Companies change their enterprise system approximately every ten years. That means at any time 10% of businesses are changing their business system – whether it is ERP, CRM, BI, or other applications. Yet approximately 90% of enterprise system implementations are late or over budget (M. Martin, ‘An ERP Strategy’, Fortune Magazine). Why is this? Similar to births, weddings, and funerals, it is a task that is undertaken very infrequently and consists of an internal team that has expertise in your business… but not necessarily in enterprise system implementations.

How to Improve Success

The ideal plan would be to have someone on your team that implements enterprise systems frequently, and is also focused on the success of the project from the client perspective rather than the vendor perspective. The level of involvement would vary depending on the complexity and risk factors of the project.

 What We Provide

Success ERP project managers work with your internal team to set budget, scope, and timeline parameters that are feasible and visible. We also coordinate with the vendor’s implementation team to establish and maintain clear communication of progress and risk. Our experience in these projects also results in risks being successfully addressed before getting to a critical condition.

Bottom Line To You

Your organization will have visibility of project budget, scope, timeline and risk. We have found that full visibility combined with upper management support make projects run in an uneventful fashion… which saves you money, keeps morale higher, and improves your team’s performance.

 

Next Steps

  • Determine your own internal project management resources (different from implementation resources) and whether you can pull them into the new project on top of their current responsibilities
  • Set up a communication and monitoring plan with all project team members. Elements will include regular communication, escalation procedures, risk management, and accountability.
  • Confirm you have buy-in from an executive sponsor.

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