You're looking to implement an ERP system. What's the best way to ensure success?

If you do not define the target, how do you know if you hit the mark? Defining the goals and what your organization is looking to achieve allows for the project to be measured against the goals. You get what you measure and that is extremely true in ERP projects!

Identify a clear message from leadership on why do we need to change and why now? Leadership support is critical and executive alignment on the message will ensure your team feels we are swimming in the same direction. As a leader if you see your team spinning, create a safe environment to escalate concerns. Every project is going to have twist and turns but leadership supporting timely/thoughtful decisions will greatly improve the speed and cost of your deployment.

A escolha de um sistema ERP vai depender do tamanho da organiza??o e or?amento disponível para o investimento. Além do mais a empresa precisa estar apta a mudan?a de processos. Tenha em vista que a implementa??o de um ERP pode demandar um tempo superior a 1 ano a depender do nível de customiza??es e integra??es necessários para seus processos. A escolha de um ERP é de extrema importancia pois será o principal sistema a ser utilizado em um período de médio a longo prazo pela empresa.

ERP being an integrated information system is required to be based on a thorough study of end-user requirements. Everyone in the organisation must be on the same line to go for ERP solution by giving all the detailed requirements and move further with full cooperation and resources. Any leftover will prove to be fatal while implementing the ERP. That is the reason why (often) ERP implementation is found not satisfactory. Human resources once trained must stay back till the project is implemented. As this is not so in most of the cases hence backup is created to fill the gaps at any point of time. Hence first and foremost is the total requirements in terms of goals to be achieved.

Implementing an ERP system requires to have an alignment between your business and tech strategies. Make sure the business and the strategy goals laid out by your executives are properly communicated, understood and executed on by your teams. Then, it is much easier for your organization's members to understand why you need to embark onto an ERP system implementation project. Moreover, you will easily identify who amongst your executive committee members can be sponsors of the ERP implementation project.

Entender o seu modelo e tamanho de negócio é o passo mais importante para a escolha do seu ERP, optar sempre pelo melhor e mais caro pode custar muito a empresa que terá um retorno mais demorado do seu investimento. Muitos ERPs s?o focados em segmentos ou áreas específicas de negócio, por isso, avaliar a concorrência, medir custos, entender o que n?o é necessário para sua empresa é muito importante para essa tomada de decis?o. Quanto mais complexo for o ERP, mais tempo levará para adaptar e implantar o sistema, muitas vezes a empresa tem um faturamento e tamanho consideráveis, porém atendem um segmento muito único, onde algum sistema já atende de forma completa.

To achieve the success of an ERP system implementation, there are so many steps to take, I will highlight and explain a few steps that have worked for me and my team. 1. Firstly, you have to determine the client's needs. What gaps are they looking to fill. The client's needs translate into your goals for the implementation project. 2. Determine the right ERP System: Having identified the goal, propose the best ERP System. 3. Assemble your team: Always put your best team on an implementation project. 4. Employ the best project management methodology and tools. 5. Lastly, Review as you go.

After having devised the business strategy and "why" you need an ERP system, you need to select one. In order to properly select an ERP, you first have to look within your organizations people and processes and have a clear idea of how you want to operate in the future. For that, you need to go down lower than just high level statements such as being the "paperless factory" or the "fastest delivery truck company", etc. Those goals, to be accomplished, require specific functionalities and a level of performance that will drive your choice of ERP system. Other elements that will drive your ERP system selection are: - user-friendliness - standard functionalities coverage - licensing costs - cloud/hosting costs - partnership ecosystem

Elije un sistema ERP que promueva la agilidad: En el proceso de selección, más allá de las funcionalidades y el presupuesto, es esencial considerar la agilidad y la flexibilidad del sistema. En un mundo empresarial que cambia rápidamente, tu ERP debe ser capaz de adaptarse y escalar según las necesidades emergentes. Esto significa buscar sistemas que ofrezcan actualizaciones regulares, personalización fácil y soporte para integraciones con nuevas tecnologías.

What to ceonsider before making a decision? 1. It is not an easy one, since it is extremely hard to immagine how ERP will fit into your processes. First question should be: "Am I ready to adjust to new ERP or do I need ERP to adjust to my processes?" 2. Go and see different ERP solutions in practical aplications. If possible you find the candidates yourself. Ask questions! Was it difficult to implement? How did people exept it? How difficult and how long was go-live period? 3. Consider the costs of ERP, but also costs of implementation, costs of support ect. 4. Consider also advantiges, possible cost savings or value creation enabled by each individual ERP. 5. Take blueprint, pre-implementation and testing phase serioulsy to avoid trouble.

As mentioned before, business strategy needs to be agreed upon from top-down or from bottom-up. If you want a successful team, you need to make sure you have dedicated resources to the ERP implementation project. The dedicated resource is usually not be the internal department lead, contrary to popular belief. But it is someone who has a very good knowledge of current processes and systems, and can convey the desired outcome of the department chief. It will also need to be someone who likes to work in project and can integrate well with the ERP consultants he will work with. Prepare the team members by involving them from the start into the ERP project phases: preparation, solution design, realization, testing, deployment.

Preparar a equipe para a implementa??o do sistema ERP é essencial. Envolva-os desde o planejamento, forne?a treinamento adequado, aborde preocupa??es, estabele?a comunica??o clara e monitore o progresso. Reconhe?a e recompense seus esfor?os para garantir uma transi??o suave e bem-sucedida.

Proper team is a must to have a successful implementation. ERP implementation is a rigorous exercise involving re-engineering of processes and taking care of process changes as and when required. The team must be trained and retrained periodically covering all updates. Team must be sufficiently capable enough to take care of all end user requirements today and tomorrow (change request).

The effort required for an ERP project is similar to running a marathon. Proper training and the right mindset are essential to success. It also means finding people with a combination of business knowledge, IT affinity and commitment to achieving objectives, which can be difficult for some. Therefore, careful selection of participants, quality training, building an effective team spirit and creating a safe environment are crucial to enable the team to excel when needed.

A implanta??o de um ERP, requer com certeza profissionais da área tanto na implanta??o, quanto na sustenta??o do projeto, isso n?o quer dizer que os colaboradores atuais n?o devam passar por treinamentos e acompanhamento junto a equipe de profissionais especializados no ERP. Toda equipe que é bem treinada e capacitada pode ajudar muito na implanta??o, pois já conhece o negócio da sua empresa, é extremamente importante que os profissionais específicos do ERP e a área de negócios da empresa estejam em contato constante para a melhor implanta??o. Capacitar os colaboradores atuais ajuda a manter o sistema estável, inclusive diversas consultorias de implanta??o já oferecem esse tipo de capacita??o.

One of the main benefits of ERP technologies is that you can harmonize the various systems and data sources you are currently using into one. Effective data management will require you to have centralized source of truth for most if not all of your operations. Data management requires the following in an ERP project: - Data extraction and cleansing: remove erroneous data (both in content and format), decide which historical data must be kept in the future ERP system - Data transformation: change the format of the data to fit with the new ERP system structure - Data load: the action of loading the data into the new ERP system - Data validation: post-data load validation executed to make sure the data in the new system are correct.

ERP projects are compromised by poor quality data. Careful preparation before launching an ERP project can avoid many additional costs. Several test migrations and adequate preparation for the final migration, including root cause analysis and reconciliation reports, will guarantee high-quality results and a smooth start-up of the new system.

As empresas que ainda n?o possuem um ERP único ou centralizado para seus negócios, disp?em de diversos dados espalhados por diversos sistemas, a ideia de ter um ERP central para o gerenciamento de dados ajuda tanto na análise, quanto na organiza??o desses dados. Claro que usar um sistema de MDM ajudaria muito na migra??o desses dados, pois esses dados seriam corrigidos em termos de duplicidade, poderiam ser saneados para enriquecimento de informa??es e até padroniza??o dos dados para se adaptar melhor nesse novo sistema. Optar por um sistema ERP que possui certifica??es LPGD ou que possuem normas nesse segmento é a melhor escolha para garantir a seguran?a e integridade de dados.

Gerenciar seus dados é fundamental para o sucesso do ERP. Certifique-se de revisar, limpar e migrar seus dados de forma precisa e segura. Fa?a backups regulares, proteja contra acessos n?o autorizados e esteja em conformidade com regulamenta??es de privacidade e seguran?a.

This is the main thing. Data is the main asset of an ERP system. Ensure that your data is accurate, complete, and consistent before migrating it to the new system. Develop data migration strategies and perform thorough testing to verify data integrity.

Customisation and testing go together. Once tested, process owners should take over with real data. Testing must be done for all the daily and periodical reports/information required by one and all at various management levels. Module testing must have white and black box testing for all the processes.

Testing the system enable the user to know if the data, the configuration and the performance of the system respond to the requirements laid out in the design phase. It also helps to see how user adoption will go early on after the implementation. I distinguish two scopes of testing in ERP projects: 1. Unit testing: when you test a functionality or a process that requires the involvement of only one functional team. 2. Integrated testing: when you test functionalities or processes requiring multiple teams to work on. For example, a full procurement process could require purchasing, accounts payable and logistics teams to be involved. "Stress tests" can be executed to measure system performance on big volume of data as well.

Os testes s?o um dos pontos mais importante em qualquer implanta??o de sistema, eu diria que ter em sua base pessoas especializadas na área de testes garante que os testes sejam executados com as melhores práticas e padr?es de mercado. Existem também muitas ferramentas com inteligência artificial que otimizam e ajudam nos testes. Ter um plano de contigência sempre é importante para o caso de uma aplica??o n?o apresentar o resultado esperado, se você já possui um sistema funcionando, só fa?a alguma "mudan?a de chave" quando o sistema novo estiver 100% validado, assim suas aplica??es podem funcionar como antes ou já adaptadas ao novo sistema. N?o economize em documenta??es!

Testar seu sistema ERP é crucial para garantir seu funcionamento adequado. Realize testes abrangentes com cenários e dados reais, verificando bugs e integra??es. Documente os resultados e resolva quaisquer problemas rapidamente para um lan?amento bem-sucedido.

En lugar de una gran fase de pruebas al final del proyecto, adopta un enfoque iterativo. Esto permite identificar y resolver problemas en etapas tempranas, facilitando ajustes rápidos y reduciendo riesgos. Utiliza metodologías ágiles para probar componentes o módulos a medida que se desarrollan, promoviendo la mejora continua.

Establece KPIs específicos que reflejen el rendimiento y valor del sistema ERP para tu negocio. Estos deben ir más allá de las métricas financieras o de productividad, incluyendo aspectos como la satisfacción del usuario, la eficiencia de los procesos y la calidad de la información para la toma de decisiones.

Few pointers Defining a 5 - 10 year vision for the organization with business goals and strategies. Selecting the right ERP based on overall IT budget and spend. Identifying the business and IT stakeholders to drive the implementation. Refining master data and Governance. Training and Change Management.

When implementing new ERP, you need to know, this is a marrige for 10 years or more. Preparation projects ussually take at least 6 months and consume considerable organizational, especially human resources. Follow the following advice: 1. Be 110% sure, before making final decision. 2. Avoid customizations unless really necessary or your process presents strategic advantage of your company. 3. Assess how the ERP partner knows your industry and field specifics. 4. Asses their competence in connecting ERP solutions and your processes. 5. Take your time ot decide.

In my experience of learning and implementing ERP systems, there are two most important elements which needs to be considered. 1. 70% of your total project time should get spent on planning of the system. Most ERP implementations fail because they were not planned properly. 2. Avoid customizations. 2nd biggest reason for an ERP system to fail is too more customizations in the standard system. One should consider changing the processes instead of making customizations in the systems.

Process mapping is one of the key factors that reduces customization in ERP and smooths implementation in later stages. long term planning and upcoming challenges to business should also be in focus while selecting ERP. Also, the most important factor is support during implementation and post implementation.

It is paramount to have a champion on the customer side, ideally the president or a board member. Take the time to develop a solid project plan with quality gates. Only move forward when a quality gate has been successfully completed. Considering assigning a strong code developer to each functional team. Have them in the meetings, allow them to ask questions.