Estimated reading time: 9 minutes
Hardly any other element of a company, apart from the owner or decades-old managing director, is as difficult to replace as inventory management, which has been tried and tested for decades.
And yet there comes a time for every company and every entrepreneur when technical reasons or years of accumulated frustration about the technical inadequacies of the AS/400, Siemens Nixdorf, Comet system or even more modern ERP systems such as NTS Apollo, Baan.
It is also possible that your own company has grown so far and fast that Lexware, Haufe and Sage or the still widespread Excel with Word or even paper invoices are simply no longer sufficient.
Perhaps your own company has grown so far and fast that Lexware, Haufe and Sage or the still widespread Excel with Word or even paper invoices are simply no longer sufficient.
Of course, it can also be the other way around, that due to a company split or downsizing, giant giants like SAP or MySAP simply no longer fit. Or that MyFactory didn't fit your company from the outset, when all you really needed was a bill of materials.
Perhaps the hopes and expectations of a free solution like JTL, WeClap and Odoo were not fulfilled after all.
In short, there are numerous reasons to introduce a new ERP system, from modernization and staff shortages to costs or simply changing preferences and requirements.
And that hurts. Well-established habits, cherished or previously undiscovered errors, missing data outputs on the side to be replaced, missing import interfaces on the new ERP side, lost (or even deceased) specialist knowledge... These are just some of the birth pangs that you will experience on the way to a new ERP system.
And such a changeover is usually associated with enormous costs and an immense amount of time. And perhaps also a change of technology, e.g. from a AS/400 or Siemens Nixdorf Quattro with Comet to Microsoft Windows or Amazon/Azure Cloud.
Such changes are not uncommon. I notice this because I get a call once or twice a month... when the child has not only fallen into the well a long time ago, but usually so long later that the well has already grown back... metaphorically speaking. I am usually called when the management has already invested 6-figure sums in a conversion project to Business Central 365 (or other integrated ERPs) (previously: Navision Financials or Navision Dynamics) and is increasingly getting the feeling that the project is simply not coming to an end... and neither are the transfers to the Navision/BC365 partner. Often amounts above 1/4 million are involved, even 350 thousand or 400,000 euros are not uncommon.
The money is then gone, and the new merchandise management system under BC365 is still not running. Or much too slowly. The price calculation does not deliver what it should. The store connection (My favorite is Shopware, of course!) does not work. Employees are hindered in their work by unnecessary or incomprehensible information texts. The software partner is broke, despite the horrendous amounts that you transferred to him every month.
And what does the end customer do? Keeps transferring money because... you're soooo close to the real launch and it all works! Why do you do that as the responsible managing director? Well, this has even been scientifically researched astonishingly well! Because you don't want to admit to a mistake or a wrong decision! In Europe, the concept of sunk cost fallacy leveled off. Our grandmothers used to pragmatically call it „throwing money out of the window“ or „just keep riding a dead horse“ or „Throwing good money after bad„. The very compact „burning money“ also hits the nail on the head.
Psychologically, we are also in the area of fear of loss, a very powerful phenomenon that can swallow up vast sums of money. Both Private (share trading & trading!) as well as in the Business operations.
And this despite the fact that the solutions and the way out of this vicious circle are, in principle, frighteningly simple: When you realize that you are riding a dead horse, get off! Or, a little more comprehensible and detailed:
If you are today, regardless of the past and costs already incurred,
- would be back at the start of the project,
- with the knowledge 6 experience from today...
Would you choose this partner again?
I sometimes ask this question during such conversations, and the answer is usually: No! And then they carry on anyway 🙂 OK, so be it. Let's get back to basics, maybe you're just about to (re)start the transition to Business Central 365? (It's a shame that Navision Dynamics is no longer available for purchase...)
Selection of inventory management
As a decade-old Navision Financials Attain/ Microsoft Business Central 365 „veteran“, I certainly can't give a neutral recommendation here: For me it is always: NAV. Or now just „Business Central 365 (BC365)„, there's still a lot of NAV in there 🙂 Thank goodness!
And fortunately, I can't do anything else. Do one thing, do it right. But in addition to Navision Financials & Microsoft Business Central 365, there are hundreds of other ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) and merchandise management systems in Germany alone, and even more in the rest of the world. How do you get an overview?
There are numerous TOP x lists, reports, best practice studies. Customers like you are trying to make a name for themselves with huge „Featuritis“ lists to save all the exceptions that have occurred in the company over the last 3 generations. And in the worst-case scenario, you end up with an ERP that has been forcibly bent to meet your requirements - for a corresponding amount of money. Even worse: relying on any „industry solutions“ to get involved.
My recommendation: Ask your competitor, if this is out of the question, at business conferences or from business friends, which ERP they have chosen and why... and above all: Would you choose it again today? A good developer, a good team behind a software solution is more important than the last bit of exotic exceptional treatment. Even if you don't get a recommendation straight away, you will definitely get a dozen systems that you can sort out - that's worth something!
I would only focus on one thing: Your system should be able to be further developed by you - even if you don't intend to do so - i.e. provide a development environment. And: Financial accounting should be an integral part of the solution, not something that is „somehow included“ or „just pick one“. I am writing this with over 30 years of experience with Navision - even from the DOS/OS2 era.
Selection of technology
Cloud or no cloud, that is the question here...
Is it nobler in the mind to endure the slings and arrows of raging fate in one's own cellar, or, arming oneself against a sea of plagues, to venture into the cloud after all?
With Business central, the good news is that you have a free choice - even later, during operation, a move from one technology to the other is almost painless.
This much in advance: I am not a friend of the cloud. But in the end, it's not me who has to make the decision, it's you. So I've put together a few cons, but also a few pros for and against a cloud solution. Take a cup of tea and 30 minutes... at least.
The important thing is what comes out at the back - order confirmations, delivery bills, invoices
Start with this! Go through your documents with a potential partner. What should it say, where does this data come from, how important is it? You can often separate the wheat from the chaff right here. No unit conversion, but you need it for liters, barrels, bottles? No customs tariff numbers, but you need them for certain customers? No representative tax/billing? No special prices? Multi-level conditions? Long article numbers? Customer article numbers? Your receipts reveal a lot about your company history, let your receipts tell this story!
The decisive factor is what goes in at the front - importing existing data from the current system
Even if it hurts: Give your potential partner your company history and let them show you (possibly for a fee, but it's worth it!) how they can get it into their system.
„Then we get 20 students for the real start, they quickly type in the orders“? Hands off! That won't work! And: You know BEFORE the real start, OB that works! „We have an import generator here that you can use to prepare and import your data.“ Hands off! As a rule, this requires very extensive pre-processing of your old data, which means that you can only carry out rudimentary tests with your old data before going live: Failure on the day of the changeover is almost 100%ig pre-programmed.
And what next?
Of course, this is not yet a 100% guide for „Do it like this and everything will work„. But so far I can assure you of that here: If you ignore these two steps at the beginning (or have ignored the „documents first“ and the „data migration at the beginning“, you will have one or two or more problems later... or are having them right now. About the remaining 98 points to talk about, we'd better talk on the phone...