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How AI is Transforming ERP Systems

Explore how AI integration redefines ERP systems, as well as enhances operational efficiency, predictive analytics, and customer service. Dive into the future of business operations with our latest insights.

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Pros and Cons of Cloud ERP

It often seems like everyone’s moving to the cloud—and if they’re not moving to the cloud, they’re talking about how cost-effective it is. However, recent research shows that many companies struggle with cloud cost overruns. So how effective is cloud adoption? And more importantly, do these cost issues extend to cloud ERP? We answer those questions and more in our latest article about the pros and cons of cloud ERP.

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7 Key Digital Transformation Trends Shaping North American Manufacturing in 2023

For many, these uncertain economic times are causing them to revisit their digital transformation plans. As you build or revise your business case for digital transformation, it’s important to understand how others are approaching their initiatives. Read our latest article to stay up to date with emerging trends and best-practices that are shaping North American manufacturing and distribution.

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Break ERP Contract Chains: How to Negotiate Flexible Agreements

If the last few years have taught us anything about business, it’s that the successful companies adapt to tempestuous market shifts. And, there have been plenty of recent events that have given companies opportunities to distinguish themselves in this regard: the Great Recession, a choppy recovery, Japanese supply shortages, rising Chinese labor costs and, now, a market correction.

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Pros and Cons of Investing in ERP Projects During a Recession

The Economist has said that a global recession is inevitable in 2023. At the same time, digital transformation continues to be a top priority for businesses in many industries. In an economic downturn, should you invest in a large ERP system? It depends. Here are the pros and cons of ERP implementation in a recession.

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Four ERP Selection Risks that Can Torpedo Your Project (and How to Avoid them)

Our recent ERP benchmark study (soon-to-be-released) points out the obvious relationship between ERP selection success and ERP implementation success, that is: a failed selection project inevitably results in a failed implementation project.

Now, ruminate on this statistic – a paltry 32% of ERP selection projects succeed. This means that 68% of ERP projects are destined to fail before implementation even starts.

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Marin County v. Deloitte: Learn From This ERP Implementation Failure to Drive Success

Marin County v. Deloitte: Learn from this ERP Implementation Failure to Drive Success

ERP implementation failure is a pretty easy topic to write about – fresh material is delivered to my door almost daily. Consider, for example, the California County of Marin’s recent $30 million lawsuit against Deloitte Consulting LLP.

In that case, Marin County hired Deloitte to implement an SAP ERP system. Marin spent $18.6 million on system and implementation costs. For all of that money, what did it get? A malfunctioning system, administrative lock-ups and headaches.

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An Introduction to Driving ERP Implementation Success with Milestone Deliverables: Part 1

An Introduction to Driving ERP Implementation Success with Milestone Deliverables: Part 1

Our firm developed the Milestone Deliverables ERP implementation project management methodology over a 33-year period. It is now used to deliver ERP success in more than 40 countries.

This short series of articles is designed to introduce you to the key components of our methodology – the components that are necessary to drive ERP implementation success. This first article focuses on the importance of project planning, business process mapping and system testing.

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ERP projects graveyard

A Case Study on Hershey’s ERP Implementation Failure: The Importance of Testing and Scheduling

Imagine waking up one day to find out that your company’s supply chain has ground to a halt, making it impossible to fulfill $100 million worth of orders. For Hershey’s confectionary manufacturing and distribution operations, this nightmare came true in 1999. Read this case study on Hershey’s ERP implementation failure. Learn about the importance of ERP system testing and project scheduling.

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The Key to Your ERP Project Success? Strong and Stable Leadership

Successful ERP implementation projects transform companies. Executives need to steer the project to ensure that the future business is designed in a way that aligns with corporate strategy. They also need to assure that the company’s best people are committed to delivering a quality project. In this post, we look at three key critical success factors relating to executive-level participation.

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6 Keys to Drive ERP Success and Avoid Black Swan Failures

6 Keys to Drive ERP Success and Avoid Black Swan Failures

In its September 2011 issue, the Harvard Business Review (HBR) featured an article on IT project failures, Why Your IT Project May Be Riskier Than You Think. As an example of an IT project failure, the authors discuss how Levi-Strauss’ $5 million ERP project morphed into monstrous losses of $200 million.

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ERP Selection Success: Control Procurement and Minimize Sales Bias

ERP selection is the first hurdle that has to be cleared on the path to ERP success.

Unfortunately, management all too frequently underestimates the complexity of the selection component. Too often, they approach selection with the view that it’s an administrative project that’s easily completed. This approach, unfortunately, couldn’t be more misguided.

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6 Tips to Drive a Successful Multi-Company ERP Implementation

Multi-company and enterprise-wide implementations bring their own unique challenges and requirements. When planning a project, it’s important to map how the data and processes will (or will not) flow across entities. It’s also important to define cross-divisional teams that might need to provide input.

Read-on to learn the keys to successfully managing a multi-company ERP implementation project.

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You Have Selected ERP Software: But Are You Ready to Implement?

It doesn’t matter how fancy your ERP system is. It doesn’t matter how closely the system’s capabilities match your company’s needs. It doesn’t matter that the ERP system is SaaS, comes with the latest flavors of business intelligence, or can be used by mobile workforces on their smartphones. No, none of this matters if the system isn’t implemented correctly.

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mobile ERP

Mobility and the Enterprise: How to Build a Business Case for Mobile ERP

Whether businesses like it or not, they have to be agile to succeed. If managing extreme economic volatility wasn’t challenging enough, businesses also have to contend with shifts caused by natural disasters (e.g., the Japanese supply disruption), faster cycles of technological innovation and obsolescence, and structural shifts in the labour market.

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Finding the Balance: When ERP and Business Needs Conflict

The current economic climate is causing many organizations to rethink their ERP projects – whether selection, implementation or optimization. Many businesses are now hesitating because they’re no longer sure that it’s in their best interests to fund the projects or to divert precious human capital resources.

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Reframing ERP Contract Negotiations to Drive Implementation Success

Really, now. Is this just another example of an author using an alarmist title for shameless promotion? Or, is there actual substance behind my bold claim that ERP contract negotiations – which, by the way, are fully completed before ERP implementation even starts – can actually be a key driver of implementation success?

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ERP Implementation Tip #21: Data Migration | Key Concepts

In last week’s ERP implementation tip, we discussed the end-user training phase – the phase during which the implementing organization’s employees are taught how to incorporate the new system into their daily work routines.

We now start our discussion of data migration. Given the importance of this topic, it will span two tips. In this week’s tip, we cover the key concepts. In next week’s tip, we will explain how to tie these various concepts together into an actionable migration plan.

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ERP Implementation Tip #20: Cutover Countdown | End-User Training

In last week’s ERP implementation tip, we discussed the integrated pilot phase – the third of three systems testing phases in an ERP implementation project.

With the testing complete, the implementing organization suddenly finds itself under-the-gun to make sure that its troops are ready to work in the new operating environment.

In this week’s tip, we discuss the end-user training phase – the phase during which the employees are taught how to incorporate the new system into their daily work routines.

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ERP Implementation Tip #19: System Test #3 | Integrated Pilot Simulation

In last week’s ERP implementation tip, we covered the Departmental Pilot phase – where the teams tested all business processes in the new IT system. In the tip previous to that, we discussed the Conference Room Pilot phase – the first round of system tests where only a sampling of the business processes were tested.

In this week’s tip, I walk you through the final round of ERP systems tests before cutover: the Integrated Pilot testing phase.

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ERP Implementation Tip #15: ERP Change Management Plan – Six-Stage Surgical Approach

In my previous ERP implementation tip, I identified potential pockets of change resistance and discussed how an effective change management plan can drive ERP implementation success and diffuse potentially fatal project resistance.

This week, I break down six key elements of a change management plan, including the training strategy. The change management plan completes the fourth and final deliverable in the project mapping phase.

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ERP Implementation Tip #11: 7 Steps to Building an ERP Business Scenarios Matrix

In last week’s ERP implementation tip, I offered some general advice about managing the business process mapping phase of your ERP implementation project.

The mapping phase is made up of four sub-phases, each constituting a separate project deliverable. Over the next four weeks, I will break down the each of these four deliverables, starting with the business scenario list, below.

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ERP Implementation Tip #10: 6-Steps to Business Process Mapping

In last week’s ERP implementation tip, I described how to structure an intensive, 4-course program to train your core team on the selected ERP system.

Now, after having successfully completed its training, your core team is ready to restructure the business processes to accommodate the new ERP system. In this week’s tip, I offer some advice on process mapping as well as on managing the related change and risk issues of your ERP implementation project.

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Two Causes of ERP Implementation Failure (and How to Avoid Them)

These days, small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) need enterprise resource planning systems (ERP) to be competitive. ERP helps companies manage their global supply chains and forecast demand. SMBs, though, are advised to approach ERP very cautiously. Casualties from failed ERP implementations are like bodies strewn across a bloody battlefield.

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ERP: How It Can Help Your Business

Industry reports and promotional materials make ERP sound like manna-for-business, dropped down from the heavens above. They say that ERP can make your business more efficient, responsive, integrated, transparent, profitable, productive… and the list goes on. What you really want to know, though, is how ERP can help your business. And, what’s the catch?

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erp selection

Lessons From a Recent ERP Selection Project

As we close out 2010, I reflect on an ERP system selection project that we’re just now wrapping up in time for the holidays. The client runs a multi-site manufacturing and distribution business. It is a strategic supplier to big-box retailers and leads the market in its product category.

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Is Your ERP Consultant Truly Impartial?

In a recent ZDNet article, Alliances, Referrals, Kickbacks, Reselling: Where’s the independent advice in this?, author Brian Sommer sends a crystal clear message to IT buyers. He says that if buyers want to find the right-fit IT system, they had better ensure the independence and impartiality of their system selection consultants.

If the consultants are not free from bias, he warns, the buyer could end up with a system that fits the consultants’ bottom lines better than its operations.

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ERP selection

ERP Selection: 3 Steps to Analyzing Functional Needs

Companies evaluating ERP solutions may find themselves ensnared in a net of vendor confusion. Selecting the right ERP software from among 15 or 20 seemingly good candidates is a difficult project. So, how does a company go about comparing, contrasting and ranking the various ERP software alternatives? How can it satisfy itself that it is picking a software package that best fulfills its various needs?

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erp pricing

ERP Pricing: How to Avoid Sticker-Shock

Unanticipated ERP license needs. Unexpected ERP add-on modules. Unknown 3rd-party software needs. Surprises like these can lead to ERP sticker-shock and cause buyer’s remorse. Unplanned ERP expenses can throw off budgets, strain resources and, in some cases, cause ERP projects to die. They can even lead an ERP buyer to a system that it would not have otherwise selected had it known the true costs.

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ERP Demonstrations

The Buyer’s Corner: A Case Study on Managing ERP Demonstrations

Our client – a mid-sized manufacturer and distributor – recently participated in ERP software demonstrations. From its perspective, these demonstrations collectively constituted the single-most important phase of its ERP selection project. Why? Because it was our client’s only opportunity to test-drive the ERP alternatives before making a purchase.

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Agricultural technology

Agtech providers of precision agriculture and robotic solutions providers are transforming agriculture and farming operations.  Pemeco helps its agricultural technology clients implement standard, scalable business processes to drive their high-growth businesses.