7 Signs it is Time to Replace Your ERP

With well over 2000 clients over the past 27 years, we have come across hundreds of reasons for replacing an ERP. Some are entirely unique, while others we hear over and over again. And it’s not just us. There are a lot of articles that list the top reasons for replacing your ERP. Our value has always been in providing answers to pain points, though. So with that in mind, we’ve rounded up seven top reasons we see for clients to upgrade or replace their ERP – and we’re going to show you how we helped those clients overcome the issues with a new solution.

 

1. All of those little workarounds you need to keep operating are piling up

Maybe your organization has grown quickly, maybe your implementation wasn’t carried out properly. Regardless of why you have those workarounds, the fact is they eat into your resources – both time and money. Instead of looking and moving forward, you spend too much time in “maintenance mode”.

That was a big issue for Superprem Industries. They grew quickly and were running separate instances of Sage 50 in each of their offices. This meant that every month, their Controller spent two or three days consolidating the data from hundreds of invoices just so they could get a full picture of their financials.

With Acumatica, that double data-entry was eliminated and all of their processes improved in efficiency.  Plus, their Controller got to do much more valuable things with that time.

 

2. The needs of your customers are not being met

Your team may be the only people accessing your ERP, but plenty of people are impacted by the efficiency of its outputs. For example, your suppliers and your customers. They want information relevant to them, they want it easily and they expect it to be accurate. No one wants to spend huge chunks of time on the phone trying to sort out small details.

When Lykki came up against issues like this, they decided that they needed to shift their focus, scrap their entire set-up, and start thinking like an e-commerce company. That meant agility and, most importantly, integration. The Answer Company helped them find and implement an integration between their Magneto online store and Sage X3. This means orders come straight in through their website and into Sage X3. This ensures end-to-end visibility and always-accurate inventory for both the Lykki team and their customers.

 

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3. Your system no longer works for your business

As your team grows, the cost of new user licenses might ramp up. The operations may become more complex, possibly including new territories or facilities. Your current set-up may be difficult to scale up, meaning your employees often face stalled or crashing programs.

Dominion Lending Centres Banks had that exact problem when they came to The Answer Company. As they grew, they acquired other companies, which brought a mish-mash of accounting systems. This made it impossible to get the kind of whole-organization visibility they needed, and it was time to replace their ERP. Acumatica was ideal for them as it not only gave them that visibility, and handled their unique and complicated organizational structure, but the cloud-based platform was also built for scaling. If they continue to grow, Acumatica poises them perfectly for scaling their internal systems when and how they need to.

 

4. Industry regulations are clashing with your ERP

Regulation and compliance rules change regularly. Your heritage ERP may not be up to the task of shifting alongside the landscape. If you operate in more than one legal jurisdiction and must adhere to various regulatory regimes, this challenge is amplified tenfold.

The Answer Company client KBL Environmental Ltd. collects hazardous waste materials, which are regulated by the Canadian government. They’re required to provide reports detailing the quantities and varieties of waste it collects, holds and disposes of. With their old system, all of this report-building had to be done manually – a tedious task. With their new Sage 300 instance, all of this data is tracked as a matter of course.

 

5. You don’t have the time and resources to set aside every time an update needs to roll through

With older ERPs, especially on-premise systems, an IT team is needed to maintain and monitor the hardware and software to ensure it’s always up-and-running. When updates or patches are needed, this is a drain on resources. Replacing your ERP with a true cloud-based solution, such as Sage Intacct, can take that sting out.

Updates are rolled through automatically, meaning less IT manpower needed on the ground. They happen on a quarterly basis, usually outside of peak times. Best of all, there are no retroactive adjustments needed to customizations that you have in place.

 

6. You can only see where you’ve been, not where you’re going

The places we work are not the only thing that’s changed about business. There is more of a focus now on real-time, up-to-the-minute data. Older systems without real-time reporting require human input to extract the data, compile and consolidate it, and convert it into thorough reports. That leaves companies in a position where they can only look backwards.

IDEAL Insulation & Roofing were relying heavily on Excel spreadsheets, because their old ERP didn’t track the data they needed, in the way they needed, to get meaningful insight from it. When they replaced their ERP with Sage 300, these reports were available and accurate up to the moment. This means they could eliminate the added work of compiling reports. Now, that time is spent “analyzing the business, looking for trends and opportunities for improvement”.

 

7. Your organization no longer fits the 9-to-5 cubicle office model

Currently, 47% of Canadian employees work from outside one of their employer’s main offices for more than half of the week. So, if your organization is like many others, your workforce works on-the-go or from outside the office. This means everyone has to have access to the system – and they all need to be able to use it.

Guardian Chemicals’ old platform was “cumbersome and difficult to use”. This meant that they were relying on a handful of “gatekeeper” employees to do all of the work inside the system. This kills productivity and adds unnecessary stress to the whole team. With their new Sage X3 implementation, everyone can actually enter in their own data, empowering them and having huge knock-on effects for overall output.

 

If you’re considering replacing your ERP, you might have recognized some of these frustrations, and have many more besides. The next step is finding an ERP that solves all of your pain points, and an ERP implementation partner that can help you put it in place.

Want to chat about what’s next for your organization? Request a free discovery.