get their job done, they will tend to find ways around the system to do so. Unfortunately, these inefficiencies can eat substantial amounts of time and can create data inaccuracies as the “same” information is entered multiple times in disparate systems.
• Have lots of “data” but can’t get “information” out of the system – analyzing information is critical to continuous improvement and attracting and maintaining good customer relationships. One can get handcuffed by having a data rich, information poor environment where they put data into their system but can’t get any information back out.
• Can’t easily implement new functionality or technology (i.e., RF/barcode, EDI, warehouse management system, CRM software, etc.) – there may be improved efficiencies to be gained and new customers attracted by making it easy for them to do business with you. Many times, technology is a key enabler to making it easy for your customers to interact and transact business with you.  If you can’t readily adopt these new technologies, you may lose customers who are better prepared to transact business with your customers.
• Existing software and/or underlying infrastructure is no longer supported by the associated vendors – as there have been massive amounts of acquisitions in the ERP market over the years, there are lots of ERP solutions which were thought of as “flagship” solutions that are no longer receiving an adequate level of investment to keep existing customers satisfied and to attract new ones. Your vendor may have “dropped support” for your software without formally announcing it to you.
• Can’t keep up with business demands by writing custom software vs. using packaged software solutions – for those who continue to write their own custom software, there are so many “commodity” processes that could be enabled via packaged software while still gaining the benefits of customized software in those “competitive advantage” processes – those processes that enable a company to gain competitive advantage in its marketplace. Unfortunately, most companies who have a “build” vs. “buy” approach to software do so across all business processes, and either pay a lot for “commodity” processes or can’t get resources focused on the “competitive advantage” processes due to keeping day-to-day operations running.  Don’t allow yourself to be held hostage by your internal application development team.

While the above is not intended to be an all inclusive list, these symptoms are very common in businesses.  As symptoms continue to pop up and their results become increasingly more disconcerting, manufacturing and distribution businesses will opt to evaluate and implement new ERP software solutions to remove these barriers to future business growth.

Beyond business results, companies also want the following from new ERP software:

• Efficient software evaluation leading to a successful result – companies want to make excellent decisions in the most efficient manner possible (unfortunately, when businesses aren’t aware of how this process should work, it rapidly becomes very inefficient).
• Efficient, successful implementation – companies want their new software to deliver the functionality they expect and for the implementation process to be delivered on-time, on-budget, and on-scope.
• Good long-term customer/vendor relationship (“win-win”) – companies want to be able to work with their ERP vendor, have continuity of the software vendor’s business, continuity of relationships with personnel at that business, and be able to understand how best to utilize their software and to resolve issues as they arise.
• Ability to grow with the solution – companies want a solution that will last them for an extended period of time, in many cases this is 10-15 years or more.  To be able to do this, the software must be flexible, robust, and have sufficient functionality to be able to be leveraged as the customer’s business continues to grow and evolve.

So, what do ERP vendors want?  Probably not surprising, they likewise want business results.

Additionally, ERP vendors also want the same things the customers want:

• Efficient software evaluation leading to a successful result – while ERP vendors would love to bat 1.000 by winning every deal they touch, they know that’s not practical.  They want to compete in deals in an efficient manner where they can compete on a level playing field, can win, and it is worthwhile to win.
• Efficient, successful implementation – vendors want their customers to receive the business benefits they desire from their software and want the implementations to be delivered on-time, on-budget, and on-scope.
• Good long-term customer/vendor relationship (“win-win”) – vendors want to work with customers who are easy and fair to work with, have continuity of the customer’s business, continuity of relationships of personnel, and are able to understand and internalize how best to use the software they’ve acquired.
• Ability to grow with the solution – vendors want customers to continue to leverage more and more of their software’s capabilities over time.

While said somewhat under the covers above, I’ll also explicitly state the following which ERP vendors also want:

• Efficient sales cycles (winnable deals, no “tire kickers”) – again, vendors want to focus their time on evaluations where decisions will be made and customers will move forward.  There is no time to be spent with perennial prospects that go through the same evaluation once a year and never decide to move forward to do anything. Additionally, vendors don’t want to be in a position where a potential new customer has orally committed they are going to move forward with the vendor only to take an inordinate amount of time to make the final commitment and sign contracts.
• Happy, referencable customers – there is nothing better from a vendor’s perspective than having happy customers who are willing and able to act as references on their behalf.

You’ll note that to this point in time I’ve mentioned these things apply to most customers and most ERP software vendors.  That is because there are still people, including those who set the cultural tones of their businesses, who believe the only way for them to “win” is if the other party with whom they’re working is to “lose.”  This “win-lose” mentality unfortunately still exists frequently in the customer/ERP vendor intersection.

Speaking from an ERP software vendor’s perspective, when it is determined that a potential customer is focused on establishing a “win-lose” relationship, we walk away from those deals as rapidly as possible.  Likewise, if potential customers determine that an ERP vendor is attempting to establish a “win-lose” relationship, those customers need to eliminate that vendor from further consideration as rapidly as possible.

The most prevalent situation in which ERP vendors attempt to establish a “win-lose” relationship is where the functional and cultural fit between the vendor and potential customer is low, and the vendor is so hungry for new sales (i.e., business results are far more important than any of the other desires) that they continue to press on to close the sale.  In doing so, the ERP vendor knows the implementation is going to hit the rocks, but their objective is to get the customer so deeply invested in the project (both time and money) that they cannot turn back.

Those who are unfamiliar with how to structure and perform an ERP Software Evaluation are most highly susceptible to be bitten by a vendor attempting a “win-lose” transaction.  In cases in which the company is unfamiliar and inexperienced in orchestrating a software evaluation on its own, those companies are highly encouraged to find and engage experienced, independent assistance to help with the evaluation.

Here again I want to stress that the most critical word in this statement is “independent.”  There are tons of individuals and businesses that tout themselves as independent.  However, they may be software resellers in a consultant’s clothing or have biases to specific products because they have established implementation practices built around those solutions.

If, for whatever reason, hiring an independent consultant is not feasible, companies are encouraged to adopt a structured, analytical process they can follow on their own.  To help companies establish and manage a structured, analytical evaluation process, TGI offers free software selection tools via our Web site for the do-it-yourself software evaluation.

In closing, through this point in time, I’ve had the opportunity to work with well over 2,000 end companies and roughly 200+ independent consultants in ERP software evaluations since Q4/2003. During that time, I’ve seen some firms and individuals who were very good at performing their roles in their respective evaluation processes, while others were at best ill-prepared. In the end, when participants in the process are unable to successfully play their positions – whether intentional or unintentional – nobody wins.

In an effort to draw upon these experiences to help the various stakeholders of the process learn from these activities, I wanted to summarize those situations into a single statement. In doing so, I was drawn to a famous quote by noted Swiss Psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology, Carl G. Jung, who said, “The world will ask you who you are, and if you do not know, the world will tell you.”

Here is what I call “Litzenberg’s ERP Software Corollary to Carl Jung’s Statement”…

“The world will ask you what you want in new ERP software, and if you do not know, you’ll likely be sold something you don’t really want, can’t really use, will spend a lot of time, effort, and money trying to get it to do something it was never intended to do, and ultimately, won’t achieve the desired results.”

To help manufacturers and distributors in this process, TGI’s Software Selection Tool Kit offers, among other resources, software demonstration script templates and grading sheets to be used for onsite ERP software demonstrations. The selection team can use these templates to develop a software demonstration script that reflects the key software requirements of the organization. The selection team would then distribute these scripts to a select group (usually 2 or 3) of vendors with sample data (products, parts, ingredients, vendors, customers, etc.). The software vendors, in turn, would use the supplied sample data to follow the demonstration script prepared by the selection team. Using the software demonstration grading sheets contained in TGI’s Software Selection Tool Kit, the selection team can score how each vendor performed for each task in the demonstration script. Following the final onsite software demonstration, the selection team can compile scores for each ERP software vendor and see, quantitatively, how each software solution compared to the other demonstrated software solutions. The end result of this process will be a software vendor and solution that outscored and outperformed the other software solutions that were demonstrated.

By requiring software vendors to follow a demonstration script that reflects the organization’s key software requirements, the selection team will be able to see first hand how each vendor can meet those requirements. This process also prevents the software vendor from shying away from a specific software requirement that it knows it won’t be able to meet and ensures that each software vendor was evaluated in a consistent manner.

To download TGI’s onsite software demonstration templates and grading sheets, please click here.