Throughout the years we have been met with the assumption that implementation of a Budget and Business Intelligence solution should be planned after implementation of a new ERP system. There may, however, be significant benefits by doing the opposite and implement the Budget and Business Intelligence solution prior to an ERP change:
Implementation of Budget and BI prior to ERP allows for access to vital business information during an often lengthy ERP implementation.
You can follow up on all essential reports and budgets/forecasts while the ERP system is being implemented, which makes the transition easier and more manageable.
Implementation of a Budget solution is easier on an existing ERP system, as the data structure is in place. You are familiar with the data structure which makes testing the data validity much easier.
After implementation of your new ERP system, you only need to adjust the mapping to the new ERP data to have access to the data. No need to change all budgets, forecasts, reports, analyses, calculations, user authorisation, roles etc.
Most importantly, you have now access to the historical data along with the new ERP data from day one.
The BI solution can even be used as a guideline for the information you want the new ERP solution to provide, to support management decisions.
Finally, the implementation of a Budget and BI solution will be faster and less expensive than implementing an ERP solution. It might even prolong the life of the existing ERP system. Alternatively, you can save money on licenses and maintenance by transferring the old ERP data to a data warehouse. Hereby, you can change to a new ERP solution and still maintain the historical data in the old system.
Access to historical data
As mentioned earlier, you can ensure access to the historical data by retrieving data from the old ERP system, as data go back years. Consequently, migration of historical data from the old to the new ERP system becomes less important. This will save you a lot of work and time for mapping data between the systems.
Optimising the schedule
It often takes years to execute an ERP change from the decision to change is made till a new solution is up and running. Typically, a very busy period. Once the solution is operational, time must be spent for testing and adjustments before new IT solutions can be started. Therefore, it is often beneficial to start with small IT projects that do not require ”double effort” when making the ERP change.
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