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Is a new ERP really the best answer to better reporting?

If you’re at the stage where it’s obvious your ERP isn’t delivering the reporting your team needs, it’s tempting to think about replacing it. But we’d like to say, ‘Hold up, a new ERP may not automatically solve your issues.’

ERPs were essentially designed to capture transactions – not deliver the in-depth, customised, ad-hoc reporting modern businesses need. While your ERP may not need to be a Rolls Royce, it does need to provide visibility of and access to your data, preferably without adding report writer functionality or upgrading your solution. While you ‘can’ use the ERP as a report writer, it will never be the right tool for the job. Just as you could type an entire novel into Excel, you shouldn’t bother when much better tools are available. Yet, we see businesses that persist in using the software they have (or, even worse, Excel) simply because they have it and know it. Not because it makes a good, accurate, or easy job of it.  

So, what should you do?

Start with a robust planning/forecasting solution and an integration plan. Systems integration not only makes your budget go further but allows you to dramatically improve outcomes using your existing ERP. And should you upgrade further down the track, that’s not a problem. With an interoperability approach, your integration will move to your new ERP with little stress or additional cost.

(What’s interoperability? Glad you asked. Interoperability means that not only are your solutions connected so they can freely exchange information - but they can work together without any effort from your end. In effect, they not only talk to one another but speak the same language without needing an interpreter.)

Modern planning/forecasting applications are designed to handle multiple connections. In some instances, we’ve united up to 200 data sources. So, at times, it makes little sense to upgrade when you can integrate to achieve a single view of your enterprise data and generate the reporting you need – pulling in siloed data from other line-of-business applications like production databases, marketing platforms, HR systems, and more.  

Wherever your data is, we can connect it and bring it into a unified platform. And, suddenly, you and your users can access the information they want in the format they need. Additional reporting parameters can be added quickly without reinventing the wheel or making demands on your in-house programmers. Add user training to this single unified platform, and the right information is exposed to the right audience at decision time.

If you’re always under pressure to make your technology budget go further, and there are internal rumblings about existing systems which don’t deliver, systems integration enables significant improvements in reporting and data access. Without having to fork out for a new ERP until you’re good and ready.

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