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Top Distribution ERP features

Top Distribution ERP features

Leave a Comment / Blog, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Retail / By / December 28, 2024

Have you been thinking about implementing an ERP for your business? Your first task would be to research distribution ERP features and craft a plan aligned with the future state of your business. While similarities exist, each distributor’s business model is unique (as well as their transactions and operational capacity considerations). The common dilemma typically is to focus on similarities. Instead, most businesses end up following their industry peers, with the assumption that peers’ working practices might be equally suitable for their unique context. Although a great approach, it generally fires back because of differences in transactions and operational capacity needs. So what do you need to do? You need to identify your unique processes and then select an ERP solution that supports them.

“Understanding of the standard features would help you identify the unique features for your business and prioritize your requirements”



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Standard Distribution ERP Features

The main challenge with ERP implementation is that most systems seem very similar due to their standard features. However, these standard features don’t necessarily highlight the distinct characteristics of each system. By setting aside these commonalities, you can concentrate on the unique features, simplifying the comparison process and avoiding overwhelm.

The financial processes would be one example of standard features, which are likely to be the same for distributors. But here is the kicker: some distributors might require features such as consolidated invoicing depending on the type of customers and industries they might target. The account payable process may present challenges, such as accepting pre-payment or partial payments from international vendors. Not to mention Pro-forma invoices. So here are the most common standard finance features for distributors.

Finance
  • Accounts Receivable (AR)
  • Accounts Payable (AP)
  • General Ledger (GL)
  • Cash Management
  • Currency Management
  • Multi-entity Accounting (If you have more than one location or entity)
  • Fixed Assets
  • Tax Management
  • Financial Reporting
  • Invoice Consolidation
Inventory
  • Inventory Management
  • Warehouse Management
  • Barcode Reading Capabilities
  • Pallets or container management (if you ship or receive as a pallet or container)
  • Storage Restrictions
  • Cycle and Physical Counting
  • Wave and Batch Picking
  • Cross-docking and 3PL warehouses
  • Carrier, UPS, FedEx, and 3PL integration
  • NAFTA documentation (if you ship cross-border)
  • Kitting (if you perform re-assembly, disassembly, or light manufacturing of your products)
  • Vendor and customer inventory
  • Vendor part number, cross-reference
Order Management
  • Salas Order Processing
  • Purchase Order Processing
  • Purchase Approvals
  • Customer and Vendor Management
  • Pricing and Discount Management
  • Sales Quotes
  • Vendor Price Matrix
  • Customer and Vendor Contracts
Integrations
  • E-commerce integration

Critical Success Factors

The critical success factor is what makes or breaks an implementation. They are also your differentiator for your business model. Understanding critical success factors will help you identify the unique features of your business and prioritize your requirements. So you don’t run out of time, missing the features that matter.

Included out-of-the-box with some ERP products, these unique features collectively are also called industry-specific features. Integration and ecosystem for your specific micro-industry are what differentiate ERP products.

“Your least risky option would be to find an industry-specific ERP product that is designed for distributors.”

Unless you have a unique business (a very large IT team and a budget), your least risky option would be to find an industry-specific ERP product. An ERP product designed to support products and planning cycles for distributors. Otherwise, you will not only end up spending more but also increase the implementation failure risk.

The standard features form the foundation of your selection criteria (and priorities). However, once your executive team agrees on core features, unique features will demand the most attention during your evaluation process. We recommend the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time is spent on the industry-specific features, while 20% is spent on the core ERP features.

“We recommend the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time on the industry-specific features while 20% on the core ERP features.”



ERP Selection: The Ultimate Guide

This is an in-depth guide with over 80 pages and covers every topic as it pertains to ERP selection in sufficient detail to help you make an informed decision.

Download Now

Conclusion

ERP evaluations are typically overwhelming because of a steep learning curve. This is especially true if you have negligible experience implementing an ERP. Also, since ERP implementations are expensive and risky, they only aggravate the pain further. The best way to soothe would be to master prioritization in the ERP context. Knowing the standard features for distribution is the first step toward your ERP evaluation journey.

Top Retail ERP features

Top Retail ERP features

Leave a Comment / Blog, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Retail / By / March 10, 2025

If you are a retailer or an e-tailer (commonly known as an e-commerce company), customer experience must be your top priority. Your website or the e-commerce portal is obviously the first touch for your customers. And you may have invested tons of time thinking and executing ideas so that your consumers feel welcome when they first interact with your company. But is ERP equally important for your customer experience? And if so, what are the most critical retail ERP features?

Yes, ERP is equally critical to enabling the customer experience. The success of your ERP implementation will set the tone for the kind of experience provided for your customers. The very first task would be to research the features needed, followed by crafting a plan aligned with the envisioned future state of your operational processes. Defining how that would impact your business’s customer experience would be the next step. While you may want to get inspired by other retail businesses (and their experience with an ERP), identifying your unique processes is not optional, ensuring that the selected ERP solution supports them.



The 2025 Digital Transformation Report

Thinking of embarking on a ERP journey and looking for a digital transformation report? Want to learn the best practices of digital transformation? Then, you have come to the right place.

Download Now

ERP Features for Retailers

The majority of ERP solutions available in the market would support the most common out-of-the-box features required by retail companies. They are listed below for your reference:

Finance
  • Accounts Receivable (AR)
  • Accounts Payable (AP)
  • General Ledger (GL)
  • Cash Management
  • Currency Management
  • Multi-entity Accounting (If you have more than one location or entities)
  • Tax Management
  • Financial Reporting
Inventory
  • Inventory Management
  • Warehouse Management
  • Barcode Reading Capabilities
  • Cycle and Physical Counting
Order Management
  • Sales Order Processing
  • Purchase Order Processing
  • Purchase Approvals
  • Customer and Vendor Management
  • Pricing and Discount Management
  • Discount Approvals and Sales Commission
  • Coupons, Promotions, and Loyalty Management
  • Customer and Vendor Contracts
  • Customer Notifications
  • Order and Payment Status Portal
  • Return Management
  • Customer Service Portal
Integrations
  • E-commerce integration (if you sell over the web)
  • POS integration (if you have a physical outlet)
  • Marketing Automation Platform Integration
  • CRM Integration

Critical Success Factors

Awareness of these standard features would help you identify the unique features, which typically are more important for your implementation, as well as prioritize your requirements so you have sufficient time to explore the features that matter most.

These unique features collectively are also called industry-specific features, which, as well as integration and ecosystem for your specific micro-industry, is what differentiates ERP products.

The standard features are what forms the foundation of your selection criteria as well as priorities.

Unless you have a very large IT team as well as a budget, which is generally uncommon for SME retailers, your least risky option would be to find an ERP product designed for retailers. Otherwise, you might not only fail to achieve your customer experience goals but also end up wasting your time and money.

We recommend the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time on the business-specific features while 20% on the core ERP features.

The standard features form the foundation of your selection criteria (as well as priorities). However, once your executive team is aligned on the core features, you should be spending the most time discussing the unique features during your evaluation process. We recommend the 80-20 rule. 80% of the time is spent on the business-specific features, while 20% is spent on the core ERP features.



ERP Selection: The Ultimate Guide

This is an in-depth guide with over 80 pages and covers every topic as it pertains to ERP selection in sufficient detail to help you make an informed decision.

Download Now

Conclusion

If you have negligible experience implementing an ERP, the evaluation process could feel overwhelming due to the steep learning curve, as well as because these purchases are expensive and risky. One way to ease the transition would be to understand how to prioritize and where to focus. Awareness of standard features is the first step of your ERP implementation journey.

Top Manufacturing ERP Features

Top Manufacturing ERP Features

Leave a Comment / Blog, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Retail / By / December 28, 2024

Tasked with researching an ERP solution for your manufacturing business? Understanding manufacturing ERP features is the first thing you need. Awareness of their implications is equally critical. While each business needs certain specific features, there are a few common features that most manufacturing companies need, generally offered out of the box with popular manufacturing ERP systems.



ERP Selection: The Ultimate Guide

This is an in-depth guide with over 80 pages and covers every topic as it pertains to ERP selection in sufficient detail to help you make an informed decision.

Download Now

Among manufacturing ERP systems that are likely to contain the most generic manufacturing features, Industry-specific functionality (also known as last mile functionality) is what differentiates ERP products. If you are looking at larger solutions such as Microsoft Dynamics, SAP S/4 HANA, or Oracle ERP products, these last-mile features might be provided by add-ons (built by system integrators) because these products are meant to be slightly technical in nature. The primary audience for these systems is larger companies with higher implementation budgets. Unless you have a very large IT team, your best bet would be to find an industry-specific ERP where most such features (tailored integrations) are provided out of the box for specific industries.

Compared with vanilla systems, manufacturing ERP systems have the natural support for BOM layers, scheduling, and costing, with the ability to report fixed and variable overhead separately for machines and operations. The non-manufacturing ERP, on the other hand, would not have the costing layers, including scalable overhead layers. The manufacturing ERP systems will also likely have features such as replacing a component across all BOMs. Also, features such as swapping out an operation for all BOMs might be limited. Developing such features on vanilla ERP might take forever. The manufacturing ERP, on the other hand, can perform them with one click.

ERP Features for Manufacturers

Manufacturing

The manufacturing features are likely to differ most in ERP systems. While several ERP systems might claim (or pretend) to be manufacturing ERP systems, genuine manufacturing ERP systems typically have a tighter correlation between the materials and operations, as well as the operations and skill sets. These correlations help manufacturing companies have precise control over their operations and reporting.

  • Bill of Material (BOM)/Formula
  • Material Requirement Planning
  • Production Order Management
  • Labor and Material reporting through mobile
Finance
  • Accounts Receivable (AR)
  • Accounts Payable (AP)
  • General Ledger (GL)
  • Cash Management
  • Currency Management
  • Multi-entity Accounting (If you have more than one location or entity)
  • Fixed Assets
  • Tax Management
  • Financial Reporting


ERP System Scorecard Matrix

This resource provides a framework for quantifying the ERP selection process and how to make heterogeneous solutions comparable.

Download Now
Inventory
  • Inventory Management
  • Warehouse Management
  • Barcode Reading Capabilities
Order Management
  • Salas Order Processing
  • Purchase Order Processing
  • Purchase Approvals
  • Customer and Vendor Management
  • Pricing and Discount Management

Conclusion

Knowing these standard features and what differentiates ERP solutions is critically important. In order to establish accurate selection criteria as well as priorities. Otherwise, you may end up selecting the wrong ERP product, which typically results in failed implementation and budget overruns.

What is an ERP?

What is an ERP? Enterprise Resource Planning?

Leave a Comment / Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Blog, Chemicals, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Food and Beverage, High Tech & Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Retail, Service Companies / By / March 26, 2025

As with any buzzword, you might find varying opinions (and thousands of definitions) of ERP systems. Some people call it an accounting/financial system, primarily because you can’t implement an ERP without a finance module. Others refer to it as an order management system (just because product-centric industries use it primarily). Finally, if you ask an ERP vendor, they might claim that it’s the ultimate software — you will ever need to run your enterprise. But how true are these claims (or interpretations)? Is an ERP system really that capable? Are there any limitations?

While it is true that an ERP system can run the majority of business processes for several industries, ERP is not always the best choice in every scenario. Based on the experience of our management team implementing ERP software for various industries for the past 20 years, this is how we define it:



The 2025 Digital Transformation Report

Thinking of embarking on a ERP journey and looking for a digital transformation report? Want to learn the best practices of digital transformation? Then, you have come to the right place.

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a Management Information System

A modern ERP enables managers (and executives) to use the appropriate real-time information (and data) needed to make key decisions on devices of their convenience. An average small business employee wears more than five hats, while founders (or owners) might shoulder the remaining responsibilities. Since owners are typically the longest-serving employees, their heads generally contain the most tribal knowledge. As they grow and hire more managers, the owners and managers will have limited information available to them. This is due to the added responsibilities and their limited bandwidth. It’s also due to the “filtering” in cascading information from middle management to executive circles (intentionally or unintentionally). Filtering might exist for several reasons, including their fear of being penalized (or tailoring the message to what they like to hear).

This generally leads to erroneous decisions because of misleading information, leading to high failure rates of their strategic initiatives. Because of this experience, owners and managers become highly risk-averse, avoiding ideas outside of their comfort zone. A modern ERP system provides an integrated view of the organization at managers’ fingertips. This view helps them tap into opportunities with confidence (without biased information).

A “Buy-vs-Build” decision

An ERP is meant to be a packaged product that you buy. So you don’t have to build it yourself. Unless you plan to run your business manually, you will require business software to host your processes, such as Finance/Accounting, Sales/Marketing, HR, and Operations. Most small businesses might start with a basic accounting system such as Quickbooks or Xero (or a small CRM such as Zoho or Hubspot). The other technical-savvy businesses may have in-house developers who might write a system on their own.

While developers may have differing opinions here, sponsors with prior experience funding a software development project would define it in three terms: Difficult, expensive, and risky. Your least risky option would be to find off-the-shelf, already-built software. That is most commonly used in your industry or micro-industry. While not always possible, as each business has some uniqueness to it, your best bet would be to evaluate the closest option. Generally, these options are tailored for your micro-industry, supporting most current and future business models and transactions (as well as geographies). Despite these options containing tailored processes for your industry, you still need to plan for some level of customization, which needs to be articulated and mapped with great detail before signing any contracts.

From the perspective of manufacturing or operations management, this is also the same-old “buy-vs-build” concept. This is a topic that management schools have been coaching for decades, and it is generally also familiar to most executives. When you buy an ERP, you make a conscious choice to buy an already-built product as opposed to building it on your own.

To illustrate it further, making a decision to implement an ERP is like buying an iPhone. You buy it because you appreciate the way the iPhone works. Customizing it to make it look like your old Nokia would not be a smart choice. In fact, it may turn out to be difficult, expensive, and risky.



ERP System Scorecard Matrix

This resource provides a framework for quantifying the ERP selection process and how to make heterogeneous solutions comparable.

Download Now

single source of truth for the entire organization

An ERP eliminates departmental (and functional silos), providing unifying access to information across the enterprise without conflicts (or duplication). While the concept of a single source of truth has been prevalent in various contexts, the true essence is rarely understood, let alone implemented. If you are not familiar with this concept, the best analogy would be to compare it with our human brains. Imagine if our body parts controlled their own tiny “brains” and the problems associated with federated intelligence and control systems.

An average business uses more than ten systems (or “brains”), such as a payroll system. It could also be an accounting system or a reporting system. Ignoring all other “brains,” such as millions of spreadsheets sitting on each employee’s desktop (and don’t forget the real brains of your key employees as they contain tribal knowledge as much as other siloed systems do). This problem of multiple “brains” causes several issues: 1) duplication of efforts. 2) slowed processing. 3) inefficient onboarding of new resources. 4) added costs of maintaining each system. 5) lack of control. An ERP system provides the very same “glue” that our human brains do. It helps us organize information without a second or conflicting source of truth.

the most strategic investment without fail

An ERP always turns out to be a strategic investment for most businesses. Done right, it is a key enabler for most other forms of investments, such as human resources or IP. While successful business owners (and executives) may have differing views on strategic investments, some regard it to be their key employees. Others view the product, idea, opportunity, or brand to be their strategic assets. However, in our view, it is the culture that attracts key employees and enables long-lasting processes, which has the potential to create an assembly line for generating product ideas.

The key ingredients of culture typically consist of clearly defined roles and responsibilities. They also include fair measurement and recognition of their contributions. Access to information is key to enabling this culture. The other major factors include a career path (the traceability of how their contributions would lead to success in their careers), helping create a differentiating culture. Implemented effectively, this is exactly what an ERP does to your business, which is why it’s one of the most strategic investments ever.



ERP Selection: The Ultimate Guide

This is an in-depth guide with over 80 pages and covers every topic as it pertains to ERP selection in sufficient detail to help you make an informed decision.

Download Now

a journey

While several industry-specific ERP options exist to expedite the process, an ERP journey is never finished with implementation. In fact, managers with experience implementing several ERPs suggest that the ERP journey typically starts with a successful implementation.

To understand this, think of an ERP as modular components that are available to construct different buildings for various use cases. Pre-built modular components are likely to provide an immediate ROI as you don’t have to invest your time and resources in constructing them from scratch. Once you own a house, you will have a better understanding of your needs, which are likely to grow over time. While there are several methods available for need realization, such as Phase 0 (Zero) — which will be very similar to creating a model house or a blueprint before starting construction — there will always be gaps in your expectations vs what you would get in the real world. So, living an ERP life often leads to superior processes and a better understanding of what works for your specific context, which evolves over a period of time.

With time, as with houses, ERPs advance with superior capabilities (and technologies). So, once you install an ERP, you are setting yourself up for a very exciting and rewarding journey. A journey that enriches as time passes and as your experience grows using it. Be open-minded with an ERP project — and treat it like a journey as opposed to a trip.

How do ERP systems work

How do ERP systems work?

Leave a Comment / Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Blog, Chemicals, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Food and Beverage, High Tech & Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Retail / By / March 26, 2025

ERP is such a broad and deep subject that understanding how ERP systems work is really challenging. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. Historically, the whole idea was to plan the resources for an enterprise (or a company). And make them available for various users and business processes in a centralized manner. But which resources?

The resources could be human resources, machines, products, or assets. While some resources are common in most industries, such as human resources and assets, some industries, such as banking or service companies, may not have products or machines. On the other hand, other industries, such as manufacturing or distribution, may not sell services.

While the ERP term captures the true essence, it misses an “F.” “F” stands for finance. If we included an “F” in the term ERP, it would become “Enterprise Resource Financial Planning.” This is great as the foundation of any ERP is the finance module. In other words, if you are trying to find software that could automate your sales process but can’t replace your current accounting software, it means that you probably don’t need an ERP. You might just need LOB software such as a CRM (read what is a CRM?).

The term ERFP does a great job of capturing the fundamental assumption of capturing the finance/accounting piece, even though it is slightly misleading. Why? Because ERPs help with several other planning activities such as operations, sales, inventory, warehouse, etc. That’s probably the reason why they called it an ERP to begin with.



The 2025 Digital Transformation Report

Thinking of embarking on a ERP journey and looking for a digital transformation report? Want to learn the best practices of digital transformation? Then, you have come to the right place.

Download Now

The Importance of Finance Module with ERP Systems

But why is the finance module always required in the case of an ERP? If the finance/accounting dept was completely siloed, as it is common with businesses that use software such as QuickBooks, Sage, or Xero. They would miss important financial insights to make key decisions, or they would be required to fetch and duplicate data and reports across departments. Some of the key decisions organizations typically make with the help of an ERP are:

  • How much inventory do they need to ensure that their sales team is not missing opportunities without overstocking?
  • Which items need to be purchased or produced in order to ensure that production is never halted?
  • How much cash do they need in each month and quarter? This is to prevent cash flow shortages and ensure that the company can run its operations, even if customers don’t pay timely.

As you can imagine, these decisions can’t be made without financial data. Now that we agree that ERPs embed accounting and finance processes across the enterprise. Imagine how your salesperson would react if they needed to learn accounting as part of their job responsibilities. This is why ERPs are also very good at encapsulating accounting. This helps with connected operations with accounting performed in an automated fashion in the background. This also helps generate real-time financial statements and insights for critical transactional business decisions. While this could be a great convenience for business users, it might not be as comfortable for a finance person who relates to journal entries more than core operational transactions because of their background. This is where reality kicks in: there is always a bit of a learning curve for every user. A successful ERP implementation requires that users forget their old habits and learn new ways of doing things.



ERP Selection: The Ultimate Guide

This is an in-depth guide with over 80 pages and covers every topic as it pertains to ERP selection in sufficient detail to help you make an informed decision.

Download Now

ERP Systems Automate Enterprise-wide Workflows

ERPs are also very good at automating enterprise-wide workflows, improving inter-departmental communication and collaboration, and enhancing customer experience. For example, when you get an inquiry for a quote from your customer, your sales team will look into inventory. They can check if the order can be fulfilled from a nearby warehouse. If not, they might book the order from this warehouse. Or, they might alert the other distribution center to ship the product directly from there or transfer it to this location in order to ship from here.

Your sales users–and, in some cases, customers–might be able to review inventory levels and shipping times, identifying the most cost-effective distribution center to fulfill the order. As a manufacturing business, you might want to know whether producing goods internally may be more cost-effective than sourcing from a vendor. Once goods are shipped, the finance team may be alerted to invoice the customer and ensure that the revenues are collected timely so that you don’t lose money because of delayed receivables. While these features sound promising, an ERP is far deeper with capabilities in what it can do to automate processes. And gain efficiencies.



ERP Selection Requirements Template

This resource provides the template that you need to capture the requirements of different functional areas, processes, and teams.

Download Now

ERPs are so versatile and customizable that there is not a single industry that can’t benefit from an ERP. Small companies and large enterprises all take advantage of an ERP. If you are not using an ERP today for your operations, most likely, you are using siloed and disparate systems. Or you have added additional staff to perform routine and mundane tasks. That could easily be automated using an ERP.

Conclusion

ERPs have evolved so much that it’s hard to keep track of the advancements. Modern ERPs provide a consistent experience across devices, whether a user is using an ERP on their phone or on a barcode reader. On a machine prompt or on a desktop. Traditional ERPs were archaic in their look and feel due to technical limitations, but modern ERPs have modernized their platforms. Sometimes, they could be as easy as using Facebook with real-time KPI widgets on each user’s homepage as well as notifications about the tasks they are expected to perform throughout the day on their phone. Plus, intuitive workflows without remembering thousands of commands or screens.



ERP System Scorecard Matrix

This resource provides a framework for quantifying the ERP selection process and how to make heterogeneous solutions comparable.

Download Now

Top 8 ERP Features for Frozen Food Manufacturers

Top 8 ERP Features for Frozen Food Manufacturers

Leave a Comment / Blog, Food and Beverage / By / February 15, 2025

While there are plenty of ERP options out there for manufacturers, most tend to be fairly generic. To fit the needs of frozen food manufacturers. If you are an SME frozen food manufacturer, all options may appear reasonably promising. But none might resonate with you. So what are the top ERP features for frozen food manufacturers?

The reason: frozen food manufacturing is unique and irrespective of how small your business might be, you need to ensure that the ERP you select supports your critical processes. Here are different frozen food segments whose business processes are typically similar. If you are one of them, read on to learn more about the critical features you would require in an ERP:

  • Frozen specialty foods manufacturing: fruits and vegetables; meals; pizzas; frozen bakery products such as bread, waffles, and pancakes; gluten-free food items; snacks and bars; desserts; manufactured ice; ice creams
  • Frozen pet food manufacturing: raw meals, cooked meals, packaged frozen food, kitted products, and re-packaged products.

Most popular ERP systems would probably provide the majority of the standard features. That may be enough for a ton of manufacturing companies. However, not as sufficient for frozen food manufacturers due to their specific needs.



The 2025 Digital Transformation Report

Thinking of embarking on a ERP journey and looking for a digital transformation report? Want to learn the best practices of digital transformation? Then, you have come to the right place.

Download Now

1. Process Manufacturing Management

While discrete ERP vendors might argue that there is not much of a difference between process or discrete manufacturing, that’s not true at all. Process manufacturing differs significantly, especially with their BOMs and product management processes.

The biggest difference between process and discrete would be in the structure of their BOMs (bill of material or manufacturing). Discrete manufacturing UOMs (units of measure) are relatively simpler. And the quantities of the materials don’t necessarily follow a dependency formula. On the other hand, process manufacturing formulations could be quite complex. Like a mathematical formula such as Z = 2X + Y where material Z is dependent upon the quantities of materials X and Y. While discrete manufacturing has its own challenges, the challenges related to process manufacturing don’t exist for them. This is perhaps one of the most essential ERP features for frozen food manufacturers.

2. Production Management

The process of manufacturing frozen food is complex. Similar to other F&B counterparts, you are likely to perform operations such as grinding/cutting, mixing, pouring, baking/cooking (if you are in the cooked-food segment), quality control, and packaging as part of your shop-floor operations. However, you may have additional steps, such as blast-freezing or thawing. As well as temperature-controlled picking, packing, and shipping. These operations could pose unique operational challenges to frozen-food manufacturers. Such as long-standing processes due to blast freezing, segregation of batches on the production line, etc.

The other production challenges could include having a two-step production process where part of the process is formulation-centric to prepare a batch of a base. The other part is the packaging of the base in different product configurations, similar to discrete processes. An ERP that can’t support both formulation and discrete processes simultaneously may not be sufficient for a frozen food manufacturer.



ERP Selection Requirements Template

This resource provides the template that you need to capture the requirements of different functional areas, processes, and teams.

Download Now

3. Pre-assigned Lot Numbers

While the lot-control feature is required in many industries, these requirements are unique to frozen food manufacturing. Why? Due to the need for recall management as well as HACCP compliance. There are very few ERP systems out there that would have features such as pre-assigned and intelligent lot numbers. If the pre-assigned lot numbers are not supported by the ERP system, your end-to-end traceability is likely to fail. Why? Due to the mixing of batches or the manual tracking of lots on the production line. In addition, the manual process might require printing a temporary number (which may not be recognized in the system)–defeating your automation and traceability goals.

4. 3PL Process Support

Most frozen food businesses also use a 3PL frozen storage facility. Because building the same capacity as part of the production site is challenging and expensive. Also, since the shipping of frozen raw materials is expensive, you might not be able to capitalize on vendor discounts if you solely relied on your internal warehouses. If your 3PL vendor allows you to use your ERP system for them to receive the goods, allocate lot numbers, and assign expiry dates, one option could be to treat your 3PL warehouse as just another warehouse.

However, 3PL warehouses are typically large. And it’s hard for them to accommodate the preferences of every customer due to the training and management overhead. Because of this issue, you require an ERP system that supports the 3PL processes natively. And a consultant like ElevatIQ who understands this space deeply to help with these unique challenges.



ERP Selection: The Ultimate Guide

This is an in-depth guide with over 80 pages and covers every topic as it pertains to ERP selection in sufficient detail to help you make an informed decision.

Download Now

5. HACCP Compliance

If you plan to attain Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certification for your products, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) requires you to develop and implement an HACCP plan to address food safety by analyzing and controlling several hazards, including biological, chemical and physical. The plan must be comprehensive to include all processes, starting from the traceability of the origin of raw materials. And their production, procurement, and handling. To production, distribution, and consumption of finished goods.

HACCP aims to minimize the negative consequences associated with the release of contaminated products to consumers as well as with their recall. This requires companies to incorporate thorough quality processes across the enterprise along with a material review board. HACCP also drives the need for detailed documentation due to audits and reporting. Unless the ERP has a built-in quality management module designed to cater to the needs of the frozen food business, complying with HACCP is nearly impossible. This compliance also requires a comprehensive document management system to record, implement, and monitor standard operating procedures (SOPs). As well as support for both forward- and backward traceability to attain end-to-end traceability management goals,

Finally, HACCP requires your suppliers to be audited and the records about their performance to be maintained. So, only the highest quality raw materials are consumed through the process. The ERP solution for frozen food must support the audit and performance recording of suppliers. This is among the top two essential ERP features for frozen food manufacturers.

6. In-house Fleets

It’s very common for frozen food manufacturers to maintain their own in-house fleets, as the 3PLs might not carry their load due to their MOQ requirements. They might also struggle to work with 3PLs due to the unique requirements of how frozen food needs to be distributed. The frozen can’t stay out for a very long time. So, they have unique requirements for route planning. As well as how much load each truck might be able to carry.



ERP System Scorecard Matrix

This resource provides a framework for quantifying the ERP selection process and how to make heterogeneous solutions comparable.

Download Now

7. Document Management

The document management needs are not only applicable to HACCP needs. They may need them for managing versions of their packaging and marketing materials. As well as any documentation required to maintain quality and compliance.

8. Electronic Signatures

The solution must also support record keeping and electronic signatures if you may be carrying food and beverage products where you might need to comply with the FDA-compliant inspections.

Conclusion

In conclusion, process manufacturing is hard. Frozen food manufacturing, with the added burden of compliance, is even harder. Having a consultant who has a mastery of the nuances of frozen food manufacturing and a system that supports your critical processes is vital to selecting the right ERP for your business and its successful implementation.

ERP System Evaluation Checklist Questions to ask your ERP consultant

ERP System Evaluation Checklist: Questions to ask your ERP consultant

Leave a Comment / Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Blog, Chemicals, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Food and Beverage, High Tech & Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Retail / By / March 26, 2025

ERP implementations could be frightening, especially for small-sized businesses with limited implementation budgets and experience. While most ERP systems appear alike, they are distinctly different, designed to support specific business processes and transactions. They might also appear alike as each term could have multiple meanings depending upon the context, requiring careful evaluation of your requirements.

Additionally, it is important to build a target operating model and vet thoroughly and comprehensively with the process and data model of a target system. While ERP system evaluation checklists such as the one below could help to some degree, they require substantial experience in interpreting and contextualizing them. But here are some of the common questions relevant to ask your ERP vendors and resellers.



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Publisher

While you might not pay as much attention to the questions related to publishers, as your focus is likely to be on the product and functionality. But with an ERP system, there are several factors related to publishers that drive whether you will be successful with the ERP implementation or not. So questions related to the publishers are critical for your ERP system evaluation checklist. Some questions that you should think of including are below:

  • Who built the original product? Some popular ERP vendors include SAP, Oracle, Microsoft, and Infor.
  • What is their customer base like? If they carry several products and if their flagship product may not target businesses comparable to your size, you might not get the same attention. The attention that you would get from a vendor whose primary customer base is similar-sized to yours.
  • How large is the company that has developed the product? What is their market share in ERP products?
  • What is the financial standing of the publisher? Are they profitable as of today?


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Product

The questions related to the product are likely to be on your ERP system evaluation checklist. But you might not have all the macro-level questions, such as product install base, which is equally critical for your ERP selection. Some questions that you may want to include are below:

  • Have they designed the product for your industry? Does it contain the last-mile functionality needed for your specific micro-industry?
  • How many successful installations does the product have?
  • How many times has it been installed for your specific industry?
  • What is the customer base like? Are 80% of the customers similar-sized to yours? The product customer base is equally important as the publisher’s customer base.

Customization

  • Would there be any add-ons involved? You may need to ask specific questions, such as who owns the code for each add-on. And review the contract.
  • How much customization would be needed to support your unique processes?

Pricing

  • How fluid and easy their pricing model is? Is it per-user, consumption-based, or concurrent?
  • How much did the price increase in the last 5 years?
  • Is the vendor able to lock down pricing for 3-5 years?
  • Do they offer monthly payment options?

Roadmap

  • Can the product support all of your business models and processes as of today but also in the next 5-7 years?

Data Ownership

  • Who owns the data?
  • Where is the data stored?
  • Is the vendor friendly enough to let you export the data or provide access to it when you need it?


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Mobility

  • Can the product be used across devices? Mobile, tablet, desktop. If yes, is the experience consistent across devices?

Licensing

  • Would there be a tier where your instance will be hosted? If so, do you need to upgrade to more expensive tiers if you grow out of the smaller tier?
  • Would there be any storage limitations?

Ecosystem

  • Is the talent ecosystem developed enough if you need to hire an internal expert or change the implementation partner later on?
  • Are there enough companies developing add-ons if you need additional features that may not be provided by the publisher?
  • Are there open-source communities and enough help available publicly for your users in the future?


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Implementation Partner or System Integrator

  • How do they price their services? Fixed Quote, Time and Material, or Recurring Service Subscription?
  • How long have they been in business?
  • How many customers do they have on this product?
  • Are they allowing you to talk to the project lead who will implement the project?
  • What has been their attrition rate in the last 5 years?
  • Would there be a change in the project team or consultants once the project starts?
  • Would the consultants be working onsite or remotely?
  • Can they provide local support if needed?
  • How much would they charge for post-implementation support? Do they have a packaged offering for unlimited support?

What Is A CRM System?

Customer Relationship Management: What is a CRM system?

Leave a Comment / Aerospace & Defense, Automotive, Blog, Chemicals, Consumer Goods, Distribution, Food and Beverage, High Tech & Electronics, Industrial Manufacturing, Life Sciences, Retail, Service Companies / By / December 28, 2024

An enterprise software category for managing front-facing customer-centric workflows, CRM stands for customer relationship management. Addressing the needs of various touchpoints across the customer journey, most common CRM systems contain several different suites. These suites range from Sales Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Customer Service Cloud, Field Service Cloud, Advertising Cloud, and Call Center Operations. In some cases, they might also have industry-specific capabilities and their cloud.



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With variations in their business models and transactions, each industry may have several business models and unique customer journeys. While smaller CRM packages accommodate standard sales cycles, customizing them might be challenging as they prioritize ease of use over scalability. In general, each market segment, such as startups, small, mid-sized, and large, has unique needs for its CRM system. Startups might prioritize easier implementation because of a limited implementation budget. Larger companies, on the other hand, focus on security and auditability, their primary need of data requirement to manage larger teams.

The importance of CRM Systems

CRM systems come in various shapes and sizes, some primarily dealing with marketing automation workflows while others specialize in downstream transactions. Depending on the business model, the needs of a CRM system could vary. But regardless of your use cases, a CRM system is critically important because of the following reasons:

  • Customer Acquisition. CRM allows you to track the activities of your prospects when they engage with your brand or content, regardless of whether internal or external channels. This makes personalized content easier, helping with research and customer journeys. All in all, these strategies will help improve your conversion rate.
  • Customer Retention. CRM also helps nurture relationships with your existing customers and prospects, keeping their memories refreshed with brand updates and key activities. So your brand is at the top of their mind when they might be in the market for your product or service.
  • Customer Experience. Because of the consistent customer view across different departments, internal employees operate on the same data. This allows consistent messaging and seamless interaction, adding substantially to customer expereince.
  • Customer Insights. Data collected through multiple channels is stored in appropriate hierarchies, allowing insights at every touch point, whether transactional insights or to support macro-level decision-making.
  • Territory Planning and Allocation. CRMs also allow teams to maintain their workspaces without conflicts, recording interactions and activities and making them available for other teams. It helps sales leadership align territories with various permission sets, whether they prefer complete visibility into the entire account base or partial visibility.

While these are just some of the core benefits, a CRM suite helps companies manage their customer-facing channels with omnichannel traceability and experience.

Wrapping up!

Most CRM systems are more of the platforms requiring substantial consulting help unless the sales and marketing processes are relatively straightforward. Selecting a CRM system requires carefully evaluating the needs of each stakeholder, creating an as-is and to-be process model, and validating that with the capabilities of the target system.

While some level of customization might be possible, assuming that they are infinitely scalable might fire back, locking yourself in a long-term contract without generating much business value. Hiring an independent CRM consultant to manage the selection and change management could be one way to mitigate these risks.

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