Top 8 ERP implementation best practices
Implementing an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system is a colossal task. If done right, it is extremely beneficial. If done poorly, it could hurt you business dramatically. For a successful implementation, business professionals need to learn how to reduce and prepare for risks and failures. Tony Kontzer, a California-based freelance journalist at TechTarget, shared an article highlighting 8 ERP implementation best practices companies should consider when deploying their new system.
- Define business goals first. “Companies should start by getting clear on desired key performance indicators and doing the strategic planning needed to align the effort with what the company does.”
- Address data quality. “The ERP implementation process presents an ideal opportunity to get the entire organization’s data in order. Getting a handle on the issue has become even more important during the emerging era of cloud ERP and AI-driven analytics, with data typically being pulled seemingly from everywhere.”
- Get clear on your staffing strengths and weaknesses. “This is a general IT rule of thumb, but it’s especially important for ERP deployments. ERP touches every part of a company, affects nearly every process, records every transaction and spits out insights. If an organization wants to get it right, having the right people can make a huge difference.”
- Find a trusted implementation partner. “The search for a good implementation partner can be tough, but it’s well worth the effort.”
- Create a good implementation methodology. “Implementation methodologies will make or break the success of an ERP rollout. A good ERP deployment requires defining business requirements through documentation.”
- Focus on communication. “Regardless of whether a deployment is on premises or in the cloud, employees need to know how the software changes their jobs and then be trained on those new tools. This can go a long way toward determining how effectively users adopt a new system.”
- Embrace the little failures along the way. “Little failures will undoubtedly happen during the course of a deployment. How an organization responds to them will help to determine how effective the new ERP system ultimately becomes.”
- Know when to wait. “Business processes have become so complicated, and the average company has so many more applications and systems it’s relying on, that the post-deployment stages of integrating processes and bringing people up to speed have lengthened. Sometimes, companies would be better served by resisting the urge to implement a new ERP system now when now may be too soon.”
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