Enterprise Recourse Planning projects are the largest, most important information technology projects an organization will take. Making sure all the phases of are completed properly is key to the project's success. Phases in the life of an Enterprise Resource Planning Project: 1.Internal Requirement Gathering Some would argue that for every type of project, the design phase is the most important one. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) projects are no different. Investing millions of dollars in a business software that does not meet your organizations and users requirements, is a complete waste of money and might even danger your company's commercial activity. As part of the requirement gathering phase, project team member interview the different key stakeholders in your organization - team members from the accounting department, logistics, manufacturing, sales etc. The output of these interviews and the analysis of the requirements based on them is a Software requirements specification (SRS). Additionally, a budget should be allocated by top management for the project, and a project timeline should be agreed on. 2.System Integrator RFP ERP projects are complex, and require specific knowledge and more importantly, experience. Most ERP projects involve a system integrator, leading the implementation project. To choose the right system integrator for you, you should send several candidates an RFP (Request For Proposal), which includes the SRS created in phase 1. The SRS then becomes a binding contract between you and your system integrator. 3.ERP Application Selection Selection order of the ERP system and of the system integrator are interchangeable - you might first select a system integrator and then, based on their recommendation, an ERP package, or vice versa. Either way, the success of the project depends on the sum of qulity of both the selections you made - ERP application and system integrator. Whether it be an multi year, multi million SAP project, or a modern open source ERP solution, make sure the ERP application you select fits your requirements optimally, and that your system integrators has a background with successful implementations of your selected ERP software. 4.Test By now, a test ERP system of your selection was installed and configured by your SI. Data, such as customers, products and invoices, was imported into the test system . The test ERP system is used to let your users get a 'feel' for the application, check how it fits your specific needs, perform a gap analysis and possibly develop customized functionality , narrowing the gap between your requirements and out of the box functionality. 5.Migration During the test phase you should perform several migration runs, making sure you can easily and in a timely fashion export the data from all of your legacy systems and import it into your new ERP. Depending on the size of your company and the amount of data your ERP system will handle, the migration process into your production environment, which is the final migration you will perform before going live, might take anywhere between 1 day to a week. There are several different migration strategies, but the most important aspect is that once the migration processes is completed, the legacy system is shut down, and all new users are directed to the new ERP system. Working on two ERP systems in parallel can easily turn to a nightmare. 6.Going Alive The big day has arrived! Your new ERP system is already loaded with all the necessary data, users have their login credentials and were granted the relevant authority and integration with peripheral systems ( bar-codes or RFID, automatic warehouse, printers etc.) is ready. There are many go-live strategies, from a full blown, complete shut-down of all legacy systems, to a 'salami', incremental per module transfer, leaving both systems-old and new-working at the same time, providing different functionality . Either way, make sure you have enough project team members around to support uses not accustomed to the new interface, bugs that were not found during testing and other unexpected issues that will certainly rise. 7.Maintenance An ERP project is not a one time efforts. Security patches and bug fixes are constantly released by your ERP software vendor. New customizations to the system are being developed and deployed. 8.Upgrades Once in a while, depending on your ERP vendor, a new version is released. A new version might require a new budget for the software license, new server hardware due to increase computing power demand, and possibly a new skill set your IT team members should acquire. In large ERP projects, such as those of SAP, an upgrade project is very similar to a full blown ERP project, in terms of phases and budget. An upgrade might take more than a year to complete. Make sure there are good enough reasons to upgrade to the latest version offered by your ERP vendor.

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