Willingness to change can take you to top of the world

Decision making is not an easy exercise. What matters most is not whether you have taken the right decision, but was it on the right time. Taking the right decision at the right time is very important.  Life is filled with decision making time.  Today you may be feeling proud because the decision you took yesterday. You may be thriving to take the right decision today to excel in tomorrow’s world.
As in everyday life, decision making in the corporate meeting also not easy. Companies must take the right decision at the right time not only to excel in their business but also to compete in today’s challenging business environment.

As an ERP consultant, it is becoming our daily routine to witness and be part of this tough exercise, decision-making.

Often customer’s takes considerable time in making a decision to implement ERP system. There are instances in eresource when our sales team had to follow up with the customers for months before finalizing a deal. The reason for delay could be various, likewise, they do not have enough budgets to implement an ERP software or they are not ready with other environment. Whatever may be
the case, it generally takes long time for the sales department to close the ERP deal.

However, what is more strange is when a decision is made everyone is eager to implement it within no time.  It is only the decision making that takes time. Once a decision is made everyone would like to see the decision made is in action.  When it comes to ERP implementation everyone knows that it is also a time consuming process. But the customers, brimming with hope and expectation, wants to have the ERP implemented now or ASAP, with one thought in their mind, streamline process, visibility of information across organization, faster decision making and fast ROI.

Without a doubt, ERP implementation “IS” a challenge. But if carried out with proper planning and proper coordination then the challenges are unseen.   However, without the proper game plan, training and resources, the implementation acceleration could lead to negative outcomes such as unprepared users, change management issues, and a slew of other factors that could increase costs and time
rather than save costs.

Unfortunately, many ERP project team leaders and core team members make decisions that make an already difficult situation close to impossible and set their initiatives up for failure. We’ve seen many of these mistakes time and time again when we’ve helped companies recover their projects and when we’ve provided expert witness and testimony.   In my career of 18 years in IT, I have mainly tried
three implementation strategy.. that is , Big bang Implementation.. In the case of Big bang implementation.   All the users move to the ERP system on a given date.

Second is, phased Rollout. In Phased Rollout implementation method, generally implementation is done module-wise (department wise) with series of Step. And the third is, Parallel adoption. In the case of parallel adoption both the legacy and the new ERP system runs at the same time.

All the three method works best given there are proper preparedness before any implementation. The business requirements and business rules should be properly documented and signed off from stake holders and senior potential users. The implementation with inadequate documentation is an open invitation to failure.

That’s not all. It is equally important to have top management commitment for ERP implementation.  Willingness to change is required and with adequate resource will lead to successful Implementation.

Implementation of ERP also shows your willingness to change. Change is a must and change can lead to success. I have one point to say at this moment — move with change, you have nothing to lose.