EVS Technical Sales
For most business owners, purchasing a new ERP can
be one of the most stressful decisions they ever have to make. Why? Business owners are in business to
manufacture product, not implement software. With the speed at which technology changes, the never ending
stories of ERP implementations gone bad and the multitude of ERP choices in
the market, the task of identifying a new ERP that will improve the
organization can seem nearly insurmountable.
EVS understands the fear surrounding the
ERP selection process and works to help organizations find the solution that
fits their needs. Having sold, developed and implemented solutions for hundreds of
process manufacturing companies, we realize every process
manufacturing organization has unique needs and priorities for a new solution; therefore the
solution must meet those needs to truly provide a return on investment (ROI).
“What are your goals for new software?” This is probably the most difficult
question you will need to answer when evaluating ERP solutions. Evaluating
software without clearly defined goals is how many poor ERP purchasing
decisions are made. Fortunately, the EVS technical sales staff has experience
from working with hundreds of organizations in process manufacturing and can
help you clearly identify critical areas your organization could benefit from a full featured
ERP. Have you considered integrating quality control, regulatory requirements,
laboratory, bar coding, etc. into your ERP? Many organizations don’t because
they don’t realize ERP solutions are capable of handling all of these
functions.
Do you want to: Better understand product cost or yields? Improve communication
between departments? Manage high volumes of transactions more accurately? Increase inventory turns?
Better negotiate material costs? Better manage capacity of your resources? Once you have identified your
goals, EVS will help you understand how software can assist in achieving
these goals and to maximize your ROI; a concept EVS calls
“objective-based implementation.”
Let’s assume one of your goals is to improve communication between your receiving
dock and the rest of the organization (purchasing, production, scheduling and accounting) because it takes
nearly 8 hours for a receipt to be entered into the current system and be seen by the above-mentioned
departments. By utilizing objective-based implementation methods, we could implement the radio-frequency
bar code system for the purchase order receipt module in Phase I of the project. While this may seem
unorthodox for some, to decrease the time of entry from 8 hours to 15 seconds could justify the cost of the
entire system; why delay it until a later phase?
Purchasing the solution that can meet your goals is a critical step, but certainly
not the last step. In order to fully achieve your goals, the software has to be implemented, employees need
to be trained and the solution needs to be supported. Every organization differs in their preparedness for
a new ERP; some have highly technical staff and excellent processes and
procedures (typically the exception) while others do not. EVS can evaluate
where the organization is currently and recommend the level of Organizational Change Management (OCM) required
to successfully implement the software.
If management understands that change and new technology is scary for many of their
employees, and that employee’s acceptance of the new ERP is critical to its
success, OCM should be an absolute requirement from any ERP solution provider.
EVS is the only ERP provider that has the
required skills and resources to provide OCM services for process manufacturing implementations.
Conclusion
Selecting an ERP can be a daunting task for most
business owners; but in most instances, it is an absolute necessity. With over 10 years experience working
with process manufacturing organizations through the
ERP purchasing process, EVS can help you
identify requirements, design an objective-based implementation and provide assurance that your
ERP implementation will succeed by utilizing organizational change management
methodologies. Let us show you how the EVS technical sales staff can help your organization succeed in the
ERP selection process.