Visual South Insights

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.

CMMC compliance for DoD manufacturers

The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) is a Department of Defense (DoD) program that outlines the cybersecurity standards and best practices required for government contractors. CMMC compliance for manufacturers in the DoD supply chain involves meeting specific cybersecurity standards and best practices

The good, the bad

I’ve been involved with manufacturing and ERP for over 30 years. During that time, I’ve learned a lot about the interaction between a manufacturing organization, their goals, and their ERP (or lack thereof). I’ve seen companies who have a good plan for choosing ERP; I’ve seen companies that don’t. I’ve seen companies that use ERP well; I’ve seen companies that don’t. I’ve seen companies admit they weren’t using ERP well and then work towards fixing that problem. I’ve seen companies admit they weren’t using ERP well and then lose interest in using it better. I’ve also seen a common thread between the companies who excel in selecting/using ERP, and those that don’t. The ones who excel have the expertise to develop a good strategy and execute it, or they admit they don’t have the expertise and they get help. They view the cost of getting help as an investment that has a payback. The ones who don’t excel aren’t aware they don’t have the expertise, so they never get the help they need. They view the cost of getting help as an expense.

Contents

• Introduction
• Chapter I – How to Run a Successful ERP Comparison
• Chapter II – 5 Characteristics of a Successful ERP Implementation
• Chapter III – 5 Characteristics of ERP Implementations Failures
• Chapter IV – Post ERP Implementation: How to Keep It Running Well
• Epilogue

Introduction

Buying ERP is a big deal. I know because I’ve done it. I was a Plant Manager in the mid-90s, and we were running production with a homegrown system that could not be modified because we didn’t have the source code. It was better than nothing, but not by much. We were not managing our capacity, our scheduling consisted of pushing product through the plant day in and day out. It was exhausting, and our on-time delivery range fluctuated from OK to bad. The results we got did not reflect the work we put into it.

Infor is the third largest ERP solutions provider in the world. The two main Infor ERP solutions we (at Visual South) help manufacturers implement are Infor CloudSuite Industrial (Infor SyteLine) and Infor VISUAL. In this guide, we'll take you through everything you need to know about Infor and its ERP software options. Click the links below to jump to specific chapters.

• Chapter I: Do You Need ERP?

• Chapter II: Deployment for Infor ERP Systems

• Chapter III: Infor ERP Product Review

• Chapter IV: How to Run an ERP Selection Process

• Chapter V: How to Implement ERP

ERP solutions don’t have everything

Evaluating Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems is not an easy task. Naturally, your focus will probably be on finding a system that is a good match for your company. Much of the criteria used to judge the software will likely be based on what features and functions it has or doesn’t have. That’s reasonable, but limiting your evaluation to features and functions will not give you everything needed to make a great ERP decision for the company. To make a great decision, you also need to consider factors outside the ERP system.

Manufacturers have made the move to cloud-based ERP systems

It seems like just yesterday that the concept of cloud-based ERP for the manufacturing industry was far-fetched. But today’s reality is manufacturers are choosing cloud deployment over on-premise deployment virtually every time. That is a paradigm shift for those of us who have been working with enterprise applications in the manufacturing sector.

A big decision

If your company is evaluating ERP solutions, you already know that choosing the right system is a big decision. The evaluation process is not straightforward, or something that companies do on a regular basis. Selecting a new ERP is typically a “once in a (business) lifetime” decision, because if you land on the right solution, your company will extract value from it for decades.