| |
 |
Consultant opinion
How to prepare for IT |
|
Planning and sound analysis accounts for 60-70% of the cost of a good project. If these two are done right it will save a lot of pain - in terms of money and time.
The biggest challenge you will ever face in any IT implementation is the natural fear of change. This issue has been explored in various articles and I can only heartily recommend you to read through them and be prepared for the worst - while expecting the best. The decision to implement a new ERP system, payroll software, a core banking system or any other software to boost the productivity of your enterprise should always come in parallel with analyzing the risks that any choice comprises.
First of all, be aware of the fact that IT does not come in to account for all your inefficient processes. You do not implement IT to optimize processes and make things happen better and faster than they would have happened if you hadn't implemented anything at all. Make sure you set specific and measurable business objectives like why and in which context you are implementing IT. Long-term business strategy and specific objectives (such as expanding abroad, setting up new business units etc) should play a leading role in justifying the effort to implement IT. Take time to plan the time, cost and quality of the project before starting, and correct your inefficient processes in advance of the implementation. Remember that for an IT implementer it is much easier to adapt your processes to his software than the other way around.
Then, think hard about what you are going to do with the people involved. A recent question in a forum asked precisely for this: "I am currently implementing X ERP, and I am lost on how I will transform the team that supports my 20 legacy systems into a team that supports one ERP. What will we encounter as problems, how do you structure the team? What existing roles morph into what roles?" These issues need to be thought of well in advance of the implementation, if you want to avoid massive turnover. Your legacy system staff will be key for data migration, a hot topic I will expand on later. Make sure you do not lose them ahead of time, by setting up compensation packages and by training them into the new roles. The best option is to merge the IT team into a cross-functional service team to assist the implementation consultants. Setting up an IT competence centre should also be helpful in retaining your talents and employing their skills in the new ERP.
Invest in early education and training: both academy courses and self-training are invaluable. Think about training your key users first. They are the ones who know the processes end-to-end and will be able to provide reasonable explanations to the end users later on.
A crucial issue is to identify your data owners. I suggest you do this in the first week after the project kick-off, then pin them down and make them assume responsibility for the data and the processes they are managing. This will be of further help with the data migration and the data objects you will need to identify and transform into ERP system objects. We often had to dig for people who held responsibility in certain areas in our projects. The unpleasant surprise was that they only assumed responsibility after endlse
In further phases of the project, a conference room demonstration is very useful in simulating the way your business will run with the IT system installed. The best tip I can give you here is to set up healthy business scenarios to be acted out in the system and have them explained on process flow by your consultants. The biggest risk here is to spend three days of endless strange screens and drop-down lists and not understand a thing.
There is always a possibility of the vendor not effectively delivering. This means that, without a business representative on your side (shadow project manager) and effective follow-up of the deadlines, your IT implementation could last for at least 50% longer than you had originally planned. As the effects on costs and people are not to be overseen, you might want to consider managing the potential risks associated to your IT supplier and / or implementer.
In no support department does everyone need to be able to do everything. Split the roles up against the way your implementation has been done, do as much knowledge transfer from a functional perspective as you can - and ask Why things have been configured the way they have as opposed to any other option, that alone will bring more information to your support team than anything else.
Bear in mind that you need a test environment for the programmers' use. They will need to test programs, new releases, fix bugs etc. This means an own set of programs and databases. You need a training system with identical settings, processes and parameters to the production system (except when re-training after changes) but separate databases for users, set up to run the conference room pilot able to be re-run at will. Think about ensuring sufficient hardware resources to routinely operate these three environments, and a change management process to move processes functionally from one stage to the next.
Last but not least: if you feel that you can't do this on your own, get outside help. There are many clients who turn to consultants only after landing a failure with their own resources (provided they don't have their own, specially trained implementation team). It should be helpful for you to concentrate on the core processes of the implementation (process improvement, legacy data migration, roles assignment and training) and hire someone to help you with other issues, such as retention, project management office and succession planning.
Dana Timar
Ensight Consultant
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
| |
| LEGAL
BRIEF |
How
is your business affected by the legal instability?
Do you know every legal change? Ensight Team
analyzes all new legal changes in Ensight Legal
Brief.
|
Subscribe
for free now.
|
| |
| RECOMMEND |
| If
you belive that one of your friends or colleagues
might be interested in the information Ensight offers
through this newsletter, recommend it to him/her. |
| Click here. |
| |
| SUBSCRIBE |
| If
you have received this newsletter as a recommendation
from a friend or colleague and you want to subscribe, click
here. |
| |
| WE
CARE |
The
purpose of this newsletter is to bring you relevant
information, from fields such as IT, finance, legal
and management.
Please take
this poll to help us understand better what
is relevant for you. |
| |
| ABOUT
US |
We
are the local leader of the management consulting
market, with a team
of professionals sharing a global perspective
and offering integrated
business solutions.
Independent, non-affiliated, we benefit from the
solid, multi-disciplinary international experience
of our staff. |
| |
|
