It's a Platform Play

When companies are evaluating ERPs (Enterprise Resource Planning Systems), what should they be looking for?

During these evaluations, many companies overlook what I consider one of the most important aspects of an ERP - The Platform.

Why is the platform so important?
When implementing an ERP, companies almost always find that which ever ERP they chose, it does not have everything they wanted out of the box.  ERPs need to be customized to fit each company and even after customization, there still may be more functionality needed to satisfy the entire set of business process flows.  Companies generally do this by either adding custom code, custom applications, or interfacing with other applications to satisfy the gaps.

This is where the platform decision is critical.  The platform the ERP is on has to be one that is flexible and easy to develop on.  Companies should fill their process gaps with functionality that is developed on the same platform that the ERP was developed on.  This will ensure that the applications will work well with the ERP.

In my experience, I have found that interfaces between applications that reside on the same platform are easy to develop and maintain.  There is much less baby-sitting required.  The "baby-sitting" I refer to is what is required when interfaces break down and need to be periodically kick-started again.  That means that an expensive IT resource has to spend some time on it on a regular basis.  This can quickly become costly let alone frustrating to the business.

Each interface has a cost to build and a cost to maintain.  In order to keep the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) down, interfaces should be fast and easy to build and maintain.  If they are built on the same platform as the ERP, the technical resource you have for your ERP system can likely be re-utilized for these interfaces.  The resources you have already invested in can build and maintain the interfaces and applications which have been built on the same platform.   Also, from my experience, I have found that applications that have been built on the same platform are generally built to work together and therefore require much less (if any) baby-sitting.

When considering ERPs, you should consider the ERP platform and consider the other applications that have been built on that platform.  If you need to grow your team or lean on consulting, consider the talent pool available for the platform development and maintenance.  Consider how that fits with your existing team and determine which team members will need to be trained on that platform.

Consider that fact that some ERP companies have built platforms for their ERP applications.  These are proprietary platforms and require expensive developers who know the platform.  Consider the fact that some ERP applications have been built on Platforms that already exist.  There are generally a lot more applications that have already been built on this platform and there are generally developers that are more readily available these more public platforms.

Finally, (but it should not be the last consideration), consider if the platform is a cloud platform.  If it is a cloud platform, is it on a public cloud or a private cloud and which one is right for your company and the direction you need to move to provide the best experience for your customers.