By Tara Penner

Enterprise software can have a dramatic effect on the productivity and efficiency of your business, but making a smart purchasing decision requires a great deal of forethought before pulling the trigger. The upside could be huge, but making the wrong choice could lead to a costly mistake in time, money, and frustration.

The key to making the right call is to fully understand your requirements, but before that, it’s important to differentiate enterprise from consumer-grade software.

Enterprise Application Software, or EAS, is typically deployed to meet the needs of ‘the organization’, rather than within departments or for individual users. It includes things like document management platforms, inventory, time and material planning systems.

EAS helps businesses manage and automate their processes and it can help dramatically cut costs by replacing antiquated, time-intensive activities; leaving your employees with more of their time to drive value for your business.

Whether the need for a solution is urgent, or something on the horizon, your decision is best informed by taking the time to understand your needs, develop an evaluation framework and then do your research, rather than letting the technology drive the process and decision.

Understanding What You Need

The specific functions and features needed in enterprise solution vary widely among businesses, but by thinking about the activities your employees routinely engage in, and the inputs and outputs of your processes, you can start to identify some key needs.

You should also spend time considering your users. Who are the people that need the software? What value do they need from the system? How will they input and extract information from it? What manual processes would be replaced?

Do not make assumptions.

Defining requirements is tricky by nature and without conducting a proper analysis of your business needs, which should always include talking to the end users of the system directly, it’s very possible that some requirements will be overlooked, or some unnecessary ones will be added (otherwise known as scope creep).

Overlooked requirements and scope creep are real problems many businesses face and they derail many projects and purchasing decisions. Fortunately, documenting your requirements and using them to create an evaluation framework can help stop this from happening.

Getting the Scoop

Once everything is done, it’s time to start looking at technology. Talking to vendors, reviewing white papers and similar product materials, and speaking to other customers can help immensely in choosing the right EAS to meet your needs.

Business owners and managers also shouldn’t hesitate to seek help when they need it, particularly in the form of knowledgeable consultants or business analysts who can provide the guidance needed to make the right choice.

By putting a significant effort up front to thoroughly understand requirements, businesses can reap the rewards of implementing the right platform, resulting in a host of greater efficiencies and benefits for their organization.

– Tara Penner is the Principal Consultant at Pivot Data, a document and data management consulting practice located in Kimberley. An AIIM-Certified Information Professional, her experience includes work with small businesses and not-for-profits to some of the largest engineering companies in the world. When not sitting in front of her laptop, you’ll generally find Tara in the trails or on the ski hill with her human and animal family and friends. For more information or to contact Tara, visit www.pivotdata.ca.

Article Share