When your business is ready to implement new ERP & Financial Systems there are lots of things that you can do to ensure success. We’ve boiled it down to some best practices that you should always be aware of.

 

Getting Ready:

  1. If you don’t know where you are going, then any route will do. Clearly define the reason why you are implementing the ERP – what are the objectives / what will you be able to do better?
  2. Communicate to all the user community so there are no surprises
  3. Make sure that the whole team can see the vision and advantages the implementation will bring. Keep that enthusiasm alive
  4. Document and communicate the scope – and try to stick to it; defer extras to a second phase
  5. Do a thorough selection exercise to ensure that the product actually does what you need

Setting out:

  1. Hire an expert implementation team who know the product well, have business expertise and who fit with your culture
  2. Stay in the same boat – make sure the senior sponsors and users all agree with the objectives and the timeline
  3. Avoid a ‘Big Bang’; identify phases with clear deliverables and tangible results
  4. Create a clear and visible task plan – and be prepared to flex it
  5. Assign a respected internal senior person to be the responsible focal point
  6. Make sure you can afford it – scrimping on the test environment and training will come back to haunt you

Staying on track:

  1. Give it attention – make sure that the in-house experts, especially the business process leaders, have enough time to participate. Back fill the resource if you have to
  2. Formally review progress every week without fail
  3. On day 1, start analysing your data to be transferred; it is not too soon
  4. Recognise that your existing data will have many errors and a big clean-up is inevitable
  5. A new ERP / finance system is a great opportunity to review your Chart of Accounts and financial segments; make the most of it to get business information that adds value
  6. Don’t go overboard loading historical data; summaries and period end balances will normally be adequate
  7. Encourage your inhouse team to dive under the hood – start to learn the details about how it works

A good ERP implementation requires planning and collaboration. If you follow these best practices your implementation will be easy and successful!