ERP and CRM Projects - The Devil is in the Detail
Michelle Harvey
Independent ERP Strategy | ERP Evaluation | IT Strategy | Business Systems Review | ERP Consulting | Digital Transformation I Project Management | Change Management
Never has the idiom "The Devil is in the Detail" been more relevant than with #ERP and #CRM Projects.
As independent consultants we are often asked to do project health checks, post implementation reviews or to take over and recover broken or failed projects.
Universally, we find that despite the best endeavours of the customer or the vendor, the “devil” appears as disappointment when an organisation calls us because their implementation has reached an impasse, not delivered the anticipated benefits, has exceeded the budget or has fallen way short of their expectations.
The Customer’s Side of the Story
On the surface, the “devil” from the Customer’s side is usually expressed as:
- Things did not go according to plan and the project has cost much more than we anticipated.
- We realise we should have defined our requirements to a level of detail that clarified scope.
- The implementation team seems to be unaware of what was promised during the sales process.
- We had no idea how much time and staff involvement the project would take.
- It is causing too much disruption to the business and we have lost control of the project.
The Vendor’s Side of the Story
On the surface, the “devil” from the Vendor’s side is usually expressed as:
- There is no real executive support, project leadership or governance on the customer’s side.
- The users don’t really know what they want, and they keep changing their minds / scope.
- Integration requirements keep appearing that we had no visibility of during the sales process.
- There are limited resources with little focus on process or organisational change.
- Commitment to critical elements like data cleansing and user acceptance testing is lacking.
Planning and Expectation Management
Managing expectations is fundamental to the success of any project implementation. The organisations that do this better than others are those where the customer pays close attention to the details.
Details need to be Documented
Documenting your business and project requirements in detail before you start your ERP or CRM journey is absolutely imperative.
The key is to start early with your planning and ensure that there is an internal governance structure in place that addresses the key risk areas around your specific business and process requirements, change management, technology adoption and cost visibility.
On the Customer’s Side
- Document your business requirements in appropriate detail to ensure that the scope and activities of the project are clear and very well understood by all your stakeholders.
- Ensure you understand the total cost of ownership (TCO) and your budget is approved by the Board. Having some contingency will be essential as there will inevitably be extras you need.
- Read and understand the implications of the Vendor and Software Agreements before you sign them. The requirements on your staff involvement should be particularly well understood.
- Commit the right resources to the project from the start. Vendor costs assume this and time blow outs will typically create variation requests.
On the Vendor’s Side
- Invest time to understand exactly what the customer’s business goals and requirements are.
- Be transparent with your customer about what your solution can realistically deliver.
- Ensure your staff are well briefed in the handover phase from sales to implementation.
- Commit experienced staff to the project and ensure they have the capability and capacity to deliver what has been promised.
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4 年How can we achieve both that and an agile methodology?
Leadership | Governance | Operations | RevOps | Technology | CA | GAICD
4 年Great points Michelle! Having been involved in many implementations over the years, not honoring that idiom is the crux of so many issues. Another action point I’d suggest that could be added to the “Vendor” side, is for vendors (or SIs) to immerse themselves in the details of their clients’ business processes, and identify where the vendor’s standard or “best practice” processes might improve and simplify the Customer’s status quo. Conversely, Customers with a willingness to challenge why they do things the way they do, can open up a wealth of potential improvements if they truly dig into their own business processes, and correlate them to the detailed processes and work/data flows of the prospective systems, identifying often better and simpler ways of doing things natively. Each requires a detailed understanding of the other, and as you rightly said - documented!