AJC ERP Selection Overview

Hi, I'm Andrea Jones and I am starting a series today on how to select a new ERP system. So let's say that you realize your current ERP system, or maybe you're on QuickBooks and spreadsheets, is no longer serving the organization. So some common reasons for why you would change what you're doing today, which you know everybody's used to and at least they're using it, are maybe it's crashing all the time or it's breaking, especially if you have a bunch of Excel macros and every once in a while something breaks that and you have to go back in the back end and fix it. And that takes time. Possibly the system you have is requiring a lot of manual data entry because the disparate parts of it don't connect well, or you bolted on some additional outside software, but it doesn't really connect well. So you're copying and pasting customer data. Maybe there's errors happening. That's a bit of a problem we've seen where perhaps your system itself is really quite old and it maybe is outdated and not super modern. A lot of function three function two button pressing, no mouse or cursor movement, so there's not a nice graphical user interface. And newer employees are a little confused as to this really archaic looking system. And possibly even there's only a few people who can fix the back end of that system and you know, maybe they want to retire and you are looking at a potential risk mitigation if they're gone and nobody can fix things if it really breaks. One of the most common reasons to get a new system though I've seen, is the ability to get the data, especially the financial reporting that you need in order to make good decisions about the business and help you grow the business. So those are all good reasons why you might recognize now is the time to get a new, a new erp. But ERP is notorious for being really costly for it taking a long time going over, time over budget. So you know, how can you, who really, you don't do this very often, right? Like this is once in not even a decade, maybe two decades kind of a project, or even longer in some cases. So your team doesn't have the necessarily have the expertise to do it. And how do you make sure that you're not just getting sold and you follow, you know, a rigorous process and you really ask the right questions and you don't only consider, you know, the cost and the schedule and maybe the functionality, but the culture and the fit with the vendor or the software provider that you're going to be working with. This is kind of like a marriage. You know, you don't necessarily only want the lowest cost. You want a really good fit for your culture and your organization. And then finally, you're still running the day to day business. And so who's going to focus on this and make sure that it all continues to happen and provide it the attention that it needs, you know, with participation from your team. But really, who's going to drive that? So those are some things that you may be concerned about when you're getting started with your selection journey. And at ajc, we help with all of that. We do this all the time. It's not once in a decade or two for us, it's, it's all the time. So we can help with all of those things. We give it the focus it needs and we're a third party. So we can kind of chaperone it, if you will. We act on your behalf, we ask the tough questions and we make sure that every vendor you're considering and every software you're considering is asked the same question questions. So in this series, I'm going to go through kind of five high level steps. Of course, each has a little bit of sub steps and I'm looking forward to sharing with you our process for ERP system selection. Thanks so much.