7 Steps From ERP Purchase to Go Live
By Johnny Nugent
Your manufacturing business has just selected the perfect ERP system. What comes next? When evaluating an ERP vendor be sure to consider the implementation approach. Be sure they have the expertise and experience to manage the journey from ERP system purchase to go live. In case you don’t know what to expect in the days and weeks to come after an ERP solution purchase, follow along our 7-step roadmap to ERP implementation success.
7 Steps to Come in on Time and Under Budget
Step 1: Project Planning
Kick off your ERP implementation by putting a project plan together. Assemble your team, schedule your kick-off, and build out the technical environment.
Step 2: Policies & Procedures
Put policies and procedures into place, such as weekly meetings with the core ERP team to discuss status, budget, and any issues.
Step 3: Data Migration
Discuss data migration. What data will be converted versus what data will be manually entered.
Step 4: Business Process Analysis
Evaluate your current business processes. What are your reporting requirements as you get ready to implement this new ERP system? What business processes are working and what processes would you like to improve? Use this step to identify business process strengths and weaknesses so you can go into the ERP implementations with the best practices in mind.
Step 5: Implementation Consulting
Now it’s time to configure the ERP solution to meet the business requirements identified in Step 4.
Step 6: Training & Pilots
Conduct training sessions for all employees that will be expected to use the system. Be sure to develop end user documentation as you go through the training process. Conducting realistic test pilots along the way is an important part of training to ensure that the system is ready for go live.
Step 7: Go Live
It’s show time! You’ve put in the planning, training, and testing required to make it to go live. Now it’s time to start using your ERP system in a production environment.
Conclusion
ERP implementations really can happen on time and under budget when you have an expert implementation consultant with the experience to lead you through the right steps. After a successful go live, don’t stop there. Be sure to stay up to date with new versions, best practices, and additional training when needed.
