Preparing for ERP Implementation —
The Details
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.
Our Solution to Reach the True ERP Project Potential
The following is our process to improve a business's readiness to more fully implement business software and achieve far better results. This process should start 3 to 9 months before implementation and does not replace implementers and normal implementation duties.
- Establish and prepare project resources and project control structure: Deliver project start-up education and conduct preparation activities with your company team. This includes training on our project control methods and software tools. Included is a tool used to organize and manage hundreds of project ideas (opportunities, problems, unusual requirements, etc.) that will be determined in steps #2 and #3. Return to Chart
- Top-level visioning, planning, and review of best practices: Comprised of the following steps:
- Assess and leverage the top-level visioning and planning previously conducted at your company.
- Discuss executive objectives, concerns for the business software initiative, company flexibility and resistance to adapt to new business software.
- Investigate and discuss forward-looking best practices—both overarching and business process-specific.
- Establish what business processes should be supported by the new business software based on your company’s needs and capabilities of the software being installed.
- Discuss objectives and the vision for developing and using management information (feedback from operational transactions). This takes the form of automated key performance indicators (KPIs), dashboards-type interfaces, and electronic notifications based on business process exceptions. Return to Chart
- Conduct detailed business process investigation: Comprised of the following steps:
- Assess and leverage the business process area planning previously conducted by your company.
- Conduct further discussions of overarching topics that may affect all business process areas.
- Conduct detailed interviews of managers/workers in the affected business process areas with a focus on detecting (1) process problems, (2) improvement ideas, (3) unusual workflow issues and (4) relevant better/best practices. Record and organize results using Engleman Associate, Inc. project tools. Return to Chart
- Develop selected business process objectives and the specification for implementation: Comprised of the following steps:
- Convert business process interview results into candidate objectives and supporting detail. Objectives are organized in our project tools by process area, priority, and other attributes and associations.
- Using the objectives from prior bullet, isolate a subset attributed to be: (1) important, (2) unusual, (3) complex, (4) interdependent to other processes, and/or (5) a process to be implemented early.
- Challenge candidate objectives (in the subset from the prior bullet) for purpose, accuracy, and alignment/interdependence with enterprise-wide processes and best practices. Then develop a plan for how they will be achieved in the new/existing business software (through native functionality, configurability, workflow engine, BI mechanism, or a combination of these structures).
- The result of step #4 is the specification for implementation. Direct knowledge of the business application being implemented is helpful—but not necessary to make substantial progress on this step. Return to Chart
- Align the specification for implementation with the business software being implemented: Compare and align the business process objectives and specification for implementation to the capability of the business application being implemented (this builds upon and finalizes alignment work conducted in prior step #4). In this process application limitations (e.g. specific objectives that cannot be met as designed) are identified, discussed, and alternate approaches are developed to meet the objectives. Return to Chart
- Develop go-ahead implementation plan: Working with the software-specific implementer, develop the go-ahead implementation plan based on (1) the normal implementation protocols of the implementer, (2) the areas of your business that are ready to partially or fully implement and (3) your company’s current priorities. Return to Chart
- Implementation project management: The effective completion of steps #5 and #6 will simplify implementation project management duties. This is because these prior steps produce a realistic and confident implementation plan. We represent your business and coordinate with the implementers to align their normal implementation process to build upon the planning already conducted. Proactive coordination and confident leadership will protect the project's momentum and lower costs. Return to Chart
- Migrate remaining processes to be supported by enterprise software: By design, only about half of all potential business process support and BI objectives are achieve in the initial implementation effort. The remaining objectives should be pursued continually until achieved. Our pre-implementation planning process sets the foundation for this ongoing work to proceed at a planned pace until the business software has been more fully implemented. Return to Chart
The Results
If the type of planning described in this web page is conducted well, it will significantly reduce typical barriers and risks that occur in business software implementations. And in turn enable your business to achieve more, do it sooner, and with less effort. Oddly such relevant planning is not conducted well with normal implementation processes. This is a key reason we offer this implementation planning service.
“Just the Facts” Webinar
The written word makes it difficult to convey the full purpose and benefit of the type of planning advocated in this document. To learn more, please call and sign-up for our one-hour introductory webinar on this pre-implementation planning process and its impact to your readiness.