Your ERP system is proven to deliver efficiencies. But can you maintain efficiency as you’re modernizing to a cloud-based infrastructure from the comfortable, old, clunky on-premises approach?
Nearly every company that successfully implements an ERP system achieves operational efficiency (96.6%), and 85.7% also claim improved reporting and visibility into operations, according to a summary of ERP industry findings by FinancesOnline.
That dovetails with what chief executives are looking for — 77% of leaders in PWC’s 25th Annual Global CEO Survey claimed efficiency is their top priority.
As companies partially or entirely replace legacy SAP or other ERP systems, however, leaders in finance and procurement, lines of business and functional units are still pressured to lower costs and improve total cost of ownership (TCO). You’re likely being asked to increase efficiency and performance, reduce security risk, improve flexibility in billing and other systems, and better plan and forecast operational needs.
Four Steps to Lowering Costs and Improving TCO
Fundamentally, there are four ways you’re going to be able to achieve those lofty goals.
First, you’re going to need to provide better visibility of cross-function integration, costs, and performance. This is across data sets, no matter where they are in your organization.
Second, you’ll need to manage costs on an ongoing basis, not just at the start of the implementation. You need flexibility to swap out costly ERP components in real time, as your business or users need functionality.
Third, you must be able to measure efficiency throughout the organization. That’s only possible when you see metrics from operations and activities across the cloud, in all your applications.
And lastly, you need to harness the power of improved analytics, gaining better holistic insights into sources of cost and process improvement.
The glue binding ERP modernization together is your data. Wherever it lives, whatever its form, data holds the key to ERP-driven TCO and productivity.
But don’t be fooled by blasé promises about how quickly you’ll be able to achieve your goals. Do you know what one in five companies say is the top cause of missing modernization project milestones and deadlines? Twenty percent reported that data issues are the main culprit.
The Importance of Integration
You need to be able to bring costs under control with a modernized approach that manages key ERP processes, applications, and data in the cloud, through intelligent connectivity and automation-based processes and data integration.
Only with data reliably connected throughout your organization can you gain real-time and comprehensive visibility into your costs, open a seamless view into process inefficiencies, and support the business objectives that are threatened by a lengthy, inefficient modernization project.
Do you have the time, money, or bandwidth to add your company’s ERP modernization efforts to the list of almost 50% of ERP projects that reportedly fail the first time around?
Download the Boomi executive brief, “Cloud-First Migration: Integration to Optimize ERP Modernization Projects” to learn how Boomi can help you make your ERP transformation initiative more successful — fast.