Guide for Software Selection

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Metasystems, Inc. 13700 State Rd., Suite 1 North Royalton, OH 44133 1-800-788-5253 www.metasystems-erp.com

Guide for Software Selection Have you found yourself considering the following?

• Does your current software meet your business needs or are you just getting by? • Does manufacturing and purchasing IMMEDIATELY know of new configured

demand?

• Are you able to, and have you been providing reliable delivery dates to your customers?

• Are you effectively tracking your costs to ensure you are truly making a profit? • Are you getting the best prices from your vendors and are their products reliable? • Have you added new business processes (for example…S/N tracking or Warranty

Management) that you cannot track within your current software?

• Are you keeping track of your customers effectively in your current software?

• With your current software, can you enter a quote or sales order ‘once’ and have all the key information related to that order tracked from the date of entry through its production, to labor and material collection, to its shipment, invoicing and then customer payment history?

• Does your current software offer you room to grow?

• Do you spend more time ‘working’ your software rather than doing your ‘job’?

If you are or have been considering new software for your Company, this paper will offer some guidance along with a good starting point to begin your software search. The most important factor is to have a plan in place that you can follow. We have compiled an overview of some steps to complete before randomly calling on and/or reviewing software through a Google search. It is not as simple as looking up ‘software’ in the phone book and buying it.

You’ll need to start with the basics:

• What is your level of need to purchase new software?

o Are you a small company and your main need is to maintain a relatively small amount of customers and products? You could possibly get by using Excel, Word, Microsoft Project Manager or Access. These are user defined programs; however they offer little to no capabilities for integration. Customer Support is not available for these types of programs, however, classes are offered periodically for users along with online help for simple questions.

o If you only need (for example) a simple program to keep better track of your accounting; your best bet is to look for ‘out of the box’ accounting software. This type of software will help with your accounting needs and also provide some basic office functionality. One item of importance is to ask about the level of Customer Support (if any) that is available to you.

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o If you are looking for a more-integrated type of software to help maintain all of your business processes including Sales, Manufacturing, Engineering, Financials, etc…you will do best to review software for ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) software. ERP or MRP (Material Requirements Planning), as it used to be known, integrates (ties together) all aspects of your business processes and maintains data for each and every transaction entered into your business system.

• What is your budget?

o Your budget for new software should be established early on, this should also be one of the first items to discuss with potential software vendors to ensure they fit your approved budget. This will ensure you are adding only viable software solutions to your list of vendors to review to ensure you are not wasting yours (or their) time with companies that are not a fit. o If your budget is small, you will not be reviewing companies like the big

‘better known’ software from Tier 1 providers. Companies like those tend to be outside of your budget and work best with companies who have hundreds of users (and as you can guess; lots of money). Many times the functionality a Tier 1 provider offers is way more than you need and more complicated to maintain and use. Additionally, annual support charges tend to be extremely high.

Today, small to mid-sized manufacturers are fortunate to have a wide variety of software available to choose from that can and will provide them with all the functionality that the ‘big dogs’ of the software world provide to their hundreds of users. These vendors (Tier 2) provide rich functionality and run on a variety of technologies. Expect higher involvement from these vendors with implementation and more personalized support. In companies with any type of complexity in manufacturing, sales or engineering processes, Tier II vendors might be a good choice.

• Assemble your Team

o Your software selection team will be included in all review(s) and demo(s) o Instrumental in the final software selection

o Instrumental in the software implementation o Included in all training

o Assign a project leader who will co-ordinate, schedule, gather all information, set up calls, reviews, demos, meetings, etc. This person will be

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the main contact for your company and he/she should be well versed in the day to day operations and Company policies.

o Ensure there is Company buy-in from upper management and that this is an approved project; include management in all aspects of the review process; this will ensure that all questions have been addressed to their complete satisfaction which will make the final selection an easier step. • What is your Timeline?

o Establish a date for software selection. Allow ample time to gather a long/short list of vendors, time for team conference calls, reviews, demos, reference checks, negotiations, contract review and contract signing. Set a realistic date for software selection so the process proceeds smoothly. o When do you want to begin the Implementation? Allow plenty of time

for (if needed) new hardware purchase and delivery prior to the start of the Implementation. Is there a better time during the year or a ‘down time’ when it would work best to implement? Processes for implementation include: software installation, data conversion, training, pilot testing and Go Live.

o What is your target date to ‘Go Live’ on your new software? The success of your implementation is dependent on everyone’s involvement and expertise within their respective department(s).

• Technology

Important to establish before starting your software review, is what technology you want to use. This may limit the type of vendors you will review. If you are not particular on the technology, your list of potential vendors opens up immensely. Talk with management and your team to set your goal and establish preferences.

• What is your industry?

o Are you a Process Manufacturer? o Are you a Discrete Manufacturer? o Are you a Distributor?

o

The software companies you will be reviewing may be different for each type of manufacturing industry.

• Software Requirements List

Once your team is established, a good starting point is for your team to complete an in-depth internal review and establish a list of Company and software requirements

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with your department managers and main (power) users. Make lists of the software functionality by: ‘must have’, ‘nice to have’ and ‘wish list’ requirements.

Once the lists have been made, schedule an internal meeting to review the ‘must have’ requirements as well as a review of the additional lists and assign a weighted factor of importance on each requirement. This will be instrumental to use once you begin demos that will help to narrow down your software selection.

Prior to scheduling demos, ensure the vendors that you will include on your list will meet a good majority of your ‘must have’ requirements. There is a general rule of thumb that says that most software will fulfill 80 percent of a company’s needs. What about the other 20 percent? How are these needs satisfied? Find out what the

software vendor’s approach is to making modifications to the package. If changes do need to be made, are they upgradable when new versions are released? Are these changes supported through normal support channels?

Compile a list of questions that will help to further narrow down viable software solutions to include in your interview process with potential vendors. Make a list of what is important from your ‘must have’ requirements list. For example, do you need the following?

• Do you need multi-Company and multi-Location capabilities? • Do you need multi-Language capabilities?

• Do you need software that can be modified and/or enhanced to meet your unique company requirements or can you use out of the box software?

• Are you ‘open’ to all technology?

• Will the vendor present a targeted demo or a generic demo?

o Keep in mind, that a targeted demo will be easier to follow for your team

This is where your review process should begin. Taking the time to establish your budget, timelines, goals, selection team(s) and gathering your functionality requirements prior to randomly calling on software vendors will make for a strong start in your software search.

About the Author: Millie Mitchell, Sales Executive, Metasystems, Inc. 1-800-788-5253,

http://www.metasystems.com/ICIM-ERP-Software.htm. For information:

[email protected]

Metasystems, the authors, programmers, implementers and support team of ICIM ERP, has been providing integrated business software for small to mid-sized discrete manufacturers since 1975. ICIM is a versatile and flexible business system that fits well with manufacturers in the MTO, ETO, CTO, ATO and mixed mode industries. ICIM integrates the functionality of Sales, CRM, Engineering, Manufacturing, Financials and Warranty Management and provides

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