Knowledge of software and IT is not enough for an ERP partner to successfully help your organization in the sales, rental and service of equipment. Your ERP partner must know all the ins and outs of the equipment industry in order to help you realize the ambitions of your organization.
It’s a business project, not an IT project
There are still companies that deal with ERP implementations as if these are IT projects. But they are not. ERP software is about having one integrated solution to support all of your business processes to help your business move forward. Thus, the ERP partner should have a deep understanding of the business processes and know exactly what issues and challenges his customers are facing. Technology and infrastructure are important, but it are streamlined and perfectly automated business processes that really make a difference. Consider, for example, the rental department where everything regarding rates, invoicing, transport, configuration, service level agreement, maintenance and insurance must be coordinated perfectly in the system. This can only be achieved with an industry expert.
ERP software is built by industry knowledge
As ERP software supports your business processes it is created or built by industry knowledge. A successful ERP partner knows your type of business and applies that knowledge in the design and development of the ERP system. And when your industry changes and thus the requirements to the ERP software change, there is no need to worry whether your software partner will anticipate on this. Consider, for example, trends in the market such as making use of artificial intelligence or predicting maintenance based on big data. As soon as your organization is ready for this, your ERP partner can already propose a suitable solution.
"In a good conversation about your company and the challenges you face, you will know in no time whether you are talking to the right partner."
Your ERP partner should help you to grow
Your ERP partner should be able to understand your specific requirements, but also have a clear opinion on what the ‘best practice’ is. If your ERP partner has helped multiple organizations similar to yours to improve their business processes and create a basis for company growth, you can rely on their experience. In fact, the ERP partner might know better than you do what your business processes should look like. Not just a vendor, but an advisor and sparring partner as well. For example, if they have made the service departments of dozens of other equipment dealers much more efficient with the deployment of smart software solutions and optimization of business processes, that is also very likely possible for your organization.
So when looking for an ERP partner, focus on the industry knowledge they have. Do they really understand how equipment dealers work? In a good conversation about your company and the challenges you face, you will know in no time whether you are talking to the right partner.
