Should Companies Adapt to ERP or the other way round?

ERP or Enterprise Resource Planning software according to Wikipedia definition

“is an Integrated computer-based system used to manage internal and external resources including tangible assets, financial resources, materials, and human resources. It is a software architecture whose purpose is to facilitate the flow of information between all business functions inside the boundaries of the organization and manage the connections to outside stakeholders. Built on a centralized database and normally utilizing a common computing platform, ERP systems consolidate all business operations into a uniform and enterprise wide system environment.”

In short ERP helps to integrate the data in an organization in a single database so that various departments can more easily share information and communicate with each other.

The purpose behind is not only to ensure transparency but also to facilitate tracking down information regarding the status of a particular   order or its dispatch and other related operations.

In my view companies should actually put in effort to adapt to ERP solutions. The company should train itself and learn the various pros and cons of ERP solutions out in the market and make a correct decision while choosing the correct ERP platform. No company can progress further without properly grasping the ERP fundamentals. The Company has to properly understand ERP fundamentals in order to derive the maximum outcome. These are crucial factors deserving attention when it comes to ERP. The services of ERP cannot happen all on a sudden in an organization. It is a long drawn process .The spade work that needs to be done may require a couple of months and even years depending on issues like volume of the organization. Meticulous planning will definitely help to achieve ERP benefit.

Companies have to be vigilant enough more so when it comes to the question of choosing the appropriate platforms and ERP software. This issue becomes crucial when it comes to the point of corporate amalgamation. The software used by the different companies have to be brought under one common platform.

In more simple terms, ERP is software that has been designed to function in a certain way, obviously taking into account the needs of the customers. Companies who want to centralize their operations using ERP solutions should seek proper help with training and planning from the ERP solution providers. Once they are convinced and ready to adapt to the solution, they should go ahead and implement ERPs.

Let’s also consider the scenario, where the ERP solutions are customized to meet the needs of each company. First of all in this case, companies again have to go through the fundamentals of the ERP software to understand the implementation to use the solution correctly. Moreover, there is no end to customer demands and it will be very difficult to for the ERP solution providers to match all the needs of the customers.

To conclude, I feel that there should be a balance from both sides. ERP solution providers should design the software keeping in view the needs of customers and the companies should adapt their organization to be able to use this solution productively.