Many companies are currently transitioning from their out-of-support (and often customised) ERP systems to modern cloud-based solutions. A great step towards a data-driven future, however not without its effects on the status quo. A concern we often hear about: "Will our reports still work when the new ERP system is live?"
The short answer is: no. At least, not without adjustments to your data landscape. But where do you start? Which reports are the most important? Which ones are the easiest to migrate? Business Intelligence (BI) expert Manon Rietjens explains how to tackle this using Emixa's FAST method.
Start by Creating an Overview
Begin by identifying and gathering all available BI reports within your organisation. These overviews are often readily available in the IT department, but they tend to be incomplete in practice. That's why we always organise a kick-off workshop with all business domains to review and expand the inventory list.
This process often uncovers local and manually created reports that can be highly valuable to the organisation but are not included in standard overviews. Additionally, this inventory presents a great opportunity to identify new reporting needs. Once everything has been mapped out, we can critically assess and evaluate the list.
Which Reports Are Truly Needed?
Now the real work begins: analysing the reports one by one. together with eachg 'report owner'.
- What is the purpose and target audience of the report?
- How frequently is it used?
- How many data sources does it rely on?
- Does it include data from the current ERP system?
- Will this data also be available in the new ERP system, or will it be stored elsewhere?
- Does the new ERP system offer built-in reporting functionality for this report?
The answers to those questions will determine which reports need to be migrated or redeveloped - and where they should be developed.
What Development Work is Required?
One common issue we encounter is that older ERP systems often lack sufficient reporting capabilities. As a result, separate BI reports were created to generate the required insights. Modern ERP systems typically do provide these capabilities. So some reports won't need to be migrated at all.
However, reports that combine ERP data with other data sources often require some development effort. Fortunately, this can be effectively managed using well-known reporting tools such as Microsoft Power BI or SAP Analytics Cloud (SAC).
Making Decisions Together
We map out, report by report, which tools should be used to make them available. We also assess the complexity and priority of each report. How much time and development capacity will be needed? Which ones are truly indispensable, and which ones can we do without? By making all these decisions together with both business and IT, we create a fair and realistic overview of all reports that must, should, and could be built.
Looking at the bigger picture
When assessing all these reports, this is also the moment to evaluate the overall data landscape. The old ERP system had its own data flows and modelling methods. But how will this change with the new ERP system? Will it offer improved data accessibility that aligns better with modern data architecture? Make sure to map this out carefully. Ideally, you can tackle this as part of the ERP implementation. However, it can also be managed as a separate BI project.
The Starting Point for the Future
Thanks to the collaborative workshops with both the business and IT teams, you will have a shared foundation for implementing important developments and adjustments. This provides an excellent starting point for quickly developing the necessary reports. So that, when your new ERP system goes live, your reports will be up and running too.
Get in touch
Excited about our approach? Get in touch with our authors to discuss your situation.
