A complex ERP project requires Output Management
Complexity requires an Output Management strategy
Is Output Management something that can be eased into the ERP project along the way and maybe fixed around go-live? Or should it be included in the scope from the start? And what would make you put extra focus on the documents already in the proposal phase?
Troels Schmidt is a system architect at Pingala, an ERP company with 130 employees and offices in Denmark, Norway, and Dubai. He has worked with ERP since the 1990s and honestly admits that he has experienced and still experiences that documents are skated over lightly when the project is agreed.
“It typically comes too late, and this is because both the ERP supplier and the customer underestimate the task,” says Troels Schmidt. “We need to focus more on the fact that the new ERP solution requires a new design of the documents, so we don’t end up in a situation where something is missing in a document when we go live because it’s both time-consuming and expensive to correct the errors afterwards,” he adds.
What are the signs that Output Management needs special attention?
“Complexity definitely requires an Output Management strategy,” answers Troels Schmidt.
“And complexity typically arises in logistics and production, or where data is stored in external systems. In other words, where there is data flow to output across the process. Here, it’s important to design an end-to-end process.” he says. “It’s about including the documents in the pre-analysis. Output Management is just as important as the other KPIs. We need to understand the future needs and ensure they are met.”
A good example of complexity is utility companies, where different types of feed systems provide data for the documents. “The details from these systems must be transferred to the ERP system when generating invoices, which obviously requires a lot of the solution,” says Troels Schmidt. “Complexity, such as different languages and currency rules, cannot be easily supported if we stay in the ERP world. It would at least require each document to be coded separately.”
“We are going on an educational journey with the customers”
How does complexity influence the choice of Output Management solution?
“We are a Microsoft company, and naturally, we talk a lot aboutBest-of-Suite. But we also work with Best-of-Breed,” says Troels Schmidt.
“Complexity, such as different languages and currency rules, cannot be easily supported if we stay in the ERP world. It would at least require each document to be coded separately.” In these cases, it makes sense to consider a Best-of-Breed solution, where data is outside the ERP core and brought into the system when
a document is created.
However, the question of an Output Management solution is not always raised in the initial phase of the ERP project. “This can lead to ‘standard’ being set just in terms of price in the agreement, and then you end up with change requests if it turns out that ‘standard’ cannot solve the task anyway.” The financial consequences of leaving Output Management to chance in this way can be severe.
Troels Schmidt points out that the time required for document coding can be in the four-digit range, a cost that far exceeds the price of a Best-of-Breed solution chosen from the start.
To avoid this situation, he suggests that Pingala and colleagues in the industry embark on an “educational journey” with their customers.
“We need to go on a joint “education journey” and challenge customers in the Output area to ensure we find the right solution together. We need to explain to them that the ERP solution they are about to implement is very different from their current one and that this also affects the documents.” says Troels Schmidt. “We must make them aware that the new platform requires much higher data accessibility than the old one.”
And the more complex the business is, the more important it becomes to meet this requirement so that the solution can generate correct documents.
