ERP Strategy: When is it Time to Upgrade?

An important part of your company's ERP strategy should be to regularly measure the effectiveness of an incumbent ERP system against alternative solutions. If there is...Read more

ERP for Aerospace Companies

The aerospace industry stands out from many others in that it has an extremely low margin of error.Read more

The two key benefits of ERP for food companies

Food companies face a set of unique challenges - here's how ERP can help Read more

ERP History - Milestones of the Last 10 Years

Taking a look at three important ERP milestones in the last 10 years.Read more

Cloud ERP - Major Players and Products

With the new era of cloud computing or Software as a Service (SaaS) the power of ERP comes with a price tag businesses of every size can afford.Read more

ERP Project Team: Anatomy of an ERP Team Part 1 – The Talent

Most organizational leaders contemplating an ERP implementation do not consciously consider that the legacy systems they are considering replacing were...Read more

ERP for Manufacturers: Does ERP Support your Strategic Advantage?

Do you know why you make a profit? Not, "because revenue exceeds costs", but why your customers are willing to...Read more

ERP Implementation: is Testing a Waste of Time?

The moral of this story is that there is no such thing as “optimizing” an ERP implementation with testing. Read more

ERP Project Team: Anatomy of an ERP Team Part 2 – Diversity

The role of diversity on an ERP project team is sort of like the role of enriched uranium in a nuclear reactor - it's necessary for the...Read more

International ERP: Implementing ERP in a Multi-National Organization

Try to decide as early as possible who will be on site for an overseas ERP implementation. Read more

ERP Project Team: Anatomy of an ERP Team Part 3 – Business Processes & Functional Modules

There are likely as many structures for an ERP project team as there have been ERP implementations. In order to...Read more

Working With ERP Consultants - The Basics

In the end, you will make good and bad choices with ERP consultants, just as you do with internal hires. Read more

Lot Tracking in ERP

As with everything else in an ERP implementation, the goals and objectives of lot tracking should be explicitly understood and agreed on when...Read more

International ERP: Do You Know Your Instances?

The first big decision is whether you want to try to run your company from one common system, or to let different regions run independent ERP solutions. Running only one...Read more

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ERP Project Team: Anatomy of an ERP Team Part 4 – Non-Business Processes

After the business process implementation teams are established, think about structure for the “non business” aspects of an ERP implementation.Read more

ERP Inventory Management: WIP Challenge for Process Manufacturers

Process manufacturers probably have good work-in-process inventory controls in place long before they ever know how to spell “ERP”. Read more

Distribution ERP Software: How to Choose Wisely

There is good news and bad news relating to choosing distribution ERP software. The good news is that there are proven, robust solutions on the market, often specific to your industry.Read more

ERP in Process Manufacturing: The Challenge of Yield

The subject of yield in process manufacturing can become a very passionate and complex one, depending on your organization. Read more

Selling ERP Internally

There is a paradox about selling the benefits of an ERP implementation to senior fund holders within an organization. Read more

BOM and ERP - a Happy Union?

Most ERP packages will handle whatever you decide you want to do with BOMs – the trick is deciding what you want to do.Read more

Cloud ERP: Is It Right For You?

The small/large division is by no means a black-and-white separation; you can find large companies who have moved to cloud ERP, and you can find small ones who choose to keep things internal. Read more

How to Create an ERP Vendor Shortlist

The first step is to formally write down an intuitive shortlist of ERP vendors based solely on personal knowledge – your own or that of people you trust.Read more

ERP in Process Manufacturing: Production Scheduling

Production scheduling is one of the three or four business design decisions you will make that will have a critical and disproportionate affect on your long-term service level.Read more

Changing ERP Systems: Part One - An Overview

If you decide to replace your ERP system, the effort and resource requirements will be different than the first time. Read more

ERP Implementation: Business Information

If you are like many business executives, your goal is not really an integrated software system, it is better business information and analysis capability. ERP is just a necessary evil to get there. Read more

Is Your IT Infrastructure Ready for ERP?

An ERP implementation is just as disconcerting to an IT department as it is to the rest of the organization. Read more

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Top 10 causes of ERP implementation failure (and how to avoid it)

Few people in an organization ever understand how difficult an ERP implementation is, and how a few key elements can be the difference between ERP success and ERP failure. Read more

Customizing your ERP implementation

Whether or not to customize your ERP implementation– and how - is a topic that is both controversial and packed with implications. Read more

ERP Contract: It Really is Rocket Science

If I were creating a list of complex items, I would rank the protein sequence of the human genome, the distribution of matter in the universe, and any ERP contract as the top three, not necessarily in that order. Read more

Hybrid ERP System: When Does it Make Sense?

The benefit of a hybrid ERP system is unlikely to be a high-payback financial return, rather it is a low risk - but thorough - education in cloud computing. Read more

ERP Quality Management: Avoiding Delusions

You will learn on the first week of go-live that during the creation of your ERP blueprint, you were delusional – ranging from minor to major - about how the quality system should work. Read more

ERP in Process Manufacturing: Available to Promise

Be prepared for some very interesting and passionate arguments around available to promise and ERP. Read more

Multinational ERP – First, Organize the Organization

The very first organizational challenge you face is to engage and integrate the informal leaders from overseas locations into the ERP solution design, without abdicating decision-making control. Read more

ERP Shop Floor Data

Shop floor data in ERP is susceptible to overpromising during the sales cycle and under delivering after implementation.Read more

Changing ERP Systems: Part Two – Opportunities

Evaluate not only the business fit of the transactional software package you are considering, but also how well that software will interact with other third-party software. Read more

ERP Failure Avoidance Guide: Part 1 - The Decision Making Process

There are two areas in which decision-making can put an implementation at risk of ERP failure. The first is in the case of poor or wrong decisions, which are hopefully recognized as such during testing. Read more

ERP Training

An ambitious and energetic detailed effort must be made to identify everyone whose normal job will change as a result of an ERP implementation.Read more

Lean ERP

Arguably, lean ERP is not so much a technological question but a philosophical one. Read more

OEE Calculation Explained in 500 Words

As with most lean-related concepts, even though the math behind OEE is basic and straight-forward, thinking is required. Read more

ERP Go Live – Defining Your Success

Does your organization have a mutually-agreed upon definition of the math that defines “success” or “failure”, and all points in between, for your ERP implementation? Read more

ERP Failure Avoidance Guide: Part 2 – Managing Change

The level of competence your end users have at go-live will be in direct proportion to the investment you make in change management. Read more

ERP and Business Process: A Chance to Make Repairs

One of the largest forfeitures of ERP value is the missed opportunity to repair illogical business processes. Read more

ERP in Manufacturing Series – Product Cost

Managing an effective transition from legacy product costs to ERP product costs will be the ultimate test of your change management effectiveness.Read more

ERP Security and Segregation of Duties

Segregation of duties and its subsequent effect on how you construct and assemble your ERP security strategy and roles is neither intuitive, nor easy. Read more

ERP BI: An Overview

Your business intelligence capability at an ERP go-live is likely to be both (a) less than you have today and (b) less than you promised you would deliver. Read more

ERP in Manufacturing Series: Hardware

For manufacturing hardware and ERP, the devil is in the details. It is difficult to know if you have identified every input/output interface and its function. Read more

Changing ERP Systems: Part Three – Reasons to Change

Bottom line, choosing to replace an ERP system should be so necessary and unarguable that there is no “hard decision” to be made.Read more

ERP and Supply Chain: Master Data Decisions

It is often surprising for a supply chain team to see how much master data they create and maintain when it is all collected and organized in one place. Read more

ERP Success: Data Cleansing

Unlike most of an ERP implementation, the lessons learned, and the processes created for data cleansing become part of an organization’s DNARead more

ERP in Manufacturing Series: Purchasing

ERP can have a profound effect on purchasing best practice within a manufacturing organisation. Read more

ERP BI: Requirements

Defining your requirements is "base camp" in your climb to ERP business intelligence success.Read more

ERP and Supply Chain: Business Boundaries

Identifying boundaries where supply chain intersects with other functional areas of the business should be part of your ERP design.Read more

ERP in Manufacturing Series: Transactional Reporting

What are the pitfalls of over-complicating the transactional element of your ERP blueprint?Read more

ERP BI: the User Interface

Don't underestimate how important a successful user interface is to the BI element of your ERP system.Read more

ERP and Supply Chain: Metrics

Implementing an ERP system may change the way you look at key perfomance measurements.Read more

ERP in Manufacturing Series: Variable Configuration

Many manufacturers offer customers thousands of possible product combinations. How can ERP help create order and efficiency?Read more

ERP BI - Testing

Can rigorous testing of BI lay the foundation for improved information management?Read more

Inventory Control and ERP: How to Design your Controls

Designing a strong inventory control blueprint cansave you a huge amount of time and risk post ERP go-live.Read more

ERP Go Live on the Shop Floor…Support, Lead and be Patient

There's a world of difference introducing ERP to the manufacturing shop floor.Read more

Is your ERP System a Planning and Scheduling ‘Fail’?

Planning and scheduling software plays a critical role in cost and inventory. Is your ERP solution up to it?Read more

ERP for warehouse management

Is warehouse management key to the success of your business? Understand more about how ERP can help improve your warehouse management efficiency.Read more

Replacing Your ERP System…More or Less?

Replacing an ERP system is an opportunity to refine, simplify or expand the functionaility of your existing systems.Read more

How to Choose an ERP Implementation Consultant

An experienced and capable ERP implementation consultant can contribute enormously to the success of your ERP project.Read more

Defining the Success of your ERP Project

What measurements can you use to define whether or not your ERP project will be a success? Read more

ERP and Change Management: a Question of Faith?

Persuading your users to embrace ERP requires considerable belief in change menagement.Read more

Supply Chain, ERP and the Multinational Company

Improving supply chain logistics should be on your mind if you are implementing ERP in a multinational organization. Read more

ERP Budget Tips to Success

Overspending on ERP is not inevitable. Honest. Read these simple steps to budget success.Read more

ERP Requirements Gathering: “Obsessives Wanted”

Requirements gathering for ERP can demand an almost superhuman attention to detail. Read more

ERP Testing and the Road to Failure

Not testing thoroughly or without rigour can set you firmly on the road to ERP failure.Read more

ERP Scope: Your First Step to ROI

Will drawing clear lines around your ERP project help ensure return on investment?Read more

How to Choose an ERP Vendor

Choosing a suitable ERP vendor is one of the most important strategic decisions you'll make as an ERP manager.Read more

Understanding ERP capacity planning for manufacturers

The first step to understanding capacity planning in ERP is recognizing its limitations.Read more

Can Changing ERP Systems be Driven by Financial Justification?

How easy is it to use financial benefits as justification for a new ERP system?Read more

ERP RFQ, RFI and RFP: Mastering those vendor selection acronyms

Understanding your RFP from your RFI will help you cut through the noise during an ERP selection process.Read more

Manufacturing ERP and the Work Order “Reveal”

ERP will reveal the strengths or weaknesses of work order management in your manufacturing process. Be prepared.Read more

ERP and Legacy Business Processes: Is Change Inevitable?

ERP won't accomodate legacy business processes unless they are comforming. Should you change processes or customize ERP?Read more

ERP ROI: Proving Financial Payback will Make you a Star

Calculating and demonstrating the financial payback from ERP will do wonders for your credibility at board level.Read more

The Art of ERP Vendor Communication

With so many different agendas within an ERP team it's vital to speak with one voice when communicating with your vendor.Read more

ERP Go Live and Supply Chain Synchronization

At ERP go-live for a manufacturer, success or failure can often be attributed to the attitude and approach of the supply chain team.Read more

ERP Help Desk: Your Post Go-Live Ally

Putting a well organized ERP help desk in place can give your implementation post go-live security and valuable feedback.Read more

How to Calculate Costs for ERP Return on Investment

Realism and good judgement are required to make sense of the cost part of ERP return on investment calculations. Read more

How to build an ERP RFQ

How to create an RFQ document for your selected ERP vendorRead more

Distribution ERP - What Kind of Distributor Are You?

Distribution means different things to different businesses. Learn how ERP interprets the differences.Read more

What are the Intangible Benefits of ERP?

Much is written about the tangible benefits of ERP but how can the intangibles add value to your implementation?Read more

ERP Warehouse Management: Are You Taking Cycle Counting Seriously?

Often undervalued as an inventory control measure, cycle counting can be fundemental to a successful ERP warehouse management solution.Read more

Strengths and Weaknesses of Mobile ERP

Most agree that ubiquitous mobile ERP is inevitable. But is the technology mature enough for full scale deployment in your organisation?Read more

Are Product Labels the Banana Skins of Distribution ERP?

For a manufacturer, product labels are one the first touch points with a customer. Does your ERP system take labels seriously?Read more

ERP Software Contracts

In an ideal world you'll sign your ERP software contract and never have to look at it again. In the real world however, your contract could save your corporate skin.Read more

How to Build a Great ERP Implementation Team

What personal and group attributes should you be looking for when building your ERP implementation team?Read more

The Big Bang Theory Of ERP Implementation: Are You a Believer?

What's the most effective way to implement ERP? In one hit (the big bang) or across several, smaller implementations?Read more

What Makes a Great ERP Project Manager?

It might be said ERP project managers are unique beings. But do they have any character traits they in common?Read more

ERP Modules: Beware the Bolt-On

Is it a roll of the dice to leave important functional areas to be bolted on after go-live?Read more

Will Your ERP Distribution System Cope With Off-Quality Inventory?

If you're in an industry where variable product quality is a fact of life, off-quality inventory handling will be a crucial part of your ERP distribution system. Read more

Why an ERP Vendor Bake-Off is Rarely a Piece of Cake

A bake-off between ERP vendors is great idea in theory, but will it deliver the clarity you need to make a final selection decision?Read more

User Training for ERP: a Rung on the Ladder to Success?

Training your organization's end-users prior to go-live can be a huge boost to the impetus of your ERP implementation.Read more

How to Recognize your Business is Ready for ERP

What are the tell-tale signs warning you that your organization needs an ERP solution?Read more

Making Organizational Decisions Post ERP Go Live

Post ERP go-live can be an organizational minefield. Making organizational decisions in advance will help avoid disaster.Read more