Dealing with ERP Software Workarounds

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Anyone who works with ERP software for an extended amount of time has run into a problem that required a workaround. It may be as simple as a field you need on a purchase order that is not there or the inability to easily differentiate between very specialized products.

Because fixing the problems would literally require editing the source code of the ERP software, most situations require you to work around the problem, finding an alternative method of achieving the results you want. In the IT world, this is called a workaround. IT support personnel are usually quite happy to give you workarounds, but if you ask any of them about their own software, they will tell you they prefer actual fixes, not workarounds.

There is not an ERP system on the planet that has everything you need out of the box, and no amount of beta testing can prepare a software company for the myriad of feature requests from customers. One possible solution is to contract a company to develop a custom ERP solution for you. The problem with any custom software, however, is that you become dependent on the vendor for fixes, updates, and support for software they have no intention of selling to anyone else. That can get expensive and even dangerous, should that software company go out of business.

A better solution is to choose ERP software that is easily customizable. When I say “customizable”, I am not referring to software companies that sell you their source code. Changing the software at the source level will create some of the same problems as custom software. Products like Microsoft Dynamics GP allow you to adapt the software without even having knowledge of programming. You can tailor Microsoft Dynamics GP to meet your specific business requirements and integrate with the tools you need.

By ERP Software Blog Editors, Directory of Microsoft Dynamics ERP Experts

Dealing with ERP Software Workarounds is a post from: ERP Software Blog