Is Your Legacy System Holding You Back?

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Is Your Legacy System Holding You Back?

If the last time your company implemented an ERP

solution was before the advent of social media,

smartphones, or live streaming music and TV, it’s likely

your business may be struggling to keep up with these

rapidly changing technologies. Even for the savviest of

companies, it can be tough to compete in today’s

fast-paced environment, but for those using technology

that’s over a decade old it’s nearly impossible.

Your customers expect seamless, connected experiences.

They live in an integrated world where everything is

on-demand. They have computers that connect to their

smartwatches, which directly talk to the Bluetooth systems

in their cars. They can order everyday products, like paper

towels and detergents, from their phone and have them

delivered within 30 minutes. To meet these expectations,

your company, and your employees, need technologies

that are just as innovative and seamless as the ones they

use every day. Their expectations for immediacy and

real-time answers don’t exclude their professional world.

We know you can feel the strain in your day-to-day

work. How many times have you said to yourself, “If only

these systems talked to each other; or this data accurately

reflected what’s happening in real-time; or I had the

ability to automate these workflows, or run this particular

report, then I’d have the visibility and flexibility I need

to do my job?”

Yet so many companies still rely on legacy ERP systems

that perpetuate inefficiencies, drain IT budgets, and

ultimately stall growth.

Today’s tech-driven economy requires companies to

adopt forward-looking, innovative solutions to compete.

Cloud ERP solutions are now enabling companies to bridge

the technology gap by helping them connect their disparate

systems, automate manual processes, expand into new

markets or offer new products, and ditch the costly legacy

systems that were holding them back from success.

Signs Your Legacy ERP Is Holding You Back

Decades ago, businesses implemented large ERP systems

to act as ‘one-size-fits-all’ solutions for tracking and

managing everything from financial data to supply chain

processes. At the time, these on-premises ERP systems

were the only choice available for businesses that needed

full-scale enterprise management solutions. But in recent

years, business technology has evolved from ‘one-size-fits

all’ to ‘best-of-breed’ applications, and from on-premises

to cloud-based solutions.

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Kenandy, Inc. | 303 Twin Dolphin Drive. Redwood City, CA 94065 | 1-855-KENANDY | www.kenandy.com

Moving data from one place to another will increase the risk of human errors. Numbers get mistyped or accidentally

deleted, or put in the wrong column.

Think about it. How many of your internal processes

have changed since the last time you installed an ERP

solution? How many new cloud-based software tools and

applications have become critical across your company?

Maybe your team has become more distributed or

expanded into new lines of business.

Has your current ERP system been able to accommodate all

these changes and growth, or has it progressively become

more and more slow, inflexible, and difficult to use?

No Agility or Data Accessibility

Designed in the 1990s and 2000s, legacy ERP systems are

known for being highly complex, yet fairly inflexible, often

unable to provide the level of customization companies

need across different departments and tasks. Companies

with these... aging ERP systems have a notoriously hard

time adapting to changing processes and workflows,

increased system demands, and new data inputs.

In fact, a report sponsored by the Manufacturing

Performance Institute (MPI) revealed a large amount of

manufacturers believed their current ERP systems were

inadequate in helping them perform key business tasks:

global engagement (47%), customer-focused innovation

(47%), and supply chain visibility (31%). Vice president and

Gartner Fellow Andy Kyte stated, “A system that is not

sufficiently flexible to meet changing business demands

is an anchor, not a sail, holding the business back, not

driving it forward.”

Not only does limited agility often result in limited

productivity for employees who rely upon these ERP

systems to do their jobs, but these overly complicated

systems also serve as a barrier between data and the

people who need it. If you’ve ever tried to export and

manipulate data from a legacy ERP, you know the

headache it brings. Finding and leveraging data from

an outdated ERP system takes a painful amount of time

and seemingly infinite resources.

So, what happens when companies are forced to use

outdated systems? Because they still have to get the job

done, they often spend hours, possibly weeks, dreaming

up workarounds. Employees export data into spreadsheets

just to get the information they need. While this may help

solve one problem, it often causes others.

Moving data from one place to another will increase

the risk of human errors. Numbers get mistyped or

accidentally deleted, or put in the wrong column. Not

only can these errors snowball when they’re introduced

back into your legacy systems, but time-consuming

redundancies can run rampant.

When work is consistently done outside of your central

enterprise system, business critical information is often

outdated, inaccurate, and inaccessible to key stakeholders

and decision-makers across your organization. If you can’t

connect your employees to the accurate information they

need, then you certainly can’t connect them with your

customers. And customer connectivity is key to success in

today’s interconnected world.

In fact, 89% of manufacturers and distributors said that

gathering real-time information is the key to keeping

customers. But how can you maintain comprehensive,

timely information when data is siloed across various

static systems?

Kenandy, Inc. | 303 Twin Dolphin Drive. Redwood City, CA 94065 | 1-855-KENANDY | www.kenandy.com

IS YOUR LEGACY SYSTEM HOLDING YOU BACK?

Siloed Systems and Decision Making

Where do your top decision-makers go to check on

how the business is doing? We’d like to say it’s your ERP

system, but realistically it’s a mix of tools and intuition,

along with a skeptical eye cast on all the available data.

While your ERP may have started out as the single source

of truth for your business when it was first implemented

10-20 years ago, in that time additional, segmented

software tools and applications have likely become core to

your business.

Since your aging ERP wasn’t originally designed for

the integrated world we live in today, it’s increasingly

disconnected and out of sync with the cloud-based

systems your teams now rely on. And the more distributed

your teams and technology stack become, the more siloed

your data and decision making processes are. If your sales,

inventory, and customer information are scattered across

various systems, how can you get a comprehensive picture

of how these different datasets impact each other and

affect the growth of your business?

Siloed systems and information are persistent barriers to

the visibility and data accuracy managers need to make

informed business decisions.

High Costs and Time Lost

Costing anywhere from hundreds of thousands to millions

of dollars and typically taking months if not years to

implement, ERP systems are one of the largest technology

and time investments a company makes. Studies* have

shown that the cost of your legacy ERP license may only

be 15-30% of the total initial costs companies incur.

Beyond the costly maintenance these aging systems

require, most operational changes and system updates

also run up quite a bill. According to Gartner analysts, it’s

not uncommon for businesses to have spent 10 times as

much money on customizations as on the initial license

fees—with additional money being spent to support these

customizations during software upgrades. These Gartner

analysts stated, “The net result of 15 years of continuous

customization is that these ERP implementations are

now extremely arthritic, incredibly slow and expensive

to change.”

Any one of these challenges could hinder a company from

achieving its business goals, but combined they compound

to block any company from success.

The Possibilities with Cloud Technology

Your ERP system shouldn’t be an all pain, no gain

solution. And, because of cloud technology, now it

doesn’t have to be.

In 1999, Salesforce.com put cloud computing on the map

when it delivered enterprise software applications through

global internet connections. Soon after, other pioneering

companies (such as Amazon and Google) adopted this

approach for its astounding agility and cost-effectiveness.

In this case, astonishment equaled major disruption.

Leaving almost no industry unaffected, cloud-based

solutions have proliferated and dominated for over a

decade now. “Cloud-first strategies are the foundation for

staying relevant in a fast-paced world,” said Ed Anderson,

research vice president at Gartner.

Cloud ERP solutions are no different.

www.kenandy.com

IS YOUR LEGACY SYSTEM HOLDING YOU BACK?

Kenandy, Inc. | 303 Twin Dolphin Drive. Redwood City, CA 94065 | 1-855-KENANDY | www.kenandy.com

Kenandy, Inc. | 303 Twin Dolphin Drive. Redwood City, CA 94065 | 1-855-KENANDY | www.kenandy.com

IS YOUR LEGACY SYSTEM HOLDING YOU BACK?

Integrated Systems: A Single Source of Truth

We are now living in a connected world and that’s in large

part due to cloud technology. By adopting cloud-based

ERP systems, companies can start to break down siloed

infrastructure by integrating their most critical solutions

for more accurate, real-time information. Remember the

workarounds that were proliferating human errors and

redundancies in legacy ERP products? With the automated

integrations cloud-based ERP solutions can provide, you

can avoid those errors while gaining a holistic view of

your business operations and customer information.

For decision-makers, this level of centralized visibility is a

real game-changer.

Think about how much better and faster decisions you

could make with quick and easy access to that kind of

timely, comprehensive information. According to Aberdeen

Research, in the past two years midmarket companies

with cloud ERP decreased decision making time by 36%,

well over the 18% reduction companies with on-premises

solutions achieved.

Big Heart Pet Brands—the largest standalone producer

and distributor of premium-quality pet food and snacks

in the United States—was able to streamline 90 legacy

applications into the Kenandy ERP cloud and the

Salesforce Platform. With all the operations for their five

manufacturing plants, 11 warehouses, and 20 packing

facilities unified into a new cloud ERP, they were able to

automatically process hundreds of sales orders, purchase

and production orders, shipments, deliveries, and all

corporate finance and accounting functionality.

Agility, Scalability, and Adaptability

Today, flexibility and scalability are consistently ranked

as top functionalities on companies’ “must have” checklists

when evaluating new technology solutions. And it’s easy

to see why.

To keep up not only with your competition but also with

the rapid pace of technology, your business’s systems

and processes need to be as adaptable as possible—able

to quickly seize new opportunities or react to shifts in

the marketplace. Given these demands facing modern

companies, cloud ERP systems such as Kenandy are built

to scale right along with the changing needs of companies

small and large.

Stuart Kowarsky, vice president of operations at Del

Monte’s Natural Balance Pet Foods, stated, “[Kenandy’s]

flexibility allows us to keep our costs down while providing

excellent customer service. For example, we can easily add

capabilities, and adapt the system to our clients’ needs.”

This kind of flexibility can have a significant impact on

efficiency and productivity. Aberdeen Research found that

midmarket companies with cloud ERP systems decreased

the cycle time of key business processes by 24% over the

past two years, compared to the 16% reduction companies

with on-premises solutions experienced. And efficiency

gains lead to happier customers because decreased

cycle time means faster service. Now you can quickly and

easily know when to expect new inventory or if new items

are in stock.

One of the main reasons we selected Kenandy was that we wanted a flexible system that easily adapts to business changes, while also offering enterprise-class capabilities.

DAVE MCLAIN, SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER,

AND CHIEF PROCUREMENT OFFICER AT BIG HEART PET BRANDS.

www.kenandy.com

IS YOUR LEGACY SYSTEM HOLDING YOU BACK?

Kenandy, Inc. | 303 Twin Dolphin Drive. Redwood City, CA 94065 | 1-855-KENANDY | www.kenandy.com

Cost Savings and Efficiency Gains

Integrating your multiple software solutions allows you not

only to automate key processes, but also to automate the

communication between systems. So often, employees

are serving as translators for their technologies, decoding,

deciphering and deciding what’s important and what’s

irrelevant. By connecting siloed technology, you’re saving

valuable employee time, and money.

Nucleus Research found cloud ERP customers experience

5.5x lower ongoing personnel costs, 43% faster payback,

and 42% greater return on investment than companies

with on-premises ERP. That’s right. It turns out

consolidating systems and improving agility can save you

money while improving efficiencies—as a result, actually

contributing to increasing profits.

According to Aberdeen Research, in the past two years

midmarket companies with cloud ERPs improved profit

margins by 21% compared to a mere 7% improvement for

companies with on-premises solutions.

Breaking Down Barriers to Success

Although the benefits of cloud ERP are now clear and

proven, the amount of time and resources it takes to

transition from legacy ERP to a cloud ERP can seem

daunting. We get it. Change can be hard, but cloud ERP

solutions like Kenandy make it easy.

Fast and Easy Implementation

The last time you implemented a new ERP system, it was

likely a very long and painful process. It probably took well

over a year just to get everyone onboarded and all your

data and processes in place. But, with cloud-based ERP

systems such as Kenandy, those day are long gone. We get

large organizations ramped up quickly.

How are we able to do this? We benefit from the speed

and agility of cloud computing and the fact that we built

our platform on the Salesforce App Cloud. This enables us

to leverage the power of the #1 cloud platform and quickly

map our system to all your critical business processes.

Our Salesforce roots also allow for greater ease of use—

particularly for those familiar with the Salesforce.com

interface. Kenandy’s intuitive, user-friendly interface is easy

to learn and navigate for people with different roles and

levels of technical acumen.

“This is probably the fifth or sixth ERP implementation

of my career, and it was the smoothest transition I’ve

ever experienced,” said Natural Balance Pet Foods’

Stuart Kowarsky. “Not only did Kenandy accelerate our

integration with the company that acquired us in a number

of areas—including customer service, logistics, and the

entire supply chain network—we were able to see these

synergies immediately.”

It turns out consolidating systems and improving agility can save you money while improving efficiencies—as a result, actually

contributing to increasing profits.

“Clicks, Not Code” Development

With leading cloud ERP systems such as Kenandy,

non-technical users have the ability to modify business

processes and user experiences with just a few clicks

—no coding experience needed.

Now you can easily add fields, change workflows, and

rearrange dashboards for complete customization of your

ERP without tying up technical resources.

“I immediately saw how easy it is to add and extend

capabilities with Kenandy,” said Pete Staples, President

and Co-founder of Blue Clover Devices, an original design

manufacturer of IoT devices. “I was convinced that this was

something we could manage pretty much on our own, and

that had a strong appeal to us.”

Upgrade to Upstage Competitors

Are you going to answer the call of the future, or stay

stuck in the past?

With Kenandy, you can integrate your systems for greater

visibility, make better business decisions with easy access

to real-time data, and stay agile and mobile by connecting

with your business partners and suppliers everywhere.

Now that you know what’s possible with cloud ERP and

how easy it can be to make the switch, it’s time to trade

inefficiencies for added productivity, complex programs

for customizable solutions, costly legacy systems for

scalable modern technologies. Upgrade your ERP solution

to start upstaging your competition.

See how Kenandy Cloud ERP can transform your

business by requesting a personalized demo today at

http://www.kenandy.com/schedule-demo/. Or contact

us directly at info@kenandy.com or 1-855-KENANDY.

IS YOUR LEGACY SYSTEM HOLDING YOU BACK?

*What’s the cost of an ERP? BusinessNSoftware.com 2014

Kenandy, Inc. | 303 Twin Dolphin Drive. Redwood City, CA 94065 | 1-855-KENANDY | www.kenandy.com Copyright ©2017 Kenandy, Inc. All rights reserved. Kenandy and the Kenandy logo are trademarks of Kenandy, Inc. Other trademarks are those of their respective holders, and should be treated as such.