ERP Software Selection | ERP System Selection

Evaluating the Statement of Work – Project Management

December 21, 2021 | 0 Comments | Michael Burns

The Statement of Work (SOW) provided by the vendor for an ERP implementation is a critical document. It is the vendor’s way of defining the terms of the engagement and it is understandably used by them to maximize their profitability and to protect themselves when things go wrong. The SOW is not like other contracts that have been vetted by the lawyers many times and very difficult to change. The vendors will negotiate the terms in the SOW, and you need to review it carefully especially with regard to scope and roles and responsibilities. We are going to write […]

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Technology Solutions

May 18, 2021 | 0 Comments | Michael Burns

180 Systems is presenting a workshop for CPA Canada on June 16, 2021 from 1 pm to 4 pm EST with guidance and best practice for: Business Case System Optimization System Selection Contract Negotiation Implementation Transition Management Emerging Technology RPA Project Management Change Management You can register for this workshop by clicking here or contacting Michael at mburns@180systems.com if you have questions. […]

National Technology Forum CPA (NTF)

October 6, 2020 | 0 Comments | Michael Burns

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Top 10 ERP Systems

March 25, 2020 | 0 Comments | 180systems

If you do a search on the Top 10 ERP systems, you will find lists of the most well-known systems developed and maintained by the largest vendors. These vendors do offer advantages over many of the smaller vendors, who are not as well funded and may not be able to invest as much R&D in their system. The largest vendors will often have extended functionality for bigger enterprises that could also be used by smaller companies with complex requirements. They will also have more resources including multiple business partners to implement the system. And the owners will perceive less risk […]

National Technology Forum

April 5, 2019 | 0 Comments | 180systems

For the 2nd year, we have joined forces with CPA Canada in presenting the National Technology Forum (NTF). NTF will occur on May 22-24 with a conference for the 1st 2 days and workshops on the 3rd day. The conference is mostly about enterprise software (ERP, CPM, HR and BI) and emerging technology and is targeted to senior leaders who are responsible for technology investment decisions in industry and public practice. Conference Highlights ERP, HR, BI and CPM (Corporate Performance Management) sessions delivered for customers, by customers, featuring plenty of real-life experiences, lessons learned and valuable advice Industry challenges (manufacturing, […]

It’s 2018 so why isn’t my ERP vendor multi-tenant?

August 8, 2018 | 0 Comments | 180systems

August 7, 2018 from diginomica – “We may be at a point in the software space where application vendors that haven’t produced a multi-tenant suite may never do it. It matters and here’s why…” Click here to read the article. 180 View – Multi-tenant architecture allows one instance of a software system to serve multiple customers. The vendor is responsible for patching and updating the inevitable changes to a system. The article makes a persuasive case why multi-tenant matters but, in our opinion, it is just another criteria to make a decision. […]

National Forum On Technology Solutions

February 21, 2018 | 0 Comments | 180systems

180 Systems and CPA Canada developed a new conference that was targeted to senior leaders responsible for technology investment decisions. The conference focused on enterprise software (ERP, BI and CPM) and included customers speaking about their journey through selection and implementation by industry (manufacturing and distribution, not-for-profit and financial services). It also included solutions for today’s industry challenges and emerging technologies such as AI, Blockchain, and IOT. The conference took place on May 28-29, 2018 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and we will do it again next year. Click here for more information about this conference […]

What come first – an ERP system (the chicken) or lean management (the egg)?

November 16, 2017 | 0 Comments | 180systems

Lean management is all about eliminating any waste by identifying each step in a business process and then revising or cutting out non-value added steps. The question is whether this should be done prior to selecting an ERP system. Proponents of doing it first assume that the implementation of an ERP system would be merely improving the automation of the existing process and better to eliminate the waste first. However, this approach (sometimes called repaving the cow paths and extending the chicken and egg analogy) is not best practice. The implementation of an ERP system is the best opportunity to […]

2017 ERP Survey

September 28, 2017 | 0 Comments | 180systems

September 2017 from CPA Magazine – “Welcome once again to our annual vendor survey on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Every year we have a different theme for the article that accompanies our ERP survey results. This year we decided to look at the fine print in ERP contracts and the good, the bad and the ugly about requests for proposals (RFP) used in software selection….” Read More […]

How Do You Compare A SaaS Annual Fee To A One-Time License Fee?-180Systems

March 29, 2017 | 2 Comments | 180systems

We have found that on average the one-time (on-premise) license fee is 3 times the annual fee based on our experience in evaluating RFP responses from vendors. One might think that the ratio between license and annual fee should be greater but that does not take into account the additional hosted services provided by the SaaS vendors including maintenance fees which are billed annually by on-premise vendors at approximately 20% of the license fee. It’s still early days for SaaS and as competition heats up the license ratio: annual fee will increase as SaaS fees are reduced. We recommend that […]