The Anti-ERP ERP Club

In this special two-part series with Supply Chain Now, host Scott Luton dives into a transformative conversation with Wiley Jones, Co-founder and CEO of Doss, about reshaping how companies approach their biggest challenges. The discussion spans:

• Common obstacles: Managing complex data and integrating systems across value chains.
• Real-world solutions: Prioritizing customer pain points to deliver fast, meaningful results.
• Big wins: Compressing ERP implementation timelines from months to days.

🎙️ Part 1: Tackling Common Challenges in Supply Chain

• Why traditional ERP systems struggle with complexity.
• How Doss enables businesses to adapt to their unique workflows.
• Real-world success stories showcasing the speed and flexibility of DossARP.

🎙️ Part 2: Strategies for Scaling Operations

• Streamlining order management and improving scalability.
• Using adaptive platforms to make real-time decisions.
• How modern ERP solutions drive agility in global supply chains.

Here are some of the main takeaways:

The Roots of Doss

At Doss, our mission emerged from real-world experiences with the limitations of existing operations technology. As Wiley explained during the podcast, his background in hardware engineering and manufacturing revealed a critical insight:

"I was an end business user of a lot of the solutions that Doss is trying to go out and replace, and I experienced the best parts of those solutions and the worst parts. I spent almost all my time doing program management when I wanted to be an electrical engineer in terms of the work I was doing."

This experience highlighted a significant problem in operations: talented people spending excessive time on data logistics and spreadsheets instead of high-value work. Global supply chains consist of competent people moving things around the world, often reduced to going line-by-line through spreadsheets to litigate what happened, what is happening, and what will happen.

What Doss Actually Does

In simple terms, we help businesses create a central source of truth, connecting supply chain to finance/accounting.

"We help businesses manage their operations from purchase order all the way to point of sale. It's a very broad directive, but it covers the flow of goods into and out of a business, the flow of dollars into and out of a business, and all of the data artifacts that get thrown off as people are doing that. We collect all that up and consolidate it into one place for them."

Common Problems We Address

When working with businesses that manage physical goods, we've observed that while each company's challenges may appear unique on the surface, core operational issues follow common patterns:

1. Order Management Issues: Consolidating orders from various channels and sources
2. Value Chain Consolidation: Bringing together inputs and outputs across the entire value chain into one contextual view
3. Data Integration Complexity: Merging third-party and first-party data, especially in larger organizations with multiple systems

As Wiley put it,

"Happy families are all alike; unhappy families are unhappy in their own way. We see that with all the companies we work with. Not to say that they're unhappy by any means, but there are these really unique things that define every problem. But if you strip away the surface of all of them and squint at these problems, they end up being kind of the same most of the time."

The Problem with Traditional ERPs

Enterprise Resource Planning systems (ERPs) have long promised to be a comprehensive solution for business operations. However, the reality often falls short of expectations. Traditional ERPs tend to be rigid structures that struggle to adapt to changing business needs:

"Once you make it crystallized, it also makes it hard to make changes and rip things out because it's now rigid. You can't have a rigid structure and also a flexible structure at the same time. That's what's gotten us into this position."

This rigidity often leads to painful, lengthy implementations that drain resources without delivering proportional value. As one of Wiley's colleagues noted, "Nobody's got time for a two-year implementation these days."

The Adaptive Resource Platform (ARP) Difference

Our solution is what we call an Adaptive Resource Platform (ARP):

"Adaptive resource platform—we think is extremely descriptive. It's adaptive, we look at the resources of a business, and we've created a platform to operationalize them."

The key to our approach is agility—not in the methodological sense, but in its true meaning: the ability to quickly recalibrate orientation when taking in new information. We structure everything around how fast we can make changes in our system and how we can enable our customers to do the same.

Time to Value

Where traditional implementations might take years, our approach focuses on compressing time to value:

"We try to bring as much value in a 40-hour work week—a literal week of time. We try to get almost 50-60-70% of an implementation done in that period of time, where we focus on the single most important workflows that a business has."

This isn't just marketing—it's reflected in our customer experiences, with one noting that "what should have been a year-long project, they accomplished in weeks."

Our Approach: Go and See

The foundation of our implementation methodology comes from the Toyota Production System:

"The single most important operating principle we think about as a company, like if we cut out all the others, this would be the only one that matters—is from the Toyota Production System. It's 'genchi genbutsu,' go and see the place where the thing is done. You can't cheat that; you have to go and put in the work."

Rather than sending white papers or talking about how our solution works, we start by sitting down with the actual operators who run the business, deeply understanding what they do, and then reconstituting it in our world. This creates a moment of clarity for customers when they see their processes reflected back at them in a more streamlined way.

It's Not for Everyone

We recognize that not every organization is ready for the transformational change we offer:

"It is painful for a lot of these companies. It's not this spiritual retreat where they're relaxed and it's like a spa. It's probably like a shiatsu massage—it's not fun to have all the knots massaged out. It requires competent and earnest people."

The best partnerships come with businesses that are ready to embrace change and have the courage to transform how they operate. We're selective about the companies we work with because we want to ensure mutual success.

Why This Matters

At the end of the day, what we're working on transcends software—it connects to something foundational about human commerce and organization:

"The origins of so much of this are more profound than we realize. Some of the earliest forms of writing were people putting what looked like a bill of lading or a packing list or a receipt—they were carving it into stone. That's actually why it's called a ledger; 'ledger' is a word for an actual block of stone. It dates all the way back to ancient Mesopotamia."

By building systems that make it easier for people to understand the state of truth of what is happening in their business, we're participating in an ancient and essential human practice—one that helps deliver real goods and services and moves physical things around the actual world.

If this resonated with you, reach out at sales@doss.com!