The case for using “best of breed” solutions vs starting from scratch is something we hear often from our clients. You can often reduce your risk, time and money by maintaining your core ERP and adding modern features and functions through integrations.  The current market demands that companies evolve or die. These evolutions place demands on their ERP systems to keep pace with the business or risk not meeting growth targets.  For example, here is the day-in-the-life of a typical organization How do they try to solve the wants of their departments and customers?  Each group will have opinions on what needs to change to achieve their own needs.  The combination of all these “demands” leads many companies to install new ERP software.  A simpler, less expensive, less risky approach is available.  According to Top 10 ERP, on average, a small to mid-sized business can expect to spend between $10,000 and $150,000 on a basic ERP implementation. At the same time, larger enterprises may invest over $1,000,000, depending on the scope, customization, and number of users. The total cost is influenced by factors such as software licensing, hardware requirements, vendor support, and whether the system is deployed on-premises or in the cloud. This can be a large ticket item to add to your budget. The option to improve upon your existing ERP System may prove to save time and money from your bottom-line. Using best-of-breed solutions to extend your current ERP has proven for many to deliver everything everyone needs while protecting cost overruns. An organization can focus time on building vs replacing and maintaining their reputation with its partners and clients.  Real-world Examples of the use of this Hybrid Approach  In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, automation tools are becoming indispensable for companies seeking to modernize their processes and improve operational efficiency. It’s evident that there’s an immense reservoir of data captured within current ERP systems. By maintaining the current ERP system and integrating with modern automation platforms, the combined solution offers more than simply the ability to access this data. Its automation and other features enable customers to transform this data into actionable insights, thus significantly enhancing data management and EDT strategies. Here are just a few examples of how manufacturers added more functionality to their existing ERP system. Example One:  A manufacturer needed to accelerate and improve the accuracy of inventories that routinely take place “in the yard”. They use their existing ERP with a modern handheld mobile platform leading to the elimination of paper and clipboards. This dramatically reduces the time it takes while eliminating the human error involved with transferring data from paper to digital.  Example Two: Another manufacturer integrates its current ERP platform with modern AI and ML technologies. This helps them to automate routine processes such as predictive maintenance, which forecasts equipment failures, and supply chain optimization, which anticipates disruptions. Additionally, it utilizes AI to analyze large datasets, revealing trends and enabling financial forecasting based on historical data.  Example Three: In this last example, a manufacturer is using modern APIs to integrate their current ERP with Low-code, an AI-powered automation and data analysis platform. They use this platform to improve supply chain processes by automating vendor selection, onboarding and performance evaluation, as well as automating production schedules based on demand, inventory levels and resource availability. Meanwhile, they use mechanical or software-based robots to perform tasks such as packing orders, moving boxes or entering data.  Experience, When it Counts Before you invest valuable time and money into new software, hardware and people, contact ProCern for a review of your current environment and recommendations for extending your functionality to meet the unique needs of everyone.    Rest assured that we will be with you every step of the way. We will not just provide a list of activities to create the “unicorn” you need, only to walk away to let you figure it out yourself.  With over 30 years of field experience of helping organizations, our experts are with you from assessment to implementation to support.  ProCern is uniquely qualified to enable your team to improve efficiencies, lower operational costs , and maintain your organization’s reputation.