It takes two to tango: Choosing the right ERP partner – Moving to MYOB Acumatica [Part 3]

This is the third in a series of five posts which is intended to assist customers who are considering moving off MYOB AccountRight onto MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced).

Previous article – Is ERP an expense or an investment? Moving to MYOB Acumatica [PART 2]

Next article – You don’t have to eat it all at once – Moving to MYOB Acumatica [Part 4]

Beyond the functional differences between the two products, there are a number of other elements which need to be considered when comparing MYOB AccountRight with MYOB Acumatica (or more generally when comparing a small business accounting package with an ERP system). These posts are compiled by someone who used to work at MYOB and is aware of the challenges faced and opportunities presented when migrating from one product to another. The intention of these posts is to allow for more informed decision-making of someone who is considering ERP for the first time.

It Takes Two To Tango – You’ll Need To Be Involved

Other than at the really top-end of ERP Systems (SAP, Oracle) you will invariably be dealing with an ERP partner for its installation and ongoing support, as well as for any advice that is required before purchase.

The pitfall to avoid here is to assume that your ERP partner has all the required expertise and that you just can leave it all up to them.

Leaving the entirety of an ERP installation in the hands of your partner is the same as saying to a builder: “Here’s the architect’s plans, let me know when I can pick up the keys.” If you weren’t regularly checking in on the progress of the construction and involved in the myriad of decisions that need to be made, then you’d only have yourself to blame if the completed house ended up looking completely different from what you had in mind.

If you’re wondering why those with the ERP expertise require the ongoing involvement of you as a customer it simply comes down to the fact that not everything about an ERP installation in your environment can be known before the fact. Yes – it is usually a standard routine to kick off an ERP installation with some type of scoping process, but even with a detailed scope, there will be things (such as new ideas or scope variations) that come up during the installation process that will require you to make decisions.

Best practice for ERP installations is to have an executive sponsor and a project manager involved on the customer’s side of the table. There is a cost involved in allocating these resources which not all small companies can afford, but at the very least there needs to be a customer nominated project champion whose involved with the project up until its completion.

There may be some readers who are thinking that I am simply stating the obvious by saying that a customer needs to have ongoing involvement with their ERP installation, but the points raised in this series of blog posts are all borne from observations made whilst I was at MYOB. It would be an easy enough assumption to make that if you are a customer who is currently using MYOB AccountRight (which you probably downloaded from the MYOB website and got started with straight away) that it would be similarly as easy to get started with MYOB Acumatica.

MYOB Acumatica, however (due to its configurability which I detailed in this post) will require greater involvement from you as a customer during its installation for the reasons highlighted above.

For more information on MYOB Acumatica (formerly MYOB Advanced), feel free to contact us on 1300 045 046 or email info@leveragetech.com.au today.