Our Clients Make ERP PAY!
ERP Software Selection Consulting. We don’t sell the software, we don’t sell the implementation services – we simply make your ERP Project work harder to pay for itself quicker. Lessons from over 400 ERP Projects over 25 years.
Requirements
Starting at the beginning – we help you examine your business process and determine which ERP software works in your industry. And more important, which Implementation Team has expertise relevant to your Requirements. There’s a reason they’re called Requirements and not ‘suggestions’. Meeting your basic Requirements is step one to Profit from ERP.
Cost Revenue Models
Are we saving the company $100k in annual labor or $14m in excess inventory? A good to know before we launch the rocket is some idea of an understanding of where we’re trying to land it.
Select Software
The roadmap for success leads to the right software. As a completely software agnostic advisory firm, we’re not limited to recommending ‘our’ solution, but finding your solution. And it’s rare that our negotiated savings (beyond the typical month-end-discounts) don’t completely exceed our fees.
Alliance of Excellence Software Coalition
In 25 Years in ERP software we’ve crossed paths with consultants of all types. You may need internal consulting help managing your team through the selection and implementation process. You may be integrating various component software or looking for a zero-customization solution. Most of all, you need a software reseller partner who can be trusted and has the experience to be successful for your particular project. We have the right people for you, regardless of which direction you’re headed.
Making your ERP Project Work Harder to Pay for Itself
NetSuite. Sage. Epicor, Infor. Ross, Microsoft Dynamics NAV & AX. SAP, Acumatica. Intacct. Lawson. Oracle. . Having worked with/or for all of these we can tell you that no one source can manage them all.
Samsung. Jelly Belly, Uniden. Cheesecake Factory. Idahoan. Johnson & Johnson. Hundreds of local and regional companies you may or may not have heard of. Again, a single source cannot expertly serve all.
Pharmaceuticals Manufacturing. Aerospace. Retail Sports Apparel. eCommerce. Franchises. Professional Sports Teams. Consumer Products Manufacturing. Parts. Warehouse Distribution Clients. Food & Beverage and more. We know some sources that work in one or two of these verticals, but again, very specialized expertise delivers the best result.
That’s why our Alliance of Excellence Software Coalition currently contains ERP resellers, Business Consultants, proven Third Party ERP component teams – a variety of consultants to help you select, prepare, handle change management, implement, configure, – and as you can see, a large SAP implementation might consist of 30 different consultants at one point or another in the project. A Sage Intacct ERP project might be a single lead implementation consultant with a financial consultant advising part time.
It’s all about what YOU need.
Profit From ERP has formed the Alliance of Excellence from companies we’ve worked with and seen above average returns – for over the last 25 years. There’s only one way to earn our endorsement – that’s from personal experience.
Our job is to educate our clients on the very best methodology used by other companies who really excelled at ERP projects. Proven, replicated processes that lead to success. We provide digital content and educational events as well as whitepapers, blogposts and podcasts.
We help analyze your project – gather the initial Requirements and recommend who you should turn to as experts in the fields you’ll need to drive ERP success in your organization.
Our revenue is primarily derived from endorsements and sponsorships to our events, podcasts and other training materials related to the successful selection and implementation of ERP software. Many clients keep us engaged in a high level advisory capacity throughout the selection and implementation – but that’s at client request – whether we play a high level advisory role or full hands on consulting project is entirely up to our clients.
If you follow our methodologies and choose to work with Alliance of Excellence partners, your chances of an industry standard 80% failure rate is reduced to near zero. Our clients overwhelmingly achieve project goals – whether that’s a 3% bottom line company-wide improvement or a 20% systemic improvement through full Digital transformation. We stand behind every engagement.
The Most Cost Effective Approach to ERP Software
Working for some very large ERP companies, we were exposed to large clients, $1B+ global conglomerate type operations. These companies spent millions on software improvements. And, they also had a staff of 50-100 in IT, with expertise in buying, business and technology analysts throughout the company. Before they could spend one dime, they had to cost justify that $1 spent would result in $2 return, or whichever metric supported the project.
This is now our approach to an initial Cost/Revenue Model to determine our client’s return prior to starting a project. While we don’t need an army of analysts pouring over the entire business process for months, we can do a cost-effective review of processes and map process improvements for almost any size organization. With over 3,000 Alliance of Excellence consultants, our project teams range from a single consultant assigned to your project to 14 -20 subject matter experts deployed at various times for larger engagements.
The PROCESS Methodology
Have you defined your decision process for evaluating ERP? We’ve collected a solid framework, proved out time and time again with companies of all sizes. We’ve organized a timeline, checklist driven approach that will keep your project moving – because things will continue to come up, regardless if you’ve reserved the next six weeks for and ERP evaluation or not. This keeps progress moving and shcedules major events far enough in advance for you to control the process, instead of the process controlling you.
Some essentials include having:
- clearly defined requirements prior to engaging in software evaluations,
- documentation that made sure both software vendor and evaluating committees were talking about the same thing, and
- documentation that software architects could approve in both concept and detail prior to designing implementation plans.
Identifying common elements of successful ERP projects, and engaging this methodology repeatedly with various engagements, we developed a proven methodology for not only avoiding common pitfalls but driving revenues with teamwork, efficiency and ultimately better selection in the first place.
Secret #3: Budget for the Goal
The fact is, when it comes to technology budgets, the most common approach is to create budgets based on what can be carved out next year’s expenditures instead of saying, ‘What would it cost us to achieve a goal of X?’ Sure, a $10,000 budget is fine if it saves $12,000, but what if we don’t even know to ask how we might save $500,000?
Secret #4: Know How to Measure Successful Outcomes
Without measurable, detailed goals, so many ERP projects fail to dedicate the internal staff needed to make the project succeed. ERP implementations stop just short with too much project fatigue to get the ball from the 5-yard line over the goal. The truth is, most companies fail to measure returns from ERP. The fact that we’ve set sail with our Cost/Revenue Model from the beginning, guiding the project through all phases of selection and implementation, and following up after go-live to quantify success puts us ahead of ‘most’ ERP implementations before we even start.
So, our methodology is not magic. Though some of it might sound like common sense, we’ve seen that common sense is often not common practice. Clients who take action and follow our methodology get the results they are after. ERP is a huge expenditure and a major companywide effort. The stakes are high. It takes diligence and processes to make the difference. We at Profit From ERP have a few unique processes to help our clients in several ways:
The Amount We Save You in Software Costs Typically More Than Covers Our Total Billable Hours
Selection and Buying – having negotiating dozens of ERP purchases each year we know what the real market price is in a world of discounts, month end, quarter end, year end, end-of-the world discounts (we’ve seen it all). Given that the average negotiated software prices are 15-20% off list, our 46% off list average has more than covered our total billable hours for all but one of our projects, in the last two years (one client wanted to negotiate on his own – we still found him a working solution starting in the $1.2 million range when his previous shortlist was $5 million+).
We Put the Breaks on Scope Creep
Implementation – cost overruns in the ERP world average 186% of quoted prices. While scope creep is unavoidable (you’ll always find features you want to use that weren’t seen in the demos or estimated in the Statement of Work) our managed projects have never exceeded 110% of quote and average 105%, but often come in under budget. We also are on-time at go-live with the majority of our projects, with a 90%+ delivery success except cases where client companies pushed back due to internal issues.
We Build Budgets You Can Plan On
Prior to starting the project, helping our clients determine whether a ERP deployment, replacement or upgrade is cost effective helps prioritize whether we tackle the project this year, next year or never. It helps our clients develop realistic budgets and examine alternate financing methodology and reliably forecast cash flow issues. Knowing that a project is worth $4million to the company over the next 5 years helps prioritize resources. And after go-live, making sure we’re on target for projected earnings and cost reductions insures we’re attaining the intended result – or identifies root causes and define remediation.
So, Why ProfitFromERP?
ProfitFromERP is a different website, a different concept. We’re not involved with any one ERP vendor, reseller or partner program. We don’t have technical software consultants or our own technology practice. When you engage a consultant through a Profit From ERP recommendation, it’s because they’re the right person for the engagement, instead of being someone in the office that needs a billable project.
We’re not about promoting a particular software. We’re not about promoting a company.
We ARE about one thing – and that would be your thing – helping you Profit From ERP.
Gene Hammons, MBA has specialized in ERP software since 1998. A veteran of over 400 ERP projects, he can be reached at info@ProfitFromERP.com