Five signs your business has outgrown its legacy ERP
A well-integrated, high-functioning enterprise resource platform (ERP) will provide decision-makers with connected insights throughout the organisation by bringing together information from across the critical silos of human resources (HR), distribution, sales, marketing finance, and more. It has also become a competitive differentiator.
At a time when politics, uncertainty and economic complexity define the business landscape, most companies are looking for cloud-based solutions that will help them step out from behind the limitations of traditional ERP platforms. Towards solutions that can help the business pivot as the market demands. It’s a hard fact that every competitor is looking for an advantage, looking for a way to be faster to market, better with services and more adept at delivering customer delight.
The business needs an ERP that can scale with it, and grow alongside it. Here are five signs that you’ve outgrown your current ERP:
1. You’re not unlocking the value of your data
Every organisation is creating vast quantities of data on a daily basis and this can be used to track trends, inform decision making, improve customer service, and so much more. But only if it’s harnessed properly and not left to languish in a dark server somewhere. Many older ERP platforms are unable to fully dig into the data which means that the business is losing out on invaluable insights. Investing into a fresh ERP architecture isn’t cheap, but you will be richly rewarded in measurable returns on that investment with intelligence that can change your business and push its competitive edge.
2. Slow processes and limited visibility across silos
Employees don’t want to hit bottlenecks, get slowed down by old processes that have no current value, struggle with line of sight, or get slammed into silos. This is unfortunately the reality of an older ERP that isn’t integrated throughout the business and that doesn’t offer real-time insights. With an integrated platform in place, many legacy processes will be replaced with automated systems or smoother processes that will immediately transform productivity.
3. Sluggish decision-making
Yes, it does all come back to the data. Unfortunately, it’s data that allows for decision-makers to, well, make the right decisions and if it’s old and slow it will often be irrelevant and out of touch with the reality of the business. A modern ERP will land real-time data on the right desks at the right time and fundamentally change how the business approaches its decisions, and how the data is analysed to feed into fresh opportunities and process improvements.
4. Inflexible infrastructure
You need to scale at speed and flex on demand. There’s no getting around this reality. This is not just because competitors are taking advantage of technologies that allow them to achieve these goals, but because the markets are changing at such speed that without flex, you risk failure. A high-functioning EPR platform can help the business do more than just dance to the market’s tune – it can create its own.
5. Fragmented user experiences
Your users can’t find information, struggle to connect with customers, are delayed by slow processes and functions. This impacts on the customer experiences and significantly hits customer delight. Older tools are unfortunately unable to keep up with the rigours of modern business because the speed of tech evolution and functionality is so fast that many companies have become tangled in the applications they’ve developed to keep up. A fresh and shiny new ERP platform gives the business a far better, modern, foundation from which to revise connections, communications and business collaboration.
SAP S/4HANA is a trusted SAP platform and, as a trusted SAP Silver Partner that has won several awards, ETZ Global can help you translate your existing ERP infrastructure into one that’s fast, flexible, agile and relevant. We will help you get the value you wanted from your SAP investment.