But we had a bunch of good business reasons for doing it. Surprisingly, given the level of investment and time needed to implement ERP systems, many companies forged ahead without making ROI calculations. Increasingly, companies are looking to generate hard numbers on their ERP investments. Some are putting in place strict metrics to evaluate their ERP implementations and tracking those measurements over time. Others are calculating return based on improved customer service, sales productivity, and inventory control.
Analysts say the scrutiny is long overdue.
But the benefits often come at a high price. Not only do ERP systems take a lot of time and money to implement, they can disrupt a company's culture, create excessive training requirements, and even lead to productivity dips and mishandled customer orders that, at least in the short term, can damage the bottom line. Some companies find this out the hard way. By implementing SAP's manufacturing, financial, and distribution applications across the board, Owens Corning for the first time in its history was attempting to consolidate its disparate business units and provide a single, coherent point of contact for the customer. Owens Corning wanted to let its sales and customer-service representatives access a single system and determine product availability across the company.