Choosing the right ERP system | Standard vs. Horti Industry-Specific Solution

Horticulture nowadays goes much beyond the craftmanship of being a good grower. Companies are increasingly characterized by large scale and smart production, that heavily builds on reliable and up-to-date information. As a consequence, ERP is an ever-more vital backbone system to for the planning and control of your business processes.  

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a solution to integrate your business processes into a seamlessly coordinated organization. It provides a coherent set of standard software components that combines functionality of multiple business processes into one integrated system. Modern ERP is not just a technical system, but a crucial enabler to overcome fragmentation of your company and to get rid of organizational silos and island automation.  

A successful ERP implementation starts with a good orientation and making a well-considered strategic choice for the fundamental ERP approach. Three key questions must be answered before starting the selection of a particular solution: 

1. Renovate legacy systems or making a fresh start?  
2. Standard or customized software?
   
3. Best-of-breed or best-of-suite (all-in-one) solution? 

1. Renovation or new system?

An renovation strategy leaves the core of existing, monolithic business systems unchanged and modernizes their technical architecture. This can be achieved, for instance, by restructuring its code, standardizing its interfaces, upgrading them to new versions, and/or migrating them to an enterprise integration platform. A prerequisite is that the existing enterprise systems provide sufficient functionality and are robust at their core. It can be the case, for example, after a merger, where the ERP systems of the companies differ.

In many cases the best decision is to make a fresh start by the development or implementation of a new, modern business system. It often is the only way to move from island automation to seamless integration and to get rid of an outdated, ‘spaghetti’ architecture. 

2. Standard or customized?

When choosing a new system, a make-or-buy decision must be made. Should the software be developed as a fully customized solution or should it be sourced from an external vendor? In cases where unique functionalities are crucial to delivering distinctive customer value, keeping software development in-house can be prudent. However, customization is relatively inefficient and can easily become a pain. The main advantage of a standard ERP is that it is developed and continuously being upgraded by a specialist for many different organizations. Additionally, the latest technology and best practices are continuously leveraged, resulting in economy-of-scale advantages.

The latest technology and best practices are continuously leveraged, resulting in economy-of-scale advantages

3. Best-of-breed or best-of-suite (all-in-one)?

A standard ERP system can be sourced from a single vendor who offers all the necessary functionalities (best-of-suite). Alternatives include integrating solutions from different vendors that each excel in a specific business function (best-of-breed). Furthermore, a hybrid strategy provides a platform, as well as natively integrated applications, from a primary vendor, which is complemented by specific third-party apps that can be directly integrated into the platform. This combines the best of both worlds.

Agriware 365: Example of a hybrid ERP approach

Agriware 365 exemplifies a hybrid ERP approach that combines a Best-of-Suite with a Best-of-Breed strategy. At its core, the solution utilizes the Microsoft 365 Business Central platform, along with a comprehensive set of seamlessly integrated business apps. These apps are further complemented with the workfloor apps of Agriware 365 Operations and the pre-defined dashboards of Agriware 365 Analytics. Furthermore, additional apps can easily be connected via Microsoft Appsource.

The Microsoft 365 platform is part of the Power Platform, which encompasses various CRM-related apps, as well as powerful enabling tools including:

• Power Apps: allows to create own apps quickly and easily, utilizing a drag-and-drop interface (no code development);
• Power Automate: enables to build end-to-end workflows using standard connectors;
• PowerBI: facilitates the development of interactive dashboards that combine data from various sources.

Both the Dynamics 365 and Power Platform are hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud. Azure also provides access to a very rich library of technical services, including Internet of Things connectivity and pretrained AI algorithms such as computer vision, chatbots, and voice-to-text services.

As such, Agriware 365 is a future-proof ERP solution that operates on a cutting-edge digital platform and provides an excellent foundation for continuous digital innovation.

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In order to make a strategic choice of business software, what steps should be taken? 

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Agriware's advanced ERP Software is used by leading growers worldwide to streamline business processes including operations, automation, planning, and strategy.