All entries for Tuesday 15 April 2014

Corporate & Change Strategy for ERP System Implementation

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In addition to some of the very informative comments on the crucial role of project sponsorship, I would like to add that there must be a comprehensive Project and Change Management Plan in place to ensure the successful implementation of an ERP system. Organisational Change is about navigating ‘people issues’ rather than technology; if the buy-in of the end-users of the system is not sought, the project will fail at the very start.

Furthermore, the decision to invest limited capital resources into an ERP system must be underpinned by a clear commercial proposal - that is, the business/commercial value of the initial capital expenditure, and the subsequent cost of maintaining and upgrading it, must contribute to the bottom-line profit of the company.

As rightly pointed out in some of the entries below, senior management or sponsors of the ERP project should link the overarching corporate strategy of the company to the decision to invest in the system. As attractive as an ERP system is to the reputation of any organisation which adopts it, ‘because everyone else is doing it’ is not enough justification to embark on such a huge project. Current studies have shown that the level of success or satisfaction with these systems is still below average (about 32%).

Sandra Okah - Avae : 15 Apr 2014 16:04 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem