An ERP project is a major investment that can transform your organization's processes, data, and performance. But to achieve the desired outcomes, you need to align your ERP project with your organization's vision. How do you do that? Here are some tips to help you plan, execute, and evaluate your ERP project in alignment with your strategic goals.
Before you start your ERP project, you need to understand your current situation and challenges. What are the pain points, gaps, and inefficiencies in your existing systems and workflows? How do they affect your performance, quality, and customer satisfaction? How do they align or misalign with your vision and values? Conducting a thorough assessment of your current state will help you identify the scope, priorities, and requirements of your ERP project.
Understand the current state , understand the pain points , access performance , understand the pain points . Transform the vision . Automate the systems.
The ERP project should come from the organisation's vision of the future. You need to start with the Business Case that was the mandate for the start of the project, you do have a business case right ??? The business case will outline the challenges of your current system, Why would it be beneficial to move to SAP S/4HANA, How can SAP S/4HANA address my business and IT requirements, How does SAP S/4HANA optimize my TCO, Which applications should be used to best fulfill the future business requirements? etc The outcome will be the companies vision for the future. The project should deliver against the business case and the project MUST check during the key phases of delivery that this is being done.
In my experience, to assess the current state, that is a true and relevant view will require adequate stakeholder management with all stakeholders given the assurance of phsychological safety - that is they won't be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes. Stakeholders should include both internal (employees) and external (eg customers, customers of customers say for ERPs for Billing, Tax and Revenue Management ) The primary source of which are these stakeholders, one consulted and engaged can assist in aligment with an organisation's vision and values as well as helping to identify the scope, priorities and requirements of an organisation's ERP project
Once you have a clear picture of your current state, you need to define your desired state. What are the objectives, benefits, and expectations of your ERP project? How do they support your vision and mission? How do they align with your stakeholders' needs and expectations? How will you measure and monitor your progress and success? Defining your desired state will help you set the direction, scope, and criteria of your ERP project.
Prior to starting the ERP deployment program, the organization and the project teams need to define the desired state, which must align with the long-term business strategies and goals. This is where IT and business need to work together and collaborate in designing the future desired state, using the current context as input and focusing on the future business vision. If the IT and business visions align, the project can increase the chances of success.
After you have defined your desired state, you need to choose the right ERP solution for your organization. There are many ERP solutions available in the market, each with different features, functionalities, and costs. How do you select the best one for your needs? You need to consider several factors, such as the fit, flexibility, scalability, security, and integration of the ERP solution. You also need to compare the costs, benefits, and risks of different options. Choosing the right ERP solution will help you achieve your desired state and align with your vision.
Retired.
Most of the well-known ERPs were designed for manufacturing, assembly-type industries, so if you are in a maintenance-intensive, asset driven operation such as mining, transportation, utilities, etc., be sure to look at EAM-ERP types, which are designed around asset management optimization. Choosing an ERP because it's popular can give you intense headaches and cost a lot more than it should, upfront and in the long term.
it is critical to choose the right ERP solutions . Make sure you do proper evaluation of systems . Evaluate fitment of these products.
Implementing an ERP project is not just a technical task, but also a change management process. It involves changing the way your organization operates, communicates, and collaborates. How do you manage the change process effectively? You need to involve your stakeholders, communicate your vision and goals, provide training and support, and address any resistance or issues. Managing the change process will help you ensure the adoption, acceptance, and alignment of your ERP project.
Evaluate and do proper change process evaluation , collabaortaes and communicate with team , update Stakeholders.Effectively Manage the change process.
In my experience Change Management is essentially ensuring the organization does not have to go through the herculean efforts of clean-up, realigning masters and chart of accounts, additional controls, etc. all over again. So for example if your new ERP implementation addressed legacy data accuracy issues but those same processes are not addressed via a dedicated change management exercise, organizations end up where they started very quickly. Six Sigma tools like the FMEA (assessing what can possibly go wrong AFTER the implementation) and approach of DMAIC i.e. Define Measure Analyze IMPROVE & CONTROL are very useful when trying to accomplish this.
After you have implemented your ERP project, you need to evaluate the results. How do you know if your ERP project is aligned with your vision and goals? You need to collect and analyze data, feedback, and metrics to measure the performance, impact, and value of your ERP project. You also need to identify any gaps, issues, or opportunities for improvement. Evaluating the results will help you validate, optimize, and align your ERP project.
Align your ERP projects , other proper feedback , impact analysis and align the ERP project .Do proper evaluation and optmization.
Finally, you need to learn and improve from your ERP project. How do you ensure that your ERP project remains aligned with your vision and goals over time? You need to monitor and review your ERP project regularly, update and adjust your processes and systems as needed, and incorporate best practices and lessons learned. Learning and improving from your ERP project will help you sustain and enhance your alignment and performance.
Incoprporate Learning and best practices , ensure to apply proper best practices . Coordinate well with teams.Assess performance.
You have to identify the right partner(individual/entity) to work with you. Someone once told me that if you want to know what the ‘road’ looks like, ask those who have travelled the the road. Wisdom is to seek and engage with those with that knowledge before you embark on this ERP journey!