Many organisations may still hesitate over implementing an ERP system, unsure whether they should implement one or not.

First of all, the first thing to consider is what the organisation itself wants, and what its objectives are in implementing an ERP system.

This is so it can communicate clearly with the ERP vendor, after which deciding whether to implement an ERP system becomes easier.

The various factors an organisation should weigh in deciding whether to implement an ERP system are as follows:

The organisation’s budget
The complexity of work processes in the organisation
The organisation’s transaction volume

The details of each topic are as follows:

1. The organisation’s budget

In this part, the organisation must analyse and estimate carefully.

To put it bluntly, an ERP system is a system that has costs requiring investment — in installing the system, hiring a consultant team to train system use, and the effort and time of the organisation’s staff who must build their ERP skills to proficiency.

So the organisation must prepare a sufficient budget for the costs throughout the entire ERP implementation project.

If the organisation is ready in terms of budget, it can start looking for an ERP vendor that can meet the organisation’s needs.

2. The complexity of work processes in the organisation

Complexity of work can arise in many forms, such as an organisational structure that has expanded, resulting in an increase in the number of staff in the organisation.

Such significant changes in the organisation may make work more complex.

Redundancy may arise in work processes, wasting resources and forcing the organisation’s staff to spend more time on certain tasks than necessary.

These are all management costs the organisation has to bear. If the organisation starts to consider implementing an ERP system, it will help manage this problem better.

3. The organisation’s transaction volume

In some organisations that grow rapidly, one problem they encounter is that the transaction volume of data is large.

And in some cases, the transaction volume that occurs causes the organisation problems in retrieving data — or when executives call up various reports, they cannot view the reports immediately in real time.

For organisations that work manually, it may take 3–4 days to retrieve the report executives want, so executives cannot make decisions in time. Delayed decisions can also cause damage to the organisation.

So the solution to this problem is to implement an ERP system for the organisation, so that it can view various data in real time.

In summary

If the organisation is ready in terms of budget, has work processes complex enough that retrieving data is delayed in ways it shouldn’t be, and the transaction volume of data in the organisation is so large that it cannot link all the data together,

then after carefully weighing these three factors, the answer to the question above — “In conclusion, should you use an ERP system or not?” — should be clear: you absolutely should implement an ERP system, for good efficiency in managing your own organisation.