Business and technology changes force organizations to redefine their ERP strategy and underlying ERP roadmap. New developments provide great opportunities but also bring new complexities. Your ERP strategy and roadmap form the foundation upon which you can successfully align your IT landscape with your business strategy and help you get the most value out of your ERP systems.
Organizations face internal and external forces arising from stakeholder expectations, growth, regulations, competition as well as technological advances that trigger the need to (re)define the ERP strategy. The ERP’s success will hinge on its ability to adapt to these changing business conditions.
ERP-enabled transformation
Defining an ERP strategy and roadmap is not an isolated activity. It is the foundation for a future state situation and is used as the starting point of a bigger transformation enabled by ERP, such as integrating acquired businesses, changes in the business model, business process redesign.
Alignment of ERP and business strategy
Your ERP and related applications support your business processes, and therefore it is crucial that the ERP strategy is always considered from both an IT and business perspective. This approach ensures that besides classic IT themes such as the total cost of ownership and maintenance, business topics such as the standardization, simplification and integration of processes are also included so that your ERP strategy is efficiently aligned with your business strategy.
ERP strategy and roadmap
The ERP strategy and roadmap covers the full range of activities needed to (re)define your ERP (and process) landscape. The overview below shows the key areas to consider. An overview of ERP strategy and roadmap covers:
Operating model
Defining the operating model that best supports your business ambition; the main focus is on design principles and processes and IT architecture. Key themes include standardization/ simplification of processes and IT, integration and separation, delivery models (e.g. Shared Service Center).
Current state
Assessing the current state of processes and IT as input for improvement opportunities and high-level design of the operating model. Key themes include IT cost analysis (CAPEX/ OPEX), complexity analysis and complexity reduction, AS-IS analysis and functional/ technical quality assessments, maturity assessment.
Process design
Defining the process model and understanding the requirements as a foundation for defining the supporting ERP landscape. Key themes include BPM, process standardization, controls, requirements analysis, fit/gap analysis, customization versus development.
Solution Design
Defining the ERP landscape that best supports the process model and business model strategy. Key themes include scenario development, vendor selection, best-of-breed, cloud versus on-premises, postmodern ERP, in-memory, big data.
Roadmap
Defining the next steps to realize the defined ERP strategy while maintaining a balance between controlled projects and business ambition. Key themes include program and project planning, business case analysis, (multi-year) roadmap definition.