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the tasks manually in your familiar Microsoft Office applications isn’t too onerous, your book-keeper and accountant dealing with the financial reporting side of things.


As your small company grows, that few hours a week becomes a few days a week and so an admin person is employed to take the load, freeing up your valuable resources for other duties. A little more growth necessitates the need for a cheap and cheerful accounts solution, your admin person manually entering details into the system, and things are good for a few more months.


At this point your business probably employs around 12-15 people, the admin person has become an admin team and the cost is no longer trivial. Most significantly, the cheap and cheerful accounts solution now no longer has the power or flexibility to streamline your operations and deliver competition-busting productivity gains.


If only there was an individual that you could employ who was able to take over a large chunk of the work and become one of your most productive employees. This is usually when an ERP system becomes a possibility and adds an extra 'body' in the business.


There’s a new sheriff in town


For the purposes of this piece, we’ll refer to this indispensable new member of staff as Wyatt, Wyatt ERP (can you see what I did there?).


While he’s not going to cause a gunfight in your corral, it is likely that he’s going to shake things up a bit. Firstly, because he’ll come with a price tag tens of thousands of pounds and secondly, because he may very well create a resentful workforce fearful for their jobs.


A speedier start


Here at Dynamics Consultants we’ve produced a starter ERP solution based on the increasingly popular and powerful Microsoft Dynamics NAV. You might think that this sounds like a cut-down ERP solution, lacking the functionality you’d need in a few years’ time, but you’d be wrong. It is in fact a full Dynamics NAV solution.


In case you were wondering, we didn’t actually call our starter ERP solution Wyatt, we went with the more conventional and clear-cut Fast Financials. Although it is quick on the draw when it comes to improving efficiency.


As well as giving you a head start in the early stages of your business’ life, you can start to use the full functionality of the solution as the company grows and evolves. Due to the fact that we’ve templated the implementation, you can be up and running very quickly for a modest investment, making it an affordable option for businesses at a much earlier point.


Because a growing business can start to utilise other areas of the system as and when they are needed, it eliminates the need to re-implement or retrain on the core functionality and removes the disruption of taking on an ERP implementation project in the future.


A future-proof solution


More often than not, a fledgling business is likely to use Excel for their financial reporting. After all, it is one of the most widely-used pieces of ERP software in the world. Its low cost, general availability and ease of use make it a popular choice. But it’s far from risk-free. In 2013, Ray Panko, a professor of IT management at the University of Hawaii, found that 88% of spreadsheets contained errors. Admittedly on a much larger scale, it was cited that a poorly-constructed Excel spreadsheet led to the $6 billion trading loss in the JPMorgan ‘London Whale’ trading scandal.


You’d be forgiven for thinking that this is turning into an Excel-bashing exercise, but it’s not. Excel is a powerful reporting tool but problems occur when it’s being used for the wrong reasons or beyond its capabilities. Software solutions like Microsoft Dynamics NAV can make sure that all processes and departments are singing off the same spreadsheet (so to speak).


Fast Financials not only gives small companies access to the key areas of NAV that they would need in order to start using a business package but also includes the licence for all of the NAV starter pack functionality. This means that when your company grows you can expand your system to suit your needs.


Your own VIP ERP


Anyone who has grown a business from humble beginnings will recognise these growing pains and those who are just about to start out soon will. But there seems to be a rather obvious solution to this and it raises an important question; why not employ Wyatt from day one?


Better, faster, smarter, sooner


In most cases, the main reason why a business isn’t able to recruit its own Wyatt in the early days is down to cost. Star performers generally demand higher wages and whilst a well-implemented ERP solution offers great value for money, it’s usually a step too far for a fledgling company. Especially when it will only make use of a small amount of what Wyatt has to offer.


However, there is one solution that could give your company a competitive edge, improving efficiency, allowing you to make better business decisions and giving you the chance to do it sooner rather than later.


THE BUSINESS MAGAZINE – SOLENT & SOUTH COAST – APRIL 2016 www.businessmag.co.uk


Going back to our first point, this is why we think it’s important to look at your business management software as an extra person in your company. Rather than introducing a 'Wyatt' at a much later date and dealing with the fallout they create, find the right 'person' for the job as early as you can.


You should see the implementation of an ERP solution as the equivalent of taking on a graduate. Someone who will, with a bit of training and guidance, become a star employee, growing alongside the business and contributing to its ongoing success.


Details: Tom Jenkins 023-8098-2283 enquiries@d-c.co.uk www.dynamics-consultants.co.uk


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