ERP Systems: Where E = Education

For those companies entering into an ERP selection, there’s no substitute for education.

Most users in a manufacturing company are not well-versed in current business process best practices. Nor have they been able to keep current with today’s ERP vendor offerings and technology.

Your team members may certainly know the current system, and all the ins and outs of the company’s particular workflows.  In addition, some staff members may recall ERP solution capabilities from a past employer.

But that level of insight isn’t enough.

The Case for Education

An ERP selection process usually starts with a review of the “current state” of business processes.   Once the current state is reviewed and documented, the business process owners need to be educated on what is possible.

Don’t be tempted to jump right from the current state to a future state. Instead, take the time to see where the documented current state uncovers waste, redundant data, wasted processes, too many manual steps and the like.

When we team with a manufacturer, educating business owners in business process best practice is a key ingredient in driving business process improvement.

Our team has found that teaching the client teams “what is possible” is an important step required before the development of the ‘future state” of business processes.

The organizations we team with benefit from a full curriculum of education at Ultra’s ERP University. Ultra Consultants deliver business process education directly to our client teams on site and on line. Curriculum might include:

• ERP 101
• Technology Overview
• Business Process 101
• Advanced ERP Topics
  • CRM
  • Engineering
  • Supply Chain Management
  • Quality Systems
  • Inventory Management

Obviously, the curriculum needs to be custom designed specifically for the business process owners.

Explore What’s Possible

All told, we can’t over-emphasize the importance of education to unlock thinking and explore possibilities.

A third party is powerful during education.  Independent ERP consultants from Ultra understand what’s possible with today’s technology. We offer tremendous value to help uncover waste and broaden the team’s perspective on what’s possible in terms of proven best practices.

Through shared understanding of the problem areas, the entire organization begins to have an appreciation of potential process improvements.