Our Methodology: Separate ERP Implementation and Restructuring

An ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) is an integrated management tool with the potential to cover all middle and large companies processes. It drives both internal and external information flows with customer, vendors and all other partners.

Our implementation approach

Too often the implementation of a new ERP is only considered from the IT side. This is never true : the ERP impacts the companies processes and therefore end users daily business.

An ERP project is divided in main phases. Each of these phases will require specific competences:

• Preparation and scoping (business cases and ROI);
• Design with functional business requirements (business rules and specifications);
• Technical realization: customizing and technical adaptations (all non standard or custom developments required to meet legal or business requirements);
• User training and support;
• The system(s) change-over (also known as cut-over).

As each project is unique, following will need to be considered as critical success factors:

• Different implementation strategies:
  • Centralized or decentralized go live;
  • Full or domain by domain, site by site go live;
  • International, multi-country.
• Main organizational/functional/technological risks and corresponding analysis methodology

Project organization will be depending on system implementation goals:

• Definition of project goals by experts, impacts, gaps and risks analysis;
• Management decision making process;
• Stability of goals and management of changes.

And will be structured by the variety of involved teams : business process owners, key users, end users and CIO:

• Cycles (organizational transformations are a long run and more difficult to decide upon and implement);
• Tasks;
• Scope of people involved;
• Required competences.

In order to successfully combine both of theses roadmaps, it is required to separate project management and contracting.

Often ERP management tends to leave difficulties aside and reproduce the as-is situation to warrant the go live date.

Conseils-Plus therefore recommends to proceed in a different manner:

• An approach which is focused on achieving gains whilst carrying out in-depth changes in organization and processes within the company over the long-term;
• An approach focused on ERP whilst controlling costs and project deadlines.

It is therefore advisable to launch the achievement of gains and the design of ERP simultaneously, which requires:

• Precise knowledge of each modification of company processes, enabling vital decisions to be made in order to configure the ERP;
• The implementation of a schedule and a decision making process integrating these vital points, in order to fuel the action plan for ERP design.

The case by case analysis of each transformation project shows that most of the options which have to be taken during a process restructuring of processes are rarely vital for the ERP deployment. The two action plans can thus be managed at once.

The simultaneousness of ERP deployment and restructuring makes it possible, together with other things, to:

• Ensure the deployment of ERP and the achievement of anticipated gains, whilst spreading risk-taking as effectively as possible;
• Allocate efforts in a way which is adapted to the difficulty of the subjects to be dealt with: rely on standard ERP process functionalities for the core basics, carry out more thorough investigations for issues which are specific to the company or for those which are complex in terms of feasibility;
• Choose, for complex problems, a schedule for decisions and realization, without imposing constraints on the ERP schedule;
• Increase project management and contracting responsibility on clear and ambitious challenges.