3 Questions to Ask Your ERP Vendor About Data Management
Throughout your enterprise resource planning (ERP) selection process, you as the business manager will have many questions regarding its functionality, ease, and worth to your company. Another thing you should keep in mind is the future of your ERP, your long-term commitment to the system. Sometimes that means switching to a new platform, or switching vendors for support. With that in mind, you’ll have to wonder about data management. But what are the right questions to ask when considering long term solutions for your ERP? SolutionsReview.com suggests the following 3 questions to ask your ERP vendors regarding data management.
- Who owns my data? When you ask this question, most vendors are likely to answer that, of course, you are the owner of your data. Most vendors will also direct you to their privacy policy or security documentation. While important, those documents aren’t everything.
- If I decide to leave your software, how can I take my data with me? Being able to leave a solution with your data should be a given in this scenario. However, the vendor should also have both policy and process in place for exporting your data from their system. Preferably, your information can be converted to a universally exportable file (such as a .csv). It can then be imported into another ERP system.
- How is data restricted from (or permitted for) different users? Ask your vendor if permissions can be granted on a more granular level. Once customized, every employee who uses the system can access exactly what they need, while being restricted from what they don’t.
