Make sure your ERP transformation is constructed on known business foundations

Imagine wanting to upgrade the kitchen and bathrooms of an old house. You have shiny new designs agreed upon, but you have no architectural plans or schematics for how the existing plumbing works. Your plumber starts work and finds no consistency of materials or supply line connections. Some plumbing has been "fixed" over the years to patch problems as they arose. As you uncover more of the old plumbing, it becomes evident that the house has other structural issues. The project is getting messy. You planned to spend money and time beautifying your home, but now some of that money and time must fix the underlying problems first.

Implementing a new ERP system can feel remarkably similar.

It is not a huge surprise that ERP implementations are difficult, tend to overrun, and be more costly than anticipated. Under the best of circumstances, they are typically massive undertakings that can keep your employees and consultants occupied over several years. The question is, does your ERP implementation have to be this difficult? And more importantly, what can you do to make it more easeful and ensure that the money and time you spend on transformation yields the maximum benefit?

One of the main reasons ERP implementations are so tricky is that they touch so many parts of the organization. Added to that, each organization is unique, so a new ERP system needs to be configured to meet your organization's specific needs. What if those needs are not well understood and documented?

Consider the processes that the new ERP system must support – what if they are not standardized, optimized, or even understood? You may have processes that have adapted over time as people have their own way of getting things done. The underlying documentation is at best out-of-date, and controls may be worked around or ignored.

Implementing a new, shiny ERP system over this is like putting in the new bathtub without knowing your underlying plumbing issues.

How BusinessOptix can help with the visibility of your business foundation

The BusinessOptix platform offers a comprehensive solution for ERP transformation projects, providing your organization with the tools and resources to ensure a successful implementation:

• Process discovery and mapping tools to help organizations identify and analyze end-to-end processes and assess current capabilities.
• Scenario modeling and process simulation tools to identify and compare opportunities to improve and optimize your current processes, and to visualize your target operating model.
• Transformation maps and dashboards enable you to define clear goals, set milestones, and establish realistic timelines.
• Collaboration features enable initiative owners, sponsors, and senior stakeholders to work together to plan, execute and communicate during the transformation.
• At an activity level, Kanban boards will help visualize and manage each stage of progress.
• The built-in flexibility of the transformation planning tools means it is quick and easy to add specific work items and manage these through to completion.

A transformation case study

A BusinessOptix customer was struggling to bring efficiency into its F&A processing. Operating across 4 ERP systems, their Accounts Payable had 73 separate ways to pay an invoice, which led to a backlog of 24,000 invoices. Using the BusinessOptix platform, they realized considerable time and cost savings fully automating 83% of their invoices and successfully identifying and recovering 99% of duplicate invoices. With this foundation in place, they could proceed with further ERP transformation, robotic processes, and advanced analytics.

Implement your new ERP technology with more ease. Contact BusinessOptix now to discuss your transformation with us and how to make the foundations visible to set you up for success.