Publicly Justify your ERP purchase
Now we are seeing some people/companies publicly justifying their purchases to gain productivity, like AirGas below.
A quick ERP Business Model
ERP companies have operated their business with a model where they:
- Put as little functionality into their base package with the hopes that they will get the customer to pay for customization. If there is enough demand for that customization, they add it to the base package and continue to sell into that vertical channel. They might end up buying other competing companies for their customer list and try and get their customers to move over to the original package. To do this type of operation they also reduce customer service but never give up the source code.
- Some put as much functionality for a particular vertical in order to attract a bulk of the distributors in hopes that they will be sold or buy other software companies customer list. They also reduce customer service/support to get one group to move to another software. They also hand on to the source code.
- In the meantime the customer (distributor) is saddled with poor or non- existent customer support and ever increasing fees and is dragged back to the original writer of the software if they want to make changes.
- Then there is the software company that takes a longer view of the market and builds more expensive software, gives the distributor the source code and lets them make changes.
- Up and until now all of the above models required that the software be installed on-site.
- A few years ago the “Cloud” was introduced along with different types of computers and in some cases newer software. Up and until the “Cloud” business software was introduced, the term “disaster recovery” had been confined to the distributors place of business, which maintained IT overhead demand.
“Consistent with our expectation for continued sluggish business conditions during the quarter, our earnings results were at the midpoint of our guidance range,” said Airgas President and Chief Executive Officer Michael L. Molinini. “We are pleased to have achieved our long-standing target of reaching a run-rate of more than $75 million in SAP-enabled operating income benefits by the end of calendar year 2013. Delivering on that commitment made to shareholders more than three years ago is a remarkable achievement for which all Airgas associates are to be commended. We look forward to continuing to leverage SAP’s capabilities and the benefits of having a unified platform across our distribution operations to improve the way we manage our business on both the top and bottom lines for many years to come.”
Since productivity has long been a subject of Electrical Trends and some will say that various software companies are just to expensive. To that end many have said that SAP is too expensive and has to be customized. But the real question is do you really know?
How do you look at Productivity
What questions do you use, or would you use, to determine the productivity benefits (ROI) of an ERP system?
Add your questions below (and then can be anonymous) and we’ll compile the questions and make them available, with our list of 20, on February 20th (email me to be placed on the list to receive the questions).
7 Comments
I just wish we could use our computer in Inventory turns and do some three way matching. That let me move some people to customer facing jobs.
Thinking about warehouse management and productivity how do I measure it?
I have about 11,000 separate sku’s some of which are packed in the manufacturers packing and some single. How do I get them to quit breaking the manufacturer boxes when there are plenty of single units?
Eclipse is a productivity disaster when it comes to warehouse operations. Their RF (WMS) system is a joke. There are third party systems out there that could do a much better job, but Eclipse won’t let them in. It doesn’t make sense as other Epicor platforms (P21, Prelude, Eagle…) have third party options available. As an operations guy, my money is made on how effectively I can manage my inventory and get it quickly in and out of my distribution centers. HELP!!!!
So, Allen, is there an ERP provider that you actually like? Or are they all equally profit vampires? Maybe my investment in cash registers is about to pay off.
Felix, Thanks for the productivity suggestion. You should have received the Productivity listing by email.
The problems you described about Eclipse are not unusual with some other users.
As a heads up, the market place is moving from a single ERP to a Enterprise Suite that will allow you to connect to many programs. A lot of your problem will go away when you start looking and installing a Enterprise Suite with open databases.
Epicor’s financial dog and pony show today was so bad that I hung up after 10 min. I will go ASAP. Sorry but you are not the company that I paid good money too.
I also listened. Very disappointing, but then what did I expect?
That much debt does not go away over night. He is going to ‘change the culture’. I don’t think so. How about just answering the support line.
Someone referenced ‘profit vampires’ and Epicor fits that mold.
Leave a Reply
Trending Now
Pulse of Switchgear
