Signs your ERP is a bottleneck, and how to fix it
Trusted Path Solutions understands that many manufacturing companies often don’t have capital to spend on IT. That money is typically spent on machinery and materials/inventory. What happens when that lack of spend on IT makes your ERP a bottleneck?
Often, companies don’t recognize the slow decay until it reaches a tipping point. What is the tipping point and most importantly, how do you fix it? I am going to assume that if you are reading, something is telling you that you have gone ‘off the trail’. Perhaps “We need a new ERP” is heard in your breakroom. Maybe you are in leadership and experience delays in getting information from the systems. Maybe you get data, but you don’t trust the data, or maybe you are hearing managers always say they are understaffed and need more resources.
There is no magic formula built on a simple set of inputs that spits out a solution and the implementation plan. No, AI isn’t going to analyze your business from all angles and interview key users, review your hardware, vendor contracts, data, learn your business processes and provide you with a simple fix or answer. This is the work that requires HI, Human Intelligence. It is the type of work that is best accomplished by people with industry expertise, domain knowledge, and hands-on experience working to solve the unique challenges manufacturing businesses bring. Trusted Path Solutions is the Human Intelligence your company needs. We bring clarity, confidence, composure, and expertise.
Common Signs of ERP being your bottleneck:
Performance has decreased
Users complain “It’s slow again” too often.
Users are waiting on screens to refresh or reports to run before completing the next step in a critical business process.
Integrations between other systems don’t exist, take too long and users double enter data or wait hours for data to synchronize.
Lack of agility
You can’t pivot quickly or answer ‘what if’ questions without offline models in excel.
Lack of agility for new sales channels, new processes, supporting new regulations or partner requirements
Lack of integrations with new software from your ERP vendor
Process Changes add extra unnecessary work
Your ERP is just used to record transactions ‘to keep the books straight’
You must add people primarily for data entry.
You are copying and pasting data between applications all day long, known as “Application sprawl” (having too many disconnected systems.)
Now that you know you have a problem, the next question is how do I solve it? Below I will walk through options, in order of importance in terms of time/spend, to solve your issue.
How to fix your bottleneck:
Vendor Support, You’re on support, right?
If you are on Support, your first contact should be to your support team. Software vendors often write software that can run across a broad range of companies/business types. There is a lot of complexity with trying to anticipate how every company will use each module of their software. Sometimes, once they see your problems, they can recommend a change to improve or eliminate the issue. If you are paying for support, why not use it? I have seen numerous companies “Give up on support” because their issues aren’t resolved as they would like them to be resolved. This is the path of least resistance. How can Trusted Path Solutions help? Vendor management: We have done it across hundreds of different software, hardware, and service companies. We speak their language. We bring authority and we bring ‘an inside’ perspective many software support teams appreciate. Trusted Path Solutions can manage your vendor relationship and ensure you are getting what you pay for.
Hardware improvements and Application/Database Maintenance (If self-hosted)
Sometimes, throwing hardware at a problem is your best solution. Consider this option if you have your software on-premises or hosted on your own servers in the cloud. Have you analyzed the last time your server configuration was compared to your current usage? Did you buy a server with specifications for 10 users and a 500Mb database but now your database is 3 Gb and supporting 30 users? Maybe the hardware can’t keep up. Maybe adding memory or changing your type of disk or disk configuration is needed. Perhaps your software is in the cloud, and your users are sitting behind a slow network line to access it. Many software vendors assume you have an IT team performing database maintenance. Do you have an internal team that maybe doesn’t understand this requirement or how to do it? Does your software have a way to archive historical data? Maybe your 13 years of sales order history in your main daily sales table is causing a slowdown. When was the last time somebody reviewed your database statistics and indices or your database file layout? Trusted Path Solutions will take a holistic approach of reviewing your landscape, identify the trail and get you back on it. We will recommend and guide you through the steps to take to bring you ‘back up to speed’.
Upgrade ERP / Increase Feature usage
Let’s face it, most small companies fear and AVOID upgrades to key software as long as they can. SaaS solutions often force upgrades on you, which is great to keep you on the latest version and secure. With SaaS solutions, many companies are just happy the upgrade didn’t brick their system, and they continue to use the same modules, features, and processes they did the week before the upgrade. Companies that self-host often delay upgrades as long as they can and often longer than their support contact covers them. The longer you wait for upgrades, the more risk the upgrade brings. Trusted Path Solutions can perform an assessment of where you are, analyze where you need to get to, and plan the migration path. By working closely with your team and your ERP vendor, Trusted Path Solutions can tailor a plan that you feel comfortable with and get you climbing towards your goal.
Need somebody who can analyze your current usage of modules and features to determine if you aren’t extracting maximum value from your existing asset you’re already paying for? I have seen clients that had MRP engines doing ‘offline’ excel calculations to determine when to order raw materials. When resources are limited, extracting maximum value from your software already in use is critical. You paid for it, you have it, and you’re costing yourself time/money by continuing to do it the old way. Trusted Path Solutions can identify areas where you can improve your existing asset usage and possibly reduce your spend in other areas of IT by reducing application sprawl.
Customization
Perhaps your issue can be fixed with some customization, done by the vendor or a third party that will solve your issue. Does your ERP sit behind a firewall and doesn’t have any pre-built connectors? Perhaps you can build your own internal “integration Server” and have that communicate with a cloud solution to move data between systems. Adding a simple field or table to track a piece of data often can help solve your new business need. Maybe you just need a few purpose-built integrations, so you quit spending time copying and pasting between applications each day or reconciling data between systems on a regular basis. It might be you just need a new reporting tool or way to extract valuable data you are already collecting but can’t act on. Trusted Path Solutions can determine if this type of solution is cost effective, solves your issues, and sets you up for future growth and success along your company’s path forward.
New ERP
I would consider this the last option if you are tight on money and resources. This is often the most expensive and longest path to restoring your ERP to being part of your success. Often it comes with a change in your business processes. This is a 6–18-month process and typically requires upfront spend, even if using a SaaS Solution, to cover implementation fees from resellers/consultants or your first full year of service from the vendor. This is avoided by smaller businesses who think they can’t handle the size, scope, and cost of the replacement. This option often brings the most uncertainty.
Which software should we look at to replace this?
How do we identify our requirements in a way vendors understand?
How do we know if a software vendor’s solution will cover our requirements without additional spending?
If you are convinced you need new software, where should you start?
Before you start any software replacement project or new software assessment journey, a free consultation from somebody that has been there, for over 30 years, embedded in Manufacturing and Distribution plants, running IT, leading software projects, and solving the unique problems manufacturing and distribution businesses face SHOULD be where you start your journey.