By Tom Jones, Practice Lead, Transformation
More companies are looking to upgrade their enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems to transition to the cloud, support growth, contain costs and improve operational efficiency.
However, while the technology component of an ERP implementation often commands most of the focus, it’s imperative that businesses not forget about two equally important aspects before embarking on their project: process and people.
A successful ERP implementation combines technology upgrades with a thorough documentation and reevaluation of business processes, as well as staff training and support. Only when these three aspects are considered can CFOs leverage this new tool to power business growth and maximise ROI.
Preparing for an ERP Implementation
It’s not uncommon for companies to begin the implementation period without adequate preparation, which can lead to lost time and money and, sometimes, a failed implementation. To prepare for a successful ERP implementation, there are several steps to ensure your existing business processes are in order and your staff feel they have the training and support they need.
Engage Critical Stakeholders Early
ERP implementation projects often have impacts that extend far beyond the immediate implementation team. Given the scope of possible changes to tangential teams, it's important to engage key stakeholders early to create awareness around the project and its objectives. During this outreach, socialising the ways the new system will help streamline processes, build efficiencies and help enhance overall business processes will help build buy-in, momentum and encourage support throughout the implementation.
Document Current Business Processes
Another important ERP implementation step is to begin by documenting all existing business processes. This is a step that’s often rushed through or skipped, but this documentation is crucial for future success.
Documenting business processes gives a more complete view of various workflows. There are several benefits to having these workflows officially documented. Seeing a complete workflow can make it obvious where optimisations are possible. Once the new ERP system is implemented, some processes that were previously manual may be automated. Team leads can review workflows, identify what processes will be automated and then better understand how to distribute remaining tasks.
Having documented businesses processes can also make roles and responsibilities clearer. Perhaps most importantly, it puts less reliance on institutional knowledge, which can easily be lost, especially during times of transition.
Support Your Employees Throughout the Implementation
When considering your people, remember not to underestimate your team’s resistance to change. The implementation period may include a steep learning curve. This could become a barrier to success if employees don’t feel fully supported throughout the process.
To best support your team, first ensure you have the talent you need in place. You want to make sure you’re able to complete the implementation process without overburdening your current team. This may mean adding interim resources to support the workload for both day-to-day activities and to add capacity to handle the additional workload related to project deliverables.
Identifying key people needed for the implementation early gives you time to engage them in value-added activities that can be completed ahead of the official start. This can help build additional momentum once the implementation is underway and ensures that resources — whether current staff or interim resources brought in to support the project — are used effectively.
You should also prioritise providing appropriate learning and development training related to the ERP system. This will drive increased adoption of the technology and allow for leveraging the full capabilities of the system.
Gathering the Right Workforce for an ERP Implementation
For all their benefits, implementing a new ERP system can be a challenging undertaking given the size, scope and often multi-year timeline of these projects. This period will likely add more work to full-time team members who may already be overburdened and lack capacity to take on additional stretch assignments.
In addition to leveraging an implementation partner to guide the organisation through the project plan, organisations should also evaluate the need for interim resources across business units that will be impacted by the implementation. Such interim resources can add critically needed capacity to existing teams and provide valuable expertise that may not already be available in-house. This will serve as a guard against the potential for burn-out and mitigate risk of unexpected attrition.
Lastly, the implementation partner may be limited in scope to what they are required to provide as part of their “go live” deliverables. Typically, this involves a hyper-care phase that includes initial training on the system. Organisations should evaluate the need for additional training beyond the hyper-care phase to ensure the technology is utilised to its full potential and the desired ROI is captured from the technology implementation.
Get Support for People and Process During an ERP Implementation
Aston Carter provides a “talent first” approach to successful finance transformations and organisational change management initiatives. We add value by providing a flexible, on-demand, cost-effective talent solution that focuses on project execution and functional, subject matter expertise that allows our customers the ability to add needed capacity and/or fill talent gaps without relinquishing control and keeping projects on-time and on-budget.
Functional talent includes but is not limited to:
- Program/Project Management
- Business Process Documentation & Optimisation
- Accounting
- Finance
- Data Governance
- Organisational Change Management
- Learning & Development
We have years of successful past performance supporting finance transformation and ERP implementation projects and can offer guidance and best practices regarding workforce needs throughout every step of your implementation journey.
Contact us to find the talent you need to keep your ERP implementation on track.
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