All ERP customers lament the size and complexity of their implementations. My experience has been that they just don’t get what they’re trying to do — create a real-time model of their businesses. Most IT folks have been used to only automating bits and pieces, without looking at how they optimized the whole.
The seduction of SaaS is that you’ll be able to get “good enough” or “roughly similar” functionality as needed, at dramatically lower cost. The core processes will work just fine for most everyone. Per the consultant’s mantra to calm the customer: “We want the 80:20 solution, not the perfect one, right?” Vinnie Mirchandani has hit this theme again and again (here, here, and here)
I don’t quite buy it. Someone, somewhere is going to have to interface with the real world. So many of the implementation cost drivers are that last 20% of customization — RICEF+Workflow objects — which provide the bridge from bits to bricks.
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Reports for the pointy-haired among us and the authorities
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Interfaces to other systems — e.g., barcode readers, handhelds, RFID, etc.
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Conversions for systems that go away
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Enhancements that add customer-specific logic
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Forms for Customs, Shippers, IRS, Inland Revenue, Zoll, Douane, etc.
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Workflow for approvals, alerts, etc.
This 20% that gets talked away during process design time gets talked right back in once the business gets its hands on the solution.
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Filed under: Implementation Costs, SaaS | Tagged: Complexity, ERP, On Demand, Project Management | 1 Comment »