Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment-Key Element #5

AIT’s Professional Services Group is responsible for managing the implementation of an ERP deployment, making sure the project is properly resourced and executed. Our role with clients really starts during the sales process where we gather information about the company, its requirements, and the unique problems it is trying to solve. We get an idea of the personality and culture of the company. That gives us a great head start to hit the ground running after a contract is signed. AIT has developed a list of the top 10 keys to successful ERP deployment.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment

      1.      Develop a project mission statement

      2.      Get executive team commitment

      3.      Identify and define the scope; map requirements to objectives

      4.      Establish methodology, realistic resources, and timeline

      5.      Identify, designate, and support key personnel

      6.      Prepare your data

      7.      Create a training plan

      8.      Conduct pilots to work out the kinks

      9.      Take steps to ensure things as expected (establish a method to resolve conflict and issues)

     10.  Measure results

Identify, designate, and support key personnel

Who are the key people on the team?  It’s important to designate the proper resource internally to act as the Project Manager whose job is:

·         Track progress and accountability of each of the implementation team member’s assigned tasks to promote on-time completion with their milestones

·         Interface with the implementation partner ensuring transparency and communication on requirements, issues, and risks

·         Make sure all tasks are clearly defined and the team members understand the milestones to accomplish.

·         Ensures overall project is appropriately structured and planned

·         Drives overall project plan and project direction

·         Monitors the progress of all activities to plan

·         Facilitates project meetings and steering committee meetings

·         Raises risks, issues, and project flags to Operations and/or Technical leader as well as to Engagement Managers and Project Sponsors

·         Manages weekly project status reporting to Sponsors

Another critical project team role is the Operations Leader whose role and commitment include:

·         Oversee and monitor all workstream activities daily

·         Provides progress status updates

·         Accountable for on-time completion of their operational area(s) of responsibility

·         Presents to steering committee reviews of operational area

·         Raises risks and addresses issues that will impact the project’s success

·         Promotes collaboration between operational and technical areas

We also encourage clients to designate Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) who know the intricate details of their respective areas current business processes and pain points. These SMEs don’t necessarily have to be managers, they can be employees who have good visibility into processes and are willing to champion the associated best practices transformation.

Change often includes automating previously manual processes, freeing up time to streamline the operation. If these resources are critical for day-to-day functions – plan for alternative coverage. Your company’s leadership team needs to support best practices transformation resulting from these employees’ efforts.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment-Key Element #4

AIT’s Professional Services Group is responsible for managing the implementation of an ERP deployment, making sure the project is properly resourced and executed. Our role with clients really starts during the sales process where we gather information about the company, its requirements, and the unique problems it is trying to solve. We get an idea of the personality and culture of the company. That gives us a great head start to hit the ground running after a contract is signed. AIT has developed a list of the top 10 keys to successful ERP deployment.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment

      1.      Develop a project mission statement

      2.      Get executive team commitment

      3.      Identify and define the scope; map requirements to objectives

      4.      Establish methodology, realistic resources, and timeline

      5.      Identify, designate, and support key personnel

      6.      Prepare your data

      7.      Create a training plan

      8.      Conduct pilots to work out the kinks

      9.      Take steps to ensure things as expected (establish a method to resolve conflict and issues)

     10.  Measure results

 Establish methodology, realistic resources, and timeline 

Before we begin the project, we hold a detailed project planning meeting that may last the better part of a day. Given the timeline, we review the scope realistically. A “go live” date is established, and the schedule is determined based on keeping each of the milestones and the end goal in mind. We ascertain what’s required for training, the appropriate methods of training delivery by audience, and identify needed documentation such as:

·         Standard Operating Procedures

·         End User Quick Reference Guides

·         Process and Transactions Flow Charts

     We collaboratively decide how many pilot testing phases will be required to ensure a thorough and confident roll out; communicate our project methodology to make certain the core team understands how and why we follow the proven approach; and the importance of adhering to it. Straying from the methodology may result in derailing the project, running over budget, people losing motivation and lost momentum.  It is highly advised that our proven methodology be followed with the right resources in the right seats to keep the project on track.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment-Key Element #3

AIT’s Professional Services Group is responsible for managing the implementation of an ERP deployment, making sure the project is properly resourced and executed. Our role with clients really starts during the sales process where we gather information about the company, its requirements, and the unique problems it is trying to solve. We get an idea of the personality and culture of the company. That gives us a great head start to hit the ground running after a contract is signed. AIT has developed a list of the top 10 keys to successful ERP deployment.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment

      1.      Develop a project mission statement

      2.      Get executive team commitment

      3.      Identify and define the scope; map requirements to objectives

      4.      Establish methodology, realistic resources, and timeline

      5.      Identify, designate, and support key personnel

      6.      Prepare your data

      7.      Create a training plan

      8.      Conduct pilots to work out the kinks

      9.      Take steps to ensure things as expected (establish a method to resolve conflict and issues)

     10.  Measure results

   Identify and define the scope; map requirements to objectives

Clients should have a clear understanding of the problems they want to solve. These can be such things as:

·         What adverse conditions will be faced day to day?

·         Are there employees that hold information no one else has or tribal knowledge that puts the company at risk from a cross-training perspective?

·         What are the risks of an incomplete project?

·         What’s in scope – should we consider addressing the project in phases vs. a big bang approach?

·         What’s achievable within the timeline?

·         What are the key requirements vs. nice to have?  

It’s preferable to approach the project in a phased rollout which ensures proper resources are allocated without disruption – focus on the quality of the deliverables. We encourage clients to list the goals for the project:

·         Define what a successful project looks like or would mean to their business.

·         What key measurable results do you expect to see 6-12 months post “go-live.”

By creating objectives and tangible measurements, the project team can gauge progress and ensure long-term success for the life of the project and beyond.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment-Key Element #2

AIT’s Professional Services Group is responsible for managing the implementation of an ERP deployment, making sure the project is properly resourced and executed. Our role with clients really starts during the sales process where we gather information about the company, its requirements, and the unique problems it is trying to solve. We get an idea of the personality and culture of the company. That gives us a great head start to hit the ground running after a contract is signed. AIT has developed a list of the top 10 keys to successful ERP deployment.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment

      1.      Develop a project mission statement

      2.      Get executive team commitment

      3.      Identify and define the scope; map requirements to objectives

      4.      Establish methodology, realistic resources, and timeline

      5.      Identify, designate, and support key personnel

      6.      Prepare your data

      7.      Create a training plan

      8.      Conduct pilots to work out the kinks

      9.      Take steps to ensure things as expected (establish a method to resolve conflict and issues)

     10.  Measure results

      Get executive team commitment

A strong executive presence and active leadership are critical to the success of your ERP project.  Your ERP project will touch every facet of an organization and must be a top-down initiative guided by the project goals and objectives. Defined critical success factors, a well-defined scope, and a hierarchy of escalation to help control the projects hazards and issues. It is imperative that the company’s executive team display an active communication role, so users understand the goals and objectives of the project and know that the leadership is the driver (e.g., streamline processes, cut costs, inventory, get rid of disparate systems, increase profitability) and how the goals relate to corporate strategy.

We recommend our clients form a steering committee of executive team staff who sign up for the following roles and commitments:
     
     ·         Ensure the project objectives are reasonable to meet the overall goals
     ·         Ensure the project is staffed, funded, and has appropriate leadership
     ·         Provide overall strategic direction aligning to organizational goals
     ·         Resolve any escalated issues and monitor external impacts to the project
     ·         Approve scope changes and additional funding requests
     ·         Sign off on key milestones

In a future post, we’ll describe the roles and commitments of key project team members. The executive team and project team must together be the champions of change and continually reinforce the value that the project will bring to the organization.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment-Key Element #1

AIT’s Professional Services Group is responsible for managing the implementation of an ERP deployment, making sure the project is properly resourced and executed. Our role with clients really starts during the sales process where we gather information about the company, its requirements, and the unique problems it is trying to solve. We get an idea of the personality and culture of the company. That gives us a great head start to hit the ground running after a contract is signed. AIT has developed a list of the top 10 keys to successful ERP deployment.

Top 10 Key Elements to a Successful ERP System Deployment

      1.      Develop a project mission statement

      2.      Get executive team commitment

      3.      Identify and define the scope; map requirements to objectives

      4.      Establish methodology, realistic resources, and timeline

      5.      Identify, designate, and support key personnel

      6.      Prepare your data

      7.      Create a training plan

      8.      Conduct pilots to work out the kinks

      9.      Take steps to ensure things as expected (establish a method to resolve conflict and issues)

     10.  Measure results

Develop a project mission statement

When starting a project, we encourage clients to develop a project mission statement for everyone to live by. Embracing and embodying the mission statement throughout the implementation and carrying on after helps to ensure that the company remain committed to the success of the project and realize the long-term objectives of the initiative. We recommend posting the statement prominently around your company. Refer back to it throughout the life of the project.

Here are a few examples from some of our clients that helped guide them and set the tone for the entire implementation:

“Our mission is to create a successful implementation by ensuring that we transfer accurate data, train a skilled workforce, and design a system that is efficient and based upon ease of use. We will work effectively to complete all steps in a timely manner adhering to our timelines and milestones.”

“Our mission is to leverage enterprise resource planning (ERP) technology to gain operational efficiencies and seamless integration across all business functions and processes.”

“Our shared corporate goal is to enable and empower departments to manage their resources more effectively by streamlining workflow and removing obstacles.”

Your mission statement doesn’t have to be incredibly lofty. In fact, the more straightforward and realistic it is, the more easily your employees will adopt it. 

Connect the Top Floor to the Shop Floor

As we tour various plants throughout North America, we discover that unless executives are continually running to the shop-floor – they have difficulty keeping the current pulse of the shop-floor.  Customers are demanding real-time updates while vendors continue to update order and shipment status’.

Executives must have all of this information up-to-date, allowing for immediate decisions to be made. The business will run smoothly when each resource is fully informed of the portion of the business that touches his or her area of responsibility. Customers, investors and frankly, each individual needs to be informed – to make quality decisions at the precise moment when the decision needs to be made. We like to call this “The Moment of Truth” – when your people efficiently and effectively produce products without several one-off questions, that force inefficiency into the process.  

Infor (World’s 3^rd Largest ERP provider) has a multitude of methods, to not only bridge this gap but more importantly, provide the reach necessary, so that Executive Dashboards are providing Real-Time information. 

Check out our website testimonials to see what our customers are saying. And feel free to reach out with questions/comments/requests for further information. We’re here and happy to help!

1-866-248-4240

Challenging Economic Conditions for Manufacturing and Distribution

The exponential success of supply chain giants is causing distributors and manufacturers alike, to evolve their business models to accommodate mixed mode transactions. Mixed mode meaning -the organization must adopt a larger vision of serving their customers’ needs to stay competitive in the marketplace. For example, a manufacturing organization would add services and/or distribution to their offering. This introduces operational challenges – requiring more complexity and flexibility at the same time. Today it’s not uncommon for an organization to receive a wide variety of orders – from traditional bulk retailer orders to orders that may consist of just one item to be picked, packed, and shipped to an individual customer. We are in an age where online transactions are increasingly prevalent. Customers have very high expectations for order timeliness, quality and accuracy – they demand a high-level of accountability and service from providers.

An organization’s vision as it relates to its workflow process is critical to its success in this new global economy. Many enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are one step behind; they’re designed for one vertical (manufacturing vs. distribution vs. service).  Companies are now looking to ERP vendors that have experience in managing this growing business model to help them manage their operation.

Inventory and warehouse management are becoming key performance drivers. Smaller margins and higher costs mean the organization needs to be able to execute more efficiently to match demand. Adding a service offering is a cost-effective way to remain competitive without requiring significant capital investment.

One of AIT Business Services’ (AIT) customers is a leading manufacturer of commercial broilers used by the fast food industry. They’ve grown their business to include an international network of service and distribution partners. We worked with them to upgrade their ERP system to manage manufacturing, distribution, and service operations. Another customer – a leading distributor of home décor products to large national retailers, recently ramped up manufacturing and service call operations. AIT helped them solve the problem of accomplishing high mix, high volume made-to-order manufacturing in what was previously a simple distribution environment.

We recommend that you look for an ERP solution with a workflow and interface that can adapt to mixed modes of value. Companies that transition their operations to compete in this hybrid manufacturing/service-based distribution era have the brightest future.