ERP Migration to the Cloud and the Role of Integration
Posted by Mike Canniff on July 29, 2011
A new blog series by application architecture and integration expert, Professor Mike Canniff
A typical ERP migration scenario I am seeing is by Small to Medium Enterprises (SME) currently using legacy accounting or SMB systems, such as QuickBooks or Peachtree applications, but need additional functionality and want to “move up the stack”. They may have a need for more employees/users accessing the ERP system from a variety of platforms, or may be adding new customers and suppliers that require more sophisticated collaboration – XML, EDI, or web services integration. Or they simply may be growing quickly and need a more robust system.
For a SME, a perfect next step is a cloud or SaaS (software as a service) ERP system, such as NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics, Workday, or even SAP’s cloud offering – Business By Design. These cloud-based applications provide an initial lower capital investment, quick implementation options, and the ability to grow with your business.
This blog series will address some of the common integration issues when migrating from a desktop accounting or procurement package to a cloud based ERP solution. My goal with this blog series is to raise the awareness of integration requirements during ERP migrations.
During an ERP migration, one of the tasks commonly forgotten or pushed to the bottom of the requirements list is data integration. This includes integrating other non-ERP applications (proprietary apps, payroll, time keeping, etc., as well as B2B (business-to-business) integration or exchanging information with suppliers, partners, customers or even other corporate divisions. Unfortunately, this usually becomes apparent when you “go live” with the new ERP system and don’t have the ability to connect to your critical trading partners!
Of course, you’ve probably read about the advantages of scalable “pay as you go” models for SaaS computing, which is why you are evaluating or migrating to a SaaS-based ERP system. Can this same model apply to data integration? Many of today’s integration solutions are designed to be on premise implementations – with large up front investments. As your business plans require an increase in the number of trading partners, it would be great if your integration technology solution could also grow at the same speed.
Over the next few weeks, I will dig into this topic and cover:
- Framing integration requirements in business terms, such as outreach to new markets, better customer support, minimize transaction processing costs
- Adopting leading edge integration technology during ERP migration, rather than after, and the technical issues involved
- Migrating existing “master data” from your old system to a new cloud based ERP solution
- Evaluating cloud-based integration costs and the ROI of integration combined with SaaS ERP solutions
I look forward to your comments and thoughts over these next few weeks!
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