Make ERP replacement smooth and strategic with iCore

Replacing the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is one of the most complex, time-consuming and costly projects a company can undertake. At iCore, we have helped many companies get through this in a structured way, with low costs and minimal production disruptions. The secret is spelled process-based integration and loosely-coupled connections!

In the current business landscape, agility is not just an advantage; it's a necessity for survival and maintaining competitiveness. However, many organizations are weighed down by IT environments that are anything but flexible. These infrastructures are typically anchored by bulky ERP systems, "monoliths" riddled with direct connections to different systems and applications. This situation often stems from prolonged underinvestment in IT and, perhaps, a general lack of IT and infrastructure knowledge within the company. Over time, this approach accumulates significant technical debt. Furthermore, in many cases, the IT department remains pigeonholed in a purely operational role, with the Chief Information Officer (CIO) yet to be granted a seat at the executive table.

Eventually, the untenable nature of this setup leads to an 'aha' moment: the decision to replace the ERP.

The company then embarks on this journey, investing heavily in consultants and resources to deploy a new ERP and establish connections with other systems. Initially, this seems to solve the problem. However, as time goes by, the system begins to falter.

Dissatisfaction mounts, and murmurs of discontent echo through the halls until, once again, someone proposes the seemingly brilliant idea: We'll replace the ERP!

Building for the future - prioritizing integration from the start

Merely replacing your ERP is not a universal solution. While it may be necessary to update outdated systems that no longer support essential business processes, there's a danger of reverting to former practices without careful planning.

We advocate for a holistic approach in tandem with any ERP overhaul, aiming to develop an infrastructure that enhances flexibility and diminishes future ERP dependencies. This is best achieved by viewing the ERP as just one component of a broader ecosystem, leveraging an integration platform to establish "loosely-coupled connections" among all systems and applications.

Benefits Include:

• A modern infrastructure – You gain increased flexibility and the capacity to adapt to changes more readily.
• Independence – This strategy mitigates vendor lock-in and embraces a "best-of-breed" philosophy. You're not constrained to the offerings of a single ERP vendor, which for example may prioritize selling its own modules over integrating with your preferred Warehouse Management System (WMS).
• Mitigating technical debt – More than just reducing existing technical debt, this approach enables ongoing improvements to gradually eliminate it.
• Lowered integration costs – Integration expenses, which can constitute up to 50% of IT project costs, are significantly reduced.