It’s Time for the C-Staff to Unite Around Platform Standardization
If your organization has more than one ERP platform, such as one for Human Capital Management (HCM) and others for Financials (FI) and Supply Chain Management (SCM), it is likely a good time for the C-staff to get together and agree on one standard platform. Why? Take it from my experience: because a lack of doing so is costing the organization significant (and unnecessary) money to have two different support staffs and knowledge bases, plus the unnecessary costs to support interfaces between the multiple platforms so that they can talk to each other and share data. I’ve seen this issue dozens of times.
We hear about implementing “best practices” every day, all of the time. Likely the undisputable #1 best practice is to standardize on one platform. When the now-famous ERP technology first came on the market, each had their own strength in HCM, FI/SCM, or perhaps Manufacturing. Today, 20+ or so years later, they are mature products with good balance between the different software suites. The advantage and best practice of a standard platform strategy now far outweighs one’s using what was once the best-of-breed for each of the primary software suites.
So why are so many firms using multiple ERP systems today (and there are many)? Why is your organization using multiple systems? Might it be too much of a political battle to fight? If the company is concerned over the short-term costs to transition to a new system, then is the company also not more concerned over the significantly greater ongoing long term costs not to? It seems that many companies may either be in denial or that it is just easier to keep doing what they have been doing and not spend the political capital. Either way, it’s an issue that’s very real, and very prevalent.
Might it be a good time for the C-staff to unite around this issue?
