Successful ERP Implementation the First Time

have spent fortunes on ERP software and implementation only to find that business performance has not improved at all. These large investments and negative ROIs have created a whirlpool of controversy, rampant company politics and even a number of lawsuits. The trade press has reported many negative ERP stories, and even annual reports have pointed the finger at ERP for lower-than-expected earnings. For some, this has created a higher level of fear about making a big ERP mistake. Much of the time, ERP software vendors are the targets for blame when anticipated results do not materialize. Are the ERP vendors that sold the software the real culprits for the lack of business performance improvement? The answer is, not very often. Certainly, it can often be argued that ERP system logic is sometimes illogical, functionality is missing, functions perform poorly and so on. But accountability for ERP software selection and implementation usually lies to varying degrees with internal personnel and often with external consultants. Selecting and implementing a new ERP system, and the process changes that go with it, is unquestionably a complex undertaking. Regardless of your size and perceived resources, an ERP implementation is not something that should be approached without a great deal of careful planning. Among companies that have been through a less-than-fully successful ERP implementation, five reasons for poor results show up consistently: • Operating strategy did not drive business process design and deployment. • The implementation took much longer than expected. • Pre-implementation preparation activities were done poorly, if at all. • People were not well-prepared to accept and operate with the new system. • The cost to implement was much greater than anticipated. How can we avoid some of these costly mistakes? Here are some guidelines to help you with ERP success. (Rather than repeat a discussion here of pre-implementation preparation activities, please refer back to my column in the September 1998 issue of Midrange ERP [“There Is No Magic in ERP Software: It’s in Preparation of the Process and People,” p. 8]).