Your Best Bet for ERP Success

11/24/2010 at 10:53 am by The Sage ERP Team

What do you want out of your ERP system?

Whether your answer is increased efficiency, streamlined business processes, improved communication or more revenue, you’re really answering with one thing: success. No matter what your goal is, you’ll need to work hard to ensure that your ERP system will be effective and accepted. If not, it won’t be able to serve any function, let alone the one you’re looking for.

There’s a lot you can do to increase your chances of ERP success, but it all boils down to preparation. The single best thing you can do to guard against ERP failure is prepare your organization for change. The more ready your organization – and your employees – are for ERP, the more likely they’ll be to accept it.

Here are some tips to help you prepare for ERP.

Research
Before you can begin to understand ERP, it’s important to understand your own business. Doing the research to better comprehend your own business processes, communication issues and interdepartmental structure is sure to pay off.

Be honest with yourself when you assess your company’s strengths and weaknesses. This will help you focus on the areas of improvement where ERP is meant to make a difference. Following the variables you’ve found to be lacking in your company is a great way to gauge how effective your ERP system is. Is it really making communication more efficient? Is it eliminating double data entry?

If so, you’re a success. If not, keep researching until you find the right ERP solution to handle your problems.

Change management
In many cases, it is the employees and their attitudes that determine the success of an ERP system. Employees who are older or who have been with the company for a long time are likely to show some resistance to the system, and that’s normal. However, if you work hard to make the system accessible and understandable, people will be less likely to resent it. Instead, they’ll embrace it – and its true potential will shine.

Change management can be achieved in a number of ways, but one important factor is a strong leader. A charismatic and informed person who can explain ERP to employees is essential to any successful ERP implementation project. This can be somebody from inside the company, a hired consultant or even you – as long as the person is knowledgeable on the subject and ready to field questions from concerned workers.

People always need a guiding hand through changing times, and ERP is no different.

Training
It’s no secret that people fear what they don’t understand, and when people don’t understand ERP this adage proves even more true. In addition, employees who don’t know how to use the system will be clumsy, awkward and resistant at the go-live, costing you precious time, money and resources. For these reasons, a strong training program is a crucial part of a successful ERP implementation.

Many organizations make the mistake of waiting until just before the go-live to begin ERP training – and this contributes to many ERP failures. Don’t wait until the last minute to begin your ERP training. Start early and break training down into short, manageable sessions.

If you follow these steps to prepare your employees and your company for ERP, you’ll increase your chances of ending up a success story.