Thoughts on Organizational Change Management - Implementing an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system.

Your organization wants to acquire a new ERP system, or perhaps you're adding a new entity or two and need to onboard them for the parent company. Where do you start? Take a look at what your organization needs, how it will be used, and the compatibility it will have for your other systems, programs, or applications. These days there are several formats for ERP with the two major ones being SAP (Systems, Applications, and Products) and D365 (Dynamic 356), among many others. Talk with your leadership, IT, and Business Transformation on what would be the best selection to move forward on.

Get to know the new system inside and out so your Organizational Change Management (OCM) office can become a "Go-To" center for anyone with questions or concerns. You'll also need to become familiar with the in-house version, as most major entities adapt their ERP systems for specific usage. Then handle the rest with the usual OCM approach of building the timeline with milestones, conducting a stakeholder analysis, issuing a change readiness statement, drilling down into any issues with the impact assessment & analysis, writing the communications plan, creating the training plan, making a handoff or project conclusion plan, and mapping out a post-product support plan if needed. All very basic, or is it?

In two of my significant experiences with SAP, each one required a unique approach. My first time was on Wall Street using SAP to track master underwriter agreements. These are for accredited investors to verify the investment and contribute to the tracking of whether that investment is increasing, flat-lining, or losing value. Of course, the first aspect is great, however, the last two are cause for concern that an intervention may be required to keep the investment profitable so that the client remains happy as their funding builds value. This version of SAP is very close to what it was originally intended to do.

The second and more challenging aspect was using SAP/Hana during a merger & acquisition (M&A) in which the parent organization utilized SAP for tracking purposes in supply chain logistics and needed the acquired parties to do the same. This was a global project and very interesting. Using SAP for so many methods of transportation (ship, road, rail, air, and pipeline) in keeping updates on shipments, warehousing, and finding any delays, missing items, or misrouting demonstrated how versatile the program is for many diverse uses.

Probably the most challenging part in both instances was the awareness and training plan. For this, I reached out to the vendors to obtain their typical training materials, adapted these to fit the purpose of each client entity, and then set up presentations for senior management, and workshops for middle management to glean for the best subject-matter experts (SMEs) and change champions (CCs) during a "hands-on" experience with the programs to see how they would work and ease of use.

With good planning and going in step-by-step, each endeavor was successfully concluded. The largest part was getting to know each version of the ERP system to become my own SME and CC. This is also a great way to keep the mind engaged since, like any physical muscle, it too needs to be constantly challenged and learning to absorb more materials and stay intellectually dexterous.

In regard to other e ERP systems, D365 from Microsoft is great because many large firms prefer to stick with those tried and true programs of Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, SharePoint and the rest of Office Suite and these all conveniently plug into D365 with ease of coordination and some very impressive looks for presentations and data support. What's more, D365 can help with your entire organization and is highly adaptable. If you are already using MS Office Suite, then Dynamics 365 will be very user-friendly.

None of these are difficult, you just need to get familiar with them to discover how expandable and flexible they are with ease of adaptation to your organization's specific usage and purpose.

In each case, the training plan was the largest aspect and needed tailoring for each audience. Typically, the presentation for the rollout is best for senior leadership, then the workshop for middle management, and for the associates who will be doing the actual change a selection of classroom setting, town hall, self-paced online learning module, or 1:1/tutoring is recommended. Each one has its advantages.

The classroom setting of 5–25 people can help a team or department bond as everyone learns at the same pace, and those having difficulties can be helped along by classmates/team members. This builds a team spirit, can inspire leaders in the group, and good feelings that the group has one another's back. Finishing at the same time also prepares the team for the new challenges moving forward.

In the online town hall, the original meeting can be live with portions for lessons on various aspects followed by a question & answers (Q&A) session and be recorded so those unable to attend can watch later at their convenience with either an online or physical quiz to measure their readiness to proceed.

Self-paced online learning modules allow the associate to learn as time permits, stop in case of necessity, then pick up where they left off, concluding with online testing to check on what has been learned. These can also be segmented out so that the learner must pass certain aspects before being allowed to move on to the next module, again at their own pace.

For leaders of departments or teams, 1:1s or tutoring can be a way to go with an instructor, SME, or CC to be there as a reference person in absorbing the materials, encouraging them, and pointing out areas to pay more attention to or making recommendations on how to study better. For this, an office or room setting is best, away from any distractions or loud noise.

Keep all learning materials as streamlined as possible, concentrating only on essentials and the proper processes and procedures. Yes, there may be shortcuts, however, these can be learned or discovered later on. The emphasis here needs to be on the basics of how and why things are taking place.

And keep the lessons proportional, in that we don't want to overwhelm those new to the system. Physically, the mind can only take in so much at a time, and overloading or overwhelming team members will quickly lead to frustration, discouragement, and a significant decline in morale, which defeats our purpose.

If you are doing the instructing, stay positive, patient, empathetic, and respectful. Have any of those teaching use the same approach. People learn more in a friendly atmosphere with encouragement, inspiration, and praise. But, at the same time, don't be condescending in addressing how well they are doing. Respect, dignity, and consideration are also very important to practice in this scenario.

Implementing a new ERP system with the approach typically used is very feasible and will be successful, just be sure to dot all of the "i"s and cross those "t"s to maximize the intake and keep any negative outlooks minimized for those learning the new way of doing things.