If you do a search on the Top 10 ERP systems, you will find lists of the most well-known systems developed and maintained by the largest vendors. These vendors do offer advantages over many of the smaller vendors, who are not as well funded and may not be able to invest as much R&D in their system. The largest vendors will often have extended functionality for bigger enterprises that could also be used by smaller companies with complex requirements. They will also have more resources including multiple business partners to implement the system. And the owners will perceive less risk […]
Beware of Roles and Responsibilities in an ERP Implementation
Let’s assume you did a thorough job in evaluating the ERP systems/vendors and are in contract negotiations with the preferred vendor. You will be asked to agree to many things including their assumptions on roles and responsibilities for activities such as testing, integration, documenting business process design… The problem is that you have no idea whether the allocation of activity between the vendor and your organization is reasonable. Unfortunately, you may learn the hard way when the vendor issues change requests (and higher costs) for work that was assumed to be your responsibility but for which you need a lot […]
National Technology Forum (NTF)
The National Technology Forum (NTF) is back for it’s 3rd year and was scheduled on May 25-26 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. However, it will be postponed because of Covid-19 at a future/safe date. At NTF, you will be able to compare leading ERP systems (Microsoft, SAP, Infor, Workday, Epicor, Multiview and Sage), obtain guidance from thought leaders, learn about emerging technology, network with your peers… NTF is presented by CPA Canada and 180 Systems and there is no better place to get up to speed on enterprise software and disruptive technologies that are changing the way we do […]
Understanding ERP Deployment Options
If you’re confused by the different options, you are not alone. The vendors add to the confusion as they refer to the deployment options in different ways and they don’t include some of the options. On premise has been around the longest and it’s easy to understand. You pay a one-time fee for the license and annual maintenance fees, but the vendors are all heading to the clouds. The cloud is confusing as there are different types. A public cloud is hosted by the ERP vendor and includes all the software and data, also referred to as Software as a […]
National Technology Forum
For the 2nd year, we have joined forces with CPA Canada in presenting the National Technology Forum (NTF). NTF will occur on May 22-24 with a conference for the 1st 2 days and workshops on the 3rd day. The conference is mostly about enterprise software (ERP, CPM, HR and BI) and emerging technology and is targeted to senior leaders who are responsible for technology investment decisions in industry and public practice. Conference Highlights ERP, HR, BI and CPM (Corporate Performance Management) sessions delivered for customers, by customers, featuring plenty of real-life experiences, lessons learned and valuable advice Industry challenges (manufacturing, […]
It’s 2018 so why isn’t my ERP vendor multi-tenant?
August 7, 2018 from diginomica – “We may be at a point in the software space where application vendors that haven’t produced a multi-tenant suite may never do it. It matters and here’s why…” Click here to read the article. 180 View – Multi-tenant architecture allows one instance of a software system to serve multiple customers. The vendor is responsible for patching and updating the inevitable changes to a system. The article makes a persuasive case why multi-tenant matters but, in our opinion, it is just another criteria to make a decision. […]
National Forum On Technology Solutions
180 Systems and CPA Canada developed a new conference that was targeted to senior leaders responsible for technology investment decisions. The conference focused on enterprise software (ERP, BI and CPM) and included customers speaking about their journey through selection and implementation by industry (manufacturing and distribution, not-for-profit and financial services). It also included solutions for today’s industry challenges and emerging technologies such as AI, Blockchain, and IOT. The conference took place on May 28-29, 2018 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre and we will do it again next year. Click here for more information about this conference […]
Is Your Implementation On Track?
February 2018 from CPA Magazine and written by Michael Burns – “Senior executives of any organization that is going through a major system implementation worry whether the implementation project will cause huge problems when it goes live or whether the costs and time estimates are accurate. The project manager might be telling them all is well but project managers have been wrong on occasion. How do you look under the covers of a project to see what is really happening?”… Read more […]
What come first – an ERP system (the chicken) or lean management (the egg)?
Lean management is all about eliminating any waste by identifying each step in a business process and then revising or cutting out non-value added steps. The question is whether this should be done prior to selecting an ERP system. Proponents of doing it first assume that the implementation of an ERP system would be merely improving the automation of the existing process and better to eliminate the waste first. However, this approach (sometimes called repaving the cow paths and extending the chicken and egg analogy) is not best practice. The implementation of an ERP system is the best opportunity to […]
2017 ERP Survey
September 2017 from CPA Magazine – “Welcome once again to our annual vendor survey on enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. Every year we have a different theme for the article that accompanies our ERP survey results. This year we decided to look at the fine print in ERP contracts and the good, the bad and the ugly about requests for proposals (RFP) used in software selection….” Read More […]