There are a few different theories on why the dinosaurs became extinct. Regardless of which theory you believe, they all share a common theme – dinosaurs weren’t able to adapt to major environmental changes so they died.
In the case of ERP systems, the dinosaur is a person – generally in a leadership position or other key role – that refuses to change. These dinosaurs are stopping your company from moving forward and using your Dynamics GP system to its full potential.
Here are 7 examples of processes that are a sure sign that your company is stuck in the stone ages:
1. Clinging to manual processes.
People who don’t like change often don't see the opportunities for integration and automation. For example, do you still print an edit list, send it off to the manager, have the manager review it, get it signed, then file it somewhere and never look at it again? You never need to do this. There is a very elegant and easy way to automate the entire approval process in Dynamics GP once you set up the right defaults. Are you still doing duplicate data entry info Dynamics GP from another system? Building an integration once could push the data over automatically.
2. Wasting too much paper.
Nobody needs to keep printing so much paper from Dynamics GP. I mentioned the approvals process. But how about duplicate checks? With automated processes and the ability to go back and reprint reports and soft copies of checks at any time in the future, printing is just a waste.
3. Overusing the Chart of Accounts.
Some people seem to feel that if you don’t know where to put information, you should just add another segment to your Chart of Accounts. That makes sense if you are using AccPac for DOS and your only reporting option is the chart. Assuming you are not, though, we should be focusing on moving your reporting out of the general ledger and into your subledgers, which is where it belongs. There’s so much more data in the subledgers than you can ever place into your Chart of Accounts!
4. Relying on static reporting.
Static reports are just snapshots of a moment in time. When you think about reporting today it should include all the cool stuff that is available in PowerBI, SSRS, refreshable Excel reports, and other Dashboarding and data visualization tools. These are dynamic reports that allow you to really dig into your live data as opposed to just looking at a tabular report of last month’s numbers.
5. Recording too much data.
Some people weigh themselves, and the rest of their team, down with the task of capturing superfluous data. If it’s not feeding a report, you have to make sure that there’s actually value in capturing it. A lot of that goes back to kind of old school auditing mentality. We used to have to have everything printed out to paper and we used to have to check off umpteen different steps to make sure that everybody did everything. But nowadays it is re-creatable and re-printable and electronic. So we can actually get rid of a lot that kind of extraneous data collection.
6. Tracking activities and data in Excel spreadsheets
Tracking data outside the Dynamics GP system in Excel is just a bad habit. Sometimes, people do it because they don’t trust their Dynamics GP users, which is another bad habit. However, I find that 92.7% of the time all that data could be tracked inside Dynamics GP. There’s generally always somewhere to put it. And if we add Extender, then we have covered the last 7.3%. Having everything in one system is so much better. It is backed up, it flows, everybody can have access to it that should have access to it, it is always up to date, and it is easier to use in reporting.
Note: All percentages above based on off-the-cuff, non-scientific calculations. In other words, don’t use them in your infographics because I made them up.
7. Hiring more admin help to rekey data.
Dinosaurs are typically scared of integrations and automation. They would rather stick with the way they have always done it, including doing manual data entry. This fear is often disguised with arguments about control and complexity. But as a company grows, these tasks become overwhelming and users simply cease being able to keep up. Often I see companies try to solve the problem by hiring more admin help. This is short sighted and won’t fix the actual problem.
It is true that there is a better way to do each of these processes, but dinosaurs like to debate. They will ask, “Does it really matter as long as our way of doing it is working?” and “Is it really worth the time and expense of going through a painful change?” The answer is a full and unequivocal Yes to both questions!
In our next article we will look at some reasons that outdated processes are bad for your company.
If you are interested in seeing how you can modernize your Dynamics GP processes, contact Briware Solutions. 844-BRIWARE
By Briware Solutions, www.briwaresolutions.com
Follow me on Twitter: @Briware_Rod