4 things not to do if you want an ERP that meets your needs

We believe many of you are either business owners yourselves, or have been assigned by the business owner to look for an ERP system that fits how the organisation works. Looking for an ERP system in Thailand is not difficult in this era, when many developers have emerged — there are both foreign systems and systems developed by Thai people. As a result, the difficulty lies in eliminating some of the choices to leave only the most promising vendor. Most people slip up when they start eliminating providers based mainly on price, ending up with a system whose price was cut to win the customer but which cannot actually do the work as agreed.

So this article offers a few small tips for those who want an ERP that meets their needs and matches its price.

The details are as follows.

Don’t set the budget too low

There are many organisations that tend to look for a cheap system that must still be able to work as the customer requires. From the heart, the writer must tell you honestly that a cheap system tends to carry the risk that it cannot actually be used, and if the system cost is low there are often expensive customisation fees, or it may not be possible to adjust the system — you can only do the standard. Therefore you should set a budget that is reasonable for the actual work, because an ERP system is not something easy to develop to the point where it can really work.

Don’t decide based on the documents you have

We understand that nowadays there are no small number of ERP developers in Thailand, so every time you search for a system there are so many choices that you cannot call them all in to present. Vendors are therefore eliminated, and what someone looking at ERP systems in Thailand should do is:

• Choose the provider with the most experience.
• Choose a provider that has reviews from real users, and see whether your business is similar to those of other users.
• Choose a system that has already been certified by the Revenue Department, so you don’t waste time and money adjusting this part further.
• Specify the requirements you want and send them to the provider to state what the system supports, made into a clear explanatory table, to see which vendor supports the most.

Don’t forget to set clear goals

Most people fall at this hurdle: there is no goal set for using the ERP system, resulting in a system that does not match the requirements, because they obtained a system whose price they liked but whose operation they did not. What you need to do is: list your requirements and send them to the provider to state whether the system supports them — which ones are in the standard, which ones need to be customised — to ensure you get a system that matches your operational objectives.

Don’t judge the operation by the look of the system

Because systems are continuously being developed, the more a system has been developed, the more its interface looks busy and complicated. But an ERP system always needs training before actual use, because some systems are made to look good and appealing, yet some operations turn out to have limitations and do not really meet business needs. Therefore you should arrange to talk things through carefully and have the developer present the system’s operation clearly, in order to make the best decision.

From everything mentioned above, the things a business owner should not do when looking for an ERP that meets the needs of the business are: don’t set the budget too low, because there is no system without investment — the better a system works, the higher the investment. Don’t decide based on the documents the system provides, because system information, such as identical work modules, is presented differently by some systems, which can lead to a wrong decision in choosing a system. Don’t forget to set clear goals so you don’t go wrong in deciding. And finally, don’t judge the operation by the look of the system.