Murphy’s Law is alive and well thanks to ERP implementations. The problems that often arise can be avoided and/or the impact reduced by good planning in advance and strong project management. Here are a few ways to fight Murphy: Ensure you have the right people (your A team) on the project and enough of their time is allocated to the project. Some key operational team members will need to be backfilled on their day jobs. Talk to people who have gone through an implementation to get a sense of the time needed. Ensure the implementation plan proposed by the vendor is adequate. […]
ERP: Lessons From the Field
March 27, 2015 from CFO – “Senior finance executives share their advice on selecting and implementing enterprise resource planning systems.” Read more 180 View – CFO asked the executives a number of questions including about value, total cost of ownership, flexibility, how to evaluate ERP vendors and implementation advice. One piece of advice was “Invest your best people in the process.” […]
Cloud ERP
January 28, 2015 from InformationWeek – “Enterprise resource planning software is the ultimate legacy application. On the downside, ERP has earned a reputation for costly, time-consuming deployments and maintenance, outdated user interfaces, and general inflexibility.” Read more 180 View – The cloud is supposed to make ERP implementations a lot easier according to pundits and vendors alike. However the cloud is really just a different way of deploying the software and most of the tasks and risks in an implementation don’t vanish into the clouds. […]
National Geographic Video
180 View – There is more to life than ERP. See/hear more […]
Pat Wade
I am delighted to announce that Pat Wade has joined 180 Systems. Pat’s primary role is to coach our clients through their system implementation. Pat has 20+ years of experience to draw upon and our clients have already found her assistance invaluable. Pat is also assisting in the selection process through demonstrations and contract negotiation. Her previous experience on the other side of the table (as the vendor) gives her insight that few people can offer and that our clients also find invaluable. Prior to 180 Systems, Pat was President of Equation Technologies which implemented hardware, networks and software to […]
I Survived an ERP Implementation – Top 10 Gems of Advice I Learned the Hard Way
November 10. 2014 from LinkedIn – “…Why is it that so many ERP implementations go so wrong? In my current role I meet regularly with ERP survivors and casualties. My best but unscientific estimate is that 90-95% of them have horror stories to share…” Read more 180 View – There is a big difference between a horror story and bumps in the road. We would agree that there always bumps in the road. What you need is someone on your team that knows how to adapt or a coach to get you through it – someone like Pat Wade from […]
How Production Systems are Like the NFL
December 16, 2014 from IndustryWeek – “I sometimes find it difficult to describe what I do to friends and acquaintances who have careers outside of manufacturing and rarely give much thought to how things actually get made. To the uninitiated, if I were to say “I help manufacturers to implement continuous improvement (CI) models” or “I support companies in their production system journey,” I might as well be speaking a foreign language because, while these statements resonate with those of us who live and breathe CI every day, they don’t mean much to the rest of the world…” Read more […]
Survey Analysis: Customers Rate Their BI Platform Vendor, 2014
October 9, 2014 from Gartner – “Based on customer surveys conducted on BI and analytics platforms, this research will alert BI leaders to the customer experiences of professionals across 42 vendors…” Read more 180 View – If you are interested in Business Intelligence, this will be a great resource to get started. You should also check out our Systems Analysis Tool […]
Project Management for an ERP Implementation
180 Systems has now launched a new practice area. The implementation of a new system is a big project and requires skilled project managers. Our clients often don’t have a lot of experience in project management especially related to implementing new systems. The vendors have project managers but their focus is project management of their own resources rather than that of our clients. It is also possible that there are conflicting views of scope between the vendor and our clients. As project manager for our clients, we will ensure that these and any other conflicts are resolved expeditiously and fairly. […]
Top 10 Trends in Cloud ERP
May 19, 2014 from enterpriseAPPStoday – “Cloud enterprise resource planning (ERP) software hasn’t really caught on yet. But according to a recent Gartner survey, it will soon. Here are some of the top trends shaping cloud-based ERP…” Read more 180 View – Most of our clients are more interested in finding a solution that is a good fit, not overly difficult to implement, in their budget and supported and implemented by a company that knows their industry really well. They don’t care that much how it’s deployed. Cloud deployment does not seem less expensive than on premise deployment even when […]