People don’t often welcome change, especially when it comes to their jobs. In fact one study showed that resistance to change ranked fourth on a survey of self-identified career limiting habits. However anyone who has been in the business world for even a short amount of time understands that change is necessary; but you had better have a good reason and a clear vision for how that change is going to affect things.
This is especially true when it comes to implementing a new ERP solution. Without a clear vision for this new software application your implementation runs a high risk of failure because you will:
- Not be able to set measurable goals
- Not be able to identify which processes might be improved
- Not know which modules or add-ons may be required
- Not gain support or buy-in from management or your fellow employees
Setting your vision
The vision, or scope, of your ERP project should stem from problems you have with current processes and workflows within your company. For example, if your sales people do not have easy access to information regarding current inventory, they can’t answer questions from their customers when they are ready to place an order. The goal of an ERP solution in this very basic scenario would be to give sales a clearer picture regarding your company’s current stock and information as to when products that are out of stock will be replenished. By identifying areas where your business needs to improve, you can start building out a clear vision for how you see your ERP project solving these problems.
Identifying the blockers
Unfortunately, it is often difficult for a business to identify the areas where processes and workflows can be improved upon. Often times, the mentality of, “that’s just how things are done around here,” can pollute this step. Another common problem to this is that it is often hard to look within your own company to seek out things you may be inefficient at doing. Finally, you may just not know any other way of doing things.
This is where the right consultants can be one of the biggest assets to your implementation project. By providing you with an outside look at how your business does things, they will be in a better position to help you identify areas where you can improve on processes and workflows that are not working for you. Consultants with the right background have the experience to show you best practices and help guide the development of your vision for this project.
If you do a bit of research into failed ERP implementations, you will see that a lack of vision is often a prime reason why things didn’t go smoothly. If you talk to people who have suffered through a failed project, you will likely hear that one of the mistakes they made was trying to do things on their own without help from an expert. When it comes time to start planning for your ERP implementation put the right team together so you can set a clear vision of your project from the very beginning.
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