4 Pain Points In ERP Transformation And How To Overcome Them

ERP Transformation is challenging for any organization. Discover the four most-common pain points experienced by companies attempting ERP transformation and how you can overcome them.

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation is a vital step to maintaining a competitive edge for your organization. With the pace of the modern market, a best-of-breed, cloud-based ERP platform like SAP S/4HANA is essential.

Yet, upgrading your ERP platform to a modern version is a logistical nightmare. ERP tools interact with everything you do as an organization, and changing all of that can seem like an insurmountable task.

We recently surveyed 98 of our customers in order to understand their pain points and challenges when it came to ERP transformation. Let's look at the four most-common issues and how you can leverage the LeanIX platform to overcome them.

To discover the full results of our ERP transformation survey, download our free report:

FREE REPORT: SAP S/4HANA Survey Results 2022

ERP Transformation Pain Point 1: Visibility

When surveyed about their enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation challenges, 47% of respondents said that identifying interdependencies between the ERP and non-ERP landscape is a major challenge. Since your ERP tool, by definition, impacts your physical processes, understanding that relationship is key.

Yet, how can you gain clarity on every physical process that your company undertakes on the ground? You need to tap into the expertise of the teams who work with those processes every day.

Here's where SAP Signavio is an effective solution for visualizing your business processes. You can then map this information to LeanIX with an out-of-the-box integration, and align your processes to the ERP and non-ERP applications that support them.

LeanIX solutions then allow you to survey any team in your organization and collate those results within application fact sheets. This ensures you have a complete picture of how your ERP system interconnects with your non-ERP applications.

Your LeanIX fact sheets will also track to your business capabilities, meaning you'll be able to identify exactly what part of your strategy each ERP process supports. With complete visibility over your ERP and non-ERP landscape, you'll be able to plan and navigate your ERP transformation confidently.

ERP Transformation Pain Point 2: Road Mapping

Slightly more pressing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation concern, 53% of our survey respondents noted that defining target architecture and road mapping their transformation was a key issue. Perfecting your vision for change and charting a course to get there is near impossible without the right tool.

Thankfully, the LeanIX Architecture and Road Map Planning solution is precisely the tool you need. By logging all the information about your ERP system and corresponding applications and business capabilities in LeanIX fact sheets, you can then build a target vision and a road map to get there in a sandbox environment.

This way, you can test different target states and understand the consequences of changes before you make them. As such, when you decide on a final vision, you can be sure there won't be any unforeseen issues.

You can then plan out the steps you need to take from your current state to your target, and work out your timescales for the initiative. You won't only have a shareable plan that all your stakeholders can work on, but you'll also be able to repeat the process to navigate any changes in your circumstances as your transformation proceeds.

ERP Transformation Pain Point 3: Collaboration

Collaboration on enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation was a major challenge for 66% of our respondents to our survey. Getting people, processes, and tools all aligned towards your transformation is vital, however.

This is a similar issue to our visibility concern with aligning our ERP and non-ERP estate, but this is a larger problem. Beyond just aligning your estates, you now need to ensure that all your stakeholders understand the value of the change and the plan for transformation.

Key to this is the information you logged in the LeanIX Architecture and Road Map Planning solution. Sharing the deficiencies of your as-is state with your stakeholders will prove the value of your initiative, while your road map will serve as a rallying point to get everyone on-mission.

All of the owners of your processes and tools, and all your people in general, can see the why and how of your transformation process. This will allow you to align your people, processes, and tools towards your ERP transformation.

ERP Transformation Pain Point 4: Expense

By far the biggest enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation challenge, according to 82% of our survey respondents, was the cost. The huge effort involved is tremendously daunting for any organization.

This can lead to companies putting off an ERP project while their operations steadily slow down, becoming more and more unstable and less compatible with the modern market. It's clear that taking the leap of faith to upgrade to a modern ERP platform isn't something that can be avoided, but it doesn't have to be done blindly.

Using LeanIX solutions, you can identify the need to change your as-is state, plan out your transformation, and budget realistically for the cost and effort. This means you can commit to ERP transformation confidently without any surprises.

LeanIX And SAP Signavio

So, overall, we can see that the key challenges preventing firms from undergoing enterprise resource planning (ERP) transformation can all be overcome by gaining clarity on your ERP landscape. We've also seen how SAP Signavio and LeanIX solutions can provide this clarity for your ERP transformation and into the future.

This gives you the confidence you need to enter into an ERP transformation without the fear of your budget spiraling out of control or the level of effort distracting you from your operations. With the power of LeanIX and SAP Signavio, you can prepare your organization to thrive in the modern market.

To find out more about how LeanIX can support your ERP transformation, download our free white paper: