Accounting Software Shreveport

What is the difference between a business process assessement and a needs assessment?  

These two terms are interchangeable and can go hand in hand.  We at Accounting Systems Consulting Group, LLC define a needs assessment as the initial intelligence gathered when a prospective customer is interested in replacing their accounting system.  This is a non-billable engagement offered by our team to assess the requirements of your back office accounting and front office customer facing teams.  During the needs assessment we determine the potential cost/benefit to our prospective customer in consideration of replacing the existing business management system or systems.  The needs assessment is a basic assessment to determine whether or not the prospective customer will benefit from a more detailed business process assessment.

The business process assessment is a tool used to reveal process improvement opportunities. Prior to selecting a new accounting system it is important to understand the degree the new system meets the business process automation objectives of each department within a company.  This can be achieved by asking a series of questions applicable to the individual departments and assigning a weight to each question answered.  The business process assessment can reveal "bottlenecks" within a particular department that are hindering the growth and efficiency of the business.

Step One: The technology project managment committee decides which questions apply to each department within the company.  
 
Step Two: The goal here is to get the people within each department engaged.  Each question is answered and given a weight of importance.
 
Step Three:  Analyze the data
 
Step Four:  Match the business process automation objectives of each department and match it to the functionality of each accounting system under consideration by creating a matrix.

Contact us to learn more about our complimentary needs assessment evaluation.

Is your company growing?

Are your ERP software users complaining about lack of functionality they require to efficiently accomplish customer service objectives?

If you answered yes to the questions above, here are some reasons your company will benefit from an ERP software needs assessment.

1. An ERP software needs assessment is a set of questions asked by an ERP software consultant to identify key issues in your companies business processes and business process automation.
2. An ERP software needs assessment can reveal human related issues versus software related issues within your company's business processes
3. According to source:  TGI http://www.tgiltd.com/erp-software-selection/erp-software-needs-analysis.html, "An ERP software needs assessment can be the foundation for preparing a complete ROI calculation and analysis.  The ROI analysis is the key to starting the software selection search off on the right track, because it builds the foundation for assessing and selecting the software for your organization's future."

Contact us to learn more about our free 30 minute ERP software needs assessment.

The business process assessment is a tool used to reveal business process improvement opportunities.  Many times companies have business process challenges that go undetected like termites invading the frame of a home.  The termites proliferate and cause more and more damage as time goes on and you may not be aware until it is too late!  It isn't until you get inside the walls to find that real irreparable damage has occurred.  Just like it is important to have your home checked every so often for termite invasion it is important to have your business checked as well. 

We recommend the following steps to perform a business process assessment:

1. Create a business process project management committee by selecting one member from each department of your company so every part of your company is represented.
2. Nominate a business process project management committee leader to manage the progress.
3. Develop a comprehensive business process analysis document to measure and assess the existing business processes.  This can be achieved by asking a series of questions applicable to the individual departments and assigning a weight to each question answered.  The business process assessment can reveal "bottlenecks" within a particular department that are hindering the growth and efficiency of the business.
4. Define your milestone and project projections.  Prepare a project time line.
5. Compare your current IT, accounting functionality against your needs and business process assessments.  Create a matrix comparing each business process need against the capable functionality of your internal personnel and accounting, human resource, customer-relationship-management systems.
6. Prepare a simple checklist to visualize whether your business process challenges are human related or software related.
7. If the business process challenges are human related than it may just be a matter of training. If the challenges are software related and can not be addressed with your current systems in place you may realize return-on-investment by replacing your dysfunctional software systems.
8. Prepare a simple checklist request for proposal and submit it to the paired down list of vendors. It is important to keep this simple, some vendors will not fill out lengthy requests for proposals especially if there is an independent software consultant involved.
9. Request product demonstrations.  Invite the RFP respondents who checked off the requirements meeting your needs to demonstrate their accounting system, human resource system, customer relationship management system etc.

Does your business consume valuable employee resources keying in orders? 

If so, consider two alternatives to this practice. 

One:  Set-up a Sage 100 ERP integrated e-commerce website that integrates the orders back into Sage 100 ERP.  Not only will you save time not entering orders, but you could also have invoice history on the site.  Customers can view their invoices online thereby culling down the customer inquiry phone call to your business. 

And two:  use EDI services with customers that are EDI-compliant.  This practice also integrates into Sage 100 order entry.  Now your valuable employee time can be spend adjusting and approving orders contracting your order processing time and making your business more profitable!  

Selecting an accounting system is no small task.  There are so many accounting systems available which one is right for your company?  Today we'll discuss common accounting system selection mistakes and how to avoid them.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #1:  Failure to establish a solid technology project management committee.  Establish a manageable technology project management committee where each company department is represented.  It is important the needs of every part of the company are considered.  Try to keep this team under 7 members.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #2:  Failure to perform a detailed needs assessment with a qualified local accounting systems expert. Needs assessments can reveal performance needs, instrumental needs, conscious needs, unconscious needs, organizational needs, individual needs and causes for needs.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #3:  Failure to develop a comprehensive business process assessment.  This process documents the measurement and assessment of the existing business processes.  This can come in the form of a checklist defining a weighted value of importance to the individual business processes critical to the company.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #4:  Failure to define your milestone and budget projections.  It is important for the technology project management committee to prepare a project time line and prelimminary budget.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #5:  Buy on emotion instead of fact.  Everyone has opinions.  It is important to make a rational fact based decision based on your needs assessment and business process assessments.

Accounting Systems Selection Mistake #6:  Too much focus on the ERP initiatives and lack of focus on other important business initiatives.

According to a 2011 study conducted by Panorama Consulting Solutions titled: ERP Failures and Lawsuits: It's Not Just For the Tier 1 ERP Vendors, ERP failures for Tier II and Tier III ERP implementations are just as likely to fail as Tier 1 implementations from SAP or Oracle.  The reasons for failure can be related to employees having trouble acclimating to the new system, versus malfunctions in the software itself.  So the goal is simple:  choose the right local accounting systems expert and the right accounting system by matching company needs to the software capabilities and including every department in the fact-based decision making step-by-step accounting systems selection process.

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