Initially, when I was doing this project by myself, I developed a good shortlist, which then took a lot of effort to push through the first discovery call and initial vendor demos. They were essentially asking me for an RFI before I had a thorough understanding of what goes into an RFI. When I asked what they wanted in the RFI, they told me it was up to us. So, having experienced individuals who could facilitate steps like that to maintain the momentum helped us push the project in the right direction. EAG helped us before we hit a wall.
When we were setting up for the needs analysis, it was pretty seamless. EAG came in and by our second call, they presented a Smartsheet with the entire procedure. They told us to find our Subject Matter Expert, send them this e-mail, and put them in the Smartsheet. Once they had that person, they were able to move forward from there and it just went boom, boom, boom, and then we were done. The process was very methodical, very structured. I like the approach, personally. That's how I take my day-to-day. That's how I manage my projects. So, there's a cultural fit between us and EAG that has really helped us execute well.
It’s a loaded question to ask what we really want from our software at this point because our current system does only about 30% of what we need it to do. Our new system needs to handle operationally what we do day-to-day. However, we currently have a lot of information tied in from Excel, rule sheets, and people's Word documents on their desktops, so we need to systemize that and bring it into this new system. We went through the needs analysis and realized we could optimize our processes in many ways because when we look at the whole business, we're touching areas from accounting to manufacturing. As a result, the scope of a new system is quite vast. At this point, the RFIs are being sent out and we are close to being down to four vendors to complete our shortlist. Zach, Q, and Grant have been doing a really good job of pushing the project along and getting things done.
Throughout this process, we improved how we communicate across the business. We had a lot of information silos that kept each department in its own bubble, and by bringing in ERP Advisors Group, we surfaced all of that. We had an open discussion about all of our processes and how they interact with each other and then we could tie those into steering committee meetings at a high level. When we put it all together, we had a much better understanding of the business itself and the interleaved processes we deal with daily.
We wouldn't have known about any of these nuances unless we had done something like this. We had a pretty extensive shortlist of vendors, but the true value we have from our partnership is that EAG can dig into the business processes and help us understand the context behind these decisions more than we would get from just looking at the software and technical aspects.
This has been a learning process for me; it is always a learning process when you're working with such unique businesses. We needed to be able to adapt quickly and we did, from the very first meeting. What questions will we be asking? How will we face this? How do I interact with the team? With EAG, we were able to figure these things out in under 30 minutes, which I think is a testament to EAG’s adaptability. The cultural fit between us is entirely there. We pride ourselves on adaptability which will help us seamlessly transition into interviews and the next phase.
I'd recommend ERP Advisors Group to everyone; they know software selection in and out. So far, I'm very pleased with how we're progressing and how things are going. When recommending EAG, I would tell people about their strong communication, project planning, scheduling management, and developing a true understanding of our needs. They take the time to quickly and thoughtfully respond to my emails, and I really appreciate that communication.
About ERP Advisors Group
ERP Advisors Group only provides software advisory services. Our consultants only work on enterprise software selections and implementations. Therefore, they are experts in conducting software selections and know the pitfalls to avoid as they guide our clients to a successful go-live.
You will find our consultants care deeply about your project and are vested as much as you are in making it a success. Ultimately, we will do just about anything to make sure you are a success!
ERP Advisors Group made the Inc. 5000 for two years in a row as one of America's fastest-growing private companies.
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