Published on the 04/07/2013 | Written by Philip Morgan
The technology to drive your business must be chosen by business heads, not by techies. By Philip Morgan, Director, Verde Group…
Your IT manager looks after your tired old business software, so you’re giving them the job of selecting a replacement. Logical, right? Wrong! Letting your IT manager alone decide the best ERP solution for your business could be one of the worst decisions you ever made. You could end up limiting your growth and losing the chance to boost performance levels. You could pay too much money for a complex, high-maintenance system that staff find difficult or frustrating to use, or which may not actually perform crucial tasks well at all. Some IT managers, unchained from the support desk, may go hog wild looking for a state-of-the-art system with all the latest specifications – the Christmas present they always wanted. They may love it, but they’re likely to be on their own. On the other hand, your IT manager may understand your business and know your current system inside out. They may even have a reasonable idea of where the current system is letting you down or preventing you from achieving better performance. But they’re still the wrong person for this job. Who’s the best person? A senior business manager. Business vision the driver You need a strong vision of where the company is going before you can decide what software is going to get you there. Start by separating out the “How we do it” (the current processes) from the “What we want to achieve” (the outcomes), and make sure your evaluation is done in terms of the latter. Just because the business does things one way now, it shouldn’t necessarily work the same way with a new system. And if a significant change in the business is required, do you really want your IT manager guiding it through? If any of your requirements at this stage are technical, you’re missing the point. Technology is rarely an end in itself and almost always a means. The hygiene factor Of course your IT manager still has a role to play, but they should focus on their core skills. They should specify the technological requirements that need to be considered – these are separate from the business requirements. It’s worth sense-testing these requirements to ensure you’re not limiting your choice of solution because of the IT manager’s preference for one technology or one supplier over another. Valid examples include: Questionable examples include: Before you let any software vendor through your door, you should be able to supply them with a document that precisely outlines what you want an ERP system to do for you. The vendor who gets your business will address what you want, and have a proven track record of delivering those requirements. But first things first: senior management must map out what the business is doing now and (more importantly) where it is going. The IT manager can then focus on their proper role: building a system that addresses both the present and the future. Philip began his working days in the ceramics industry before switching to career in IT, starting as an analyst, developer then moving into sales and support roles. Philip is a Greentree lifer, having implemented the third ever site, Anzco Foods. Company Directors don’t come with much more depth of experience: he’s a former Managing Director, Product & Service Line head, Business Advisory leader, analyst and programmer. A firm believer in the healthy body – healthy mind principle, Philip works out, plays rugby and climbs mountains on his bike.
Any process to change business software should be driven by senior leaders who have a firm idea of the business objectives driving the change. And yet it’s surprising how often we’re approached by an IT manager who’s been tasked with evaluating ERP systems. Added to which the brief from management is usually pretty vague and is frequently driven by sheer obsolescence – either of the existing software or the hardware it’s running on.
Technology should be a ‘hygiene factor’ in evaluating a software solution’s ability to meet your business requirements. The term “hygiene factor” was coined to describe criteria that don’t contribute to an improvement in a given situation but prevent deterioration – like hygiene in a hospital. After an operation good hygiene doesn’t improve recovery, but poor hygiene can kill the patient. Similarly, don’t expect the technology supporting your business systems to deliver the improvements, but ensure it is robust and appropriate to the task.
ABOUT PHILIP MORGAN//
