What is an ERP System? How to Implement, And How to Address The Challenges?
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are often the backbone of an organisation, and how successfully an ERP integrates into a company’s processes can affect the strategy and rate of success for years to come.
How to Implement the System?
To ensure a successful implementation, the organization needs to carefully define its needs, determine how to redesign processes to take advantage of the system, configure the ERP system to support those processes and test it before deploying it at users’ end.
Define the scope of the implementation, project milestones, customizations needed, process maps, and expected results. Migrate and map data into the new system and performing Confirmation checks.
Train end-users in their specific functional area based on roles and permissions. The “train the trainer” approach is widely used, whereby select users are trained on the system and then act as internal trainers.
Deploy Software into the production environment, often referred to as the ‘go-live’. This will require extra manpower to monitor the process and ensure a smooth transition.
How to Address the Challenges?
Choose the Right Technology For Your Organization -Seek a vendor who understands the intricacies of your business or sector, enabling them to hit the ground running, introduce best practices to help you achieve the return on investment faster.
Get Your People Involved – Develop an internal communication plan to raise awareness and educate employees, stakeholders and customers when necessary.
Train Your People – You can’t roll out a new ERP system without first teaching your people how to use it. Although your vendor can provide training material, it will be based on the standard software.
Costs Involved in Maintenance – After the implementation of ERP in an organization, continuing the system is important for keeping it functioning properly, though it does come at a price. However, if you do not consider the attached upkeep costs before integration, you would end up paying significantly more money down the line.
By investing time and resources in these areas, you can avoid common pitfalls and ensure a trouble-free, more successful implementation that delivers real business value. So once you take your time to plan carefully, choose your vendors wisely and engage your employees throughout the process, your ERP implementation is sure to be a success.
[Contributed by SolutionOne ERP]
