Today, we find ourselves in a historic time period where our votes will help dictate our nation's future going forward. Many governments across the world are preparing for political elections, and in the same way, digital transformation teams have decisions of their own to make. These fundamental decisions will set a clear direction, strategy, and parameter for your ERP, CRM, or HCM transformation.
One of the first decisions that need to be made as an organization and as a transformation team is how big of a change do we really need? Are we looking to completely rethink the way we do business or do we just want to focus on more of an incremental change? To be honest, there is no right or wrong answer to this, but there are some pros and cons of each that should be considered to help determine what is best for your organization.
If your organization is risk-averse and you already have a finely tuned business model, an incremental approach may make more sense as it comes with less risk and lower costs. On the other hand, if your organization has experienced disruption by outside forces, or if you have an older, outdated operating system, you may need to start rethinking your general business model. Your company may be pushed to make a huge quantum leap improvement to your business in order to stay competitive. There is upside and downside to both approaches. Specifically, a big leap will have more risks involved on both sides – there is risk in doing so, as with any investment, and there is risk and opportunity cost staying stagnant.
We must look at the cost-benefit of both scenarios.
The beauty of technology today is that it gives you a lot of options. One of the decisions you need to make as an organization is if you want to use technology to standardize and drive common business processes across our organization, or if you'd rather utilize technology to make for more nimble, agile, and flexible operations? These are questions we always need to be asking ourselves while making important decisions for the company.
Another big decision we have to think about is if you want one system that can handle everything within the organization, or if you want to find specific, focused solutions for different parts of our organization. You could go with one single ERP system that encompasses functionalities from finance to supply chain, or you may go to the other extreme which is a best of breed model. A best of breed model is where we have a core financial system, or may have a sperate CRM, HCM, or other technology for customer service, manufacturing, and warehouse management to help with our overall digital transformation strategy.
Single ERP Solution
Best of Breed
It is always important to weigh the pros and cons and the cost-benefit of both models, but either way, you want to make sure it’s aligned with your overall goals and objectives.
Another major and controversial decision, much like who will be our next President, that needs to be made going into a digital transformation is determining whether the software should fit our business or if our business shifts the software. This is not just a one single decision; You might have different answers for different parts of your business.
Software to Fit Your Business
Business to Fit the Software
At the end of the day, you always want to have a clear vision for what it is you want with your software and how you want it in your business.
An important digital transformation strategy decision to consider is if you need to migrate data or start on a clean slate. Maybe there is a middle ground that would best accommodate historical trends integrated into the system. Either way, this will play a large role in your integration process.
Data Migrations
Clean Slate:
Now, there are two schools of thought and approaches to ERP and technology implementations – the Agile Development Model and the Waterfall Model.
Agile Development Model
An approach to software development that focuses on creating immediate value and getting something in front of the user so they can start to comment on whatever is being developed.
Waterfall Model
The traditional method of software integration where we have clearly defined milestones and stage gates where for example we define, agree and sign off on all of our business requirements before we move into design and implementation.
There are many factors to consider, and it can be very difficult to decide which direction to start on as you begin your digital transformation journey. It is important to do a cross-check of all these digital strategies beforehand to make sure your digital strategy is best suited for your business needs before making the investment in both time and resources.
Please feel free to contact us if you would like to brainstorm ideas related to your digital transformation. Whether you are embarking on an ERP, HCM, CRM, supply chain, or any other type of digital transformation, we are happy to be an informal sounding board.