It's baseball playoff time. If you're a sports fan, this time of year has to be the best, between the baseball playoffs, football season getting into gear, and all the other fall sports kicking in.
When watching the painful NY Yankees disintegrate before our very eyes, the most expensive baseball team ever assembled, it became clear that it was time to rebuild - to dismantle the team and start rebuilding.
Of course, this blog came to mind, and the connections between the decision when to rebuild a team and the decision to replace your existing legacy or ERP system. When is it time?
There is a natural tendency to avoid a major change. Just one more improvement, just one more additional player, and we'll be the winner we envision. In most cases, we know in our mind, not just our gut, that it isn't right. But changing systems and rebuilding a team involve difficult, expensive choices, and an admission that a phase, an era, or just a part of our life is over.
So when is it time?
- When you can't get THERE from HERE.
- When every additional new capability involves another piece of software, with another maintenance contact, and another new hire to support it.
- When every new request involves creating another interface that is custom and likely to fail at the most inopportune time.
- When the bulk of your budget, time and resources are devoted to "keeping things running" instead of innovating and responding to business needs.
When is it time? Most of us know when it's time.
Successful teams and successful businesses are always assessing and reinventing themselves, always changing before they have to to stay on top.
Think like the baseball GM. The more moves you need to make to stay competitive the less likely that you'll be able to make them all successfully. Then you'll know it's time to rebuild and start looking for that new ERP platform.
Oh and by the way - IT"S ALWAYS PLAYOFF TIME IN BUSINESS!!!
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