Some notes from the field, then. It is one of those ‘perception is reality’ things that a good deal of businesses struggling with out of support, or out of date, or just plain old and clunky software systems have a view that replacing those systems can’t be done. The argument is that so much has gone into customisation that introducing a new cloud system will require a similarly massive customisation effort, rendering the project too difficult and too costly. As a result, rather than taking advantage of modern, flexible, efficient software, you’re stuck with huge support bills and a fire extinguisher always close to hand for hosing down the inevitable mini disasters always just around the next corner.
But here’s the thing. Modern systems quite routinely offer substantially more as ‘standard equipment’ than the one you’re running with a 1990s nameplate. In many cases, functionality which required customisation simply didn’t exist ‘back in the day’, which is why you had to bring in an army of business analysts and software developers to make it happen in your legacy system.
As a result, things which were quite acceptable ten or twenty years ago might today be slowing you down, causing inefficiencies and inaccuracies, and making life (and business) a bit harder than it could otherwise be.
The legacy signs and symptoms
For those who regularly read the Project Salsa blogs, the signs and symptoms of legacy or poorly-aligned software are familiar. Topping the list is spreadsheets; Excel is a gloriously flexible and capable tool, and so it is called upon as something of a Swiss Army knife. Plugging gaps with Excel works, but it comes with its own issues: manual, error-prone, and excessive complexity.
The next sign is paper-based processes, where Excel couldn’t quite cut it. Shuffling paper about (for things like HR processes, payment authorisations, etc) is so yesteryear. It’s horrendously limiting and even the silliest things – an over-full intray, a poorly-placed cup of tea – can completely stop a business process.
Bolt-ons to the core system are at the heart of excessive customisations. They might address point problems, but upgrades become the stuff of nightmares, often resulting in overall systems multiple versions away from the most recent.
These kinds of unfortunate realities also mean your IT is inflexible. Innovation is foreign because all the effort goes into maintaining a clunky, complicated curmudgeon of a system.
Time has marched on
Among the issues with legacy systems are their lack of scalability, flexibility and adaptability. As time marches on, adding emerging functionality becomes increasingly difficult owing to compatibility challenges. And then there’s the ever-changing legal and regulatory landscape: an old clunker just doesn’t adapt very well when the compliance landscape shifts.
Some examples of standard functionality in a modern integrated system include:
- E-commerce
- Accounts Payable
- Customer Relationship Management
- Logistics and Warehousing
- Procure-to-Pay
- Business Intelligence/Data Analytics
- Performance dashboarding
When these functions are added in bits and pieces, it makes your system more complex. What that means in practice is money spent on maintenance and support. Money which could be going into a modern, integrated system which delivers the functions and features you require, without the add-ons, and which works the way people do in the modern world.
Too much customisation’ to move? Maybe the customisation is precisely why a move is warranted
Turn the argument on its head and ‘too much customisation’ may well be the reason why a good long look at a modern system is warranted. In so doing, looking past the ‘sunk cost fallacy’ is necessary: don’t hang on to an old stinker just because it represents years of work and hundreds of thousands of dollars invested.
Aside from potentially delivering all the features and functionality you need now and into the future, a modern ERP system also typically means getting rid of on-premises servers and other infrastructure, gaining the ‘scale up/scale down’ flexibility so invaluable in uncertain times, and accelerating information accessibility. Other benefits include better user experiences; not only does it herald an era of saying goodbye to those spreadsheets and drifts of paper, but a modern user interface beats a green screen every time.
At the very least, it’s worth taking a look through fresh eyes. Keen to talk it through? Get in touch. You may well be surprised at what modern ERP can do for you.
