Time, and all that goes with it, makes everything look old, jaded and slow. Including your ERP system. If yours today feels like it belongs in a decade in the past, there’s every chance that it’s slow for your business and its growth. To put it straight: replace legacy software with the latest legacy ERP alternative!
Legacy ERP systems, as the name suggests, were systems built around technology and business needs of a particular time and circumstance. With every passing day bringing its share of challenges, these may today have their share of patches, customisations, add-ons and workarounds. While it may not be the best today for a concern, they may nevertheless retain it given that everyone everywhere in the organisation knows how to get their part of the job done through it by tweaking it the way they want it.
That said, your legacy ERP system could be a mish-mash of slow screens, complicated workflows, data scattered across systems, complex training needs, extremely expensive maintenance, and very low data security. For distributors and dealers who want growth and are ready to go the extra mile, there is a better approach.
Dealer Commander, a modern alternative to legacy ERP software that’s built around today’s businesses needs with the latest technology. It came about from an in-house system created by an independent office products dealer frustrated with outdated software options.
On the question of ERP system upgrade, we give you a few reasons that could prompt the switch.
- The Hidden Costs of Legacy ERP Systems
The biggest problem with legacy ERP software isn’t always its upfront subscription or licensing cost. While the same could low, the others rest around the system; the ecosystem could cost you a large sum. How?
ERP systems, new or old, need their share of employee time and effort, more so an outdated ERP system with its dated and sometimes complicated processes. Even simple tasks can mean navigating between multiple screens and programs, remembering obscure commands, and sometimes manually moving information between systems. Now, multiply these across hundreds of transactions and dozens of employees, and you know the money in productive time has gone down the drain.
And then there’s training.
Legacy ERP systems in most cases weren’t known to be intuitive. Employees, new or existing, thus need more time to adjust and become proficient. Because the system is old, it’s natural that only a few know it inside out. Experienced employees become the go-to people who, by virtue of their position, learn the system in ways that aren’t always healthy or necessary for any organisation or its operations, including data.
- Maintenance is another area of concern.
Outdated systems need specialised expertise because of the dated technology they run on; customisation is always needed, and so is ongoing support to keep existing functionality working. With every passing day, adding the latest capabilities into an ageing platform becomes increasingly difficult.
Keeping up with a legacy system is a burden that does not necessarily help your business in any material way.
What you ideally need is an ERP system upgrade that does just the opposite: simplify work, connect, collate, and create from the same data-set- and help you and your team focus more time and effort on handling customers, old, existing or new.
- Get what you need. And precisely little beyond that.
Modern shouldn’t mean complicated. That being so, the best ERP alternative to legacy software should thus make business management simpler, agile and efficient- and not burdensome, tiring and overwhelming.
This precisely is the philosophy behind Dealer Commander.
Instead of dumping a plethora of features, most of which will never be used by a dealer, Dealer Commander focuses on enhancing capabilities that matter in running and growing a modern dealership business. It’s thus a broader platform designed to integrate functions including CRM, inventory and logistics, and customer relationship management, while also providing analytics and eCommerce capabilities. That distinction between the specialized and the generalized matters.
Legacy ERP systems become bloated over time with the addition of modules, frequent integrations and needed customisations. In quite a few cases, such additions make it difficult to recognize the original system from the patchwork of add-ons. Where it hurts most is the employee who has to constantly “learn”, given that such a patchwork is never intuitive or naturally adaptive.
Recognising the obvious, the Dealer Commander has taken a practical approach. It gives you the tools you need to manage a business’s operations, instead of loading you with unnecessary features, as with a legacy platform. The objective isn’t to give you more systems. It’s about giving you what you need most- and thus making you more agile.
One of the best ways to know when to replace legacy software is to watch users use it.
- Can newbies handle things on their own? Or do they ask for help every now and then?
- Does a routine task mean navigating through a maze of screens?
- Does accessing information mean relying on spreadsheets, handwritten notes or ground-level knowledge?
How does a modern distributor ERP help?
Aside from being aesthetic, it helps users make the most of it while being productive.
- An intuitive interface that reduces friction. From the very initiation, employees and users, old or new, understand what they’re looking for and where to access information from. It thus makes routine processes faster and less error-prone.
- In the absence of friction, users’ learning curve is reduced significantly as less time is spent on training. This saved time helps them focus on training that truly matters. In the context of dealership businesses, this is especially useful because functions like sales, inventory, customer relationships, and order management all need to work closely together.
Dealer Commander is relevant for these reasons. It emerged as an independent office products dealers support for businesses frustrated with the outdated software available to them at the time.
- Seamless Integration and Real-Time Reporting
A legacy system’s biggest weakness is the gaps, the disconnections in the flow and storage of information.
Sales may have one set of data, inventory and logistics, another. CRM could deal with another set, with eCommerce operating entirely independently. Try creating reports from such an overlapping system! Besides being inconvenient, it would be very difficult to know what’s happening in every branch of the business- precisely what a modern ERP does with relative ease! Dealer Commander on its part is thus designed as a comprehensive management platform that spans areas such as inventory control, CRM and analytics. Adding to that, its eCommerce capabilities also brings in the much-needed digital buying experience.
The advantage is thus very visibility.
As a modern distribution ERP, it brings the most important thing to a distribution business: connectivity-related visibility! And how does that help?
- With information being available in real time, decision-making becomes more responsive, more so with respect to product availability, pricing, purchasing and customer demand.
- Distribution business leaders get to identify opportunities faster while understanding customer needs clearly, and making informed decisions about inventory, sales and operations.
A modern distribution ERP shouldn’t make you wait for yesterday’s information. Instead, it should help you do business today with the latest information.
- After-sales support You Can Count On
Technology is as useful as the folks behind it, and is another area where legacy ERP systems lose out. With a legacy platform, support can be another obstacle. You submit a request and wait endlessly, only to be informed that the requested change calls for another round of customization. For a business wholly dependent upon its ERP, it is frustrating and expensive.
Dealer Commander has a more accessible customer support approach. Backed by AOSWARE, it positions itself as a tech partner rather than simply a software vendor with emphasis on customer-centric service and integrated solutions.
This kind of relationship matters most when you’re replacing software that sits at the centre of your operation. It can’t be a system that works on days but one that understands the urgency of keeping a business running, training the team on ways to use it most effectively and continuing to evolve the solution as per the business’s needs.
For businesses pondering how to replace legacy software, support should be an important part of the evaluation, and not an afterthought. Your Legacy ERP May be Holding You Back
An ERP system upgrade may feel like a major decision given that one has to deal with data security, process streamlining, employee training and most of all, running the business in the present and in the future.
The question that naturally comes to mind is: “Is it really worth changing something we’ve already invested so much in?”
It should instead be:
“How much is our current system costing us in keeping us where we are?”
Where employees end up spending precious time navigating clumsy software, information remains trapped in disconnected systems, reporting taking way too long, and integrations becoming a nightmare, and maintenance becoming increasingly expensive, maintaining the status quo could logically become very, very expensive. The other downside could be data security.
Dealer Commander offers a modern path ahead.
Combining core capabilities, what distribution dealers need is a more intuitive approach to managing their operations, while bringing together areas such as CRM, inventory, analytics and eCommerce. Dealer Commander’s modern distributor ERP, that best replaces legacy software offers all these- and more!
Ready to Replace Your Legacy ERP?
Don’t make the decision based on a feature checklist alone.
See the difference for yourself.
Request a Dealer Commander demo and compare your existing ERP working with a modern, integrated alternative. See for yourself how the platform simplifies workflows, improves visibility and brings higher productivity, margins and growth.
It’s time to leave legacy software behind. It’s time for the Dealer Commander.