Question #20, Is your IT vendor familiar with and support your unique line of business applications?
If there is one piece of software that is mission critical to your business, it’s your ERP software. Your ability to service your customers, vendors, or patients; and subsequently your capacity to properly bill, track, and report on activity is paramount to your success. So many business owners and IT leaders that I’ve met over the years seem to believe that their IT vendor should not be responsible for this critical piece of software. Often times, it’s believed that the software company should be or is solely responsible for supporting the ERP system.
The problem with this line of thinking, is that most software companies don’t understand your network, your security, or your employees. This results in a finger pointing situation, where nobody takes responsibility. Now I’m not suggesting that your IT vendor be programmers who can fix the ERP vendor’s software, however they must be the liaison between you and that ERP vendor and take responsibility for working with them to solve issues related to that ERP system and other critical line of business applications. This level of teamwork can only serve your business and help reduce performance and downtime issues.