Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are notoriously time-consuming to deploy, adding significant costs on top of the license costs. This is understandable, in part, because deploying an application that covers the majority of the organization tends to require a review of current business processes and practices, in order to understand what the organization does and to then map it to the new application.
However, configuring an application to suit the way an organization works often takes a long time, and requires the use of highly knowledgeable experts in the system itself – and this is where much of the budget for an ERP implementation is often consumed.
Lawson has been introducing QuickStep solutions for targeted industries for a number of months. For example, in April, Koramsa, Guatemala’s largest clothing manufacturer, which sells mainly to the US, signed a contract to implement Lawson QuickStep Fashion. In November 2006, Monkhill Confectionery, a division of Cadbury Trebor Bassett, went live on Lawson QuickStep Food and Beverage, the first of the pre-configured solutions to hit the market.
The various solutions incorporate industry best practices that are based on the expertise that Lawson’s consultants have gained over the implementation of the system over the years in various vertical market sectors.
The objective of QuickStep is to cut the implementation time (in Monkhill’s case it is claimed by over 50% of what it would have expected), bringing with it savings in consulting and internal resource costs as well as reduced risk.
Another QuickStep Fashion customer, Keen Footwear (based in Portland, Oregon), designs, markets, and distributes shoes for a variety of outdoor activities and casual wear. The emphasis on reduced implementation timescales was also important in this customer’s selection of Lawson.
One point to note is that the QuickStep solutions are not regarded as ‘lite’ offerings – they provide the full functionality of the vertical M3 product, but much of the configuration is already completed to suit the more standard needs of the particular vertical market. Of course, there will still be configuration to do in order to make the application fit to the specific requirements, and it is still vital for a potential customer to establish early on just what it really needs in an ERP application. Where QuickStep appears to add real value is that it provides a ‘short cut’ to deployment while still allowing future change.
So is this a short cut to ERP success? Well, it is early days yet, but it would appear that Lawson is reaping the benefits of using its own staff for deploying its applications, and being able to feed back that information into the product development cycle, with the result that M3 can now be offered with QuickStep in a number of verticals.
Source: OpinionWire by Butler Group (www.butlergroup.com)
