If a company’s business processes do not match the current commercial ERP systems that are available there are still other options for the business to take and still gain the advantages of an ERP. Commercially available ERP’s usually are designed more for generalised markets or for those business who are in a large industry such as Accounting or Human resources, therefore companies who are specialists or are from a small industry, they usually have to either make do with what’s available and modify to suit or make their own in house ERP to suit their business.
While supporters of ERPs state that companies who do not adopt an ERP will be at a great disadvantage compared to their competitors and will miss out on the many benefits, ERPs are not the almighty business solution that it is made out to be. While ERP can give businesses a variety of benefits to help them compete in the highly competitive business world, business can still operate without them.
The advantages of ERP can result in:
· Cost reduction
· Inventory reduction
· Improved operating performance
· Increased Response time
But the disadvantages are:
· Disruption to business process
· Long time to implement
· Failure can be damaging if implementation isn’t done right
· Costly to implement
In considering what path a company should take, the company really needs to analyse their current business process and determine what they believe needs to be corrected or improved upon and what processes they feel should be continued, if any. After determining what the company needs from a ERP the company can then decide whether it would be easier to find a similar ERP and modify to fit or build it themselves. In house ERPs can be very costly and can take long time to fully implement and may cause more problems along the way but will be made to fit the business requires from the ground up. Modified ERPs can be faster to implement and may save money compared to in house ERP, but problems can arise if the modifications are properly tested for the job it is intended for.
