Over the past decade ERP has garnered a bit of a bad reputation. Whether it is the software expense, slow or incomplete implementation or poor integration with other Line-of-Business products; they all lead to a spending nightmare and an underperforming Return-on-Investment. So if considering an ERP project, what can we do to ensure the project will be successful without spending the kid’s college fund?
Success starts with the following three critical components:
- Applicable Business Experience
- Change Management
- Engaging the End-User
Applied Business Experience
When implementing an ERP system, it is critical that the lead Business Analyst not only understand their own product extremely well, but that they have several years experience with managing a variety of business models, within a wide range of industries. While key business principles hold common across a majority of business models and industries – it is the unique implementation of those principles or procedures that provide the greatest challenge for the Business Analyst, and the ERP implementation as a whole.
This is particularly important when scrutinizing those business processes already in place. The Business Analyst needs to know which processes will work with their ERP package, which ones the ERP system can accommodate with (or without) customization (a major cost centre) and which processes must be discarded as unworkable within the confines of the ERP system.
Aside from customization, maintaining or implementing a Business Process with high administrative overhead can be very costly and counter-productive to the whole philosophy of ERP. The Business Analyst must have a Enterprise level vision of how data is stored and processed, ensuring it does not hide in departmental data silos; inhibiting inter-department functionality and negatively impacting Enterprise Level objectives such as Supply Management or Resource Control.
Change Management
Low adoption rates amongst end users are often a result of unanswered questions or concerns from that very group. Keeping a line of communication open to these front-line workers, and addressing their issues with training or customization is the second critical ERP implementation challenge. Change Management is instrumental in structuring for resolution, addressing the associated costs, and ultimately training the end-user on new or existing features.
Engaging the End User
Front-line workers (end-users) have a wealth of knowledge regarding workarounds and procedures for processing company information. Their participation (and input) is crucial and needs to be addressed and/or incorporated. Without open communication and full disclosure key processes can remain hidden from view and fester like a long lost Easter egg until they stall or completely subvert a processes within the ERP system, causing a costly modification or break in the chain of information movement. In fact, Change Management and End-User Engagement must, themselves, work together seamlessly, with top notch reporting tools to control costs and manage objectives from “the trenches” to the boardroom.
More next week – please send in your ERP or CRM questions or request for a free 2-hour business consultation with our Software Project Specialist, Mr. Suresh Rampersad.
