Is it true : ERP Solutions must be expensive

Many have the perception that ERP solutions must be expensive, and/or a more expensive solution must be better for my corporation. More often though, this is NOT true!

The few reasons why:

1) Not all solutions are made for YOU.

Just because the software was successful for other bigger or more established organizations, doesn’t mean that your company will be able to adapt to the ready-made procedures. More often than not, it requires more steps and more resources to achieve the desired results. SMEs (Small-Medium Enterprise), especially, will not normally have the resources required by such requirements.

2) Not ALL consultants can turn the software to your requirements.

During my earlier years as a solutions provider, a customer told me about his costly involvement in implementing a software in his previous company. After 6 months of trying to map the solution to the requirements, the consultant abruptly resigned! Most of the time, the consultants are more of a salesman than a consultant. Over-promising on the solutions is common just to get the sales, then failing afterwards to deliver! Make sure you get the FULL integration proposal before accepting a project!

3) Many of the problems are more ‘human-related’ than software related.

Make sure you (or the consultant) can identify this correctly, which of the problems can REALLY be solved with the software. Many managements that I came across, were so awe-struck by their peer’s “technology” that they fail to see that human discipline and culture were the bigger requirements to get the solution running. Hence, very often, a much-simplified software will just do.

Check out these major failures of ERP implementations:

Source : 360 Cloud Solutions: Top 6 ERP Implementation Failures (and what they cost)