ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL

When looking for an Enterprise Solution for your Apparel or Footwear Business, the options can certainly be daunting. Shoppers often fall victim to the ‘best of breed,’ fallacy and look into the most prominently marketed solutions with broad suites of technology and support. Case studies show that too often, businesses are abandoning their implementation efforts after much pain and expense. For some who make it to the finish line, there is still much regret in their selection. In fact, as many as half of ERP users feel their software is unable to manage their processes and provide the visibility and functionality they need in order to grow.

If your company is in the soft goods and sewn products sector, we are here to help you navigate the decision process, so you can feel confident this significant purchase is money well-spent. Our biggest piece of advice we can offer you is: choose an ERP provider that specializes in your company's industry. Once you narrow your choices down with that filter, there will be less options to sort through. Additionally, the pros that accompany an industry-specific ERP system are significant.

Lower Costs

The promise of cutting costs is arguably the most appealing feature of welcoming an ERP system into a company’s operations. Naturally, it’s counterintuitive to spend more money than necessary on the implementation and upkeep of the software. Selecting an ERP software provider that serves only your business-type virtually guarantees that you will spend less than you would if you were to purchase a general ERP solution. You will save money in two areas: implementation costs and maintenance costs. 

• Implementation - Implementing an ERP system can be costly in terms of money and effort. In order to make sure your implemented solution boosts your company’s efficiency and functionality like you had hoped, your discovery, configuration and data loading processes all need to be paramount. With an industry specific solution, these processes are most often far less complicated and time consuming. Furthermore, the likelihood of needing system/software customization to meet your objectives is likely reduced substantially.
  The implementation experience is much smoother if your company instead goes with an ERP provider that is familiar with the soft goods and sewn products sector. Rather than searching for problem areas within your company and reporting back on your findings, an experienced support team can tell you where they commonly find bottlenecks and issues within similar operations, and guide you in your efforts to make meaningful adjustments. 
• Maintenance - Need to determine the optimal picking practice for your warehouse? Trying to figure out why you’re not seeing the productivity you expected in your labor force? Looking to expand your sales channels? Need to better forecast your sales? The longer these challenges remain unaddressed, the more money you waste. An Enterprise solution will give you the tools you need to run more efficiently, but sometimes it is difficult to know where to look, or when updates will come out to help you even more. During these times, you will need assistance from maintenance and support members of your ERP provider team. When you go with an industry-specific provider, you do not need to waste any additional time waiting for answers. They do not need any time familiarizing themselves with the industry, figuring out how your warehouses operate or trying to decode the shorthand you use to describe different parts of your company. You can get the answers you need quickly and see positive results within your company’s operations sooner.

Choosing an industry-specific ERP system doesn’t just save you money, it gives you value. Any ongoing maintenance or service contract expenses are put to meaningful use. Those with an industry specific ERP solution are not “funding” an overall blanketed application that tries to speak to a universal need for updates. They’re partnering with a solution that focuses solely on the challenges and needs for their type of business, thereby shining a bright light on their ROI.