ERP 2.0

Disclaimer: Full rant mode /on

ERP, long may they reign. Sweet music in any CFOs ears. Navision, SAP, Brightpearl, Business Central, Netsuite, SPY, Fava (no, having .io in your domain does not make up for the ball and chain you put on any brand using your platform) TRIMIT and the list goes on and on. The one system to rule them all. The one platform that does everything in every aspect of your business. The holy grail of any business.

Bullsh*t… Complete and utter bullsh*t. 

Example: If a system, such as Business Central, needs someone to develop an advanced layer of business logic, to even harbour the fact that you have multiple variants on your products, is that system best in class? Is it not, by default, a losing horse?

First of all, variants are not hard. Practically all eCommerce systems support multiple variants without any problem or additional coding whatsoever. So you're already bending a system to fit your needs.

Secondly, if you rely on a 3rd party to adapt their offering to new releases, you're always going to be at least a couple of cycles behind. Is that really what you want in a dynamic and fast phased industry like eCommerce?

This is one example that cements why our approach is always use-centric. 

The Pizza Argument 

ERP is not (supposed to be) a monolith system. Enterprise Resource Planning. That is what ERP stands for, and as such, is not a single platform or system, but rather a discipline that you as an organisation need to master, in order to do what you do, best.

ERP can be

  • Finance
  • Analytics & reporting
  • Human Resources
  • Project Management
  • Employee costs
  • Service
  • CRM & Sales
  • Inventory Management
  • Manufacturing
  • Purchasing
  • Plenty more...

It’s an endless list, as the list is not universal. The list of what ERP is, will always be centric to your business.

Quite a menu, wouldn’t you say?…

So. Where do you get the best pizza?

At the we-have-it-all-pizza-burger-steak-kebab-roasted-chicken-indian-sushi-tapas-inspired restaurant?

Or, at the local wood fired stone oven pizza place with locally sourced, in season toppings?

Sorry. Not sorry. If you're craving pizza now. All credit goes to Nik Owens on Unsplash.

Apply this concept to your tech stack and the quality you expect to have in your data and ways of interacting with it. The ERP system world is upside down. You’re supposed to scale away from ERP systems, not into them. You want the A-TAEM for your business. Be the Netflix, not the Blockbuster.

You want platforms that are specific to its area of expertise. Platforms where there are other, hungry, predators ready to do it better than you, where you know that every time you open op your HR Platform, the people behind that platform are doing their best, to help you have the best place of business. A CRM platform that deeply understands your customers and potential customers and help your sales team, not just manage their sales, but do their job to perfection.

Every aspect of your business deserves the best tool for the job, and you deserve autonomy to change out parts, if they do not perform, as opposed to being sunken-cost forced to stay with an ERP system that only does 70-80% of what you need it to do.

That’s ERP 2.0