An enterprise resource management (ERP) can be the catalyst to lead your business to success. However, just having one implemented but not utilized to its potential doesn’t do much. It all starts at implementation and whether or not you have given your team enough time and training to adapt to the changes with the new system. Forbes Council Member and CTO at Unit4 Claus Jepsen shares five ways to increase your chance of a successful ERP implementation.
- Define Your Goals. “You need to understand your current position and desired destination before determining the best way to get there. Examine your current ERP’s ‘as-is’ state compared to the desired ‘to-be’ capabilities, considering your business environment and strategy. This stage should involve assessing current business processes, technology infrastructure and employee skills.”
- Choose The Right Technology For Your Organization. Your solution should cater to your business model and industry. Seek a vendor that understands the intricacies of your business or sector, enabling them to hit the ground running, introduce best practices and help you achieve a faster return on investment. Remember to consider post-implementation running costs.”
- Get Your People Involved. “Even the best ERP system will fail without user adoption. Transitioning to a new ERP system entails a transformation for your entire organization, necessitating a clear change-management strategy and plan.”
- Test And Validate Your System. “Testing your new ERP system is essential to identify any potential issues or errors before going live. It will help minimize risks such as system failures, data corruption and other potential problems that could disrupt operations. Testing also provides an opportunity to make sure it is correctly integrated with other relevant systems.”
- Train Your People. “You can’t roll out a new ERP system without first teaching your people how to use it. Although your vendor can provide training material, it will be based on the standard software. They will configure the system to fit your industry and organization’s needs, which means that your final setup will differ slightly. For this reason, it’s essential to speak to your vendor about creating training material specific to your circumstances.”
Implementing an ERP system is a complicated project, but yields great results for your organization – if don’t correctly. Investing time and resources, as Jepsen emphasizes from his 5 tips, then you can ensure a smoother implementation process and more effected ERP system to help with your company’s success.
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