An ERP consultant is an individual employed by a company to develop and implement software for use in an organisation that is in a state of business process optimisation transition. ERP consultants can be temporary or permanent employees of the client company.
If hired and paid by the client company, an ERP consultant only works with the client company and never has any part ownership in the client company. And most of the time, when an added expertise and skill set is brought onto the company by the consultant, then the consultant legally becomes the new owner of another company. ERP consultants leverage their know-how and business process optimisation industry experience to "throw them a curveball" and help jump start desirable actions and structures within their client and company's organisation that can only be accomplished if the ERP software currently supports the server of the business.
It is possible for an organisation to select either a Software Development Life Cycle or a Data Center Architecture. When using this type of approach, you are pursuing the lesser of two business process optimisation solutions. With an equivalent to a one off project, it is less expensive per month to implement at a data centre. However, for companies that will require software and hardware for multiple reasons, it is always better to start with a do-it-yourself solution with your own organisation.
Otherwise, the whole point of a new company is a complete loss for the company. The disadvantages to doing it on your own are, as indicated above, flexible business process optimisation software, limited scalability, non-expert level system knowledge, and not having a vendor with a long list of clientele and satisfied customers with this type of solution. How you should approach this will depend on your needs, availability of resources, and point in the cycle of implementation.
So what do you require in a production system?
Outsourcing the development and documentation to a service provider is not a new process. During the software boom, the various business process optimisation software services were outsourced, quality was secondary, and there was an express concern for price. But as the ERP integration process has become widespread and accessible, by using outsourcing services like these an organisation can gain not only flexibility, but additional resources to be more impactful and comply with regulatory requirements, increase scalability, and remain compliant.
Another element of the solution is finance program integration. With integration being a lifesaver, there's certainly a large pool of vendors to choose from, and even credit gauges to hire. This process is an ongoing relationship with the service provider and they are familiar with the various finance programs used by organisations of both size and status.
So what are the benefits?
There are three major advantages to selecting an ERP consultant. Firstly, there is a very efficient way to take full control of your company's software and hardware needs and business process optimisation system. This relieves you of the hassle of figuring out which of the aforementioned processes needs to be implemented, how to cost it and manage the entire process. The software specialist can work with the business to determine criteria that make sense for your organisation.
Some tools and vendors are flexible with one and need to become compatible with another. They can be very challenging to change this should the software go far in one direction, for example in the CPA scheme. The business process optimisation consultant can evaluate your process and the specific needs to determine if the implementation of that software technology can be saved, extended and documented.
Concentrate on your company's business; knowing the project is more effective, consistent and in the best interests of your company. Managed in house solutions are best for medium-size companies, yet can be very beneficial to small to medium-sized companies that want to take advantage of an effective business process optimisation method to greatly reduce the resource burden on employees.
In a time when companies are looking at anything other than cost, there is a huge need for comprehensive information on options that can be implemented. An ERP consultant solution can assist immensely in your quest toward "zero cost implementation by the supplier."