Visual South Insights

How to know when ERP integrations with third-party applications are appropriate

The upside of buying enterprise resource planning (ERP) software is the economy of scale. Since it is written for the masses and not customized for one company, the cost per user plummets. For example, Microsoft Office certainly costs more to develop than the few hundred dollars it costs to license. One of the other upsides is that thousands of users create a robust community that quickly flushes out weaknesses in functionality, helping the software become stronger. The downside is that the ERP may not be totally in sync with the company’s culture, and that’s when most people start to think about ERP integrations. To give an instance, what some may call a production order, the ERP may refer to as a work order. Some of the ERP system’s screens may be laid out differently than what the company would have preferred. Or maybe the processes the software supports are not in total alignment with the company’s current processes.

Crane manufacturers have specific business system needs

What crane manufacturers have in common with other types of manufacturers is that they must plan for material requirements, schedule jobs, and execute the production of those jobs. However, crane manufacturers have many requirements and needs that are unique to their industry. In this article, we’ll review how those unique requirements can be addressed with crane industry software or crane manufacturing software.

An increased focus on visibility

More and more of our customers want to have visibility of variables affecting manufacturing. They need clear information about capacity and on-time delivery, potential capacity or supply chain issues, and job costs. Our customers are getting this visibility by leveraging the Infor ERP application’s manufacturing industry purpose-built functional abilities.

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Choosing between the types of ERP systems available

It can be an involved and complicated process for first-time evaluators to understand the types of ERP on the market and decide which meet the business requirements and objectives. There’s a significant research component when kicking off an ERP evaluation.

Some background before we begin

The process to evaluate and choose an ERP software is not a simple task; as a matter of fact, it is a complex task. Because of the risk and cost, it’s a big decision for a company, big or small, to find and implement an ERP. I have numerous conversations with companies that are going through this selection process, and if they don’t bring up the subject of cost in our first conversation, then I do because it is so important! To help you set a realistic budget for your new ERP system, read below for a list of costs you should plan for.

Is everything in your budget?

When companies are looking for a new ERP or reimplementing a system, they start with a budget. That budget typically includes standard implementation costs and estimates on service hours from vendors. But those vendor quotes are almost never inclusive of everything. While not hidden, these unexpected costs can be high enough that the budget is at risk.

ERP software assessments provide answers to your questions

Visual South assists companies with ERP assessments and implementations every day, and has since 1993. It’s what we do and we have been through the ERP evaluation process hundreds of times.

However, many customers may only evaluate ERP software every 10 to 15 years. The ERP selection team members may have never evaluated software, or may have done so only once before. This leads to the development of many different processes -- some are good and others not so good. The Visual South team can help regardless.

What is an ERP database?

All ERP solutions have a database, which is where all the information is stored. This is important information, like customers, vendors, parts, costs, balances, and so on.

You need a plan that outlines how to choose an ERP vendor and system

It may seem relatively easy to choose an ERP vendor—just pick the one that offers the best technology and customer support, right? But it’s often not that straightforward because many companies do not have a plan when evaluating vendors. I’ve been involved in enterprise application sales for over 25 years and there is little consistency on how organizations evaluate vendors like Visual South. What I can tell you is that organizations are happiest with their choice of ERP vendor when the evaluation team has a logical process in place to assess the ERP system’s functionality and the vendor’s services.