How to Face Selection Software

by Aaa Cas Auditors & Business Consultant in Dubai

The objective of this guide is to provide, in a clear and impartial way, a useful check list for those who are about to have to choose an IT solution for their company.

Although the topic in question is quite vast, and in larger companies it is a process managed by different divisions, we try to address ourselves in a more specific way to the United Arab Emirates business landscape, mostly studded with small and medium-sized enterprises: even the latter in fact need of innovation, given the now globalized context in which all the reference markets are located.

The choice of a package, in particular of management software, is rather delicate as it strongly impacts all areas and company processes, involving many resources.

The intent is, therefore, to create a vide mecum that suggests, on the basis of the specificities and operational needs of the company, what the steps to be performed and the criteria with which to operate software selection for one's company must be.

First of all we will try to understand what an ERP Software solutions in Dubai (Enterprise resource planning) management can do for a company and what are the benefits on the operations and the corporate efficiency: we will then go on to illustrate the essential points to face a software selection oriented on the specificity of the software and on the critical success factors of the company that will have to adopt it.

Why should I need management software?

Management software is a software solution that contributes to increasing profits by reducing the costs of the most common operations in terms of business routines, allowing a good degree of efficiency in production cycles.

These solutions include mechanisms for automating business activities with the aim of reducing the number of repetitive operations performed and the workload required by the operators, but their applications are many and can benefit many company aspects; below, we see the main applications of a management software:

·         Digitization and document filing ;

·         Management of the company's human capital;

·         Accounting software with vat

·         Finding strategic information for business purposes;

·         Management of relationships with acquired and potential customers;

·         Management of life cycles for the company.

The introduction of a management system must be considered with a view to a general reorganization of processes: investments in new technologies should look in the direction of change, on the one hand simplifying procedures and increasing company efficiency, on the other improving the quality of the processes. Services offered.

The reorganization of business processes can become a necessity for companies that operate in competitive sectors or with a high rate of innovation, and even more if we consider medium-small contexts, which usually do not have figures in charge of these assessments.

The decision, in this transformation process, to integrate ERP management software into the company organization can be a profitable investment that can constitute a competitive advantage even in the short term.

 

The benefits deriving from the adoption of ERP (enterprise resource planning) management software can be multiple:

Tangible Benefits

·         job reduction

·         cost reduction due to human error

·         staff productivity improvement

·         procedure simplification

Intangible Benefits

·         greater customer satisfaction

·         business organization perception

·         greater autonomy of staff

·         improvement of work methodologies

The implementation of a management system that is valid and suitable for one's business allows an increase in productivity and the possibility of growth of the company such as to generate a return on investment, in a relatively short time.

For this reason, given also the time required for the system and the operators to enter the "full working" regime, companies usually prefer to draw up medium-term plans, responding to operational needs and including the actions necessary to support full system integration.

The Phases of the Selection Software

How should the choice of management software to be used in your company be correctly addressed?

More and more companies are relying on management software to take care of business operations, often without having the resources necessary to fully delegate software selection to a team of experts: the need therefore arises to define a rational set of criteria with which to select the solution more suited to meeting organizational needs.

The proposed model is not binding, and the phases that describe it can be extended or reduced depending on the complexity, the size of the computerization project and the size of the company.

We therefore try to understand how the process for a correct software selection is articulated :

- 0. Analysis of specific needs

The first fundamental step consists in identifying the concrete needs and functional requirements that the solution we are looking for should have, in relation to the size of our company.

- A) What are the reasons that lead to software changes?

Whether your company already has a management system or not, what are the reasons that make you consider adopting a new one?

What are the objectives of the company computerization process? What is the prospect of business growth?

 

What are the features that the new software must absolutely possess? And how should it interface with the other information systems of the company?

This step is fundamental, as it will highlight the business needs and consequently the necessary functional specificities of the Customized accounting software.

Effectively identifying them will allow better communication with the suppliers to whom they will be forwarded, so that they will be able to share the requirements they will have to answer in order to provide us with targeted demonstrations.

Buying a set of products that is not perfectly responsive to organizational needs is one of the most common risks for those approaching a selection of management software for the first time.

- B) Analysis of the critical areas, processes and resources involved

More precisely, the analysis will focus on:

·         the most common operating procedures;

·         identification of critical issues: inefficiencies, waste of resources, malfunctions;

·         Process simplification and optimization.

Once the relevant areas have been identified for the purposes of our analysis, it is good practice to draw up a list of the features that the software should possess in order to be integrated into the production process.

An accurate analysis of internal processes serves to establish which are the most critical in terms of cost and slowness of procedures: these data are also essential in identifying the perfect candidate for our business solution.

In this phase it could be relevant to define also an expense budget, which takes into account the size of the company, the objectives that are sought after with the software and the reference product.

- 1. Identification and selection of suppliers

The most immediate method consists in evaluating the offer of products and services on the market; suppliers usually fall into two categories: on the one hand, providers of generalist solutions (for example, imagine a company that offers accounting software for accounting, necessary for all sectors), and on the other those that propose vertical solutions, or responding to particular sector or operational needs.

Furthermore, while some offer standardized solutions, others offer the customer the possibility to customize their own solution for the needs of the single customer.

Another criterion for the decision of the software solution provider can be to consider what the reference target of a vendor is: are the software vendors that we are selecting working mainly with small / medium enterprises or large groups?

Each supplier has its own business history and its own background: sector specializations, specific domain experiences, ways in which it acts on the market are all factors that can have a weight in the choice of the vendor; in these cases, the request for references to suppliers can constitute a good preliminary investigation, since it allows to identify the professionals who have proposed business management systems similar to ours.

 

The choice of the supplier is vital not for the product we are going to adopt, but also because its role does not end after the acquisition of the management solution: in addition to software updates, it could offer services that complete the business proposal, for example proposing training courses for operators or collaborating during the actual implementation phase.

For large companies, it may be necessary for the chosen supplier to be a system integrator, whose task will be to harmonize company technologies to improve the efficiency of the production system.

Once the vendors to be contacted are identified, it is time to send them our requests:

in addition to the software specifications and the budget (including overviews of all the costs to be faced for the implementation), it is essential to request demonstrations of the management software, which in addition to assessing the technical-functional aspects of the solution, serve to be able to ascertain the correspondence of the same to operational needs.

It is advisable to request more demonstrations in order to have a range of proposals that can be evaluated as a whole: in addition to the software, it is good to also consider the set of after-sales services offered by the sellers, which may include, in addition to specialized systemic assistance, training courses for operators, updates or dedicated customizations.

This phase will then be followed by a phase of analysis of the economic offers that will allow a selection of the suppliers: having ascertained the seriousness and solidity of the products, a negotiation phase with the remaining candidates will follow, until the completion of the supply contract.

- 2. Software selection criteria

Having made a sufficient number of pre-sales meetings, after evaluating the offers of the suppliers and the specifics of their products, we arrived at the moment of the actual selection.

The ideal solution is the one with the greatest degree of adherence to the type of business organization used: in fact it should aspire to automate the greatest number of processes, integrating them through a systemic approach.

There is no definite rule that establishes that one solution is unduly better than another: it depends on our needs and on what budget is available.

An incomplete or non- optimized software for company specifications could mean a poor return in terms of system efficiency and few benefits for the company, generating frustration in operators and company managers.

We will therefore dedicate this section to identify the criteria that weigh more in the choice of management software, to try to guide the decisions of those preparing to make one.

This group includes a series of fundamental considerations on the management software to be integrated: for example, the possibility of Customized ERP Software's in Dubai and the possibility of adapting it to business needs, good interfacing with the most common office applications (such as Microsoft Office).

The low price of a solution must not therefore be the only driver of the choice:

·         it is preferable to adopt a management system that can be easily interfaced with the web, and adequately provided with reporting tools for the activities of the company;

·         consider what the future of the product can be in the corporate organization: by entering into a medium / long-term vision, focusing on the short-term operational needs of the solution could result in a decrease in company growth margins;

·         The software must have an excellent degree of adherence to operational needs; therefore there must be correspondence between the technical characteristics and the business needs;

·         it is better to avoid too little specific tools for the business activity, or that do not offer elasticity in terms of data processing: the basic functionalities of the management have now reached a good level of maturity, for this reason it is advisable to concentrate on the peculiarities of the system from adopt and the factors that really set it apart from competitors;

·         the implemented solution, as well as being suitable in terms of budget, should be sufficiently tested, stable and free of errors, ensuring good performance even with higher workloads;

·         The software must guarantee stability in relation to a possible upgrade of the company operating systems, and make the back-up operations simple and safe;

·         The system adopted must guarantee data security: companies are today managing ever larger amounts of data, and at the same time increasing cyber attacks on company databases;

·         The software structure must be scalable and guarantee the exportability of the data in the most common formats (for example in Excel);

·         It should guarantee a good user experience for operators, providing itself with a standard graphic interface for all software functions.

Advice for the Implementation of Management Software

The adoption of management software in the production cycles can have a strong impact on all company sectors: the integration and the subsequent disposal of an incomplete or insufficiently satisfying solution can paralyze entire operating branches, creating inconvenience in the processes and in the personnel who they translate into a waste of resources.

For this reason it may be indicated to request a trial period in which it is possible to test the solution directly in the company context: this request also allows to effectively managing the impact of the solution adopted on the operators who will use the software.

 

It is advisable, therefore, to use a phased approach that allows on the one hand to give partial results and continuous confirmations about the goodness of the solution adopted, on the other hand to have adequate time for training and updating the personnel: the possibility of carrying out of the tests could reduce the sense of anxiety of the operators towards the new system, favoring their participation in the verification activities.

The gradual introduction of the system into business operations has several advantages: allowing getting up to speed relatively quickly reduces costs, avoids software under-utilization and allows staff to follow the adaptation of the system's knowledge levels.

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Created on Dec 11th 2019 04:03. Viewed 360 times.

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