SMEs & ERP : 3 Cs to be answered before selecting an ERP for SME

Read on to get a sneak preview of the major challenges faced in selecting the Right ERP

Choice

How to choose an ERP ? always proves to be one of the most important and difficult questions that have to be answered by the SMEs. How to decide whether to go ahead with a global player or with a customized local player? Will they be able to meet my requirements and what will be the implication? The key is to understand your business requirements and then evaluate ERPs and select the one which meets most of your critical requirements. The ERP has to be configurable and user friendly product, it should easily be able to adapt to multiple industry segment and lines of business. The ERP should be built around an architecture which can support growing enterprises mapping your current requirements and giving you scope to expand. There should always be a scope of growth in the ERP as business solutions cannot be changed every year, it is a long term commitment that is made between the ERP and the Organization using it. There should be add-on products for example a Business Intelligence Solution ,which can work on the base product and enhance the functionality of the product thus fulfilling your requirements which may arise in future.

Cost

Cost is a major fear factor for the SMEs, everybody is scared of the costs that are associated with an ERP solution and no one is clear what the right ERP solution is and what is the right Cost of an ERP for you. There is no clear measure of defining these costs and no standard parameters of what is the right ERP for SME. There is cut throat competition in the market and ERPs are available at very competitive prices. Every vendor claims to provide the most economical solution. How will you select the best player and what suits you. Cost is a major distinguishing factor but also we need to focus on the Vendor Portfolio , What kind of solutions is the vendor offering , What is the vendors client base and what is the authenticity of the vendor. The companies have to go through a tedious process to search for the right solution. The Vendor that you Zero down on must have a strong Industrial backing, it must have a good experience on delivering the kind of business solutions that you are looking at. The vendor must have industry wide knowledge so that it can make you aware of the best practices followed into the industry. One more major factor that you need to consider is that how efficiently the Vendor can bridge the Cost Vs functionality Gap, offering you the most optimal solution at the most optimal cost You always need to check for the hidden costs associated with the Vendor and the product.

Customization

Every company wants the ERP to work according to the company’s current business process, they do not want to change according to the ERP. Companies prefer customizing the ERP application according to their business needs. This usually proves fatal in the long run. The costs involved with customization are huge and there is no guarantee that the customizations will work as desired also if the company changes it business process the entire application will have to be customized again. This is an additional risk and the companies usually want to avoid it ..the SMEs today feel that there is no good solution existing in the market , either they are very expensive or very low in functionality. The ERP should be configurable so that it can be easily tuned to your company’s business process as on date and tomorrow if you change your business process all you have to do is to change the same in the ERP. There should be always nil amount of customizations done. Your motto has to be to come as close as possible to your current business process and avoid unnecessary customizations.

Sage ACCPAC ERP from Sage Software is a world class product which solves these problems for you. Sage has been a world leader in the SME segment for the past 30 years delivering the most optimal solutions at most optimal prices (Prices start @ 2.99 lakhs). Sage focuses on providing the right solution for SMEs, with the help of very strong and dedicated channel partners. Sage operates on a partner model and we, Greytrix are the Premium partners with Sage India for their ERP / CRM solutions. Contact us today to help you evaluate the right solution for you business. Email: sales@greytrix.com Phone: 022 67687847. For more information please visit us at http://www.greytrix.in/