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Overcoming ERP obstacles with an industry-specific system

Total ETO

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It is not difficult to judge the success of an enterprise resource planning system.

 

Either it provides a reliable foundation for the entire scope and range of your organization’s manufacturing operation, or it does not and as such becomes an enormous financial burden.

 

If your manufacturing business were like a human body, then lacking an effective ERP solution would be like not having a brain – nothing else would work as intended without it.

 

ERP shopping: The common obstacles that ETO manufacturers face in selecting a solution

 

“Finding the right combination of price and functionality is not always easy.”

 

For this reason, Engineer To Order manufacturers are willing to take their time to find an ERP platform that is worth investing in. But despite the critical role played by ERP, finding the right combination of price and functionality is not always easy:

 

In the manufacturing industry, ERP implementations often take longer than expected. According to a Panorama Consulting report, two-thirds of such projects go over schedule by up to 50 percent of the originally allotted time. Improper project scope is the main reason for such delays, being a factor in half the cases examined by Panorama Consulting.

 

Cost is another stumbling block. Manufacturing actually deals with cost overruns on this front more effectively than other industries. Panorama found that average implementation in manufacturing cost $2 million, compared to more than $4 million in other sectors. However, that is hardly cheap, and it is usually driven up by the need for additional software components and technical staff to support widened project scope.

 

Application integrations can also be tricky. An ERP system is not so much an independent platform as it is a hub for all of the other programs in your ETO manufacturing business, from your accounting software to your 3D CAD suite. As such, it should offer straightforward connections to other systems, so that your teams can avoid re-keying and duplicating data at great cost and delay.

 

An ideal ERP system for ETO manufacturers would minimize these common pain points while offering a broad range of functionality.

Finding an ERP system that works for ETO manufacturing

 

Given the cost and complexity of many prominent ERP systems, what options are there for small and medium-sized ETO manufacturers that seek something affordable and compatible with their existing systems. What options do they have?

 

Total ETO is the ticket to success here. Designed by and for ETO manufacturers, Total ETO is incredibly affordable for SMB manufacturers because of it’s highly specialized nature. It fits so well into the engineer-to-order process, it avoids the common pitfalls of traditional ERP implementations; it’s easy to implement, easy to train and the project stays in scope. Scope overruns happen as a result of poor fit, which lead to long implementations and costly customizations. With Total ETO, engineer to order organizations can have a system up and ready in no time at all.

 

To learn more about its capabilities, check out the Total ETO features or request a demo today!

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