9 Signs Your Legacy ERP System Needs A Review

Many companies have been successfully using legacy ERP systems to support their business operations in manufacturing, wholesale and distribution. Most of these systems have been in place for many years, despite changes in vendor ownership. Although the ERP transactions continue to support the business, many companies have been assessing the shortfalls of their systems versus business needs.

Many mid-market organisations have not been able to justify moving from their legacy ERP systems

In the decade that has passed since they refreshed their technology:

• supply chains have extended overseas,
• lead times increased,
• product lifecycles shortened and
• the cost of investing in inventory has changed dramatically.

On the market facing side consumers and customers expectations have changed, and there is now a profusion of sales channels and information about products instantly available to everyone. Legacy ERP which was once the core of a business’ operations is now an obstacle to aligning to these new market conditions.

Here are 9 signs indicating that your system may be in need of review:

1. Your business will have changed and your current ERP platform will increasingly be reliant on data from external systems
2. Your system experiences frequent downtime
3. The skills you require to maintain or improve the system are not readily available
4. Your business is increasing its use of spreadsheets, manual data entry and external systems in order just to standstill
5. Maintaining a competitive position and addressing compliance issues is becoming harder and harder due to the number of systems in use that have little or no integration
6. Your ERP solution cannot adapt with your business – changes such as product line changes and business emphasis changes – without modifications and workarounds
7. Your ability to remain in touch with best practice in supply chain, customer relationship management, channel and sales management, retain high quality employees and provide the sophisticated financial and budget models that are required today, is increasingly challenging
8. Lacking visibility to make real-time decisions about your business
9. Your platform could deliver you more if only it was able to handle demanding workloads, real-time analytics and predictive workloads

Ideally, ERP systems should serve as the primary source for all critical data while delivering analytics and reporting functions that help companies make better decisions. If they don’t, or if one of these scenarios sounds familiar, it may be time for you to review your ERP.

Migrating from one or more legacy ERP systems to a new environment was traditionally a huge undertaking

The obstacles of the past have been removed with the development of Australian industry specific templates and a happy, referenceable install base at your fingertips.

Contact us for more information on migrating your legacy ERP system>>