Many people are afraid of the unknown. When there are risks involved, the fear increases exponentially. It is common to focus on the things that could go wrong instead of all of the things that could — and probably will — go right. However, innovation does not come from playing it safe.
The first step in innovation for many companies is becoming a truly digital operation. That can mean an opportunity to implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system or upgrade your current ERP. One of the biggest hurdles to going fully digital is not being aware of the risks of transformation. However, you can become fully aware of what your company needs and the pitfalls to avoid with proper planning and assessment.
The very first thing that you should do before going fully digital is understanding what every process in your business does. Not taking stock of these processes is a risk. Instead, use this as an opportunity to find the processes that are not working so that you can improve them. This also will show where the pain points are in your business. Instead of purely automating every process, doing this initial assessment can help you achieve your goal to increase productivity by using artificial intelligence.
Another risk you can remedy before implementing an ERP is taking an assessment of your existing technology and processes that includes all people and departments within your organization. Each person and department do different things, so their use cases also will be different. Understanding how your organization runs will help you find the right ERP.
Once you are clear on what systems you want to automate and how they affect your business as a whole, the next risk you need to avoid is getting caught up in eye-popping features that your business does not need. Keep it simple, and only pick features that will improve your business functions and productivity.
Now that you have figured out exactly what your business needs, the final risk is moving too fast when implementing an ERP solution. Plan it out and make a timeline with actionable goals to meet. If you stick to a schedule and go slowly, you will position your business for long-term success. An ERP solution is meant to be used for many years, so taking the extra time up front to get it right will lessen any headaches down the road.
