ERPNext is one of the fast-growing open-source EPRs today. While working in the gulf for the last 2 decades I have been advocating open source for enterprises for many years. Be it open source next-generation firewall, server platform, web servers, line of business applications, and so on.
From 2000 to 2014, I consider these 14 years as golden years of the Gulf when businesses were booming, companies were heavily investing on Technology. I also noticed that businesses implemented systems that were bigger than the size of their companies.
While working in UAE and Oman, I have been part of various systems implementation and custom development. I implemented commercial ERPs, Open Source ERPs, and developed in-house ERPs as well.
From my experience in Oman, I believe ERPNext is the most suitable system for most of the companies in the Sultanate of Oman. There are quite a few companies in Oman that have implemented ERPNext. But those companies who implemented ERP Next in Oman are doing well with it.
How to Implement ERPNext
ERP Implementation can be a nightmare, more than 70% of ERP or related projects fail. Therefore I must say consider the critical success factors to implement ERP.
Who will implement ERP?
The short answer is People. I always mention it is not about the product it is about the mindset. If you want to implement ERP you must have a strong team who can drive the implementation, manage the change and understand the business processes. You must have the team which technical skills and strong domain knowledge. You will need subject matter experts who will act as process owners, who will not only lead the ERP implementation in their department but must also have a good understanding of these business processes like procurement, sales, inventory, fixed assets, warehouse management, and accounting, finance, etc.
Domain knowledge is also very important, if you are in the service industry, construction, manufacturing, education, banking, retail, or any vertical, your staff must know industry-related standards and best practices. Imagine if you are into construction and your team is lacking in Project Management Skills. Define your team of ERP as below;
- ERP Steering Committee
- ERP Project Team
- ERP Process Owners
- ERP Key Users
Implementation Strategy
Implementation strategy totally depends upon the product that you have selected and the vendor who will shortlist it. When it comes to execution of the project in business I must say the team must get familiarized with the new ERP System, Test phase implementation is what is suggested by ERP vendors, with dummy data and day to day dummy transactions.
The major focus in the test phase for users will be to;
- Create Masters (Customer and Customer Groups, Items and Item Groups, Warehouse, Supplier and Supplier Groups)
- Create Sales Transactions (Leads, Opportunities, Quotations, Sales Order, Delivery Note, Invoice)
- Receipts & Payment Transactions (Supplier payment and customer receipts)
- Purchase Transactions (Material Request, Purchase Order, Material Receipt, Supplier Invoice)
Once the team is well equipped with this process then you can go live and start with the fresh data.
- Import of Master Data (Customers Suppliers, Items via import tools)
- Based on discussion with process owners we will do settings of Sales, Purchase and Stock Module.
- Finalize the cutoff date.
- Import Opening Balances of Stock
- Import Outstanding Invoices of Customers and Suppliers
- Import Opening Balances of other Accounts.
- Understand the Flow Chart of Transactions in ERP
- A comprehensive process flow diagram or data flow diagram to be explained to users to understand how the data will flow from one transaction to another.
- Read the User manual and understand the terminologies
Core business processes are almost the same in all the ERP systems, but users must read and understand the user’s manual not only to understand the operations but to understand the terminologies used in ERP systems. For example cost center, territory, and so on. There are many terminologies that users might already have been using, but in order to understand ERP, he must read the manual thoroughly.
Setting up the ERPNext System
When you consider ERP implementation, you must consider starting the business again. This means that virtually you must do everything all over again in ERP System. Your team will need to spend hours together to configure the system. Which includes the following;
- Setting up the Company (the multi company structure)
- Chart of of accounts and default accounts
- Account Dimensions
- Cost centers and profit centers.
- Ctock related accounts
- Tax setup
- Sles targets
- Budget settings
- Fixed assets
- HRA settings.
- User Permissions
- Workflow
- Setting up printing templates
- Setting up email templates and configuration
Other than standard functionalities which an entry-level ERP like Tally, Peachtree, and Quickbooks provide, ERPNext is much more advanced than all of them because it has all the modules which a tier-one ERP has today.
Budgeting in ERPNext
This option is used to control the company expenses, in the ERP system, you will be able to manage budgets against a Cost Center or a Project. There are various account dimensions where the expense can be tagged (assigned). The ERPNExt system can warn for over limit and so on.
Project Management in ERP Next
The Project module helps to keep track of deliverables and ensure their timely completion. ERPNext will help you to manage projects by breaking them into Tasks and allocating them to different people. Activity will have a cost and time which will be used as the project baseline. Task-related activity will be updated using the timesheet of the project. Purchasing and selling can also be tracked against Projects and this can help the company keep tabs on its budget, delivery, and profitability for a Project. People working on the project will be given access to submit the activity progress.
How to get started with ERPNext
If you want to install ERP Next you can do it in a few steps you can click below video to watch full tutorial of ERPNext Impelementation.
You can click below to see all the command related to installation of ERP Next.
