ERP FAQs

Over twenty years worth, we’ve lost count! You can have a look at our past client success stories here.

This is by no means an exhaustive list but it gives an indication of many areas an ERP system can support your business:

• Project management
• Product data management
• Planning and scheduling
• Human capital management
• Service management
• Sales management
• Customer relationship management (CRM)
• Finance
• Supply chain
• Production

Your requirements. As simple as that. You want to ensure you have thoroughly scoped out your business and understood where it is now, where you want to be and have a loose plan on how you are going to get there. The outcome to each of those questions you face may influence which vendors you choose to engage with and those that aren’t capable of offering what you need.

To make the discoveries above, we recommend using a strategic planning tool to help you. A Gap Analysis is the perfect example for a business transformation project. It will help you and your team to focus on what needs doing to reach your goals by getting to know your business inside and out.

Our extensive experience working on ERP projects has enabled us to create a roadmap which details steps to follow when engaging with vendors and what you can expect to happen along the way.

We have found that the major component of a project failing is simple, and it’s often down to the people working on the project. People and their skills are vital to any kind of project. There are several reasons within this scope which are detailed below:

• Resistance to change
• Not understanding or, the reason for the changes are not appropriately communicated
• Fearful that technology will replace their jobs
• An inadequately represented project team. A project team should consist of key decision-makers from all areas of a company
• Poor high-level management

We have no preference for your operations, and we will be frank with you if we feel you would work better with another kind of software. There is no such thing as too big or small in this industry; it all depends on whether ERP software meets the requirements of what you need a system to do. There are other variations of systems that may be more suitable for your company. The beauty of being independent is that we can be honest with you; we aren’t in cahoots with any of the vendors.

At Gradient, we have worked with a vast range of companies, and this further shows you that there is no such thing as an ideal client. The businesses manufacture, design, process, operate, manage, service and supply. Some of the industry sectors are outlined below:

• Food and drink
• Aerospace
• Furniture
• Textiles
• Metals
• Marine
• Rail
• Holiday home management
• Energy
• Construction

There is no ideal type of client. We want to work with people who realise the business potential and can see the latest business transformation software as a means of reaching and exceeding that potential. We want what you want – to ensure your business systems are working as hard as you.

There is no right or wrong answer to this question, but there are tell-tale signs that now could be the time. Here are a few prevalent signs to review your system:

• Reliance on spreadsheets
• Decision-making taking considerably longer than usual
• Scaling-up in line with growth is proving challenging