Implementing the right ERP system for your business takes a great deal of consideration. After all, an ERP system is key to efficient management of the core business processes needed to keep your organisation functioning.
After investing time, money, and resources in implementing your ERP solution, now you can begin to reap some of the benefits you anticipated. However, maintaining an ERP solution relies on ongoing support and upgrades, to ensure it continues to work for your business and adds value. Whether you should maintain your ERP system internally or outsource the work to a specialist service provider is a key consideration.
Cost consideration
An enterprise resource planning (ERP) system hosted as a service (SaaS) may require additional resources and ongoing training. You may not have the right people internally to take on the project, which means recruiting new employees, which can be a time-consuming and expensive process, and top talent can come at a high cost. Internal employees who take on internal support of the ERP system will be investing time away from their regular roles and their position will likely need to be filled, creating more recruitment costs.
When relying on one or two employees to handle internal ERP support, there is also the issue of coverage for annual or sick leave, which can leave the business in a vulnerable situation leading to inefficient operations. Choosing to outsource the requirements to a specialist service provider may prove to be more cost and time efficient instead of covering internal ERP system support staff.
Support staff knowledge
Most medium to large businesses discover they don’t have the resources to support an ERP system internally as it takes time and knowledge that isn’t easily available. While internal support has organisational knowledge that can save time during a crisis, they may not have the inside knowledge of the software that could avert making errors in implementation decisions. These mistakes can require re-work which adds time and costs to an already complex and lengthy project. Day-to-day management of implementation and maintenance can also take up time and resources that in the short term interfere with other tasks.
Outsourcing ERP support means you get access to a team of people who are very experienced and have the right knowledge to ensure your system is always functioning optimally. With outsourcing support, you can ensure that your ERP’s maintenance needs are met, including proactive monitoring 24/7 and addressing issues before they become serious issues. This way, your staff can spend more time on other projects and won’t have to work around the clock to meet maintenance requirements.
Service reliability
Businesses may prefer to keep their support services in-house, but it is unlikely that they will have the resources to hire a full-scale team, opting instead for a small number of employees with a variety of skills.
This puts organisations with extensive customisation and sophisticated systems at risk, as one person being away or even leaving would have significant ramifications for support. Furthermore, keeping employees available for 24-hour calls is more difficult if only one or two people are working on ERP support.
An ERP outsourcing company has more resources to draw on. If they need someone to help on the support side in an emergency, they can call on one of their consultants for assistance.
Since dedicated ERP service suppliers specialise in their field, they will have better access to the latest support tools, since they must stay informed of the latest technological advances. Whether to outsource your ERP support requirements or not should also take into account whether you have to invest in necessary technology like support management software.
ERP support with the experts
Deciding whether to keep ERP system support internal or outsource it will depend on your business. However, most businesses, even ones on a global scale, don’t have the resources to handle such a big job internally, and outsourcing support is the best option. The biggest advantage of choosing to outsource your ERP support is it removes the responsibility from employees and allows your business to stay focused on your core goals. The team at INTELLIWORX has the expertise and knowledge to guide and manage your ERP system implementation and support. Contact them today.
