ERPodcast Episode 10

Step by Step DIY ERP

ERPlanner  (Will the ERPuns never stop?)

Hey – it’s the DIY- Do it Yourself - Profit From ERP with the ERPlanner

(MFX Up and under)

So, the secrets behind Profit From ERP – how do we do it?  Well, we’ve collected the winning methodology from over 400 ERP implementations over the years. From our first ERP project where a company that quote – totally embraced change – unquote had half the staff quit because change…wasn’t what they were expecting  - - all the way to the on demand manufacturer who paid for their ERP system many times over within three months.

There are lessons to be learned in all of them.

I’m Gene Hammons, Practice Director for Profit From ERP and host for ERPodcast and today we’re going to give you a step by step checklists of the steps you should take,  to Profit From ERP on your own – it’s a checklist - what we’re calling the ERPlanner which we’ll tell you how to download the template and exactly how to follow each step on your road to Profit From ERP as you select and implement an ERP system on your own.

Now the disclaimer – we can tell you the steps and give you a whole podcast’s full of coaching – and you might say, well, Gene, if you tell everyone all the steps, why would anyone hire you as an ERP selection consultant in the future? Your secrets are already out of the bag.

Well, here’s the thing. If you follow these steps, you’ll do just as well, probably better than I did on my very firstERP project – some 25 years and 400+ projects ago.  You’ll do better than 95% of the companies who go about selecting ERP as if it were a capital purchasing effort.

But things happen in ERP projects – things you, I, the software vendors – things no one anticipated. Crazy unrealistic deadlines, massive underestimation of how much effort a ERP project demands, massive under-budgeting – then twists and turns – your business model has a little twist that similar businesses don’t do – and this little twist is what differentiates you, makes you cost less or have better service, or better quality – and there’s no ERP product on the market that anticipated your secret sauce.  Crazy things happen – and that’s when our expertise really shines – that’s why companies hire us to consult during the entire process.

And I’m afraid that’s not in the checklist.

But – we hear from many companies all the time – usually smaller firms, who don’t have much budget for consultants and even less budget for software – and if this sounds like you, this podcast and the ERPlanner are perfect for you.

A – they’re both free, the ERPodcast and the ERPlanner.

B – It will give you an important leg up and put you ahead of the game.

Even if you’re not a smaller business, these are the same steps we’ll recommend to a global multinational company looking for a new ERP – of course there’s more detail, and instead of one guy with a clipboard walking around your office it’s a team of business analysts, software architects, project planners – but it’s the same proven methodology that’s worked now hundreds of times.

Of course the Do-it-yourself version not going to revolutionize your business like a full blown digital transformation and mobile cloud company-wide connectivity – but it’ll at least get you on the road to growth – and in a couple of years, after your company has implemented it’s first ERP and grown some more – you will be in the market for a full blown digital transformation – and you’ll be back with the budget to really take things stratospheric – with Profit From ERP

MFX out

Eide Bailly Endorsement

V 2.0 Under Budget

Today’s Podcast is being brought to you by Eide Bailly Technology Consulting –

If you’ve been listening to the podcast for any time now, you know that an ERP project is bigger than a plug and play software implementation.

There’s planning, business analysis, business consulting, project valuation, and all that happens up front.

Managing the actual implementation project is reworking how your company does business – can you think of anything more critical?

When it’s done right, it means huge returns for your company for years to come – greater efficiencies and better productivity.

With all this at stake, you need to work with top talent – and Eide Bailly Technology Consulting has been NetSuite Partner of the Year for several years running – As well as WorldWide Partner of the year – they are definitely a top 5 NetSuite Global Consulting Partner

We work with a lot of technology partners in a lot of ERP programs – But when it comes to NetSuite, Eide Bailly is unmatched in how they approach and deliver an implementation program – and while you’d think working for the top talent is expensive, we’ve found our customers actually save money working with Eide Bailly – you know cost overruns are the norm in the ERP industry?  Over 70% of our Eide Bailly projects come in under budget. Really.

The Profit From ERP team cannot afford a failed implementation, that’s why we trust Eide Bailly with NetSuite projects large and small. There are a million things to go wrong in an ERP project – but working with Eide Bailly is just not one of them.

NetSuite doesn’t absolutely fit every company everywhere – but when NetSuite is the right ERP, Eide Bailly is the right partner.

If NetSuite is the direction you’re going, you need to turn to Eide Bailly give us a call and we’ll bring the team from Eide Bailly in to put things right.   Eide Bailly – that’s E I D E B A I LLY.com

Welcome back to today’s ERPodcast I’m your host Gene Hammons, Practice Director for Profit from ERP – just a little backstory my early career was as a turnaround specialist and consultant – I started seeing all of my productivity gains through large software projects to help companies become more efficient and profitable – this was in the late 90’s – and I finished my MBA at Arizona State University – we were one of the first MBA cohorts to both study and graduate in the internet era – which was an exciting time, the dot-com boom and Y2k. I ended up joining the Epicor channel, then Sage, followed by Ross Enterprise, then Lawson which would become Infor – along the way working in the Microsoft stack of products, SAP, Oracle – and becoming an independent ERP consultant back in 2011 – where we’ve worked with everything, but specialized in cloud ERP beginning with NetSuite, but also Intacct, Acumatica and many others.

I’ve been privileged enough to work on Global Multi National ERP projects and I’ve worked with small startups, mom and pop shops, regional manufacturers and I can’t walk through Costco without seeing a lot of old friend’s products or turn on the TV and see a pharma group I’ve helped.

Through all this, the amazing thing I learned was – you can take two seemingly identical businesses – same industry, same size. Both can purchase the same ERP software. Both can use the same ERP implementation team. And one will be wildly successful and the other, while they’ll say they’re doing OK and things are ‘much better’ with the new ERP – they really aren’t lighting things on fire so to speak.

And meanwhile that first company is now super profitable and productivity is skyrocketing, which drives more efficiencies – and they’re making great strides with the software – and next year, they’re at the annual ERP users convention giving seminars and presentations on how to best use ERP.

And my question is Why - - -why one and not the other.

So I started studying what the top adopters were doing and started quantifying how they did things and what I found out is that the difference is the internal ERP team  - how they do things, how they structure things, the methodology that they use and that can make all the difference.

Now, are all my clients top performers?  No, but the average Profit From ERP client is so much higher than go-it-alone companies with an undefined process – and I also will naturally attract the clients that strive to exceed – that’s why they hire consultants in the first place. And by setting and measuring goals we do quantify results – which is always a better story than – well just saying ‘things are much better now’.

So anyway let’s dive in.

The ERPlanner – I’ll tell you how to get your own free spreadsheet template download– basically just send an email to [email protected] include your name, phone number, company info, and tell us a little about what you’re using for accounting software now, what industry you’re in and we’ll email you a copy of the spreadsheet – in the meantime – let’s jump into the ERPlanner – what top companies do to select and implement ERP software.

Step One – Bring in Outside ERP Expertise– and I can hear you now, saying “wait, I thought this was a DIY project – well it is. But I’m not letting you go into it blind and the top companies bring in outside ERP experience.

Here’s the thing.

You might have someone on staff that went through an ERP project a few years ago.  Well, that’s one project and I have no idea what methodology that company used – if they even did anything other than asking the purchasing manager to do the selection process. The thing is, selecting software to run your business is different that capital expenditure acquisitions. It’s not a desk or office furniture, it’s what you base your productivity and efficiency on over the next 5 to 7 years.

And based on an ERP project a few years ago?

A few years ago is two generations of technology in the past.

So it’s Podcast Date 2019 and you have a guy on staff that went through a Sage ERP project in 2013. Not to pick on Sage but insert any common ERP vendor the math is the same. If that company was looking at software in 2013, they were evaluating software that was probably 10-15 years old, yes, updates, new versions released and new features added – but basically 10 year old software.