4 Common Myths / Misinformation before implementing an ERP System

Mismanaged expectations and misinformation shared during sales cycles for ERP systems are major reasons why so many implementations fail.

Unfortunately, buyers of new ERP systems often rely on faulty information when making their purchasing decisions.  Educated buyers that go into their ERP implementations with their eyes wide open are much more likely to succeed than those that don’t.

Here are 4 common myths that one should be aware of before investing in the new ERP initiative:

ERP implementations can be quick and inexpensive

ERP vendors and their sales reps love to sell the concept of quick and easy implementations. We’re all looking for that silver bullet or “easy button” that we can use to make our implementations easy, but these myths don’t exist. The business transformation portion of the implementation will always be the most difficult aspect of client’s project, and no implementation tool can automate those activities.

No one is implementing on-premise ERP systems anymore 

While SaaS & Cloud solutions are gaining traction, a majority of new ERP implementations still leverage the on-premise model. This could change as management executives become more educated and comfortable with the perceived risks of the cloud, but for now, plenty of organizations are still more comfortable with owning and managing their ERP systems within their four walls.

ERP system will drive the business process improvements.

Too many organizations fall prey to the tendency to want to believe that their new ERP system will tell them how to re-engineer and define their new business processes. Today’s ERP systems are far too sophisticated, robust and flexible to define the business processes for the company. Hence, workflows still need to be defined by the business managers and software needs to be configured in such a way that, ERP can be engaged in critical business process management activities.

ERP can be implemented without any customization. 

Most executives are afraid to even think about customization, and rightfully so. However, 91% of organizations end up doing some sort of customization during implementation. Of the 9% that manage to implement vanilla, out-of-the-box functionality, most are small upstart organizations without much complexity or sophisticated business processes. So, unless it is a very small organization with very little complexity, chances are pretty high that there will be a need to customize the ERP system to meet the business needs and competitive differentiators.