To manage a business's overall strategic direction, CEOs must closely watch everything from operations, strategy, financing and culture to compliance, sales and more. Cloud ERPs are foundational to the CEO role, supporting them to effectively oversee and manage all facets of operation.
From laying the organisational groundwork and justifying the investment to planning for what the future may bring, Annexa director Matthew Owens offers insights for the CEO to help them make their cloud ERP transformation smooth and successful.
What are some of the most common challenges faced by business leaders that you've been talking to lately?
Businesses come to us with a need and growth strategy. For example, they may have experienced rapid growth or have plans to bring a new product or service to market and require our assistance to develop a cloud ERP solution to support them. But we're starting to see that conversation shift a little. They're still approaching us looking for a solution to support immediate initiatives, but they are also looking to future-proof their ability to scale. And they know that running multiple systems when they have expansion plans on the horizon is going to create roadblocks. So, the conversation has evolved and customers have a deeper understanding of cloud ERP's modularity and flexibility and want to deploy a solution that will achieve that critical scale down the road.
For example, a product-based business might be looking to wrap up its products into a SaaS subscription model but also want to complement those offerings with additional services to get the most out of its investment. They need tech that can repackage the way they go to market, and they need the speed and flexibility to dial up capabilities as required. Good tech makes this all so much simpler.
Data is increasingly a big part of the conversation too. As businesses grow and evolve, they collect many systems for different areas of the business, meaning data is lost or remains isolated in siloes. So, they're now thinking about capturing all that data and translating it into information that can be analysed and used to make better decisions. They want to know how to tap into that data, make it usable and have capabilities to incorporate analytics into planning. It's about understanding their customers, products, services, partners, and suppliers - right across the value chain.
Then there's planning. Our customers need systems to handle transactions and operations, but they also require sophisticated planning and forecasting support. For example, they might want to know the impact of investments, what this means for performance and how it will position the company. The last couple of years has brought a lot of volatility, hitting some businesses hard. They need to be able to plug those what-ifs into their models and understand what their business looks like.
So, what are they missing out on if a CEO operates without a cloud ERP system?
Ok, so let's say they're mid-market, running on a small business accounting system and separate systems for operations. Unfortunately, they'll be missing out on a lot of capabilities.
First, they won't have a single view of the business - they'll have to analyse the business through the lens of disparate systems. They will be analysing revenue performance in the commerce or billing system and financials in the accounting systems. When it comes to reporting, it will be challenging to bring these systems together or drill down into detailed data. They likely won't know what happened financially until the month end is completed. With today's pace of business, a CEO needs to know these things as early as possible. Ultimately, their ability to make decisions quickly is limited without an ERP.
They are also missing out on having a consistent, real-time view of the business because all those systems measure differently. So, to create consistency, they must pull out and pair up the data, and that creates complexity.
The final piece of the puzzle is process efficiency. There are many manual steps between disparate systems which means double handling and human errors. When the systems are all brought together in a single cloud ERP instance, those will disappear as they'd be able to automate all those once-patchy processes and workflows.
How can CEOs manage the fear of change when implementing cloud ERP?
Communication paired with well-planned change management activities shares equal importance. New systems and new processes can be daunting. To get everyone on board, business leaders should share not just the value drivers for the business but how it benefits individual roles. This way, everyone comes along on the transformation journey.
There is often nervousness around investing in large IT projects and their potential to fail in the executive team. It's important to remember that today's ERPs have improved from the clunky on-premises ERPs of the past. They are simpler to set up, so we can go live much faster. They are far more intuitive. You don't need software developers to drive it, either. The horror stories of past deployments should not happen today. But, again, airing these concerns and leaning on your implementation partner will help calm any fears.
How can CEOs justify the resourcing and funding behind an ERP deployment?
Before considering technology, you need to be clear on your growth goals. Then, if particular technologies enable you to achieve these goals, you can begin making a case for the investment. For example, automation capabilities will support a reduction in operating costs, or an ERP will enable the business to expand rapidly into new markets and geographies. Once you understand the strategic goals and core business requirements, you can determine the technology solutions that will satisfy them.
After that, evaluating the market will help clarify the investment versus benefits. A system integration partner will be invaluable during this process as they will be able to provide concrete capabilities to help you meet your overall vision. It's not just ERP's ability to support business growth either. Other less tangible benefits should be considered during the evaluation phase - for example, staff satisfaction and productivity or the advantages stemming from improved risk and compliance.
Cloud ERP considerations for the C-Suite
Explore the critical C-Suite considerations for determining the cloud ERP architecture that’s right for the CEO, CTO and CFO, their teams and their entire organisations.
Annexa is a leading NetSuite partner with extensive experience designing and implementing comprehensive and customised business systems, including payroll solutions, financial management, warehouse management and ecommerce solutions.
