When you are a vendor marketing solutions in an industry where some competitors believe that the louder the megaphone, the better their solution, your only hope is that the buyer marketplace is smarter than the vendor. Fortunately, there has been a massive “up-curve” in the “BS” threshold of ERP software buyers. And we like that — a lot.
ERP was once a game of “smoke and mirrors” where acronyms and multi-syllable (and undecipherable) IT phrases – that were known not to be well understood – were passed out like candy during buyer presentations. This is not to discredit the value of a great ERP solution, nor the reality that the underpinnings of ERP programming languages and capabilities are highly technical. You can’t input and manage large volumes of integrated data infused with complex algorithms and not “get” that this is “deep stuff.”
But the point here is that too often, ERP providers of the past have gotten away with selling the sizzle, versus the steak. Sticking with this metaphor, big companies can afford to cut off the fat from a bad ERP steak and still mange. For mid-sized companies however, waste is a big deal.
If you want to get the plain speak on what is critical to a great ERP system and which is the “fat” jargon, here is a simple list of just three key things to watch for:
- ONE HOME-GROWN SOLUTION – Here’s a great example of this: Remember when your kids LOVED Lego blocks…or maybe they still do!? The better they got at them, the pricier those sets got. If you are like me, who appreciates a bargain, you might have tried buying one of those alternative sets that looked like the real deal and was hyped as a cheaper alternative. But guess what – the blocks didn’t work with your kid’s other sets, even though they resembled them and were marketed as compatible. The block snaps didn’t quite align; the buildings were flimsier; and all the manual pressure in the world didn’t fix the problem. Mismatched ERP solutions, acquired via multiple acquisitions by the big ERP vendors, are just like that! So, pick one built on one native architecture, and you won’t have those issues.
- FLEXIBILITY TO CUSTOMIZE IT YOURSELF – Businesses change; laws change; your requirements change; your people change; your customer base changes. You get the idea. If you install one of those hard-coded solutions that require IT experts to make the types of daily changes referenced above, you might as well leave your corporate wallet open on the sidewalk, because money is going to disappear with just as much speed!
- THE TRUST FACTOR – We can’t say enough about how important it is to not only deliver a long-time proven product … but to stand behind it. If you google us, you are not going to find pages of lawsuits, similar to this chart from a few years ago: http://www.zdnet.com/article/erp-train-wrecks-failures-and-lawsuits/. We have more than 15,000 customers and one of the highest customer retention rates in the industry. We don’t try to “pull the wool over anyone’s eyes,” and we certainly do our very best to help educate customers on what they truly need, versus selling them the latest ERP jargon.
Home-grown. Flexible. Trustworthy. These are the plain speak language you’ll get when you choose SYSPRO as your ERP software provider.
About SYSPRO
SYSPRO is the leading supplier of ERP software to mid-market manufacturers and distributors. SYSPRO has more than 15,000 licensed customers in over 60 countries around the globe. If you’d like an ERP expert to contact you and further discuss how SYSPRO ERP can streamline your business processes, please contact us.