ERP vendors in 2023 showcase a variety of products that drive innovation, deliver cutting-edge technologies, and promise to reshape the future of enterprise management. When ERP vendors make the same claims and fundamentally provide the same products, it can be difficult to cut through the noise and evaluate the right product for your organization.
To guide you, we’ve listed 8 key considerations to evaluate when selecting your ERP vendor in 2023. Be sure to analyze both quantitative and qualitative reasons a vendor is right for you and consider the entirety of your investment from ERP vendor, to ERP product, to implementation and beyond.
What companies can benefit from ERP implementation?
The first implementations of ERP software date back to the 1960s, and were largely adopted by the manufacturing industry to manage inventory and quality control. While manufacturing is still a leading user of ERPs, its popularity has since spread across an array of industries including retail, construction, healthcare, financial services, and distribution and logistics.
Any company that requires a centralized management system can benefit from implementing an ERP, and these companies generally share the same characteristics and challenges:
- Complex operations: Companies with multiple departments, business units or locations.
- Compliance and regulation requirements: Industries such as healthcare, government, and finance facing particularly stringent compliance regulations that require them to track, audit and report their adherence to industry standards.
- Inventory and supply chain: Companies managing large volumes of inventory, supply chain operations, and manufacturing that need to optimize inventory levels, streamline procurement, manage production, and monitor demand forecasting.
- Data centralization: Companies with data spread across multiple siloed departments and systems that would benefit from data visibility.
- Real-time analytics and reporting: Companies that require accurate and real-time data for their operations, comprehensive performance and metric reports, as well as dashboards for data-driven decision-making.
- Scaling companies: Companies managing disparate systems, manual processes and a growing workforce.
If your organization follows these characteristics and challenges, an ERP system is right for you. Alternatively, if you have an existing on-premise or SaaS ERP solution, it’s also important to analyze the current condition of your product and ERP vendor services.
8 Factors to consider when choosing an ERP vendor
Choosing the right ERP vendor requires more than a great sales process, features, and enterprise benefits. ERP vendors fundamentally provide the same, if not identical functions, so it’s vital you consider a variety of factors for effective implementation and long term success.
Unfortunately, it’s common for companies to select leading marketing solutions, and overlook the quantifiable factors it should possess. At Lemon Learning, we hold the belief that the best solution is one that best satisfies the needs of your company. Here are various considerations we think are key to the decision-making process:
1. Industry experience: Search for ERPs vendors with experience working with clients in your industry. Gather and request customer stories that showcase their knowledge of your unique industry challenges and compliance requirements.
2. Integration: Determine an ERP vendor’s ability to integrate with major solutions including CRM, HRIS, Procurement, Finance, as well as other third party applications. Seamless integration is non-negotiable in an ERP in order to truly benefit from enhanced data flow and overall efficiency.
3. Scalability: As your business demands grow and operational processes become more complex, you require an ERP system capable of evolving and scaling alongside you. In addition, learn more about the potential updates and features your ERP vendors will be releasing.
4. Customization options: Out of the box solutions are less compatible with the unique set of processes, workflows, and challenges companies face today. ERP customization suggests an ERP vendor has the capabilities to tailor its solutions to your specific needs, and handle a complex implementation process.
5. User experience (UX): Is the ERP vendor known for developing products with complex UX? Does the ERP vendor provide accessible learning materials to users? Is the learning curve steep for this technology? Implementing a good product is nothing without good UX for your end users.
6. Training and support: Post implementation consider your recurring support needs such as training, technical support, and system updates. Research into ERP vendor customer reviews can reveal the quality of support, responsiveness, and support team you can expect to work with.
7. Data protection & security: Companies select on-premise ERP systems to keep control of their data and security. Whether you decide to implement an on-premise or SaaS ERP system, ensure the ERP vendor follows industry-standard practices, including data encryption, regular backups, and disaster recovery measures, to protect your sensitive information.
8. Vendor reputation: Tying in with industry experience is vendor reputation. Use real life client reviews and use cases as key indicators to establish the stability and quality of an ERP vendor’s products and services.
Conclusion
Now you’re equipped with 8 key considerations to help evaluate ERP vendors and their products. Remember to select a partner that aligns with your vision and can undertake ERP implementation, maintenance, and support to ensure your end user’s long term success. To help you select the right vendor, Lemon Learning also created a downloadable table of 16 ERP systems, available below.
