A group of like-minded companies has been formed to ensure Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) development meets the ever-changing demands of companies across the globe and users gain greater benefits from software providers.
International consultancy company Columbus has launched Columbus 360, a user group for businesses utilising Microsoft Dynamics AX ERP to share their experiences and collaborate in order to experience greater value from their ERP investment.
Mary Hunter, Managing Director of Columbus, commented: “Our international user group, facilitated and funded by Columbus, is an initiative that demonstrates our commitment to ensuring ERP users get the best out of their solution and experience a real return on their investment through collaboration and experience.
“Our aim is to help build a community of users to encourage inter-company dialogue, share ERP experiences and provide a platform for learning. Although facilitated and funded by Columbus, we are keen not to lead it because our overall aim is to encourage companies to talk to each other which will ultimately open up other networking opportunities and help them learn more about ERP best practice.”
Kicking off the initiative, Columbus hosted a meeting in January, where 25 customers led the event, sharing their experiences and providing valuable feedback on content requirements for future meetings.
The global-user group will set the agenda for each meeting; discussing topics most relevant and appropriate to them, which in turn will provide the opportunity to solve the issues of the moment whilst helping to develop the solution for the future.
The incentive was announced at Columbus’ 2014 customer day and was even named by a customer. Mary Hunter continued: “We have a broad global customer base which we are keen to bring together so they can support and help one another through business challenges. ERP solutions do improve performance, help firms keep track on stock and materials as well as providing a host of operational, sales, marketing and production benefits.
“As companies seek to grow, being flexible to market requirements is essential and being able to analyse operations in real-time, saves not only time but can have an enormous impact on a company’s profitability. Whether based in the UK or further afield, some challenges firms face can be similar the world over and what Columbus 360 is designed to facilitate is business growth through ERP by shared experience.”
Columbus is committed to supporting customers, and Columbus 360 is just one of the firm’s initiatives implemented to ensure solutions provide a value and return on investment. Running parallel to the Microsoft Dynamics AX user community, Columbus hosts an annual customer forum. The next event is to be hosted later this year, and provides another opportunity for customers, partners and suppliers to get together, inspire and develop solutions of the future.
