What is the best way to prepare customers for an ERP implementation?

Establishing clear, open channels of communication between your team and your customers ensures that everyone is on the same page. Regular updates, meetings, and feedback sessions help in addressing concerns promptly and making necessary adjustments.

If there is a phase of requirements of the assesment part of an ERP implementation project, this is a larger project than just the implementation. The results of the requirements assessment could be a recommendation to implement an ERP. But an organisation can't search a justification of an implementation of an ERP after the implementation project has been started.

ERPs are complicated. What your customers want is a solution to their problems. An ERP might the way to it. As a consultant, first thing you do is to ask relevant questions in order to help your champion realize their challenges and their impact. Explore pain areas and ask how they would normally approach it Dig more. "Why do they think that doing 'X' will resolve 'Y'" This helps them get a clarity to their current approach, hence helping them prepare for the big change. P.S. CEO of ERPNext says: "Never ask for requirements, Ask for problems" Now, this is crucial because your prospect understands problems, but he's not the right person to layout the solution, that should always be your job! Have a successful implementation!

Try to figure out: 1) Where from their perspective they believe there will be the most value 2) Where in the business not having (sufficient) automation hurts the most, where the most errors happen, where the most complaints come from etc 3) Identify the presence of process experts In order to prioritize the implementation correctly, bring value fast and avoid excessive initial investment

La mejor manera de preparar a los clientes para la implementación de un ERP es establecer expectativas claras desde el principio, ofrecer capacitación adecuada a los usuarios clave, proporcionar recursos de soporte durante la transición y mantener una comunicación abierta para abordar preocupaciones y ajustar el proceso según sea necesario. La planificación detallada y la participación activa del cliente son clave para una implementación exitosa. Es importante tener en cuenta que durante el ultimo cuarto de la implementacion, las preocupaciones y el miedo al cambio del dliente y su equipo se exponencia, asi que, es importante brindar un buen soporte y mantenerlo calmado con informacion fiable.

Throughout the implementation process, actively seek and incorporate customer feedback. Regular assessments allow you to gauge the project's progress and its alignment with customer expectations.

Communicating only benefits might help you get an ERP project. However, communicating challenges along with it will help you successfully implement the project. "41% of executives consider their ERP project a failure.", says a 2023 report. Communicate the challenges that are there, and explore the ones that might arrive: "What happens when users increase?", "How to accommodate the resistance that would come from the employees?", "What problems will not be getting solved?" The thumb rule is, you only have solve 20% of problems to ease 80% of the pain. If the rest is communicated well to the champion, you will be setting right expectations.

ERPs can help companies to centralise all the information to facilitate your structure within the entire company. However, there are challenges to it: - For many ERP you do not have the collaborative aspect with external partners which leads to double entries and risk of errors. - It is usually very expensive (50k€ up to 300k€ and more!), thus not accessible to all company's sizes (SME or startups) - The time to implement an ERP takes approximately 1 year (if you are lucky) - It requires a lot of maintenance, thus expert within the company (human cost) Hence the importance to evaluate whether it is really necessary or not to have one based on your cashflow and current needs or if other No Code tools can do the trick.

Set up dedicated channels where customers can quickly reach out for assistance, clarification, or updates. This might include a help desk or an online platform.

Sketch a master plan but focus on bringing the best value in the shortest turn around time. Trying to deliver on 3 months is in general not more risky than trying to deliver on 8 or 12 months; it's a matter of setting expectations and maintaining focus

Together with training sketch the bigger picture of what is being tried to be achieved. Nothing is more harmful to an ERP implementation than its wrong or non-usage

Create open forums to share the open issues and explain prioritization of resolution; work with overviews per process area; visibility on time lines etc

Communication and change management is crucial. An ERP implementation is not a technical project, it's in the first place a busines project. Organizational Change Management yes does increase investment cost but when well done it can make the project a success whereas without it the chances for a failure or at least a very bumpy road will be much bigger

An evangelization work is necessary, which begins from the first contact with the customer, most of the main challenges are in the adoption of best practices, where commitment at the management level will be crucial for adoption in the rest of the company.