Is Your ERP Software the Best Fit? Lessons from the Olympics

Is Your Business Going for the Gold? ERP Software Must Fit Like an Olympic Skinsuit

In business, the difference between leading in your industry and struggling to beat your competition depends on having the right tools like ERP software to run your business efficiently. What winning principles can we learn from the Olympics in Sochi 2014, where some of the best athletes in the world compete for glory, and love of the game? Like billions of others across the world, I watched the games intently. Each event brings a new and exciting viewing experience.

As I sat watching the speed skating events take place, I saw that some of these races were being decided not by seconds, not even by tenths of seconds; some of these heats were being decided by hundredths of seconds. As exhilarating as such a close finish must be to watch, I began thinking to myself the anguish that coming in second place must feel. To train for years, to devote your life to a task, only to come in second by a couple of milliseconds.

I have no doubt that each athlete in these games trains to the best of their abilities, but the X factor in their performance may well be the suits they are wearing. A low friction suit can cut as much as a tenth of a second off a skaters time, in heats like these, that can be the difference between going for Gold, or going home early.

For many of these athletes, this is the biggest competition of their career. This is the pinnacle of their effort and hard work, surely, they must be comfortable with their suit.....right?  Why would you spend all the time, effort, and money without testing the suit?

Given the level and intensity of competition in the Olympics, one can only put their faith in factors that they can control for. Athletes can control for the training they put in, their health, and their effort, however they cannot control their opponents. It makes sense then, that they would be comfortable with their suit, perhaps the easiest factor that they can control.

In many ways, ERP software is your company's skin-suit.  If the functionality doesn't work for your company's operations, then essentially, you have put what could be one the biggest decisions you will ever make for your company into the wrong skin-suit. There are so many factors in operating a company that you cannot see, and cannot control. There are hazards that will occur that you cannot foresee. ERP is not one of these; by testing your ERP software, by being familiar with its functionality, you can take a big unknown out of running your company and retrain your focus on issues that are outside of your control.

When pursuing ERP options, make a list of the core components that your company needs.  Don't only be persuaded by an option that has some really amazing new features that you are eager to apply to your existing operations.  Focus on core functionality.

When the basic needs are met, then you can expand the search criteria to include functionality that could prove useful as growth occurs.

Another lesson from Sochi is the need to effectively demo a product.  Once you have settled on 2 - 4 ERP software systems to demo, make sure your data is applied and used for the demo.  Put each software on the same playing field and create every day scenarios that will reveal whether or not the software is a fit for your organization. Because, clearly, proper fit in a skin-suit could be the difference between landing on the podium or not.

Contact us to learn more!  Please call - 586.464.4400 or email - info@godlan.com or visit us at www.godlan.com.

About Godlan:

Godlan is a leading professional manufacturing services company that has been implementing integrated technology solutions since 1984. Godlan's Manufacturing ERP software implementations serve hundreds of customers on the east coast with heavy concentration across the southeast and Great Lakes region.. As an Infor Gold Channel Partner, Godlan represents Infor's extended enterprise solutions. These solutions are offered in latest technology platforms and support the implementation of world-class processes and practices throughout a manufacturing organization. Godlan has been an Infor Channel Partner for more than 20 years and was named as the Infor North America SyteLine ERP Partner of the Year for 2011 and Infor Regional Partner of the Year 2013.

Another version of this article was posted by Bobby Rudder February 21, 2014 on Godlan's Blog - Why ERP is Like a SkinSuit

Photo courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net by Salvadore Vuono