In today’s competitive world, with the dynamic business requirements within the market, having a sustainable Enterprise Resource Planner also known as ERP has become inevitable.

There are various ERP’s available (Including Sage X3) and even though the processes and functionalities may have differences, ultimately the objective remains the same, which are mainly,

• Improve Service Experience
• Enhance Competitiveness
• Modernize Business Processes and Systems
• Automate Business Solutions
• Increase Operating Efficiency

Even though most of the functionality of an ERP is sufficient for a business to operate on its own, there are situations where a customization / additional development may need in order to streamline the processes effectively. However, a customization of a running system may cause havoc unless it’s properly managed.

Throughout this article, I would be discussing on the success factors based on my experience.

Understand the Requirement!

Trust me, it’s the most important factor of any project.

As a consultant, we need to really process the requirement. The requirement may look simple or even complicated, but it doesn’t matter, it has to be treated with the same depth.

Be prepared to look into it from various perspectives. Feel free to look at it as the user, get into the management point of view and see whether it will add value to the ongoing operation, then you could even look at it from a neutral point too. The point I would like to emphasize is that, there are no hard and fast rules for this process, each and every consultant may have their own way of doing this, but the objective should remain the same.

Once we have a clear understanding, then the major part of the job is done!

Now that we have figured out the path for the journey, it’s just a matter of continuing on the right track until the end!

Catering the Requirement!

Well, this is quite a tricky part for anyone, we may all have similar questions as such,

• Should we go for a pure development?
• Can a new module/process (On Sage X3 / Sage 300 ERP) be used instead of a development?
• How about using standard process with slight modification?

On top of the above, there may be hundreds of other questions which we may have to carefully evaluate prior to any conclusions.

Remember! It doesn’t matter how well you understood the requirement initially, if you drive in the wrong direction at this point, then there is a risk of not only failing the customization but also the client satisfaction factor which would also affect the overall account itself.

So, how do we make the right choice?

Well, yet again, we need to dive into requirement and ensure not to be totally influenced by the commercial aspects while making the decision.

Let’s take a couple of scenarios,

For example, the ERP might facilitate the required change, but what if the user needs to go through another complete cycle in terms of processing just to get that additional requirement fulfilled?

Then we need to question ourselves whether it’s really worth it? If it’s going to be a cumbersome process, then there is a good chance that it may fail at the end of the day!

Alternatively, a customization to the existing process may be viable option, but then,

Will the customization consume more man days than changing the standard structure?

How about the commercials? will the client agree?

Well, as a consultant, making the right decision at this point quite crucial, but at the end if we really understand the need of the client and their road map with the system in place, then arriving at a conclusion will not be hard as it seems to be.

There may be numerous ways of achieving this , but I would say the main ingredient would be , “Always keep your client closer to you”, never keep them out of the process nor have any secrets , be transparent on what your intentions are , make them feel comfortable and the most important thing is let them also understand that your plan and objectives are in line with theirs, if this part is handled well, then it’s just a walk in the park !

Generally, during these sorts of situations, I would explain and try my best to simulate the entire change requests to the client on the existing setup, demonstrate them on the processes involved and enlighten them on the pros and cons.

Once the client has got the understanding, then justify on the customization factor over the standard setup and the benefits that could bring into the organization which may include improved transaction time, better usability, sustainability, features that specifically useful for the client and etc.

Theoretically, whatever I explained above in detail, simply falls into the Agile Principles for Stakeholder Management

You may refer to the following article for details,

https://www.apm.org.uk/resources/find-a-resource/stakeholder-engagement/key-principles/

The ultimate objective of the above activity is giving the right solution to the client. It may be costlier than the standard setup or vice versa, but if the benefits are conveyed properly then compromising on the commercial aspect would not be an issue.

Let me conclude with the following quote of Roy Disney

“It is not hard to make decisions when you know what your values are.”

Thank You and Good Luck 🙂