Why a Business Process Review Is Crucial Before ERP Platform Selection

As you scale up your business, you might wonder: Do you need to use an ERP platform? After all, everyone – from small enterprises to large corporations – seems to be adopting an ERP system to stay competitive and agile.

By streamlining operations, ERP systems help improve efficiency, enhance collaboration, and provide real-time data-based insights. They enable organizations to optimize resources, reduce costs, make informed decisions, and adapt to dynamic market conditions.

Indeed, the use case for an ERP system is quite compelling, isn’t it?

But before you proceed, we need to emphasize the importance of conducting a thorough business process review before selecting and implementing an ERP system. A BPR is a crucial step in the risk management process prior to ERP implementation, but why? Read on to learn more about what a business process review is and its critical role as a risk management strategy in ERP selection.

Business Process Review: An Essential Risk Management Process

A business process review is a systematic evaluation and analysis of an organization’s current processes, workflows, systems, and resources. It aims to identify strengths, weaknesses, bottlenecks, inefficiencies, and areas for improvement within the business operations. The key objectives of a business process review include:

• Understanding current business processes and workflows
• Identifying problems, inefficiencies, and areas for optimization
• Aligning processes with strategic business objectives
• Improving operational efficiency, productivity, and customer satisfaction
• Enhancing decision-making, agility, and adaptability to changing market conditions
• Ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements and industry standards
• Facilitating technology adoption, such as ERP systems, to support business goals

Relationship between business processes and ERP selection

A business process review forms the foundation for ERP selection and implementation. A thorough understanding of existing processes is essential for:

• Evaluating ERP system functionalities and features that align with business needs.
• Identifying customization requirements to tailor the ERP system to specific business processes.
• Determining integration needs to ensure seamless data flow and interoperability between systems.
• Assessing the impact of ERP implementation on business operations, stakeholders, and organizational culture.

Business process review as a critical risk management strategy in ERP selection

Conducting a business process review before selecting an ERP system is a critical risk evaluation practice. It helps mitigate the following risks:

• Incompatibility: The ERP system may not align with existing business processes, leading to integration challenges, data inconsistencies, and operational disruptions.
• Customization complexities: A lack of understanding of business requirements may result in complex and costly customization efforts post-implementation.
• Change management hurdles: Inadequate stakeholder involvement and communication can result in resistance to change, user adoption issues, and productivity declines.
• Suboptimal outcomes: Without a business process review, businesses may fail to leverage the full potential of the ERP system, resulting in suboptimal outcomes, missed opportunities, and ROI challenges.
• Increased costs and delays: Addressing issues post-implementation can lead to additional costs, delays, and resource constraints.

For example, a manufacturing company that adopts an ERP system without a business process review may struggle with production scheduling, inventory management, and supply chain coordination due to process inefficiencies and system limitations resulting in production delays, inventory shortages, customer dissatisfaction, and financial losses.

The Impact of a Pre-ERP Business Process Review

Now, let’s delve into the impact of a pre-ERP business process review on the overall success of your ERP initiatives.

Ensuring alignment with business objectives

A pre-ERP business process review ensures that the ERP system you choose aligns with your strategic business objectives, such as improving operational efficiency, enhancing customer experience, driving growth, or achieving regulatory compliance. It helps prioritize ERP functionalities and customization based on your business priorities and goals.

Identifying challenges and inefficiencies

The review will highlight business pain points, bottlenecks, redundancies, and inefficiencies in your current processes. This information is crucial for streamlining workflows, optimizing resource allocation, and implementing best practices. For example, if you’re a manufacturing company, you may identify delays in production scheduling that ERP automation and real-time monitoring can address.

Determining customization and integration needs

By understanding your current processes and system landscapes, you can determine the extent of customization required of the ERP system you want. This includes configuring workflows, data fields, user interfaces, and reports to satisfy specific business needs. Additionally, the review helps with identifying integration requirements with your existing systems, third-party applications, suppliers, and customers for seamless data exchange and collaboration.

Key Steps in Conducting a Business Process Review

Conducting a comprehensive business process review involves some key steps, including:

1. Identifying stakeholders and key departments.

• Identify key stakeholders, including executives, department heads, process owners, and end-users.
• Engage stakeholders in the review process to gather insights, perspectives, and requirements.
• Establish which key departments and functions are involved in critical business processes to ensure comprehensive coverage.

2. Mapping current business processes.

• Document and map existing business processes, workflows, and subprocesses.
• Identify inputs, outputs, activities, roles, responsibilities, and decision points within each process.
• Use process mapping techniques such as flowcharts, swimlane diagrams, and process narratives to visualize and analyze processes.

3. Analyzing workflow bottlenecks and gaps.

• Pinpoint bottlenecks, delays, redundancies, and inefficiencies in current workflows.
• Analyze root causes of bottlenecks, such as manual tasks, lack of automation, communication breakdowns, or resource constraints.
• Identify gaps between current processes and desired outcomes or industry best practices.

4. Assessing data management and reporting requirements.

• Evaluate data sources, formats, quality, integrity, and accessibility within existing systems.
• Assess reporting requirements, including key performance indicators (KPIs), metrics, dashboards, and analytics needs.
• Identify data integration, migration, cleansing, and governance requirements for ERP implementation.

Benefits of a Comprehensive Business Process Review

A comprehensive business process review offers certain significant benefits:

Enhanced system adoption and user satisfaction

A business process review paves the way for a clear understanding of user requirements and expectations, leading to system configurations that meet user needs. User involvement in the review process also increases buy-in, acceptance, and adoption of the ERP system. Moreover, tailored training and change management programs based on business process insights enhance user satisfaction and system utilization.

Improved operational efficiency and productivity

A thorough business process review enables the development of streamlined workflows, reduced bottlenecks, and automated tasks, leading to improved efficiency. It also helps with the elimination of redundant activities which then frees up resources for strategic initiatives.

Minimized risks and disruptions during ERP implementation

By making a business process review integral to your risk management plan, you’re enabling the identification and mitigation of risks, such as data migration issues, integration challenges, or change resistance. It also paves the way for the proactive resolution of process gaps, compliance issues, and performance bottlenecks, and allows for a smoother transition to the new ERP system with minimal disruptions to your day-to-day operations.

Best Practices for Effective Business Process Reviews

The success of a business process review hinges on:

• Involving key stakeholders from various departments: You need to engage stakeholders from different departments, including executives, managers, subject-matter experts, and end-users. Ensure representation from all functional areas affected by the business processes under review to foster collaboration, communication, and cross-functional input and gain diverse perspectives and insights.
• Utilizing process mapping tools and techniques: Use process mapping tools such as flowcharts, swimlane diagrams, and Business Process Model And Notation (BPMN) to represent workflows visually, making them easier to study and understand. Document process steps, inputs, outputs, decision points, roles, responsibilities, and dependencies. Identify opportunities for automation, standardization, and optimization within processes.
• Incorporating feedback and continuous improvement: Seek feedback from stakeholders throughout the review process to validate findings, gather additional insights, and address concerns. Encourage open communication, transparency, and constructive criticism to foster a culture of continuous improvement. Document lessons learned, best practices, and recommendations for future process enhancements.

A business process review is essential for understanding current workflows, identifying pain points, and aligning technology solutions with business needs. It ensures that the ERP system you choose is tailored to support efficient, effective, and optimized processes that ensure the success of your business. By conducting a business process review, you can optimize your ERP selection and implementation processes, achieve process excellence and better outcomes, and drive sustainable business growth. If you need the help of seasoned independent ERP advisory experts, Affility Consulting can help. We’ve been engaged in process consulting for over 20 years, providing professional advice and custom solutions that not only help our clients choose the optimal ERP system for their business but also support their long-term objectives. Get in touch today!