There's been a lot of misconceptions from businesses trying to deploy ERP systems and Dapo our Business Analyst for Enterprise Resource Planning took time out to debunk four (4) of these myths in the video embedded below.

Myth 1: It is too Expensive

This is a wrong notion. ERPs are of different types, let’s take an instance from Odoo. Odoo, for example, has two different versions of ERP - The Community and the Enterprise version. The Community version is seamlessly free and only requires the business to pay for the deployment, implementation and customization if any. The Enterprise version, on the other hand,  will require the business to continually pay a subscription fee also known as a license fee. This is where businesses say that ERPs are expensive to manage or to deploy because they only know about the licenced-based ERP systems. 

Myth 2: It is ONLY for Big Businesses

A lot of SMEs also think ERP solutions are meant for big businesses alone. That's not true. Although big businesses have complex processes and a robust Enterprise that requires them to have an ERP system to manage operations, SMEs can also make use of our SaaS product which is SMEazy that only requires you to select modules that are pertaining to your business processes and flows. For example, an Nnamdi who has a shop at Ladipo, selling spare parts can only do with three modules, which are; Sales, Purchase and Accounting and  these three modules are going to effectively manage his business processes very well, and give him the required streamlining and visibility he needs. 

Myth 3: It is not Flexible

A lot of business owners or business stakeholders think that you have to change your business processes while deploying an ERP system. This is true for some of the ERP solutions but for Odoo, it's quite different. Odoo is a flexible open ended ERP, whereby a whole lot of developers or tech guys have access to the codes and  can be tweaked.  Business processes can be customized on Odoo and so instead of tweaking your business process, it is the ERP system that will be tweaked or customized to fit in the businesses operations that have been captured during the Business Analysis Elicitation gathering. On that, I'd like to say that Odoo ERP is as flexible as suiting itself into your own business processes, and not the other way round.

Myth 4: It takes too long to Implement

This is because proper Functional Requirement Elicitation is not done  or it's not done with the right stakeholders. Take for instance, If an elicitation is not properly done where business processes need to change or need to be customized, it may not be captured, and if a particular business process is missing from the functional requirement on getting to the development point, a lot of back and forth would happen in terms of clarification which may cause the deployment time to be elongated because there's going to be an iteration in business requirement gathering

On this note, I'd advise business stakeholders to award their ERP deployments to IT consultants that are experienced in deploying and managing ERP solutions.

 Oladapo Popoola is an ERP Business Analyst with Excite Panacea Limited an information technology hub focused on creating value for businesses through technology.