There are often moments when you wonder whether or not you should update your company’s ERP system to the latest version. Often, you could be unsure of how you can tell whether the time is right or not to do an upgrade.
It is justice to mention that often the disruption and cost are overtaken by the benefits of profit and efficiency that come with using the latest update of an ERP system. To assist you with marking the perfect time for your business to upgrade their ERP system or not then, we are listing the key signs to make use of.
If there is no mobile functionality
Business is becoming increasingly remote and about working on the move. Your ERP system should complement this change in culture by allowing you to access certain features of the system on your mobile phone, regardless of your location.
While for the time being at least, mobile apps are not going to offer the same level of insight and features that you would get from your desktop. However, allowing you to work on the go allows you to make use of your time traveling to keep up-to-date, preventing a mundane and time-consuming month-end task.
If there is a lack of standard features
Regardless of whether it is a system feature or functionality that is specific to your industry, not being able to utilize recent technology puts your business at risk of being left behind, especially if your competitors have access to the functionality.
Ideally, your businesses should be looking to make the most of not only standard features, but emerging, cutting-edge technology to ensure you possess a competitive advantage.
If there is no vendor support
If you find yourself on an unsupported and outdated version of your ERP system, you may be tempted to stay on it until it eventually becomes inadequate. While this may save money in the very short term, leaving it too long to upgrade your ERP system means you will have to jump several versions in one upgrade, leaving your business having to tackle a substantial upgrade project.
If there is poor integration
Ensuring your business systems seamlessly work together is one of the key factors behind how efficient businesses are able to be when it comes to their system processes. Relying on an ERP system that is not integration-friendly and prevents you from automatically transferring your data to another system, whether it be a CRM or another, can lead to a serious decrease in efficiency and an increase in manual work.
Modern ERP versions tend to be more open to integration, naturally making it easy for developers to ensure their business systems are working in partnership.
If it is not compliant
As software developers release new updates, they naturally stop actively supporting older versions, meaning if new regulation comes in, those on older versions run the risk of not being compliant. While ERP vendors will be developing their software to ensure it helps their users be compliant, they are likely to only release the patch to recent updates, leaving those on older versions possibly uncompliant, and having to spend considerable sums trying to ensure they are.
