For the first time in this interactive eBook, we've collected your most pressing questions on ERP and provide you answers straight from the experts. Areas covered include: - How to prepare the groundwork for ERP - How to implement ERP - What to consider when growing globally - How to address change management and communications during the implementation process

1. Integrated ERP Guide:
Expert answers to your most frequently asked questions
In collaboration with Tribridge and Aberdeen Group

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One: Prepping for ERP Enhancement
Introduction
Two: ERP Implementation
Four: Change Management
& Communications
Three: Growth & Global Considerations
Next Steps
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As companies grow, they get weighed down by
a lot of information siloed in individual systems
– finance, accounting, manufacturing, sales and
service, and customer relationship management
(CRM) among them. Getting these data sets talking
with one another effectively is key to operating with
the speed, efficiency and individual responsiveness
that customers demand in today’s 24/7, always-on
economy.
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems have been
developed to accomplish precisely this: to automate,
manage and integrate the flow of information from
multiple business functions – both internal and
external information such as customer and marketing
data – in real time.
Many companies are realizing that flexible ERP
solutions enable them, for example, to align their
data on purchase orders, inventory receipts and
costs. They can track orders from acceptance to
fulfillment and revenue from invoice through receipt
of payment. And all of this provides valuable insights
to assist sales forecasting and inventory optimization.
Introduction
But how can you achieve the benefits of ERP if you are a small to
midsize business (SMB) lacking the capital – human and
financial – of a larger company?
To find out, we spoke to three industry experts on ERP transformation in SMBs.
Nick Castellina is a Research Analyst in Aberdeen Group’s Enterprise Applications
practice, who focuses on cloud-based, software-as-a-service models for ERP and ERP
implementation in SMBs.
Luis Gallardo is an Associate Partner for IBM Global Services in the midmarket group
of Global Business Services, with over 14 years of experience consulting in a breadth of
industries from consumer products to life sciences.
Kathy Killingsworth has more than 25 years of consulting and private industry
experience, and oversees the strategic direction of Tribridge’s national Microsoft
Dynamics AX practice, which includes on-premise, hosted and cloud-based financial and
ERP solutions.
We asked them the questions that midsize businesses most frequently ask about ERP. This guide
summarizes their advice to us.

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Q.What business problems are you
able to solve with an integrated
ERP solution?
Nick Castellina: The major benefits of enterprise
resource planning are its ability to enable
standardization, visibility, and collaboration. It
helps to standardize best practices and introduce
formalized methodologies across the organization.
Luis Gallardo: It improves the integration of
operations with administrative functions and,
depending upon the needs of the organization, can
be used to enhance operational visibility, financial
control, or integration of the supply chain.
Nick Castellina: ERP means real-time visibility
to decision makers, so they can better plan and
execute business strategy. And it helps to connect
employees across the organization, no matter
where they are, in order to improve collaboration.
For example, manufacturing operations to
customer service and delivery.
One: Prepping for ERP Enhancement
ERP helps to standardize
best practices and introduce
formalized methodologies across
the organization
It can enhance operational
visibility, financial control, or
integration of the supply chain.

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Q.How do you know if you need an
ERP upgrade?
Kathy Killingsworth: These issues can be
regarded as symptoms of more fundamental
problems in IT.
• Are you having problems getting access to
information about your business?
• Is it taking too long to close your books at the
end of the month?
• Are your customers finding it hard to get
information about their orders?
• Do you have inventory management issues?
• Does accounting take too long to do basic
processes?
• Do you have outdated processes –
manual data aggregation or paper-based
documentation?
Additional questions you should be asking and
answering are:
• Are your IT resources too time consuming or
costly?
• Do you have disparate, stand-alone software
systems?
• Do you have a number of different software
applications for different purposes?
• Is your company’s growth complicated or
hindered by software integration issues?
If your organization is facing challenges in any
of these areas, it might benefit from a targeted
enhancement to your current ERP implementation.
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Q.What specific business problems
are you are able to solve with an
integrated ERP solution?
Luis Gallardo: This is a company-by-company and
even a business-unit-by-business-unit question. It
really depends on the company’s circumstances:
where the most pain can be alleviated or the
most business benefit can be attained. It could
be a question of enhancing business visibility, by
improving the integration of operations with the
administrative functions; or it could be a matter
of achieving operational efficiency and financial
control or integrating of the supply chain. The key
is determining your needs before you implement
the ERP solution, and knowing your objectives and
goals going into it.

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Q.So,what questions should we
be asking ourselves as we begin
thinking about upgrading our ERP
capabilities?
Nick Castellina: You should start by looking
internally.
Kathy Killingsworth: Come up with an internal
set of questions, based upon what makes you
unique and innovative as a company.
Luis Gallardo: Focus on your culture, what is
important to you in terms of value, current pains
and needs. This will provide core values and
needs based set of questions.
Kathy Killingsworth: Next, put your core values
to one side and objectively evaluate how the
weaknesses in your company’s culture might
impact this ERP project. First and foremost,
is your company flexible enough to allow the
change required to accommodate a new way of
doing things? Are your stakeholders prepared
to reengineer their processes to obtain better
results?
• Who are the key decision makers in your
company who need to “buy into” a new
system in order to make it successful? Despite
what they say, people are not always open to
new ways of doing business and managing
change.
• What is the message that will resonate with
internal concerns to help gain support for a
new system?
• Are people afraid of losing their jobs?
• Do you have a project manager who has
enough experience within your company to
manage this project for you?
• Should you hire someone to act as your
project manager for this critical initiative?
By asking these questions first, you’ll be stress-
testing your company’s culture for its ability to
adapt to technological changes.
Luis Gallardo: Next, you can move to the tactical
aspects of ERP: finance, scope of the project and
project management.
Nick Castellina: And you will need to answer a
new set of questions, such as:
• What can you afford?
• What can you support?
• Which processes are absolutely necessary for
support?
• Who will be using the solution?
• Are there any technologies that need to be
integrated?
• Is there agreement on the requirements and
budget necessary to implement the solution
successfully?
Oftentimes, successful organizations employ a
third party to help with this process. They can help
devise a list of essential criteria.
TIP!
Strong project management correlates very strongly with a successful ERP
implementation. An ERP implementation should be viewed not just as an IT
solution, but also as a business solution that will transform your organization,
helping it to become more effective and efficient.
To read more,please visit IBM.com and download the complete eBook.
Download the ERP eBook