Will 2021 be the year you move to modern cloud ERP?

It’s an understatement to say that 2020 has been a challenging year for manufacturers, supply chain and distribution organizations. Disruption was the name of the game. Companies with on-premise legacy ERP systems struggled to make changes quickly and were hampered by the need for employees to work remotely.

Companies that were already equipped with a cloud ERP system had the flexibility, the agility, to better deal with all of the disruption from COVID-19. Being cloud-based allowed many of their employees to work from anywhere, with secure access to the systems they needed. Some manufacturers even switched their product line completely, if only temporarily. A cloud-based, more configurable ERP system enabled these changes, without requiring a programmer to spend hours (or days) rewriting systems and processes. 

But you don’t need a pandemic to realize that your ERP system is not keeping up with the fast-paced changes in technology, your business, and the needs of your customers.

If you’re still struggling with yesterday’s ERP; a system that doesn’t fit your business anymore, that is several versions behind because re-customizing the upgrade is too time-consuming and expensive; it can feel like you’re stuck in an ERP tar pit. 

The good news is…

The good news is that a flood of new technologies have made today’s ERP drastically better than yesterday’s ERP. In early 2020, analysts like Gartner were already predicting that the “changing nature of ERP” is giving companies new and exciting opportunities to transform how they do business and improve efficiency by leaps and bounds.

The changing nature of today’s ERP brings with it an increased flexibility and ease of customization. Cloud ERP, along with new platforms and low-code capabilities puts much more power in the hands of the user to make changes and tailor the application to your business. It not only takes a burden off of IT for coding, maintenance, and upgrades, it lets the people closest to the business create business-relevant applications to solve business problems. This is a fundamental shift that can be a game-changer for your company. 

So, will 2021 be the year that your organization moves to a modern Cloud ERP system? 

When you’re ready for that opportunity to transform your business by replacing your old ERP systems in 2021, how do you choose? 

Of course you need to answer typical ERP evaluation questions like; what are the business requirements, the functionality requirements? Are their integrations considerations? What is the TCO, the ROI? Is the vendor reliable? Etc. 

As you evaluate cloud ERP, you’ll want to evaluate the degree of flexibility, the ease of use, and customization/configuration of the application before you buy.  If you believe that business agility is critical for your company going forward, this should be a big consideration during your evaluation. 

A key part of evaluating cloud ERP these days is to also evaluate the underpinning cloud platform.  Unfortunately, the phrase “Let the Buyer Beware” is still applicable to evaluating cloud ERP.  There are a large number of vendors that will tell you they offer cloud ERP on a “platform”. But not all cloud ERP, or cloud ERP vendors are created equal, especially at the platform level. Some systems that claim to be “cloud” may be “cloud washing”; repackaging old products as modern cloud applications that are just hosted versions of an on-premise system. Other vendors may require you to subscribe to multiple clouds to get a complete solution, creating an unruly “Frankencloud” that is difficult to manage.

These are just some of topics that will be discussed in this upcoming webinar.

Evaluating ERP solutions can be overwhelming. But it doesn’t have to be. 

If you plan to evaluate a Cloud ERP system in 2021, join Tom Brennan, CMO of Rootstock and Tyler Smith, Senior Software Advisor at ERP Focus on Tuesday December 1, 2020 at 1:00pm ET / 10:00am PT for an informative webinar to learn: 

• How to choose a new Cloud ERP system with long-term potential
• The new requirements that today's Cloud ERP solutions must support
• Top mistakes to avoid when evaluating and selecting a new Cloud ERP solution

There will be a live Q&A where you can ask these experts about your specific ERP project challenges. Plus, all webinar attendees will receive a brand new 2021 Cloud ERP Evaluation Checklist!

Click here to register today!