ERP Brilliant Basics – Part 6 (Final): The ERP Golden Rule
Over the past several weeks we have been discussing how to apply the principle ‘keep the system and physical worlds aligned’ to various aspects of your ERP system. As we wrap up this series today with this final article, I wanted to share with you my reasons for creating this series.
First, I did so in hopes that some of you might gain at least one new, valuable learning that you could immediately apply to your current ERP system. Some key insight that could help you resolve an issue you are currently struggling with. Hopefully, these articles sparked a few new thoughts about how to address some longstanding issues.
Secondly, but most importantly, I did so to help demystify ERP. Time and time again I see organizations struggle, because individual users were never taught even the most basic concepts about how ERP systems work. Instead they were merely trained on how to push the buttons and provided a detailed list of ‘do this but don’t do that’ instructions with no explanation as to why. That approach never worked well for anyone in academia, so why do businesses think it will work well in an ERP implementation? Well, I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t, and there are plenty of failed ERP implementations that can testify to that fact!
What does work well is an approach that helps users understand that ERP systems actually believe the data (both master data and transactional data) that is in them, and that they will respond accordingly, and in an integrated fashion. If your data and behavior mimics real life, then your ERP system will do its best to help you live up to the promises you make. In that case, life is good, and you can trust and respond to the analytical insights your ERP system can provide.
On the other hand, if your data and behavior are disconnected from real life – i.e. if you say one thing but do another – you will be in a constant battle with your ERP system. You will use workaround upon workaround in a vain attempt to try to “outsmart” your ERP system, but it is your organization which will become outsmarted because the longer this behavior goes on, the greater the gap between the system and real life becomes. You will not be able to trust and, therefore, cannot respond to the analytical insights your ERP system provides, so you will do more workarounds to try to glean some form of usable insights. And the more workarounds your employ, the greater the system-to-physical gap grows. It truly is a vicious cycle that can make an organization spiral right into the ground!
That is why I am so passionate about spreading the word that, to be successful in implementing and operating your ERP system, there is no more important guiding principle than ‘keep the system and physical worlds aligned’. For me, this is the golden rule of ERP ownership! And that is the main reason I wrote the series of articles on Brilliant Basics.
If you missed any of the series, here are the links:
· Brilliant Basics - Part 1: Introduction
· Brilliant Basics - Part 2: Master Data Management
· Brilliant Basics - Part 3: Inventory Management
Management Development and Performance Improvement
4 年Agree Dave this is a really critical piece
Retired - but potentially available
4 年Now, if you could just find the silver bullet to keep sr.mgrs out of the way and let the project teams do their job you might be onto something.
The Blended Capital Group - ESG, Governance, Strategy and Finance Integration Leadership Focused on Impact Delivery
4 年Nice summary. Training has to start with concepts, and discipline to keep systems aligned with physical reality must be embedded, otherwise an organization ends up with a valueless system. The great news is that there is huge value for organizations that drive this discipline, teach the concepts and embed the right approach across their culture.