How to Know if You Should Migrate to a New ERP Solution

From time to time, an organization will choose (or have) to undergo an ERP migration project to upgrade from an existing software to a new solution. ‘Migrating’ to new software is becoming more and more common, as it offers businesses the opportunity to advance to better information systems and enjoy new robust functionality at reduced costs. Over the years, The Answer Company has developed proven migration paths to new cloud-based ERP solutions like Acumatica to ensure that the experience is frictionless and productive.

There are key signals companies should be aware of that indicate it’s time to migrate to new software.

Outgrowing Current System

Emerging companies may outgrow their current systems due to increased business, employee growth, business expansions or mergers. This growth and development can put pressure on software systems, especially if the company relies on smaller or older ERP systems unable to support this growth. The result is a management system that does not fit the company or users’ requirements.
Some of the signs indicating that it may be time to migrate to a new ERP solution include when the current system:

• is unable to support current number of transactions
• cannot give access to increased number of end-users (company’s employees whose jobs depend on access to management software)
• is not expandable to new and additional locations, or does not integrate with new business units
• is unable to support more complex business processes that the company may want to adapt
• cannot expand to new foreign markets

Need Additional Functionality

Perhaps one of the strongest drivers of ERP migrations, and yet the most likely to go unnoticed, is the need for additional functionality within a company’s systems. Unless major developments or personnel changes take place, signals related to the additional functionality are likely to go unnoticed, if for no other reason than the difficulty in pinpointing what functionality is absent.

As a company grows, in addition to increasing access and locations of their systems, new functionality will become essential, Some of the functionality related sings that a new solution is in order include when the current system:

• does not provide business intelligence capabilities such as analysis and financial reports of business performance
• cannot handle foreign currency or tax compliance for additional jurisdictions
• doesn’t offer control over financial period reporting
• does not have vertical functionality for specific industries, such as warehouse and inventory management, distribution management, or manufacturing management functionality
• does not have applications for business units like sales, marketing, customer service (i.e. – Customer Relationship Management – CRM)
• does not support activities of human resources or offer asset management functionality.

Adapting or Upgrading to New Technology

The need to upgrade to new technology can happen independently or concurrently with business growth or additional functionality needs. Companies may change the way they do business, such as the need to support mobile workforces through web based applications, or simply want to avoid downtime due to crashes and costly maintenance that comes with old technology.

As the company moves ahead with upgrading to new technology, it may find that the existing ERP system is not able to adapt to new technology, so a new solution is in order. Usually this news will come from technology experts and some signs that may indicate a need to migrate to a new software include that the current system:

• is based on obsolete programming language, thus not supported by newer software or hardware technology
• has data silo, where one area of business is unconnected to the rest of the company, or connected through manual processes
• is based on DOS, and it will need to move to Windows, SQL server standardization.
• does not have a centralized database, thus analytical and reporting functions are not accurate
• can only be accessed from on-premise computers

ERP Solution is Discontinued

The last, and most unfortunate reason to migrate to a new solution is if your current solution is being discontinued. This is only really unfortunate because you are being forced to make a change but it is actually a change to improve your current systems, plus providers of ERP solutions do their best to make up for the inconvenience with price incentives and support. Solutions are discontinued for a variety of reasons, like lack of support, lack of integration with third party applications, aging technology, or the development of competing products.

If you find yourself familiarizing with the reasons listed here, it may be time to migrate to a new solution.