5 Best Practices When It Comes To ERP Configuration
Properly Configuring Your ERP
The process of optimizing business processes across an organization by configuring and customizing your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system. Your ERP system is a suite of software applications that integrates business processes from different departments like supply chain management, accounting, manufacturing, human resources, customer relationship management, and more into one unified whole.
Every business today faces significant challenges when it comes to managing its information technology (IT) resources. Especially as they continue to grow. Without a sound and up-to-date ERP system, these resources can be scattered across multiple systems. Including spreadsheets and outdated computer programs. Once you’ve chosen an enterprise resource planning solution for your company, implementing a solid configuration is critical for success. Your plan will depend on where you are in your IT environment: Whether you’re upgrading an older solution or making a switch to new software, there will be a number of different considerations to account for. Using a modern ERP system may be able to help you streamline your operations, saving time and money. But there are a number of things you can do to improve the way it works.
Five keys to getting the most out of any ERP configuration project
Below are 5 ways to optimize your ERP configuration ahead of time, making your operations easier, more streamlined, and more profitable overall.
1. Know What You Want Before You Start
Before beginning any work on your configuration, you want to carefully consider how your company operates and what kind of changes you might need to make so there are no surprises later. Taking time during the setup can save headaches down the road. When considering possible customizations, identify needed features ahead of time so that you don’t get lost down technical rabbit holes along the way.
2. Have a Plan B
If it turns out that your original plan isn’t feasible or doesn’t fit with your long-term goals, you’ll save a lot of time if you’ve already come up with an alternative. Don’t worry about implementing best practices from day one—your team may still be trying to learn how the new system works.
3. Ask for Help Ahead of Time
You may be tempted to wait until there’s a pressing need before bringing in IT support for your project. However, having extra help available when you need it can be helpful if anything goes wrong during configuration: staffing issues are far less likely to affect ongoing projects than projects where you try to implement everything at once.
4. Adequate Planning and Scheduling
In most businesses, ERPs play an integral role in maintaining consistent operations. If the system goes down or isn’t working properly, productivity can grind to a halt, and customers may start taking their business elsewhere. Setting up your ERP correctly is one thing, but it’s just as important to make sure it continues to run smoothly afterward – that requires planning to ensure you schedule enough time and resources for ongoing maintenance.
5. Involve Your Team from Day One
When configuring a new ERP solution, you want to involve everyone who will be using it as early as possible. And allowing you to test different functionality without slowing down other projects. However, you want to make sure you have some flexibility: customizations are often made with certain users in mind. But other employees may need extra tools to do their jobs more effectively over time.
Best practices in ERP configuration
After setting up your ERP system, there are a few things you can do to ensure it works properly and doesn’t become a problem down the road. Here are some best practices to help guide your project
1. Back-Up Before Setting Up an ERP System
Whether you’re installing a new system from scratch or updating an existing one, make sure you back up your data prior to making any major changes. You don’t know what kind of bugs may come along with new code—it’s better to be safe than sorry.
2. Pay Attention to Detail
While configuring an ERP system is complex work, it requires attention to detail on both macro and micro levels. There are many tiny things that could potentially go wrong when setting up and implementing an ERP platform; therefore, it’s important to pay attention during each step of the process so as not to miss anything.
3. Set a Timeline
When implementing an ERP system, especially if you’re using custom software built specifically for your company. Take care not to underestimate how long it will take for all parties involved (your IT team, software vendor) to get everything done correctly. It can often take longer than initially planned so allow yourself plenty of time and anticipate delays before they occur
4. Don’t Overload Yourself
Whether you’re implementing a new system or updating an existing one, don’t overwhelm yourself by attempting to configure multiple systems at once. Set reasonable goals for yourself and take things step-by-step. Especially if you don’t have much experience with ERP systems or software development. The last thing you want to do is change settings that have a large impact on operations that you didn’t plan for.
5. Assign Users With Experience
If you know someone who’s gone through a successful ERP implementation, it can be a great idea to get them involved in your project as well. An experienced developer, for example, would be able to spot problem areas early on and be able to offer suggestions that could save time down the road and help avoid potentially bigger problems.
Final Thoughts
Each organization has different needs, industry regulations, and requirements; therefore each implementation should be customized to meet those specific goals. Every industry has different data requirements – a healthcare company can have significantly different needs than a manufacturing or agricultural organization.
As an increasing number of organizations move to an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. There’s a growing need for technical resources that understand how to properly configure these applications. While there are numerous resources online that explain proper ERP setup and use. It’s important to note that they shouldn’t be used as a one-size-fits-all guide. There are many factors to consider when configuring an ERP solution. You need to make sure you take a close look at your specific operations before following any generic instructions. Do your research? Remember, working with an experienced partner can be the difference between success or failure when it comes to an ERP configuration.
