business
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CRM should be a standard feature and
combined with the ERP system to ensure
they share a single database – no need
to synchronise two databases with the
same information. Integrated business
intelligence means users go beyond
spreadsheets and use integrated BI
to understand what the financial and
customer data is really telling them so they
can make informed, actionable decisions.
It should include integrated eCommerce to
link online orders to the ERP and CRM. Once
should easily be able to track all sales and
manage inventory in real time.
Technology
This is probably the most important point.
Don’t invest in ‘analogue’ technology when
we are in the midst of the Digital Migration.
The product must use technology for
usability, customisability and maintainability.
All functionality must be accessible through
the Internet using a standard browser without
the need for any software installation on
the user’s device and without any additional
software licensing required. It should be 100%
available via a Smartphone App – Android or
iOs are the most important ones to check for.
It should be a responsive design where users
can view and interact with every page of the
application on any device with a minimum
of resizing, panning or scrolling. The user
interface should have a modern look and feel
with customisable screens and dashboards.
They must have easy access to tasks with
minimal clicks and intuitive workflow.
It is crucial that the solution allows the
company to move to the cloud whenever
required. More importantly, not everyone
wants to operate in the cloud so the product
should support both on premise and cloud
deployments, and let users switch deployment
models if and when they are ready.
Value
It is critical that the product maximises
features and functions versus cost for the
usable lifetime of the product. The Total
Cost of Ownership (TCO) should reduce over
the foreseeable lifetime of the product (at
a minimum three to five years), including
licensing, support, hardware, upgrade, and
hosting costs.
Be sure to add the cost of additional
products required to run the system (web
server, eCommerce platform, database
server, collaboration tools and CRM), which
includes all required hardware, licensing, and
support costs.
also be multiple deployment options like on
premise, private cloud or public cloud e.g.
Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Companies should preserve capital
for other business initiatives. Cloud
deployments reduce the need for initial
cash outlay for hardware and software
purchases. Cloud deployments reduce
the amount of internal IT staff required
for hardware and software support
and maintenance.
Risk
The product must minimise risk and
facilitate security, both network and
financial security. Monthly costs must be
predictable and not vulnerable to spikes
in IT costs. Standardising on a platform
allows one to predict monthly cost for
the system.
The product must scale as the company
grows and it should have the ability to
accommodate heavier volumes, more
resources and more users. The most
important aspect is the cost; companies
should only pay for what they use and they
should be able to add more resources when
they need them. The product must be fast and easy to
deploy in the cloud and run natively on
the big popular cloud platforms. Cloud
solutions eliminate time delays and
risk of unplanned costs by deploying
quickly. Companies should leverage
global technology leaders by utilising
the resources and security of large cloud
hosting providers like Amazon Web
Services, and Microsoft Azure as well as big
local data centres such as Seacom.
Choose a product that charges by resources
used, not by user count. This makes the
benefits of ERP available to all employees
companywide. Charging by user penalises
growing businesses. Reduce risk by choosing a software vendor
that has specific industry knowledge and
customer references in that industry. They
must also offer best-in-class security at no
additional cost.
It should also have flexible licensing options,
offering subscription or perpetual licensing
(depreciable capital expense versus an
ongoing operating expense). There should Consider saving data in the cloud with backup
and disaster recovery. Cloud deployment
is safer, and cheaper, and lowers costs for
backup, failover and disaster recovery. n
Flexibility
The product must be customisable and
flexible with the ability to modify and
customise business logic to meet a
company’s unique requirements. Users must
be able to perform customisations using
industry standard tools and programming
languages without requiring the use of
proprietary languages or compilers.
The product must also allow for all system
data to be stored in a full relational SQL
database, users should be able to query data
for reporting, BI, financial statements,and
audits. Furthermore, users must be able to
access and export relational versions of all
data for reporting, backup and transfer.
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