Advantages of Business Support Systems

We can’t make business without a Business Support System

Even it can sound as a great contradiction; there are some businesses that do not invest as they have in its business core functions. These businesses continue relaying its main functions in manual or even undocumented and unrepeatable processes. In this way, these organizations are loosing dollars processing its day-to-day tasks in the least optimal way. The immediate question would be why if there are a set of IT tools to support business functions some continue not using those. There are three main reasons for this behavior:

1.- Companies do not know these systems exist

2.- They have created some “systems” that currently support their operations

3.- Implementation of these systems require an important investment

Let’s start with the easiest one: some companies do not know that there are Business Support Systems. Business Support Systems is a term used to describe a series of systems to support business operations. Think in all the activities that a company can perform during its normal business day: sales, invoicing, customer management, product management, marketing, and others. All these activities can be automated and optimized thru the use of applications dedicated to each one but the most important: a Business Support solution integrates all these processes and delivers information in a single enterprise view. This single view is a major asset for executive decisions and strategy.

About the second one, some companies already knew the benefits and characteristics of the Business Support Systems but did not get the correct advice or expert consultancy and created their own version of these applications. You can find in multiple companies, legacy systems that accomplish the task they were created for, but are expensive to maintain, and are not integrated with other Business Support applications. This lack of integration is one of the main disadvantages of these solutions. Without an integrated view of all company processes, decisions are taken under incorrect premises.

The last reason for a lack of a Business Support system is maybe also the most common: implement a solution that delivers all the benefits of these systems requires a high investment that not all companies can afford. As we saw before, some companies have tried to avoid the significant investment of these solutions creating its own systems. We have talked about the consequences of this decision but have not talked about the reasons of it; one main reason is the investment to install this kind of solutions. The key idea on this is that if we only see the cost part of the equation, it will be really difficult to justify the investment. A professional and detailed analysis has to be made in order to identify all the savings that this kind of solutions will bring to the enterprise. Some examples of the benefits that can be achieved thru the implementation of a system like this are:

1.- Savings thru processes’ redesign

2.- Savings thru processes integration

3.- Maintenance cost reduction implementing an integrated solution instead of multiple not integrated tools.

4.- Centralized data repository for strategic decisions

5.- Competitive advantage thru the ability of adapt business easier and faster

If we can measure the magnitude of these savings and compare it against the investment, we will take the best decision for the company. This is a business analysis prior than a technology one. Multidisciplinary teams have to be created in order to gather requirements from all the units in a business so implementation benefits the whole company and not just on functional area.

It is highly recommended that analysis and implementation of his kind of systems is leader by individuals that had experience in implementation of this size and have worked with companies of multiple sectors.