How to pick the right ERP software for your supply chain needs in a down economy

Sunrise Technologies was founded in 1994 by John Pence as a supply chain consulting company for the manufacturing and distribution industries. Sunrise spent the next 9 years focused on helping their customers improve their current supply chain systems and business processes, as well as leading their customers in selecting and implementing Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems that would take their business to the next level.

In 2003 Sunrise became a Microsoft partner selling and implementing the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution. Over the past 14 years Sunrise has refined its Top 10 criteria for a successful ERP solution. It is Sunrise’s belief that the following essential elements must be considered when selecting a new ERP solution:

1. Visibility to your overall Supply Chain – This is why you implement an ERP solution! You not only want visibility to what you have, where it is, and when will more be arriving, but you want that visibility to be in real time and handle the demands of an increasingly global supply chain.
2. User Friendly workspace environment – The user interface is the system. The interface should be intuitive and easy to learn. It should work well with the other tools used by the business to accomplish their workflows. Normally that is Microsoft Office and the email system.
3. Integrated Solution - An ERP system should contain all of the essential applications needed to manage the routine business transactions of a business. “Best of Breed” solutions are difficult to assemble and complex to manage in practice. Avoid solutions that require numerous interfaces to function.
4. Data Management - SKU and Bill of Material complexity is a challenge that many companies face across their supply chain. Data maintenance can be a real chore in properly using an ERP system. Make sure the system you select can make this chore as simple as possible. Look for solutions that can handle multiple dimensions and facilitate making global changes.
5. Global Business Process Support – Doing business on a global scale has become the norm for most companies. Even small companies quickly become global operators via product sourcing, outsourcing of services, or conducting business via electronic marketing. An ERP solution must easily handle the demands of multiple languages, currencies, and time zones. Make sure your potential solution can handle these requirements simultaneously. Today’s world is truly about global trade and your ERP solution should enable that.
6. Narrow & Deep Requirements – Every successful business does certain processes extraordinarily well. Normally these processes can be found in the areas that are most important to a businesses competitive success. At Sunrise we call these optimized processes “narrow and deep” requirements. An ERP solution must adapt to these processes. Do not be fooled by the “one size fits all” sales approach. You have been successful for a reason and you don’t want to “dumb down” the business processes you have perfected.
7. Business Intelligence - Reporting is critical to all businesses and must be easy to use and understand. Make sure your ERP solution can support a flexible, dynamic business intelligence platform. Again, this is actually how a significant number of the users will actually interact with the system. Make sure it can meet the needs of the enterprise.
8. Standard Technologies – When evaluating an ERP solution you want to stick to technologies that are mainstream and low cost. In today’s world that significantly shrinks the platform choices to just a few choices, evaluate your choice based on your current skill sets and the ability to stay a dominant technology for at least the next 5 years.
9. E-Business Support – This topic was worn out before the internet “bubble” burst, but it has become a pervasive way to do business in the last 5 years. Your ERP solution should support all forms of e-business commerce, from B2B and B2C storefronts, to vendor portals for capturing supply chain information. Don’t forget internal uses of this technology for facilitating communication and collaboration.
10. It’s an Implementation, Not Just a Purchase- Last, but perhaps most important of all, can the vendor or partner who is selling you the ERP solution properly implement the software in your business? Most ERP failures are due to a bad implementation, not bad software. Make sure the implementer understands your business processes, has a track record of successful implementations, and will be around to support you long after go-live.

The above criteria will serve as a high level guide to selecting a new ERP solution to improve your supply chain. At Sunrise, we view each supply chain as a unique entity to be optimized by software, not flattened by a canned solution. Preserving what makes you successful while optimizing the remaining processes should be the overall goal of any ERP implementation. Good luck!

Sunrise Technologies is an experienced supply chain consulting organization and a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner specializing in the Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP solution. Sunrise offers its customers a combined expertise of business knowledge, strong project management capability, and powerful business software solutions. Sunrise Technologies is headquartered in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with a regional offices in Dallas, Texas, Los Angeles, California, and Xian, China.

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