Mike McGrath, strategy enablement executive for Red Man Technologies, says automating a process with enterprise resource planning (ERP) is pointless if the process itself is ineffective.
"ERP is not a silver bullet that will make organisations more efficient and effective if the existing processes are inadequate," he says.
For this reason, there are many misconceptions surrounding the efficiency of ERP. "Implementation failures are blamed on technology, yet our experience has been that the human factors are largely to blame. Both implementation partners and customer organisations seem not to have accepted some very basic requirements for making ERP systems work."
According to McGrath, the focus on ERP should be business rather than technical. He says the people in charge of the ERP should be familiar with the company's business and the best person to drive the project is a high-level executive.
It is essential to understand the current processes, since the ERP system won't. "Most ERP systems use 'best practice', but it is best to proactively map the current processes, understand the 'to-be' processes and decide how to close the gap."
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