As a company develops over time and acquires more customers and revenue, its production pace will undoubtedly increase. As a result, it becomes easier to get lost in piles of paperwork, administrative tasks and huge mountains of information, which can lead to a lot of problems, not to mention the way that complex and human resource-intensive administration can slow down business operations and decision-making. ERP systems have been providing solutions to this situation since the end of the last century, and of course they have become more effective and more diversified over time. When a company decides that it is time to go digital and look for an ERP, there are many solutions to choose from, ranging from SAP to unique software development, so it is important to get this initial step right. Which one does our company need, off-the-shelf product or custom software development?
Is our ERP compatible with your existing business software ecosystem?
The short answer is of course yes. Nearly 25 years in IT and more than 30 software implementation projects in the mid to large enterprise market segment have shown how diverse and multifaceted software systems companies work with. In most cases, these satellite systems have no interconnection with each other or with the core software that may be used. This means that there are still a lot of excel spreadsheets required and work that’s manually done to ensure that the business is running properly.
These experiences brought to life one of the fundamental pillars of the implementation of our ERP system and laid the foundations for its process and architectural design. We do not come to a company with the intention to replace everything or say that only we know the right solution, but we assess the software ecosystem currently in use with the processes and integrate both the ERP and the new processes into this system, i.e. if there is an area for which a perfectly suitable software is already available at the client, we do not push for its replacement, but integrate it into the new ecosystem and add it to the ERP.
We do this with the technology that has been in use in the financial sector for some time and is known as openAPI. In other words, we provide the ability to access the functionality of our system through a standard http REST API middleware layer, so that whatever software ecosystem we add to the ERP is the area that adds quality improvement to the users' lives. As this integration is done through this middleware layer, it greatly reduces the use of excel spreadsheets and data entry errors. Furthermore, the implementation of the new system comes with way less hassle and lower costs as the basic processes of the company will not change but will be more modern and robust, integrated into our ERP system.
Custom software solutions instead of off-the-shelf products
One of the problems companies often face is that the uniqueness of their operations makes it difficult to find out-of-the-box solutions in the IT market that fully meet their needs and provide the right support for their processes.
IKON Informatika PLC offers a solution to this problem by providing custom software development as one of our products. When someone comes to us with such a need, we first try to get to know the company and its processes in order to define the exact requirements. We delve into the documentation we receive; we ask many questions and consult with the clients even more. In order to ensure that the result is to everyone's satisfaction, we show the client the status of each development as we go along and incorporate their comments into the software.
Even after the delivery of the finished software, we do not let go of our clients' hands, but provide support for their operations as part of our day-to-day operation activities. In addition, we will implement and provide any development and modification requests they may subsequently ask for as quickly as possible. In this way, customized software is created that fully supports the company's operational processes and does not require much additional manual work by the employees.
Such a development process is also a very good opportunity for the company to rethink its operations and processes and, if necessary, decide to implement reforms. We propose and offer solutions to our partners for this kind of simplification. Whether it's software to keep track of film rights licensing agreements, or providing specific financial solutions, or something completely different, we can turn our clients' most ambitious ideas into reality.
Of course, it is up to each individual to decide whether to choose a standard, off-the-shelf product from a major vendor, bearing the costs of it and potentially compromising on unique needs, or to decide on a custom-built system that can be adapted to their needs more easily and significantly faster, but this decision must be made with careful consideration, which includes the calculation of return on investment. Considering all, custom solutions might be more appealing.
