By S.Suren
Well everyone have been talking about the term “Globalization” and how everyone and everything in this world is beginning to make sense of the benefits that arise out of integration of global networks. This is a good thing, because people and systems are accepting the ideas and learning to sync in with this and not be left behind in the growth potential it has to offer.
Given that, it’s no big surprise that over a period of time, these systems become just too big and complicated, are implemented across various geographical location linked via other systems, be it banking interfaces, EDIs, B2B, B2Eco, cloud networking systems etc,...... and after a point of time, no one has any clue as to what’s worth integrating with this system and whats actually bringing in some kind of value addition to the business’s strategic goal, though the truth is everyone would like to think they know the exact business drivers that require this change and the exact ROI the integration is going to bring, but they wouldn’t have thought of a measurement by which to gauge how effective the integration has actually been.
In my opinion, I would state that the best way to gauge the value addition of the integrated system is to simply identify those areas of the system that have a direct interaction point to the customers / clients. It is true there are many back office operations that need to be in place in order to cater to the requirement of those working on the frontend but remember the key element is that the front end operation is only as efficient as the back end operations.
In a previous article I had mentioned that based on research it was identified that an ERP system tends to give back true definable ROI only after 18 Months (this is after taking into consideration user acceptance, systems functional ability, learning curves etc), if this is true then as new systems are being integrated and the system developed further it means it’s just going to prolong the ROI time frame, however there is always a very visible benefit from the 1 month onwards, that cannot be denied.
Integration brings along its business benefits for sure, but unless you have a clear measurement laid down to gauge the effectiveness of the integration and a scope of work set as a base for the basic initial integration points, it’s going to be a long and winding path ahead before you reach your destination.
These are just my opinion, I am sure everyone out there have their own which I’ll love to hear. Your suggestions, feedback and comments are all welcomed at ssurenlk@msn.com.
