Some of the common ERP shortfalls
The initial investment was sold on a ROI basis and the benefits not were realized, but benefit realization was never measured and the business feels duped again.
Frustrating or painful past experiences. Disruptions to the business, overruns, and long hours have people still recovering from the initial implementation.
Insufficient business process improvements the team intended on driving the ERP system from an improved business process design, but was unable to complete from lack of support and commitment from management and staff.
Problematic integration move to ERP to achieve an integrated system, you failed to standardize business processes and integrate with other applications/databases.
Inadequate adoption rates as users still avoid using the system due to its difficulty to learn and operate, and still use their original systems or practices.
Incomplete implementation, the goal was to implement an integrated system with a number of modules, but only some were deployed.
Insufficient reporting and business intelligence data. The vendors promised functionality, but the new system didn’t deliver it.
Increases in costs to support, maintain, and operate the ERP system is higher than planned and continues to grow.
Inadequate internal capabilities. Although your internal team learned a lot, you still rely heavily on your integrator/consultants, more than planned.
How to Optimize Your ERP Value
Get a firm level of commitment for executive support. If an unclear and agreed upon direction is not specifically defined, the project is probably not worth doing.
Get clearly defined goals, scope, plan, approach, team, through the creation of a project charter.
Review & streamline your business processes. Did you really drive your ERP implementation from an optimized business process design? In not, it's time to do so. And if you did, it may be time to consider further streamlining.
Measure processes for continuous improvement, once you improve your business process design, start measuring process performance to identify opportunities for continuous improvement.
Consider where ERP stands in your future enterprise architecture, especially how you can leverage cloud computing in with your ERP suite.
Improve ERP integrations. How well are your ERP processes and data integrated throughout your applications, and externally with customers and vendors?Improve business intelligence, are you providing the business the best BI from your ERP system? It may be time to analyze how reporting and analytics are now provided from the ERP vendor vs. from your BI platform.
If you’re operating your ERP internally, evaluate hosting and managed services costs and options. Consider a business case for a managed services solution.
If already hosted by a third party, review their performance and consider costs.