Have you also seen the ads for the Enterprise Software Swiss knife? ERP solutions with a lot of universal configurability and flexibility promising to support virtually any business process and data model without source code modification. Should you believe in it? Why not?

In essence it depends on what you are after. For a broad Business Intelligence solution, you often buy a toolkit of data retrieval, transformation and presentation software. This can allow you to grow and increase the breadth and depth of the solution using inhouse resources. It makes sense as slicing and dicing historical data rarely require extensive business logic, plus it is usually possible to isolate performance issues to off-line data stores.

But for a supply chain solution (or any other mission critical transaction engine), you need business logic that is fast, performing and scalable. If you take a WMS, this includes continuous process optimization and prioritization. So is it possible to achieve that with endlessly flexible workflows and rule modeling capabilities spanning all processes in a company? From a coding perspective the answer could be yes. But unless the application includes pre-configured end-to-end workflows that are tuned and tested with regards to quick deployment and performance, there is an obvious risk that you run into very long implementation projects and scalability issues.

One of the secrets with quick implementations is to limit the number of decisions you need to make. If you look at very broad systems like SAP or Oracle, which includes thousands of parameters to set, you easily understand why the project cycles grow long. This is also why best of breed solutions often help you get your operation productive quicker. They are focused on solving a specific problem, often targeting certain industries or types of customers. Here’s a checklist of things to look for when acquiring your SCM application:

• Functional fit – best advise here is to talk to references: Are they achieving good results? Did they deploy a standard version? Have they upgraded and what is the experience from that?  
• Technology platform – this is sometimes depending on IT department policies, but essential questions are: Is it ‘fit for purpose’? Can it support your demands on scaleability? Integration model for high-volume messaging and request/response services? How does it handle customization (configuration, coding)?
• Cost of ownership – how is the balance between investment, operating cost and responsiveness from the vendor? Implementation time cycle? Is there a quick deployment model? Again – talk to references about how they are being supported!

Do you agree or disagree? Comment and debate!

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