ERP Software Customization vs. Software Best Practices

[@JLalajabahl]

As always Eric, great video on probably the most impactful decision in ERP implementations, customisation vs change management. Some points I'd love to pick up on: - 'ERP by its nature is to try to be all things to all people' - suggests that vertical solutions are better choices than horizontal ones, theoretically reducing the risk of extensive customisation? - Customising to support bad habits or to re-introduce the limitations of a legacy system is just a bad idea - Customising and excluding yourself from future upgrades should be a sackable offence :-) - Customising a feature that is governed by a 3rd party e.g. Tax, GDPR, should never enter a discussion - Customisation should be documented (how and why) and shared. Someone leaving the organisation can often take with them "how this thing works", plus vendor helpdesks are then at a loss to reverse engineer customisations - Extensively customising a system not suitable for customising (i.e. hardcoding - if 'company using system' = ABC, then do XYZ ), or you need to live in a forked version, means you are likely to have chosen the wrong product? Really enjoy your content, please keep it up!

[@erickimberling]

Thank you, Justin. You bring up some great points. You identify the natural tension between ERP and vertical solutions, and that customizing to support bad habits is a bad habit itself!

[@manuelmartinelandong253]

Thank you for this video. Regards from Oyala, Equatorial Guinea.

[@JoeLogan1]

Mostly aligned with the message. However I believe the "what is differentiating" discussion typically gets incorrectly defined ad differentiating. Most functions and processes within a company is very much commoditized. The differentiation is typically in an organization's speed to change or speed to market and the ability to be agile. This typically is not something ERP can achieve even through customization, but with other niche software or tools. There have been countless times where we have heard about some custom process which are absolute requirements for the business, then we they are removed, they are quickly forgotten about and often times those customizations have been replaced by more efficient and better processes.

[@yodapadawan1825]

Thank you Eric, Change Management [CM] vs. Customization must be balanced. Not all business process requirements can be addressed using the ERP out-of-the-box functionality, like wise with CM. Customization should be holistic to enable the [CM] TO-BE process but while maintaining the AS-IS process.