Luck of the ERP Implementation
By Katie Foley
This week many will celebrate St. Patrick’s Day by wearing green, listening to Irish music, eating corned beef and cabbage, and drinking beer. “Luck” is a word that is often associated with this holiday – leprechauns and shamrocks are two symbols of luck.
Unfortunately, ERP implementations are about more than just good luck. An ERP implementation requires preparation and hard work to be successful. Here are 3 tips for getting lucky with your ERP implementation this St. Patrick’s Day:
Preparation
Before you begin the ERP search, prepare by looking at your business processes. After identifying what you are looking for in an ERP system, take the time to research ERP vendors in detail. Assign an experienced project leader to lead the team through the ERP vendor search through implementation and go live.
Set Realistic Goals
An ERP implementation is a marathon, not a sprint. Keep this in mind as you set goals for your team. All successful ERP implementations take time, patience, and dedication from all members of the organization.
Put an Emphasis on Training
Choosing the right ERP system and setting realistic goals is great, but if your team members don’t learn how to use the system, the ERP project will fail. One of the biggest challenges is training employees during implementation since they all need to keep up with their normal responsibilities in addition to making time for training. Train, train, train. And be sure to thoroughly document everything throughout the implementation process so a new employee can get up to speed as soon as possible.
These are just 3 tips to keep in mind to ensure a successful ERP implementation. Keep in mind that ERP success doesn’t end with go live. The most successful ERP users keep looking for ways to maximize their use of the system- this could mean adding additional modules, investing in more training, creating custom reports just to name a few. The best ERP users never stop searching for that ‘pot of gold’ at the end of the rainbow.
