Wednesday, September 9, 2009

ERP Implementation and Change Management

Enterprise resource planning software requires full support from top management at the time of implementation, selection, customization etc. During implementation, organization may require to change some business processes to meet the software standards, which are industry specific standards. Business process can not be change without top management support. It is quite necessary to change some of the business process. It helps in implementation. If you are not willing to change any business process you may go for customization. But, customization is costly and not good for any ERP. Little bit customization is ok, but too much customization will affect your ERP project. It will increase your project duration, budget, and increase the risk of implementation failure.

It will be better to change some business process if possible, rather than customizing. When an organization changes their some business processes, change management expert is required. People resist change. Change management expert will guide how to change, and explain the benefits of changes to the employees. ERP system helps in changing the process; it is designed and developed by adopting best practices of specific industries.

Internal Change Management: An ERP implementation entails changes in business processes and reporting structure. Addressing this paradigm move is a process that the organization has to go through. This will help in achieving the acceptability of the ERP users.

Change Management Drivers:

Employees: Employees are the key players in any ERP implementation. The employees of the organization will be in the capacity of process owners, software users and administrators of the ERP software. The main challenge of an ERP implementation is to achieve the acceptability of the system to the employees and for them to perceive the benefits to the organization and to their way of working.

Process: One of the returns on investment (ROI) is adopting business best practices by virtue of an ERP system. Little change in the business process will reduce the chance of implementation failure. Minimum or no customization is very good for any ERP implementation. These processes impact the effectiveness levels to be attained by the organization.

Technology: Implementation of ERP system automatically entails adopting technology that will address easy scalability, eradication of distance and upgradeability to latest technologies.

Organization Commitment: ERP system has to be viewed as a process enabler rather than a software package to be installed and run. The implementation process is a journey towards achieving organizational effectiveness. This demands a very strong commitment of the top management throughout the entire process.

Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Read information on ERP Implementation Strategy and fundamentals of ERP. Know more on SAP Business One Implementation. Also know How to Select ERP Software and other ERP fundamentals.

Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Challenges of an ERP Implementation in SME Segment

ERP implementation is always a tough job for the organizations. To get successful implementation organizations need to be very careful. When SMEs think about ERP implementation, they identify the need of an ERP system. They prepare pre-implementation strategy for enterprise software. This strategy involves identification of business needs, budgeting for the procurement of ERP software and services, evaluation of various ERP software to suite its business process. After finalizing the enterprise software they start the implementation and finally adopt the ERP system as an organization wide solution. The major challenges of an ERP implementation for an organization are:

Selection of ERP software:

This is a very critical decision that an organization needs to take. However it is vital to consider the size of the business operations, the projected growth in the years to come, geographical spread, nature of business and investment figures as key factors in determining the selection of ERP software.

The key considerations evaluation and selection of ERP Software are scalability, vendor management, functionality, reliable service and support. ERP systems are designed to grow with the organization. Unlike some stand-alone systems, they do not succumb to volume and change pressures, leaving you to start from scratch. Managing excess of vendors for customer service is not easy. An integrated ERP system gives you one solution supplier to work with. Organization needs to access the software functionality which is necessary to run the business over time at an affordable cost. It may not be cost effective choice at first, but it will usually be the most cost effective and economical in the long run as your business needs grow and change. It gives better ROI. Reliable service and support at affordable cost is critical. It is easier to support an integrated ERP system environment than a mixture of different stand alone applications.

Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.

Read information on ERP Implementation Strategy and fundamentals of ERP. Know more on SAP Business One Implementation. Also know How to Select ERP Software and other ERP fundamentals.