ERP Implementations Really can be on Time and on Budget

DALLAS and VICTORIA, Canada, September 21, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- http://www.unit4software.com, the world's leading provider of enterprise resource planning (ERP) solutions for business living in change, boasts a 90 percent success rate in North America with a slate of new organizations that have gone live on the platform both on time and on budget. With a report showing industry averages at under the 50 percent mark, the company's ERP solution Agresso Business World is bucking the trend.

Panorama Consulting, an independent and technology-agnostic ERP consulting firm, has released its 2010 ERP Report, an independent study that identifies the benefits, drawbacks, risks and results experienced by organizations implementing ERP software. Of the over 1600 respondents, 57 percent of their ERP implementations took longer than expected and 54 percent saw implementation costs exceed budget. The report is available at http://panorama-consulting.com/resource-center/2010-erp-report/.

In contrast, UNIT4 Business Software has an enviable record for successful go-lives in the past year delivered within final budgets and customer-defined deadlines and satisfaction ratings no less than eight out of 10. Some of these operational customers include the City of Ventura, CA; Emeritus Senior Living; Bethany Care Society; Houston Zoo; the Township of Langley, BC, and the Illinois State University Foundation.

These customers are enjoying the benefits of Agresso, which is targeted at progressive companies operating in dynamic environments, known as "Businesses Living IN Change" or BLINC(TM). The company's solution is unique because it allows business users to make changes to their ERP system quickly and easily, after implementation, without IT or external consultants.

The City of Ventura selected Agresso because of its unique architectural capabilities and ability to accommodate changes by business users. "I've done SAP and Oracle deployments before and specifically didn't want to have to deal with the large numbers of external consultants required to manage changes with those systems," says John Emerson, Senior IT Executive, City of Ventura. "The early knowledge transfer that took place during the implementation process made us self-sufficient; so much so that we handle most changes to the system ourselves," adds Emerson.

Early knowledge transfer, the cornerstone of the Agresso Implementation Methodology, and the software's change-friendly VITA architecture empowers users to take ownership of the project sooner than with other ERP vendors; these often require external consultants to remain on-site for the entire life of the system. By educating users throughout the process, customers are fully competent to assume a leading role for the go-live, and enjoy full mastery of their system well into the future, regardless of the level of future change that emerges.

This proven approach reduces project risk and facilitates problem-free go-lives, and also reduces the Total Cost of Change (TCC) because customers are not dependent on external consultants after the go-live phase. This has proven to be a significant financial burden that both CFO[1] and IDC[2] have recently highlighted in independent research.

"We recognize how valuable it is for our customers to be deeply involved in the implementation process and that ultimately, it's the users who are building the system who know their businesses best," says Shelley Zapp, president of UNIT4 Business Software in North America. "By involving them in earlier ownership of their system, our customers end up with a better solution tailored to their needs plus the ability to modify that solution when their needs change in the future."

About UNIT4 Business Software

UNIT4 Business Software in North America (http://www.unit4software.com) is a wholly-owned subsidiary of UNIT4, a $517 million enterprise resource planning (ERP) company and a top six mid-market ERP software player globally. UNIT4 Business Software's leading ERP product for organizations living in change, Agresso Business World, is widely acknowledged as the business software solution that delivers the lowest Total Cost of Change. This is achieved thanks to its VITA architecture which allows for an unlimited amount of ongoing, post-implementation changes without the typical external IT costs and intervention that nets billions of dollars in revenue to the market leaders.

Over 3,500 companies and organizations in 100 countries deploy Agresso Business World for both operational support and strategic management. The company's role-based, Web Services and Services-Oriented Architecture (SOA) enabled solutions include: Financial Management, Human Resources and Payroll, Procurement Management, Project Costing and Billing, Reporting and Analytics, Business Process Automation, and Field Services and Asset Maintenance.

The names of actual companies or products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. Agresso Business World, BLINC, and VITA are registered trademarks of UNIT4.

[1] CFO Research Services. The High Cost of Change for ERP: What Does It Cost to Keep Up to Date? CFO Publishing Corp., 2009

[2] Fauscette, Michael. Modifying and Maintaining ERP Systems: The High Cost of Business Disruption. IDC, 2009

SOURCE UNIT4 Business Software