The journey of Ulysses (Latin variant to Odysseus) from Troy to Ithaca took ten years — the same amount of time that the latter Trojan War itself lasted. The extraordinary length of Ulysses’ return trip, which should take a matter of weeks, is due to his many antagonists, including the god Poseidon, the many mythical creatures he encounters, in addition to Ulysses’ often greedy and lazy crewmen.
During these twenty years of absence from home, his wife Penelope and son Telemachus, must deal with the suitors who invaded the Royal Palace, seeking Penelope´s hand in marriage, and the possibility to rule Ithaca.
If we take this as a metaphor to what happens in the implementations of new software solutions, there are many examples of how the journey takes several years to finish this type of projects. Dealing with internal detractors inside the companies’ own staff, apart from the fact that the software itself does not help to be as flexible and adaptable to the companies’ needs. Another factor is also that to adapt, several of the software solutions available in the market require actual development of new functionalities, which adds another ingredient of risk to the process.
Meanwhile, the business must continue, so the Penelopes and the Telemachuses of the companies, must deal with the challenges they confront, with whatever tools they have at hand, making things overly complicated to run the business successfully.
This is a story that repeats itself, time and time again. No matter how much companies invest in Project Management, Quality Assurance, amongst others, there are various software solutions out there that have convinced many clients to walk this path, creating numerous “horror stories”, and making companies spend much more than budgeted to solve the problems created by this new system implementation.
But there is good news. Is there a way to avoid these issues? Is there anything available in the market that can help avoid going through this Odyssey? The answer is YES. Let me illustrate this with an example that can be familiar to many people globally.
When you download an app, for example WhatsApp, Telegram, Spotify, etc. your expectations are that this apps are 100% ready to run. They have all the necessary features to serve the purpose that they were created for. The only thing that needs to be done is to personalise them to the way you want to use them. For example, create your own playlists, share them with whoever you choose, create your chat groups, etc. The list is big. There is no doubt in your mind that the rest is already “good to go”. You are only configuring them in the way you want.
In the Software industry this is also a reality. It is available with a concept that resulted as the evolution of the ERP, and it is called Enterprise Operating System (EOS). Its architectural design brings the required flexibility and adaptability, and it also helps to run businesses in a very efficient way, because of the integrated process structure. The EOS is also designed to provide information in real time, that help executives to have the certainty to make the decisions they require, quickly and with the most up to date information.
So, it does not have to take 10 years to go from Troy to Ithaca. If you are feeling like Ulysses, or Penelope or maybe Telemachus, just take this important piece of advice, and explore what the EOS can contribute to you and your company.
