ERP Systems

Take ERP System Expansion One Step At A Time

Once the payback has supplanted the pain of implementing an enterprise-wide ERP system, various factions are likely make the case for bolting on additional applications to support their corner of the company. Sales will rally in favor of Customer Relations Management (CRM), engineering will insist on integrating Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), factory managers will sing the praises of Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES). All may have merit. And there are many others that will eventually make their way onto the “must have” list.

This is a good time to remind yourself of the pain of that original ERP system implementation, not because you shouldn’t bite off strategic expansions but because you shouldn’t bite off more than you can chew. The fundamental rule of thumb for adding applications to your ERP system is to take it one step at a time, to add pieces of the solution incrementally. Tackle the project in manageable pieces that can be deployed, tested and celebrated in a way that keeps both management and personnel affected by the change onboard. The alternative, “all in” approach can just take too long to show results, resulting in fatigue, ennui and lost momentum. More importantly, moving slowly let’s you learn from your mistakes and not repeat them as you move to add the next chunk of functionality.

Setting metrics and timelines for your incremental deployment is also critical for demonstrating the success of each step. After the pilot stage is deemed a winner, it makes sense to roll out pieces of the new application to limited areas, ascertaining that any bugs are wrung out before proceeding. Time limits and metrics will tell you when it is okay to take the next step.

Employee training programs are critical to the success of any new ERP system application you are adding. Humans are hugely resistant to change. They have a hard time understanding what was wrong with the old, familiar, comfortable status quo. In fact, a certain percentage of the impacted employees may simply move on to another firm rather than embrace change. This has huge implications for the project’s success. If employees aren’t comfortable with the new system, they won’t use it effectively enough to achieve stated goals. Structure training from an insider’s point of view rather than from the software vendor’s point of view. That means putting the emphasis on “here’s how we used to do it; here’s how we are going to do it” rather that focusing and all the bells and whistles and keyboard shortcut stuff.

Once you’ve got one successful added application under your belt, you’ll be even smarter about how to undertake the next one—one step at a time.

Written by :

tracey boxer