10 Key Points that Helps in Determining ERP Customization and Configuration Needs

The two words- customization and configuration, often confuse businesses when deciding on changes for their ERP Software. This blog features 10 Key Points that might help you determine ERP customization and configuration needs in a simplified manner.

The Enterprise Resource Planning software might offer numerous benefits to organizations in the long term. Still, in some cases, businesses need to adapt them as per their business goals over time which influences businesses to go for customization or configuration options to match the expectations.

There are dual sides to a coin when it usually comes to purchasing enterprise resource planning software for your business. Once you get clear on some basic steps like- what type of ERP you need to buy or what kind of licensing options you might need, there could be further understanding required in customization and configuration needs. Since these are two different words, it is crucial to understand various aspects to save high costs and eliminate management troubles. There might also be possibilities when you want to upgrade your existing ERP software, but the concepts to choose between the two remain the same on that part too.

Why Determine Customisation & Configuration Needs

The development of ERP software usually takes up a lot of time to understand the exact requirements in the best way possible to accommodate features to meet various goals and needs in an approachable manner. There are chances that businesses might require configuration and customization over time due to changes in business processes or requirements. It is always essential to make a sound decision based on customization and configuration to save costs and time.

10 Key Points that Help in Determining ERP Customization and Configuration Needs

1) Understand the Slight Difference between Configuration v/s Customisation:

The configuration options can help you to change certain set-ups, behaviors, and features of ERP while customization implements or modifies new features and alters functions as per the business needs. The configuration can be done easily to get minimal changes as per your requirements, but customization may take time, effort, and cost. Configuration can easily be done on the set-up side, but customizations do require coding.

2) Choose the Appropriate Solution:

It is always advisable to do thorough research before choosing ERP software to get the solution as per your business goals. It is pretty essential to get a clear vision of the requirements and outcomes you want to achieve to get software that appropriately fits your business needs.

3) Change Management Should Access Need & Urgency of Customizations:

The change management team of your organization should have the authority to do a cost-benefit analysis before going into any kind of change or customization process. It helps streamline the gap between customization and configuration by suggesting a focused solution that your business can adapt. It helps in the long-term assessment of the need and urgency of the changes that you require.

4) Project Management & Scope of Development:

The ERP development should involve internal management and project management teams to evaluate the scope of development promptly. This process can guide teams to develop software as per the specific requirements that eliminate the possibility of significant customizations. However, some of the configurations can be possible as per the requirements.

5) Understand Scope of Configuration:

The configuration works towards changing the behavior and set-up of an ERP system that may revolve around changing currency types, time zones, finance, shipping, language, and customer-based needs. This can be changed as per the global business needs to facilitate smooth processes and transactions at the business end.

6) Understand the Scope of Customisation:

Customization is often done as part of the change in an organization’s business process or practice. It leads to changes in basic features and functionalities to accommodate new processes and workflows in software. Such working scenarios may take time as per the development and design needs, resulting in delayed implementation of your planned project time. As you work on the existing ERP framework it may also require a lot of time to brainstorm flexible approaches for it.

7) Understanding the Flexibility of ERP Framework:

It is always an arduous task to implement significant changes as a part of customization, but if the ERP framework accommodates changes simply, this is quite a possible thing that developers can achieve in less time. These aspects can be discussed and brainstormed with the development team to see whether this approach saves time and cost or not. The open-source frameworks may make it possible to get a solution cost-effectively.

8) Cost, Time & Commitment:

It is crucial to identify whether your business can afford the costs and time specified in customization or configuration. Usually, customization takes more time than configuration, so the decision needs to be made as on these aspects.

9) Choose Configuration for Optimisation:

The configuration always opens options for optimizing ERP software as per your business needs and specific business operations. It is always an excellent choice to choose configuration over customization since it safely adapts to your needs without making significant code changes.

10) Measure Your ROI:

Since customization may take both time and cost, it is best to assess whether customization can deliver you better profit and scalability in the long term or not. The ROI approach can get you to the right conclusion on deciding customization as an option for unavoidable change.

Conclusion

Customization can always turn out to be a challenging and time-exhausting task for businesses. At the same time, configuration comparatively takes minimal time to adapt to the process and changes easily. The companies should aptly assess urgency and business costs to come to any conclusion between the two. The decision should not by any chance come at the expense of the business and its growth, but it should justify and mediate as per the business’s need. The key points mentioned in this blog can help you identify the best possible aspects to decide on.

Still not sure which way to go? The NOI Technologies LLC can help you get the best solution after accessing your business needs. Contact Us today to get the best solution related to ERP customization and Configuration needs.