Are You Delaying Your Compensation Management Software Implementation?
Prior to a new ERP implementation, your consultant will ask you whether you would prefer to roll out your ERP all at once in a “big bang” approach, or little by little in a “phased” approach. Modern business leaders often choose the big bang approach because it costs less and is faster.
Unfortunately, even the savviest of leaders can unintentionally reduce the time- and cost savings gained from a big bang approach by choosing to deploy additional critical business tools after the ERP go live. From experience, we have learned that implementing compensation management software at a later stage inadvertently results in switching to a “phased” approach. This leads to increased costs, extended implementation times, and prolonged headaches.
In fact, waiting until after your ERP go live is actually the worst time to implement compensation management tools.
Here are 3 reasons why:
- Adding Software After the ERP Go Live Is Time Consuming
If you are already deep into the ERP selection process, you have already committed hundreds of labor hours to the ERP you don’t own yet, and your management team has been stretched thin for a while. Any good consultant will let you know that an ERP implementation is a marathon process – and that’s why you have already started to count down to when you finally cross that “finish line” (your go live).
Deploying your compensation management software after your ERP go live is the worst timing because it plunges your management team right back into the time-consuming selection, implementation, and testing processes again. It can feel like you are moving backward instead of moving forward.
- Costs Increase When You Implement in Phases
One of the top reasons to use an ERP solution is because you can integrate modules for greater insight and efficiency. Integrating ERP modules to your variable compensation management solution helps you eliminate manual processes, gain insight, and increase accuracy. Unfortunately, going through the integration testing process again after your go live means you just paid for the same testing twice.
In addition to duplicate testing costs, deploying your variable compensation software after your ERP go live requires you to update your ERP configurations for your customers, sales territories, and inventory. All of this results in additional consulting fees.
- A Delayed Deployment Results in Headaches
Of course, you can relieve a lot of the pressure of a phased implementation by giving your management team and employees some breathing room, so they can train on and get used to their new ERP. If you wait a few months or a year before implementing your compensation management software, you can budget in the increased costs for next year’s expenses and you can plan on hiring additional staff to handle the heavier workload. In theory, this sounds like a good plan. In theory.
In reality, a lengthy delay like this will prolong the headaches your team has already been experiencing with your existing, inadequate compensation management tool. This is also likely to require temporary bridges that connect your legacy system to your new ERP in the interim. You will have to train your staff to use the interim solution, and then retrain them to use the preferred solution a few months or a year later.
In the meantime, your sales team will not have the transparency they deserve when it comes to their commissions, and this can harm your bottom line.
Earlier Compensation Management Software Implementation Results in a Faster ROI
When talented salespeople have access to variable compensation software, they usually work harder to earn revenue for your company. This is because good variable pay solutions accurately display a salesperson’s up-to-date earnings and makes it clear when they can expect to be paid.
Typically, talented salespeople work harder than ever as soon as they can see the direct impact of how their hard work affects their daily commissions earnings. Their increased sales will drive a faster ROI for you, which makes it a smart idea to implement sooner rather than later.
Ready to Find the Right Compensation Management Solution?
If you have already begun your search for a new ERP (or are just in the beginning stages), now is the best time to start comparing your options for variable compensation software.
As you search, ensure that the solution you are considering is:
- Flexible. Get software that works the way you do. Choose software that meets your needs now AND can handle your growth and changing needs in the future.
- Easy to use. You should be able to control the software updates and adjustments. You shouldn’t have to call IT to create and modify your commission plans.
- Powerful. It is a smart idea to centralize data and simplify your processes, so you can view your business’s full commissions picture in an instant, including salesperson performance and business liabilities.
- Accurate. You and your talented salespeople expect and deserve effortless, error-free reporting all the time.
Start researching compensation management software for Microsoft Dynamics GP.
Contact the Variable Compensation Experts at EthoTech
Since 2002, companies across every sector have relied on EthoTech for the right tool for tracking, calculating, and paying variable compensation. We provide solutions, integration, and support that is focused solely on integrated variable compensation software for Microsoft Dynamics GP and Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central. It’s all we do, and we do it better than anyone.
Want to know if your company would benefit from variable compensation software? We developed this simple matrix to help you discover if variable compensation software is right for your company.