How to Choose the Right Digital System for Your Organization

Choosing the right digital management system for your business is a highly strategic decision. Avoid common traps and pinpoint your needs from the outset.

What exactly is an organization’s digital system?

A digital system is software that supports your business processes. It serves a number of management needs, structures your data, automates tasks, connects teams and supports informed decisions.

It can be made up of one or several components and can be hosted in the cloud or on your servers. It’s part of an ecosystem that includes other applications, integrations and governance rules.

A range of digital systems are available for organizations of all sizes and maturity in any sector.

For example:

• An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system supports finance and operations;
• A Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system helps businesses manage client relationships;
• A Human Resources Information System (HRIS) facilitates payroll and employee development.

However, the most important thing is not to collect acronyms, but to meet your business priorities!

What is an ERP system?

As is the case with all digital systems, an ERP system must be carefully chosen and align with your internal and external environments.

An ERP system is an organization’s digital backbone. It links your processes, data and teams in the same environment, enables the flow of information without duplicate entries and enhances the decision-making process.

How to choose the right ERP or the best digital system in three steps?

1- Define your starting point

Implementing a new system without support from management and a clear understanding of the corporate strategy could involve significant risks. The first step in choosing the right system is aligning the process with management’s vision. This will serve as the foundation for the project.

Once the strategic objectives have been defined, the project is developed with the field teams. The goal is to map your key processes, teams involved, existing tools, data flows and concrete irritants such as duplicate entries, approval bottlenecks, manual reports and inconsistent information across different systems.

The next step is to transform these irritants into needs. Based on these needs, you can define exactly what you expect from the system.

Functional requirements

This is what the system must do for you (consolidate accounts, track project progress and offer real-time stock management, for example).

Non-functional requirements

These are conditions for success such as security, performance, integration with existing tools, compliance, ease of use, hosting and support.

Then you can rank each requirement in order of priority and determine which are essential and which are preferable. During this stage, you should consider your activity sector, priorities and digital maturity to ensure the solution aligns with your reality.

2- Explore the market and clarify your needs

Next, you should carry out a market study and deliver short but indepth demonstrations to confirm exactly what each solution offers and calibrate the price range.

Then you can proceed with drafting and sharing clear and accessible specifications which include:

• your objectives;
• your utilization scenarios;
• sample data to use as a demonstration;
• your evaluation criteria;
• your constraints (timeline, resources, security, integration).

This document is not only for suppliers. It can also help you to remain focused when comparing systems.

3- Take a thorough approach when comparing and deciding

Proposals are evaluated based on concrete examples of your processes. Demonstrations use your data and scenarios rather than a standard supplier demo.

An evaluation grid takes into account:

• meeting your needs;
• implementation experience in similar organizations;
• integration with existing tools;
• the product’s roadmap;
• total ownership cost over several years (licences, services, training, support, upgrades).

The decision is supported by a clear framework based on:

• roles and responsibilities;
• implementation approach phases;
• deliverables and governance mechanisms;
• the change management plan;
• terms and conditions for service and upgrades.

Which factors are key to the successful selection of digital and ERP systems?

1 – Free up time within your organization

Individuals who know your business processes must be involved in the project. When they are available, decision-making is faster and costs are controlled.

2 – Establish clear governance

A project leader or committee that resolves issues and aligns strategy, technology and operations will help you to keep pace.

3 – Break the project down into realistic phases

The project timeline should include several production phases. A progressive transformation allows you to make adjustments where required and allows users to gradually adopt this new system.

4 – Keep it simple

Focus on standard functions and limit customization (bespoke developments) to maintain simplicity and facilitate upgrades.

5 – Choose both an integrator and a solution

The system’s work method, collaboration and team compatibility are as important as its technical specifications.

6 – Start training and transferring skills early

Test cycles allow you to familiarize yourself with the system and prepare the adoption process.

Seeking the support of experts is the best approach to establishing a link between your business challenges and the solutions available. Our experts can help you to define your needs, select the best partner and plan a project that creates value for your business and at a pace and cost that suits you.