What is ERP system customization?

When implementing an ERP system, many organisations worry that the ERP may not be able to meet all of the organisation’s needs —

especially for certain parts of the organisation’s work that are highly specific.

The solution to this problem is “customization” of the ERP system.

In this article the author discusses ERP customization, so that readers gain a clear understanding of what ERP customization is

and how it benefits the organisation’s use of the ERP system.

This article covers three topics, as follows:

1. What is ERP customization?

2. What can ERP customization do?

3. What are the costs of ERP customization?

Each topic is detailed below.

1. What is ERP customization?

Customizing an ERP system means adjusting or modifying the ERP system to respond to the special needs and the specific functions of the organisation.

Customization is work that may not be included in the general standard modules of the ERP system that come ready to use.

2. What can ERP customization do?

Examples of ERP customization include:

• Modifying existing modules
• Adding functions to meet special needs
• Adjusting the display format when viewing various reports, and so on

ERP systems usually have several modules, such as accounting, stock management, production, sales, and others — which may need to be changed to fit the specific business processes of that particular organisation.

3. What are the costs of ERP customization?

ERP customization carries costs that must be considered carefully, and these costs can vary according to the scope of customization the organisation requires.

The details of ERP customization costs include, for example:

• The cost of a consulting team to analyse the details, gather requirements, and plan the customization approach
• The cost of training to use the system, in cases where users cannot start using the customized part on their own, and so on

In summary, ERP customization is a good approach for organisations that, after using an ERP system, find that some points still do not flow smoothly with the organisation’s internal work processes.

ERP customization must take various details into account, such as the requirements the organisation wants, the modules to be customized, as well as the cost of customization.

The result of ERP customization will help the organisation work with less difficulty, and make the organisation’s internal work processes more efficient.