4 Keys to Aligning Your Business Strategies and Your ERP Strategies
Technology is transforming the way we do business from consumer goods to industrial machinery. As the manufacturing environment becomes more and more complex, businesses are examining their system processes to determine if it’s time to upgrade their ERP. In today’s blog, we highlight 4 keys to aligning your business and your ERP strategies. These tactics help to ensure your ERP system will meet your business needs now and in the future.
To be impactful, your ERP system needs to be transformative. It needs to provide new ways of doing business and streamline existing production so you can achieve more than you have in the past. Approaching ERP as an ongoing effort to improve products, services and processes is crucial for success.
Key 1: Identify Opportunities
It’s impossible to align business and ERP strategies if you don’t understand your business and the opportunities that exist to improve, refine, and grow. Completing a detailed analysis of your business to identify and prioritize opportunities for improvement will give you a solid starting point. Focus on people, work flow and processes, not technology. Take time to learn the pain points that are keeping your business from moving forward. Highlighting opportunities for improvement will allow you to identify targets and track progress.
You will also need to look outside your company and examine regulatory requirements, customer/supplier demands, and industry trends that influence your business decisions. Look at your performance benchmarks compared to industry standards to see how you are doing. It is also helpful to compare your business to similar companies in your industry. Look at some successful companies and see if there is anything you can replicate to improve your own operations.
Key 2: Quantify Value
Once you have outlined opportunities for improvement, it’s important to determine how you will measure success. Processes need to be metric and benchmark driven so you are able to determine if you are going in the right direction. Identify your key performance indicators (KPIs) which are measurable values that demonstrate how effectively your company is achieving business objectives. Organizations use KPIs to evaluate their success at hitting targets. Also, look at how you will measure the ROI of your ERP system. There are many measureable factors that will tell you if your investment is paying off – improved inventory management, higher production efficiency, reduced downtime, and lower costs to name a few. Measuring these factors over time will help you evaluate the success of your ERP.
Key 3: Define Vision
Now it’s time to outline the process and system changes that you need to make in order to capitalize on opportunities and measure improvement. Think of this as your roadmap to achieving success. Detail each change you want to make and outline the steps to achieve them. List the resources you need to achieve each change and assess the associated risks. Mapping out an appropriate implementation plan will help propel you where you want to be.
Key 4: Execute and Adjust
It’s time to realize value from your investment. Now that you have outlined the opportunities to grow and transform your business, identified measurable benchmarks, and laid out a roadmap to success, you are ready to implement your plan.
As you work through the process life-cycle, be sure to periodically evaluate your progress, tackle any problems that arise, and celebrate your success. Tracking results shouldn’t be difficult because you’ve already identified benchmarks. For optimal success, set a schedule to periodically review your plans. As your business needs change, you can expand accordingly, making adjustments as need. A regular review will also help to keep your ERP and business strategies aligned and everyone going in the same direction.
Revolution Group offers a wide array of Manufacturing ERP Services. Our highly-skilled team of ERP consultants is ready to help you identify your business opportunities and outline a plan for success. If you would like to find out why Revolution Group has been a trusted ERP consulting partner for more than 20 years, call us at 614-212-1111. We would love to change the way you think about ERP.
