Goal #7 in Selecting Your The Best Enterprise Resource Planning(ERP) System: Focus Your Time and Money!
The 10 Principles of Success
We continue to review the 10 Principles of Success and how they’re applied to ERP Selection with the 6th Goal for Success:Focus Your Time and Money!
The 10 Principles of Success are:
1. How You Think is Everything!
- Always be positive.
- Think success not failure.
- Be aware of a negative environment.
2. Decide on What Your True Goals Are!
- Write down what your specific goals are.
- Write down a plan/time line in how to obtain your goals.
3. Take Action!
- Goals/Plans are nothing without action.
- Don’t be afraid to get started – “Just Do It”, it doesn’t need to be perfect to start, nothing ever is!
4. Never Stop Learning!
- Get on-going training so use to better your organization.
5. Persistence and Hard Work Pay-off!
- Success is a marathon, not a sprint.
- Never give up on the goal/plan that you created in number 3 above, original or revised!
6. Learn How to Analyze the Details!
- Get all the facts/input you can – Learn from your mistakes.
7. Focus Your Time and Money!
- Don’t let other things and people distract you!
8. Don’t be Afraid to Innovate and Change – Be Different!
- Following the way that it’s always been done is a sure way to achieve nothing.
9. Communicate and Deal with People Effectively!
- Learn to understand what motivates the people you work with and what they need to be successful. No person is the organization or is indispensable.
10. Be Honest and Dependable!
- Take Responsibility – Otherwise 1 through 9 above won’t matter.
As a disclaimer, these 10 Principles of Success come from Investor’s Business Daily (IBD) newspaper aimed at helping stock market investors understand what good growth stocks to invest in, based on what the current overall market conditions are. EstesGroup believes that a company can apply these 10 Principles of Success to ERP systems; that is selecting, implementing and using them.
How does the 7th Principle of Success apply to:
Choosing the Right ERP System for Your Business?
Principle # 7: Focus Your Time and Money!
- Don’t let other things and people distract you!
Everyone has heard the old saying “There’s only so much time” and “There is only so much Money” to get things accomplished. Truer words were never spoken as they relate to selecting your company’s ERP system. Just as you need to establish a budget for the purchase and implementation of an ERP system you also need to establish a budget of time and money you’re going to use to select an ERP system. So what are the Time & Money elements you need to budget to the ERP system selection process?
- The overall timeframe budget for ERP selection is about 3 to 6 months. This will vary somewhat from organization to organization, but if you string this process out to long, I guarantee you the employees on the ERP Selection Review Team will lose their Focus and the time and money you spend will be for naught.
- Breaking down the 3 to 6 month overall timeframe to hours becomes an exercise in how many people (including upper management) you’ll have on your ERP Selection Review Team and then knowing how many hours per week they should devote to the ERP system review/selection.
- ERP Review Team Members typically are, one person from the following areas in your company:
- Sales
- Marketing
- Operations (production, inventory, maintenance, etc.)
- Purchasing
- Finance
- Human Resources
- President/CEO/CFO
- 6 hours/week/person – Internal Project Leader – 15 hours/week on average should be devoted to ERP system selection.
- That is:
(20 weeks x 6 hours x 7 people = 840 to 1000 hours -including project leader time on average)
Note: If this sounds like a lot of time, please remember selecting the right ERP system for your organization is probably the most critical thing you as a group will do; because the system touches every aspect of your organization. In addition to this, it’s also important to know that the employees above will be the leaders of these areas or the person that knows the most about how their area interacts with the rest of the company. If you apply the hourly cost of each of these people to the number of hours you’re budgeting for selecting an ERP system, you’ll have a pretty good estimate of the money you’ll spend to select an ERP system.
- That is:
- ERP Review Team Members typically are, one person from the following areas in your company:
- Consulting costs if you’re not going to go it alone or you need a professional consultant to lead your company’s ERP selection process.
- 20 weeks x 15 hours/week x $175.00/hour (on average) = $52,500.00Note: You’ll still need to commit the employees time listed above to the ERP Review Team. A number of company’s feel that once they make the decision to hire a consultant to lead the ERP selection project the other employees get a pass on being involved. This is 100% false. The consultant is hired to organize the project review/information and provide feedback to upper management based on the involvement of the team, not make the ERP system selectionfor you. The consultant isn’t going to use the ERP system after they leave your company is.
- Travel Costs of the consultant and of your internal team should be budgeted for (if necessary).
Based on the Money and Time involved of an ERP system selection it’s critically important to Focus on the task at hand and get it done in the designated timeframe you’re allowing.
EstesGroup can help! We’ve been providing this type of help to our customers for years. Our ERP systemselection knowledge and our honesty on your behalf is what makes us different.
We would love to talk with you about HOW to “Focus Your Time and Money” on bettering your ERPselection process. Pick up the phone and call 1 888 300 2340 and together we will:
