Even though ERP software has been around for a long time, most companies are still under-utilizing these systems. They remain as giant repositories where transactional data languishes until some crisis requires the company to look at this accumulation of historical data.

Key reasons for stagnation in Enterprise application value:

• Applications deployed to get over Y2K in a rushed manner without enough analysis
• ERP/Enterprise application strategy never revisited due to the daunting size of such projects
• Organizational silos prevent the cross-functional collaboration required for improving processes driven by Enterprise applications.
• Manual work-arounds or in house software proliferates because no one is willing to take the time to deploy the ERP based pre-existing functionality.
• Poor data-structuring has resulted in process paralysis
• Time and money has been sunk into developing solutions that are mistakenly deemed mission critical. Even when no one has actually considered a better alternative
• People are presumed too dull to grasp ERP complexities. These systems are really quite simple but they have been awarded a complex aura
• Multiple non-integrated solutions are deployed and any improvement is put on hold due to the cost of integration
• The project is considered closed and there is no budget available for evolving the implementation to drive business value.

Why Optimize?

• Over time as companies evolve, business needs may have changed along with the capabilities. If the backbone ERP does not adapt, it will become an impediment for business. Optimization is a cost effective way of bringing the enterprise application suite on-par with the business needs.
• The software infrastructure has already been paid for and certainly is capable of handling a lot of the business functions. If combined with process improvement, the system can be designed to achieve amazing efficiencies.
• Optimizing the deployment may be a lot easer than rip-and-replace. The ROI lead-time with existing software/data architecture will be a lot shorter. ECM on top of ERP can be an effective alternative of information disbursement.
• Typically ERP based business process have absorbed investments on several ancillary processes and systems. Replacing a system may very well require that investment to be duplicated, which can be a rather expensive route to take. Optimization can achieve a lot bigger bang for a fraction of the buck.