ERP Implementation Risks Control
A vast majority of ERP implementations are held back by numerous obstacles—some seen and some unseen. The results are overly costly and stressful implementations that fall well short of the true business potential of the ERP project.
In ERP projects in which an appropriate software was selected, the largest obstacle to top-level success is unprepared buyers of ERP. To be more specific, buyers who:
“The disappointing reality is that a majority of ERP implementation fall well short of true project potential. I believe this white paper presents a key strategy to avoid mediocre results.”
Rob Clark,
College of Business,
Stony Brook University
- Do not aggressively lead the implementation project
- Do not fully own the business process planning and design activities—and effectively turn this over to implementers
We have observed this preparedness problem persists for a couple of key reasons. First, because buyers of ERP rarely understand how to comprehensively prepare and manage ERP project risks—especially executives who must lead complex multi-department project activity. Secondly, during the sales process, ERP software vendors and implementers rarely talk about the hard work the buyer should conduct or the many potential ERP implementation problems. Often, they are not aware or they think this heavy ERP risk topic will hurt odds to make the sale.
Because of this odd dynamic in the ERP market, implementers and ERP implementation approaches are set up to get customers up and running but not to seek excellence. It should be noted that some implementers could do more, but they don’t as they believe their customers could not handle more. Other implementers simply could not do more—and this is not surprising in a market that does not often demand excellence.
Controlling ERP Risks: Related to this topic we offer a white paper on controlling ERP implementation risks and avoiding this nearly ubiquitous and misdiagnosed problem—and in turn lower the barriers to true ERP project excellence.