How can you balance ERP benefits and risks in service operations?

In my experience, the most important aspect of ERP implementation is aspiration and commitment of the founders or key stakeholders. It has to be top down approach where before even ERP is selected, blueprint of the business, vision, goal is planned and growth model mindset is evaluated. Once the same is achieved with the buy in of all stakeholders (Tactical and operational), Indicative parameters needs to be established and phased out. For example, Data management, Approval hierarchies which are aligned to the vision. ERP is a journey and not a destination. Have a team which has a blend of experience and youth. This will help the team to be stable and ensure the team is given authority to execute changes.

Before choosing any of the ERP, we need to analyze current business and answer below questions why do we need an ERP what are we achieving by using ERP Do we need to go with one cloud vendor or multiple cloud ERP? (Best of the breed modules from various ERP’s) Budget and Return on Investment Mainly, analyze on how much and what part of current business is automated and take phase wise approach to succeed in ERP implementation.

Once blueprint is decided, choose a vendor who has business consulting skills and not application expertise. This will ensure right decisions for your industry. Again solution has to be 80/20. Use 80% Standard and 20% modifications in terms of layouts and ease of use. Key factor to be considered is which process will be out of ERP. For example , most companies do not combine HRMS and ERP. Ideal is always integrate Payroll for financials but have HRMS/payroll separate from the ERP. Reporting is key aspect. Choose the system which can give you inbuilt reports to reduce dependency. Remember always choose a business platform and not a technical platform which will modify to suit your industry

I agree, Implementation can be complex and lengthy, involving multiple stages, such as design, configuration, testing, training, deployment, and evaluation. To have a good understanding and success in every stage, every key stakeholder should be involved from each early stage. Also requirements should be freezed to ensure smoother flow of development and testing so that issues can be addressed in timely manner. Use of pipeline softwares like Azure devops, Monday.com to track issues would help to streamline processes

Most important aspect to have a successful ROI is training (Not just during the implementation) but continuous. Most ERP fails due to this aspect of the journey. Ensure you empower and incentivize the employees who take training. Put in the KRA of each process owner to be trained and take training on the ERP three to four time a year. Send them to the conferences or business users meet of the ERP selected. Ensure your top stakeholders are taking decision based upon data presented in ERP. This will ensure operational and tactical users more alert on the features and usage. Also do not micromanage the users, give them more empowerment and accountability of their processes. Ensure manuals are updated. Training should be part of culture.

Successful ERP implementation will results in smooth business flow and better performance of business users in their day to day operations. Business users can maximize the return of investment on ERP if they are trained well, which in turn is a key stage “UAT and USER Training”. If business users are not trained enough to use the ERP, there will be huge gap between ERP and business