Tag Archives: Implementing ERP

ERP Budgeting: How Much Should I Spend on ERP Implementation?

How much budget should a company of your size allocate to your Enterprise Resource Planning implementation project?

Before you even start researching your options, you may want to get a high-level understanding of what ERP actually costs.

The cost of an ERP implementation depends on multiple factors such as:

Size of your business
Number of ERP users
Requirements and integrations
Deployment options
Customisations

In this infographic, we will try to give you an indicative reference price chart that you can use to scope the size of your ERP project and allocate a tentative budget based on the size of your organization (employees and turnover).

ERP implementation budget: How much should a business of your size spend on ERP implementation?

The following illustration breaks down ERP implementation cost by business size. This is based on our experience in implementing ERP systems for over 180 companies since 2005.

A more accurate estimate can be obtained by contacting our staff.

ERP budgeting explained

For simplicity, let’s consider three main category groups:

Tier 3: These are small businesses with up to 75 staff and $80 Million turnover. These organizations typically look at small office software and lower market ERP software. Prices may vary anywhere from $25k to $100k+ depending on the number of users, customisations and specific industry requirements.

Tier 2: For growing SMBs and medium-size organisations with approximately 75 to 500 staff the ERP implementation budget is around the $80k to $1M mark. Once again, the project scope and costing will vary significantly on a case by case basis depending on the requirements.

Tier 1: This is the larger end of town and more geared towards an enterprise software option. Business with 501+ staff and $250M+ turnover typically fall into this category.

Conclusion

If you want to get an idea of how much an ERP implementation will cost to your business you need to consider the number of users, Cloud or On-premise deployment, customisations and maintenance costs.

In this infographic, we have provided a breakdown of the indicative ERP implementation cost you can expect according to your business size in terms of the number of users and annual turnover. This may vary significantly depending on your specific requirements and circumstances.

Leverage Technologies have implemented ERP systems for more than 250 businesses since 2005. For more information or if you would like to get an exact estimate contact 1300 045 046 or email [email protected].

ERP Implementation Roles & Responsibilities Guide: Defining Your ERP Dream Team

Why you need to define ERP implementation roles and responsibilities?

When implementing ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) Software make sure that you clearly define (at the start of the ERP project) who will have responsibility for which parts of the ERP system implementation.

You also need to define:

ERP implementation team members
ERP project team structure
ERP project team roles

Understand and account for the fact that your team will need to take responsibility for certain parts of the implementation. ERP Training, user acceptance testing, and the system blueprint will all require time and input from your internal team. Set realistic go-live dates so that your team has enough time to do their daily tasks.

Key ERP implementation team roles and responsibilities

Internal project management – your ERP implementation partner will provide project management resource to guide you through the project. Do not underestimate the importance of having your own internal project manager to manage budget, expectations, coordinate training and user feedback, track and follow up on user acceptance testing and report on progress to senior management.

Super users – make sure that you appoint super users to each functional area of your ERP Software implementation (finance, sales, logistics etc.). Super users will take responsibility for coordinating training, user testing and feedback in their department.

Admin superuser –When implementing ERP software you can ensure a lower cost of ownership by training one of your more technical users as a systems administrator. The systems administrator will take responsibility for day to day ERP Software administrative tasks – setting up new users, basic support for user queries, user authorisations and reporting.

Senior management participation – all good ERP Software implementation methodologies refer to the fact that buy-in from senior management is required for a successful implementation of ERP solutions. I would argue that you need more than senior management buy-in – you need senior management input into some key design phases of the ERP implementation. The amount of senior management participation required will depend on the size of your organisation. In smaller companies where the senior management is actively involved in several day-to-day business activities, you will definitely want to make sure that the senior team is involved in the more strategic design workshops. If you do not involve senior management you might spend time configuring your solution only to find out that the end result is not what management wants.

Conclusion

Implementing an ERP needs clearly defined roles and responsibilities of all parties involved.

Ensure that your ERP implementation partner provides a detailed project plan which highlights areas of responsibility for the ERP implementation. How much internal time needs to be allocated to all ERP project tasks and on what dates are some important inclusions in the project plan.

Clearly defining roles and responsibilities are an important step in the implementation of successful ERP software solutions. The ultimate advice is to spend some time on this aspect of your ERP planning to ensure project success.

The team at Leverage Technologies has helped more than 250 Australian organisations with their ERP software requirements. Call 1300 045 046 or email [email protected] to speak to a consultant in Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane.

The Secrets of Successful ERP Software / Business Accounting Software Selection – Part 1 of 3

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Hi, this is part 1 of my 3 part blog on the secrets of successful ERP Software selection. Parts two and three will follow over the next few days.

Choosing an ERP / Business Accounting software solution for your business can be time consuming and costly. If you select the correct system and implementation partner the costs will be more than justified and your business will be rewarded with access to information for faster and more effective decision making with many key benefits including increased customer satisfaction, improved cash flow, reduced administration overhead and happier staff.

Make the wrong decision and you can end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a system that gives you less information than you previously had and costs thousands of dollars in monthly upkeep. Once a new system has been implemented changing your mind can be very costly.

So how do we avoid these mistakes?

Most small to medium sized businesses (turnover of $5 million – $50 million) in Australia ask the Finance Manager / Business Owner or IT Manager to source a new solution and business partner / reseller for implementation. The challenge is that most people are only ever involved in one or two software selection processes during their careers and there is not much documentation available to assist in this area.

The team at Leverage Technologies has seen many organisations choose business accounting software /ERP Software solutions. We have taken the best methodologies that we have seen over the years and have come up with the following software selection methodology.

STEP 1 – WHY

Before you even begin searching for a new business management solution ask yourself the question – WHY are we going to market? Generally speaking companies who are going to start searching for a new business management solution do so for one or more of the following reasons:

– Outgrown existing solution

– Using a system which is no longer supported

– Looking to consolidate separate systems or solutions

– Wanting better reporting

– Looking for new technologies – mobile / BI etc.

It is important to know why you are going to market and to esnure that you can articulate these reasons to potential vendors and within the organisation – so that everyone understands the importance of the project.

STEP 2 – PROJECT TEAM, BUDGET AND TIMELINES

Many small or medium sized businesses in Australia don’t bother establishing a project team for software selection and this is potentially a big mistake. My suggestion is that you establish a project team who represent the various business units in your business. Also establish your budget and timelines at this point in time. Budget is very important as there is no point spending hours reviewing great software solutions that cost more than double your budget.

STEP 3 – REQUIREMENTS

Having established your budget and assigned a project team the next step should be to consider your requirements. This is generally done by appointing a “business lead” for each functional part of your business – finance, distribution, warehousing, manufacturing etc. Ask each business lead to put together a requirements list. For larger companies a requirements list might be a large and comprehensive document but for most Australian SME’s a requirements list should be no more than 2 pages per functional area and should focus on the more difficult, critical and unique business requirements. This functional list is not a scope of works – it is purely an initial guideline for potential vendors.

Thanks for reading….part 2 of this blog will be posted later this week.