Throughout your journey, there are several areas of consideration and agreement vital to finding the right solution. Consider these questions as you go:
How will you recognize your business needs?
What will success look like?
Are you able to execute on your strategy?
Are you able to respond to market changes?
Do you have inventory visibility and quality challenges?
Are you operating in silos or do you have a unified, comprehensive view of your business?
How can you address those needs?
Do you have the right technology to compete in the market?
What functional solutions should you consider for your needs?
Who needs to agree/decide?
Do you have a business case?
Do we need more modern software platforms?
What will you base your buying decision on?
Do you have support from stakeholders throughout the business?
Who should lead the process?
Who will “own” and maintain the final solution?
Does the solution solve for short and long-term concerns?
Do you have functional requirements and are they cross-functionally aligned to your business needs?
How will you compare solutions?
Have you considered a cloud-based solution?
Do you have a prioritized/weighted solution wish list?
Have you evaluated demos, trials, benchmarks, etc.?
Are you seeking outside help from analysts and consultants?
Have you asked customers and/or suppliers which solutions they use?
How will you assess risk and negotiate as you get closer to a decision?
Have you evaluated the implementation time/cost, pricing model, etc.?
Have you checked references and visited other users?
Could you get more value by deploying across multiple plants?
Would you get a deeper discount for a multi-year commitment?
Have you performed an ROI/TCO calculation to see if the solution meets financial expectations?
Your Path to Connected Manufacturing
A LIST OF CHECKPOINTS
Connected manufacturing paves the way for your enterprise's digital transformation, but finding the solution that fits your business needs can be a complicated and lengthy process.
Recognize Needs
Explore Options
Define Criteria
Evaluate Solutions
Validate Risk
Now that you know the questions to ask yourself, take a look
at 10 Critical Questions to Ask Your ERP Vendor