5 Key Considerations to QAD Strategic ERP Planning
Posted on: September 5, 2017 | By: Craig Thompson | QAD Practice News
We believe planning for ERP should be a strategic activity for your business. Strategic ERP planning for your QAD project can make the difference between success and failure. The initial scoping and planning is critical. By analogy, if you’re leaving Chicago to go ski Vail but you jump on I90/94 East, it doesn’t matter how fast you drive or how efficient your rest stops are, you’re not going to get to Vail anytime soon.
Below we’ve identified 5 key considerations when planning for a QAD ERP project. Of course, every business has their own unique way of doing things, but we hope these suggestions help you achieve a successful QAD ERP implementation.
Scoping & Planning
What is scoping and planning. Why it’s important. 3 sentences covering 3 pieces of scoping and planning. Reiterate why important.
Choosing a Version (SE versus EE, Cloud versus On Premises)
Maybe you’re trying to decide whether to implement an on-premises solution or to move to the cloud? Maybe you are looking to keep some sites on-premises and some in the cloud? Within any scenario, you can find the right QAD ERP fit for your precise needs! The key, in our opinion, is to get qualified, objective advice to help you analyze and make these decisions.
Knowing When to Customize
As helpful as customizations can appear to be, they are almost always costly to both create and maintain. They also take more time to work into an implementation, slowing down and adding risk to your entire project. Choosing to customize also limits your ability to upgrade in the future. We have found the first and most important step is to properly define your business processes and priorities. When a business-specific or otherwise unique requirement presents itself, it is best to formally manage these through a nonintrusive approach. This kind of approach allows you to implement the required functionality without the downstream costs of typical customization.
Finding Good Reference(s)
We feel businesses who are thinking strategically about QAD ought to look at other businesses who’ve successfully implemented QAD, preferably a non-competing business within a similar industry and a similar global/geographic scope. QAD’s goal is to provide target businesses with the best, most robust manufacturing software fit. The key word, target, means QAD has developed solutions to target several specific industries so that QAD’s solutions are best in class for those industries. Specifically, QAD focuses in 6 specific industries—Automotive, Consumer Products, Food & Beverage, High Tech, Industrial, and Life Sciences. Find one or more sample references to help serve as a rough guide to what might work for your own business.
Choosing a Partner
Logan Consulting was founded to offer ERP customers with an independent, objective partner for evaluating, selecting and implementing ERP solutions. We believe it’s important for businesses to have such an advisor who has their interests in mind. ERP customers and ERP vendors have not always had common interests. What software to buy? What version to implement? Which version is ready? Cloud or On-Premises? Which built-in applications make sense? Which are ready and which are not? How many licenses do you really need? What sites should be in scope? What should the phases be?
Having a partner to guide you through such an immense project reduces risk, prevents stress, and ensures the project is managed to meet your needs. ERP implementation projects can add enormous value in the end, but achieving this value is not without its challenges. If your business is interested in exploring a partnership with Logan Consulting, please click here to contact someone for your free consultation today!