In my previous article, the best ERP software is the software that is able to address all business key requirements and fit in your budget. However there are other things should be put into consideration when selecting ERP software. It most likely you will get 2 or 3 software in your short-listed vendors. That’s why you need other criterion to attain the best one. You can find them below :
- Ease of Use
This is very important for the end users. They absolutely will be happy using it and leave their legacy system. It also brings efficiency in work and request less resource to use it. In addition, by happy using it the human error can be reduced. - Customization
There was no software package can meet 100% of a business specific. In some cases you do need to customize it. Therefore you need to know what tools are used to do customization: is it easy to use, can your existing resources use it? - Comprehensive and flexible standard report
Reporting solution is very important to provide management right report at the right time to make timely right decision for organization. It is recommended to select ERP software that has standard reports that cover 60 to 70 percent organization’s requirements. You should review how easy to use the reporting tool because the easier the tool, the more report you can create quickly. Another thing is capability to be exported other format, such as Excel, CSV, PDF, text and so on. - Integration
ERP means modules integration and flow of data information from one module to another module without effecting efficiency and accuracy. If there are issues with integration between modules then it should not be considered as the ERP solution. - Multi Currency
ERP solution should support multi currency feature across the application. Even an organization does not need the feature right now, it should be part of the implementation so that this cannot be a bottleneck in future. - Support
What I mean with support is after implementation support. There are chances you find bugs that you have not seen in implementation phase or changing of business process after implementation. That’s why you do need the support. You should check the real support experience from their existing customers. - Security
Currently security is considered to be the top most priority to avoid data breaches because business data is the most important asset for an organization. You have to evaluate either the security level or user authorization mechanism. - Business Intelligence (BI)
The last but not least is Business Intelligence. Right now, I think most ERP system have embedded BI feature. At least they provide OLAP database as data source of third party BI software. They concern about BI because it allows user to present comprehensive multi dimensional data to make business decision more quick and accurate.