How to Build a Custom ERP Software: 5 Steps to Follow During Development
As business begins to grow, the activities increase in number and complexity. This makes it necessary to find a way to manage business processes efficiently.
Not just any random off-the-shelf ERP but one that is built specifically to suit your business needs—this is precisely why your business would need an ERP.
In this article, we will look at how you can begin developing your ERP system solution.
What is ERP?
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is a software that provides a platform for developing, managing, and integrating all the major business processes: financials, data management, supply chain, inventory management, operations, CRM, human resources, among many others.
We build custom software with modern solutions in mind for any business and sizes!
We build custom software with modern solutions in mind for any business and sizes!
5 Steps to Build a Custom Software ERP
What sets the ERP systems from all other business systems is its integration feature. In the past, companies used different systems for each of their departments, which made it difficult to relate or commune in terms of management.
How do developers build a custom ERP system?
Step #1: Define your project's goal and objectives
This step is the foundation of your ERP software. It is important to define your project's goals and objectives with as much specific detail as possible. This includes both short-term- and long-term-based goals from each department. A good ERP software will control the activities of all the departments involved in the project while meeting their requirements.
Step #2: Decide on the design and start making wireframes
This step defines what your software will look like and how it will operate. In this step, you have to come up with a design and create a wireframe for it. A wireframe is a schematic representation of your proposed software.
This helps you identify all the major stations and channels of communication between the different departments and how they will interact. This includes the user interface and user experience. The goal of this step is to make sure the system is as user-friendly as possible without compromising its effectiveness.
Step #3: Choose the right technology stack
A technology stack is a list of all tech services used to create and run a given system or application. Once you have designed a wireframe, it is important to choose a technology stack that will best optimize your system applications.
This includes a list of all the software and programming languages that will be used to best automate and ultimately optimize your project data and business processes.
Step #4: Integrate the ERP modules
An ERP module refers to each of the independent standardized units that together make up the complex structure of your custom ERP. This step is where you either make or break your system and subsequently, your project as well. You need to integrate all the modules in such a way that they work in perfect harmony with each other.
Each of these units being able to work together as one unit organism is what sets ERP systems apart from other systems. If done correctly, you will have a system working smoothly like a well-oiled machine.
Step #5: Review the final product
This is the final step. It is always vital to test it before you roll out your system. This is especially necessary for finding and fixing any bugs and glitches that may hinder the smooth operation of your system.
Often the best way to test is to have a team of the real intended users rather than the development team perform a dry run using the system. This is because these users are the ones who will use the system. If they can't operate it smoothly, then there is a problem.
We build custom software with modern solutions in mind for any business and sizes!
We build custom software with modern solutions in mind for any business and sizes!
How Much Does it Cost to Build a Custom-made ERP Software?
Developing a custom ERP system is incredibly helpful but takes time and won’t come in cheap. Custom ERP development can cost up to half a million dollars to build from scratch.
The software development alone can cost up to 430 grand. Then the Application Programming Interface will set you back another 46 grand. And then there’s the smaller but just as vital tasks, such as data migration, testing, and implementation, which will jointly bite another 60 grand or so out of your financial budget.
In total, you may have to pay a software development company up to 500 grand for the job, depending on the size of your company.
Who Benefits from Custom ERP Software?
Companies that would often benefit from a custom ERP solution include healthcare companies, manufacturers, the construction industry, wholesalers, big-box retailers, and many others.
ERPs exist in different forms and with many different features and benefits. As such, many companies that involve many different functional departments will implement different ERP software solutions to better serve their customers.
Since these are in a different industry with different customers and different specific requirements, they each need their custom ERP solutions rather than shelf solutions.
How Does it Help a Business?
ERPs support sharing of information between different departments involved in a given project. It is a cost-effective solution that creates business process automation and thus making business operations and projects considerably more efficient. This effectively eliminates redundancy in system functionality, optimizes decision-making, and increases customer retention, sales, and productivity.
