Best Practices Checklist
- Know your requirements.
- Make sure vendor competencies match your requirements.
- Treat your ERP project as a change-management project.
- Enlist the aid of consultants.
- Don’t skimp when allocating resources.
Best Practices
- Know your requirements.
- Make sure that you know, in detail, what business problems you’re trying to solve through the use of ERP. This takes a multi-departmental approach.
- Understand your own needs and match them against potential vendors’ offerings. Every ERP vendor has some particular sweet spots where they are strongest — for example, vendors can aim their products regional businesses (or global), and so on. If you don’t get the right product ‘fit,’ you may end up trying to shoehorn a round peg into a square hole, which can lead to disaster.
- Make sure you define your needs up front, or you might select a solid ERP that addresses the wrong issues. The needs assessment should involve all relevant functions/employees. This will also help to obtain employee ‘buy-in’ and generate enthusiasm for this project. The requirements list should have a ranking by importance of all functionality/capability of the ERP solution.
- Make sure vendor competencies match your requirements.
- Check your solutions partner’s experience. Are they well-versed in the unique needs and ‘pain points’ of your industry? Have they worked with systems similar to yours?
- Demonstrations are where the vendors put rubber to the road. You should take advantage of this opportunity to have the vendors show you how well their respective systems handle your business’s key processes.
- During the demo, ensure that the ERP can perform all the key functionality that you require. If you cannot see the functionality that you need, do not assume that it exists. I would not proceed with the vendor unless they can demonstrate the functionality or allow you to see the functionality at one of their customer sites.
- If a potential vendor shows you their solution before trying to learn your business processes, process flow, and challenges — run, do not walk, to the next vendor on the list.
- To determine your comfort level with potential partners, ask yourself: Do they communicate clearly and effectively? Do they respond to requests quickly and thoroughly? Do they understand the unique demands of your industry? Can they explain and demonstrate technology in language all employees will understand? Are they open and friendly?
- Find solution providers that understand your specific business. Ask the integrator about directly relevant industry experience. This is even more important if your business or industry has specific requirements that are unique.
- Treat your ERP project as a change-management project.
- ERP projects are change-management projects, not technology installs. At their core, ERP projects are fundamentally people-driven change-management projects intended to improve cross-functional business processes. Just throwing your users the keys to a new technology product will not spontaneously result in the business improvement desired. New software implementations need to include user engagement and knowledge transfer so users understand not only their own roles, but the roles of others — and how what each person does affects the others in a given process chain
- Enlist the aid of consultants.
- Find an internal or external expert who has worked with at least two different ERP systems and has also spent time in a functional role. Make sure it is someone who has been on both the sides of your fence, and does not have any vested interest in any vendor’s solution.
- Don’t skimp when allocating resources.
- Be ready for a long and challenging journey. Commit enough resources both financially and managerial time. It is not a website development project, and it will make or break your business.
Using our proprietary DECIDE ERP selection process, Sererra helps clients find the ERP software that best fits their budget, time-frame, industry, technological infrastructure and operational needs. There are many aspects of evaluating, selecting and deploying an ERP solution that benefit from specific techniques (methods) and structure (tools). Sererra’s methods and tools are highly validated and are tuned for use in a particular selection project. These ERP selection methods and tools are presented and coached to selection teams at the time they are needed on projects.
Learn more about Sererra’s DECIDE.