Carving a niche as an ERP Systems Implementer

ERP System Implementers / System Integrators - I am sure you will have a resonance to this article. 

With the growing competition amongst various ERPs if you as a partner to any of the ERPs you would have your share of the pie with customer implementations - some successful and some not successful. The journey is one big ride (some say it's a joy ride) right from getting insight of getting a matching customer whose requirements fit perfectly or more or less perfectly to the solutions you offer. I am not even getting into the part that most customers are not even aware of what they are getting into when an ERP is being implemented into their Business.

 With the advent of more Cloud ERP's and well-informed customers, who can afford to be bratty as they are spoilt for choice, a successful ERP rollout gets more and more difficult to implement. I have known so many Partners of various ERP vendors crumble under pressure and go out of business due to the growing competition. There are the others who have stood the test of time due to their excellence and being able to work as a cohesive unit of ERP consultants winning the customers' trust and indulgence and being able to get some great referrals from both the Principal as well as the customer themselves. However, I am sure even these Partners of ERP will need to put their act together and get out of their comfort zone by being more innovative and adaptive to growing trends and disruptions that have hit many Businesses with a huge impact.

Maybe some of these pointers would serve as an interest to the ERP partners who want to consolidate their supremacy and their position for the next half-decade at least before it is time to remodel their approach again.

1) Continuously innovate - by creating your own IPs with ISV solutions based on your experience and expertise in specific Industry Verticals.

2) Bundle up and provide Holistic solutions - Gone are the days when the customer would just want to tap into your specific ERP expertise - With the advent of big data, Enterprise Mobility IoT, Analytics, Offline Apps, etc see if you can start bundling one or more of these solutions along with your core expertise solution. You can either work with partners to integrate these add ons or get your current resources reskilled and repurposed to manage other technologies to integrate and provide a holistic solution to your customer. The latter approach will help you offer a feasible and cost-effective solution without having to engage with 3rd party Integrators.

3) Work with Technologies that will involve a smooth learning curve for your current workforce and that will help you build solutions quickest with all data security compliances in place.

4) Don't be shy to invest and reskill the less productive resources to embrace other technologies that will keep them relevant as well as keep the Business well sustained.

 Businesses need a fully integrated system that beefs up productivity and meets their overall capabilities - ERP is here to stay but Remember as an ERP Partner, your experience, expertise and responsibility to provide a perfect solution can never be compromised. Stay responsive, responsible and be the only good reason for the customer's confidence!