How do you identify your business goals before choosing an ERP software?

My advice: leave behind all your notions about "derisk" and about "upskilling" and even "modernising". Your finance partners don't give a stuff about that. What do they care about? Revenue growth Margins and profit Market share Productivity So make sure you align your entire business case to the above points and you will get the buy in of your business partners.

In my experience, from implementing multiple ERPs (SAP, Oracle, and Momentum), multiple times as a consultant, a well done current state is vital to both the business case and the implementation. Too many clients skip the current state, just saying “make it better.” The clients also don’t realize how important the current state is to successful change management. To convince people to change you must first understand where they are now.

Always to the backward calculation on where you want to be in the future. What is the goal? Once that is known, then where are we today? What are the things that will continue to help us get to the goal, what are the things that are blocking us from getting to the goal, what are the things that we additionally need to help us get there. Once we have that list, then things should be prioritized based on “must haves” and “nice to have” stuff based on the goals. A proper fit-gap-analysis and a focused goal are key in deciding the correct ERP product for an organization.

Before proceeding with an ERP project it's crucial to thoroughly define the current state of the business. This entails conducting a comprehensive assessment of existing processes, systems, and workflows across all departments. By examining factors such as operational inefficiencies, data redundancies, and communication gaps, organizations can gain insights into their current state. This analysis helps identify pain points, challenges, and areas for improvement that an ERP system can address. Additionally, understanding the current state allows for realistic goal-setting and expectations alignment within the organization. Clear documentation of the current state serves as a baseline for measuring the success of the ERP implementation.

Start by evaluating your current business processes, systems, and challenges. Identify what is working well, what needs improvement, and the gaps ERP software can fill. Use methods like interviews, surveys, workshops, audits, or benchmarking to gather insights. This will help you recognize your strengths and weaknesses, as well as opportunities for enhancement. With this knowledge, you can build on your successes and address pain points for a more efficient and effective system.

In my experience, defining desired outcomes requires a clear understanding of organizational objectives and stakeholder expectations. Engage in collaborative discussions to establish specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals. Consider both short-term milestones and long-term aspirations. Align desired outcomes with the organization's mission and values, ensuring a cohesive and purpose-driven approach. Regularly communicate these goals to foster a shared vision among team members. Monitoring progress against these outcomes is essential for continuous improvement and strategic alignment.

Defining desired outcomes with ERP software is crucial, but equally important is holding the business accountable to these goals. Aligning outcomes with your business strategy, vision, and values ensures they are "SMART". Too many implementations are driven by users within the organization who do not have a full grasp of the business' KPIs across all departments. Ensure that critical users and system owners are interviewed and document their requirements to meeting their targeted KPIs. Once this is done, its easy to measure the performance of the solution against the desired outcomes.

First you need to establish a clear vision of what success looks like post-implementation. This involves engaging key stakeholders, including department heads, IT professionals, and end-users, to gather a diverse range of perspectives and insights. Outcomes should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART). For example, desired outcomes could include reducing order processing times by a certain percentage, increasing sales revenue, or improving inventory management accuracy. By setting precise and quantifiable goals, organizations can effectively evaluate potential ERP systems against these criteria, making the selection process more focused and aligned with their strategic vision.

ERP software can help make your supply chain more efficient or decision making faster or help accelerate reporting but it cannot fill gaps of broken and inefficient business processes. The business growth will still depend on the core business and ERP and help elevate it on multiple fronts. So with the concept of ‘Clean Core’ defining the needs/results/desired outcomes is important to choose the right ERP product and to be able to optimize its usability. The steps should be to define the outcome, find the process gaps and build a strategy to overcome it, choose the suitable ERP product and leverage it to aid growth in the desired direction.

Desired outcomes should always defined via the capability-based-approach: Step 1: Assess the existing business strategy, its goals and parameters. Step 2: Define the necessary capabilities to achieve the goals formulated in the strategy Step 3: Build an IT architecture featuring business applications, that contain the features and functions that enable the defined capabilities. This methodology keeps your roadmap looking forward and results in a ERP implementation that is futureproof.

In my experience, prioritizing requirements involves a meticulous evaluation of their impact on business goals. Engage with key stakeholders to identify and rank essential functionalities based on immediate needs and long-term objectives. Consider factors such as critical dependencies, user feedback, and potential ROI. Strive for a balance between must-have features and desirable enhancements. Regularly reassess and adjust priorities in response to evolving business dynamics. This iterative approach ensures a focused implementation that aligns with the most pressing organizational needs.

Defining a clear and realistic scope is fundamental to the success of an ERP project. The scope serves as the foundation upon which the entire project is built, guiding the team in understanding the organization's needs and overarching goals. It involves a comprehensive examination of existing processes, identifying pain points, and envisioning the desired future state. By clearly defining the scope, key functionalities can be identified, ensuring that the ERP system addresses critical business requirements.

Requirements are prioritized best by defining and separating your differentiating and your commodity processes. Any processes that are commodity are candidates to be put to the cloud and consumed by standard SaaS offerings immediately. Those areas where you set yourself apart from the competition, are the differentiating processes and those are the ones that you should concentrate on during ERP implementations. This method of separating those two kinds of processes is the key for a fast and efficient transformation and ERP implementation.

Develop a structured matrix or scoring system to rank ERP software requirements based on importance, urgency, and feasibility, ensuring focus on critical needs while filtering out unnecessary or unrealistic ones.

One time at work, consulting stakeholders played a pivotal role in decision-making. In my experience, actively engaging with diverse stakeholders ensures comprehensive insights and fosters collective ownership. Regularly communicate with teams, clients, and end-users to understand their perspectives, concerns, and expectations. This collaborative approach not only enriches decision-making but also builds a sense of shared responsibility. Act on feedback to refine strategies and solutions, creating a more inclusive and effective decision-making process.

Ensure that any engagements with stakeholders is documented. When in the design phase, get sign off from the stakeholders on what the expectations are for the solution. When going through UAT, record the attendees and then discuss the outcomes of the UAT with the stakeholders. Ensure that the responsibility of the success of the implementation is centered around stakeholder input. An implementation should never be driven by one department, it should be a consultative process where each owner of the system is involved and provides a continuous feedback loop of requirements and success/failure.

Stakeholders play a pivotal role in the ERP selection process. These individuals possess unique insights into the organization's operational needs, pain points, and long-term objectives. Their involvement ensures that the ERP system aligns with the diverse requirements of different departments and functions, improving the chances of seamless adoption and successful implementation. Engaging stakeholders in the selection process not only provides a holistic view of the organization's needs but also promotes buy-in and support for the chosen ERP solution.

No need to choose between a top-down or bottom-up strategy. Just do both. Iterate! That means you do both top-down and bottom-up consultations until you find common ground. That's how we get insightful learnings when deciding business goals.

This is essential, but needs to go a step further. Through the project itself, ensure the stakeholders that have been identified are signing off on critical elements of the design documentation and the UAT/Conference room pilot. If somebody is important enough to design how the ERP will operate, they are important enough to test and sign off on what has been delivered as well. Users can request functionality, but they need to be accountable once things get moving.

Certainly. In my experience, documenting findings is a crucial step for clarity and accountability. Create detailed records of assessments, stakeholder inputs, and prioritized requirements. Clearly articulate the identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. This documentation serves as a reference point for decision-makers and provides a foundation for strategic planning. Regularly update and share these documents with relevant stakeholders to maintain transparency and alignment. This structured approach ensures that insights are preserved and can inform future actions with a comprehensive understanding of the context.

Documentation plays a pivotal role throughout the various steps of an ERP project, contributing to its success and long-term viability. In the initial stages, comprehensive documentation assists in clearly defining the project scope, objectives, and requirements. This documentation serves as a roadmap, guiding the project team, stakeholders, and vendors, ensuring a shared understanding of goals and expectations. During the planning phase, detailed documentation of the project timeline, budget estimates, and resource allocation is essential for effective project management. As the implementation progresses, documentation captures key decisions, configurations, and customizations, providing a reference for future troubleshooting, maintenance.

Documenting the scope of an ERP is of utmost importance as it serves as the foundation for a successful implementation. A thorough understanding of the organization's existing processes, pain points, and objectives is essential for mapping out how the ERP system will fit into the current business landscape. Documenting the current situation allows stakeholders to identify areas for improvement and areas that are functioning well, enabling a targeted approach to process optimization. This helps in setting clear expectations and goals for the ERP project, ensuring that the system selected and implemented addresses the organization's specific needs. The scope becomes a blueprint for aligning the ERP system with the organization's objectives.

We are finding that there is significant value in using a more dynamic method of documentation beyond a word document or a PDF. Utilizing wiki software is incredibly valuable as it provides significantly more functionality in allowing users to navigate the information quickly. Build out a framework for the wiki that people can contribute to across the team, it adds a lot of value and brings in required input from key business members.

In my experience, documenting findings is very important. Create a comprehensive report of your goals, requirements, and stakeholder input. This document will serve as your roadmap throughout the ERP selection and implementation process. Consultants can help structure this document in a way that will be most useful for ERP vendors and implementation teams.

In my experience, it's essential to consider scalability, ensuring that chosen solutions can grow with the organization. Evaluate the total cost of ownership, including implementation, maintenance, and potential upgrades. Take into account user training and change management to facilitate a smooth transition. Assess the vendor's reputation, support services, and commitment to updates. Consider data security and compliance requirements to safeguard sensitive information. Finally, factor in the cultural fit of the chosen solution within the organization to enhance user adoption and overall success.

Specify the detailed functional requirements for each department or function, and identify the data sources, migration requirements, and integration needs. Describe the reporting and analytics capabilities needed and any compliance or regulatory requirements.

Earlier the companies used to go for one end to end solution. But with development of new types of business models need for customization arouse since standard software don't always fulfill the all the needs of the organizations. Many organizations now go for hybrid models where they integrate different software for different activities.

Prioritizing goals based on their impact and urgency allows for focused evaluation of ERP solutions that best address specific business requirements. Additionally, considering long-term scalability and flexibility ensures that the chosen ERP software can adapt to evolving business needs and growth trajectories. By establishing a solid understanding of business goals upfront, organizations can make informed decisions in selecting an ERP solution that drives value, fosters innovation, and supports sustainable growth.

The term "cultural lag" represents the interval during which an organization progresses from initial ignorance about a technology, engages in extensive discussions questioning its relevance, to finally adopting and integrating the technology into its operations. The duration of cultural lag has a direct impact on the level of "disruption," encompassing the intensity and discomfort associated with the adoption of technological innovations. The longer this transitional period, the more formidable and challenging the process of integration becomes. For an ERP implementation, the key takeaway is clear: the more time spent deliberating, the more resiliently the wave of change will hit.