Designing ERP, TMS, WMS and Value Chain Implementations

Effective management of resources is a critical success factor for today’s businesses.

A strategy for an ERP system implementation is an integral part of your business system and is needed to optimize company resources. An ERP is a connector of information between various departments that empowers actionable decisions that will pave the way for improved productivity and cost containment strategies.

Investment in modernization continues at a staggering velocity as companies strive to achieve operational and financial excellence. Yet, surprisingly, many organizations do this without the alignment of their business needs to the ERP strategy. Many times, these gaps are exposed months or years after the ERP was launched and can result in a partial to full re-implementation of the ERP to attain the desired outcomes. At Withum, we understand the many complex issues can arise when an ideal ERP system is not set up right and can help you navigate the internal and external influences, so you have the best possible chance to get the desired outcomes from your technology investments.

A successful ERP design and implementation need its functionality and features to seamlessly mesh into the other business systems to reduce duplicate entry and drive automation where possible. The supply chain brings additional complexity, variance and unknowns, making the impact of the unified system design critical, but when done right, translates into significant savings. It also helps to future-proof the company’s operations which will increase the business’ potential to maximize sales and revenues. Whether it is a warehouse management system (WMS), a transport management system (TMS), accounts payable automation (AP Automation) or any other critical process that ensures the timely flow of raw materials needed for the production of finished goods to the distribution network; a unified system is essential.

If you choose to work with a consultant, it is important to make sure they have the capability and resources to analyze your core business processes across the entire value chain and understand the challenges and vulnerabilities. We collaborate with your teams to establish a systems design (ERP, WMS, TMS, AP Automation, etc.) design that will reduce complexity, streamline operations and bridge any critical gaps identified in the analysis. For implementations, there are numerous options to consider and each project will have some uniqueness that weighs into the decision; a multi-phased approach that will allow for a series of smaller, lower-risk projects to allow for early success and increase user-adoption. The phased-implementation approach achieves value from your legacy systems through integrations while minimizing the impact of change across your organization as you migrate to the new ERP system.

There is a balance between people, processes, technology that must be struck.

Withum’s team strives to analyze the subtle nuances between these paradigms to optimize costs from supply chain through operations and distribution. We achieve this through the use of the “customer journey.” This technique aligns the organization’s business needs by focus’ on the internal and external customers’ needs and wants. Our system designs are collaborative and seek to drive efficiency throughout the entire value chain that is implemented with a rigorous focus on managing change.