Five things your ERP sales rep doesn't want you to know

Many businesses are turning to enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to help manage their business processes. Once the sale is over, however, the ERP sales rep most likely won't be there to help with integration, and that's no easy task

Enterprise Resource Planning systems have become the core platform for both internal and cross-company business processes. By integrating business functions, data and interfaces, they can bring many benefits, process efficiencies, improve customer service and - if coupled with the right business strategy - amplify business advantage.

The main reasons to use ERP, and the main reasons ERP is so visible in a company, are really business drivers, and include such motivations as:

Compliance with industry standards or regulations;
Customer mandates (avoiding chargebacks and minimizing returns, for example);
Supply chain economies and opportunities; and,
Competitive pressures (customer retention, rapid response).

Because ERP systems are so central to business planning and operations activities of so many companies, they are often the focus of CFO as well as CIO attention. Thus, the ERP vendor usually gets the full attention of the executive team, not just because of the importance of their product to the business, but because of the implementation cost or complexities involved.

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