Disadvantages of ERP

When an ERP project fails, the finger pointing often begins with the software. But in many cases a lack of planing prior to implementation and unrealistic expectations are the real points behind an unsuccessful ERP execution. "We find companies are buying the software but they really don’t know what there doing with it" says Barry Levine, practice leader at Toronto-based Richter Consulting Group.

The companies install their ERP projects like:

The Big Bang
In this, the most ambitious and difficult of approaches to ERP implementation, companies cast off all their legacy systems at once and implement a single ERP system across the entire company.

Franchising strategy
This approach suits large or diverse companies that do not share many common processes across business units. Independent ERP systems are installed in each unit, while linking common processes, such as financial book keeping, across the enterprise.

This has emerged as the most common way of implementing ERP.

Slam-dunk
ERP dictates the process design in this method, where the focus is on just a few key processes, such as those contained in an ERP system’s financials module. The slam-dunk is generally for smaller companies expecting to grow into ERP.

The goal here is to get ERP up and running quickly and to ditch the fancy reengineering in favor of the ERP system’s "canned" processes.