13 steps to avoid advertising agency software disasters

Fine, so you can detect a person’s waist size as they glance at your billboard and then tweet them an appropriate, branded fashion tip as they pass a beacon an hour later in the shopping mall. That’s all great, but can you actually send out the correct invoices for the campaign?

The trend in marketing has always been to latch on to the sexiest new bit of tech while neglecting the core machinery of running an efficient business, the critical ERP systems that do all the heavy lifting of accounting and project management. Maintaining inefficient business processes puts your clients at a competitive disadvantage as well as your own business.

But how do you reengineer your entire business without disrupting your day-to-day operations? And how can you avoid (surprisingly common) total meltdowns? The 2016 Panorama Consulting Report on enterprise software found only 57% of respondents viewed their new software as a “success”. Reasons for dissatisfaction included schedule and cost overages caused by a variety of issues, including: data migration, expanded project scope, unrealistic timeline, priority conflicts, resource constraints and training, technical and organisational issues.

Organisations implementing an enterprise resource planning solution also experienced operational disruption to various extents. This could involve anything from difficulty shipping products to inability to close the books at the end of the financial quarter. An experienced ERP vendor will have processes in place to mitigate the risk of operational disruption, including the allocation of sufficient resources to organisational change management. One of the most important factors in the success of any ERP project is how well the organisation handles the business process reengineering and organisational change management.

These 13 steps will help you build a digitally modern and consistent advertising agency system.

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