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I have spent a lot of my career fixing botched implementations. And I have seen it go perfectly... Write your requirements for the system in plain English bul

I have spent a lot of my career fixing botched implementations. And I have seen it go perfectly... Write your requirements for the system in plain English bullet points. Give this to vendors. Write a plan of what you would like to see on the demo. Btw you want to see the boring stuff, not the colourful charts. Book a whole day. Take a person from purchasing, accounts, sales. Get them to create a sku and a supplier, get them to buy it. Get them to receipt it, get them to show the accountant how that affected the ledgers. Move it sell it, collect the cash etc. Now you know something about whether it will fit and whether you rate the vendor. Could the company afford it costing twice what you planned? If not then maybe ERP is not for you. You need a test system. Allocate a lead person for every department. Let's call them the power user. At key check points the vendor should want you to do testing. Write a test plan for end to end transactions like my demo example. Get your power users to do the test, this gives you buy-in, sign off and critically, job specific user training. Allocate a huge sum of money for user training. Trainers are expensive. Job specific training is the only thing of value. There are often several ways to do something, only train in the one you have chosen. The trainers need to be on-site for all of go-live week. Budget for this. Don't train too early Go standard, don't customise, work the way the ERP wants On a phone but this feels like it would make a blog post!

NicoJuicy 7y ago
I think adjusting to how the ERP package works and not invert it is the most important comment to save money and to make it a success.
- jotakami 7y ago
  Not only for the initial implementation, but also to reduce the gnashing of teeth when it’s time to upgrade
- privateSFacct 7y ago
  And is the hardest thing to do in a big org. My one addition -> focus not on the new things the system will do for you (which is what the bosses are into) but focus on what will change / be lost compared to the system you are using. Oh, we can't edit transactions anymore ever? OUCH. Everyone edits all the time.
  - jimnotgym 7y ago
    I'm going through this right now, taking editing rights off people. So hard when they are used to it! So I will add this tip. Keep your user roles simple. Start with the principle of 'least privilege'. It is so much easier to add access than remove it.
    - privateSFacct 7y ago
      If you can do it separately from any systems conversion you will be much happier. Either before or after. And see if you can keep some of the key minimum editing in or your users will hate you forever. I've heard comments 5 YEARS later about this issue.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    People should not be able to edit transactions. Mistakes should be revised with a separate (correcting) transaction, for auditing and integrity purposes.
    - privateSFacct 7y ago
      And that’s why people won’t like your system, including the auditors
      - gamblor956 7y ago
        ??? I don't think you've worked with ERPs or auditors. This is how Netsuite and Oracle actually work, and the two combined own more than half of the ERP market. The time for editing a transaction is before it gets committed to the ledger. In Netsuite, this is accomplished by requiring (or allowing businesses to set a requirement) for entries to be reviewed and approved before posting. Having the transaction log lets auditors audit the process by which the company generates its financials, and to identify where mistakes were made (if any). It's invaluable to both auditors and their clients, and its saves thousands of man-hours to be able to do this.
        7y ago
- cafard 7y ago
  Years ago I sat through presentations by three or so consulting companies proposing to manage an implementation of Peoplesoft. At the end, I reviewed the notes, and found that all of them essentially said, "We're going to fit your processes in Peoplesoft's way of doing things." The implementation was painful enough even so.
kjs3 7y ago
You want to make an ERP vendor (better: the ERP implementation consultants) sales rep nearly slip into a coma thinking about the giant boat they're going to buy with the commission check? Tell them "we're a special snowflake company with our own magical business processes, and we need you to adapt your software to our business. Because we know more about business than you." You probably don't. And even if you do, adapting your business processes to how the ERP does it will probably make things like inter-operating with other vendors and managing compliance much easier.
danpalmer 7y ago
Thanks for the detailed response, much appreciated, I'll be taking this on to upcoming meetings. > Go standard, don't customise, work the way the ERP wants I've heard this quite a few times now and I think it's going to be critical. I'm keen to push for this as much as I can from our integration side.

NicoJuicy 7y ago

I think adjusting to how the ERP package works and not invert it is the most important comment to save money and to make it a success.

jotakami 7y ago
Not only for the initial implementation, but also to reduce the gnashing of teeth when it’s time to upgrade
privateSFacct 7y ago
And is the hardest thing to do in a big org. My one addition -> focus not on the new things the system will do for you (which is what the bosses are into) but focus on what will change / be lost compared to the system you are using. Oh, we can't edit transactions anymore ever? OUCH. Everyone edits all the time.
- jimnotgym 7y ago
  I'm going through this right now, taking editing rights off people. So hard when they are used to it! So I will add this tip. Keep your user roles simple. Start with the principle of 'least privilege'. It is so much easier to add access than remove it.
  - privateSFacct 7y ago
    If you can do it separately from any systems conversion you will be much happier. Either before or after. And see if you can keep some of the key minimum editing in or your users will hate you forever. I've heard comments 5 YEARS later about this issue.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  People should not be able to edit transactions. Mistakes should be revised with a separate (correcting) transaction, for auditing and integrity purposes.
  - privateSFacct 7y ago
    And that’s why people won’t like your system, including the auditors
    - gamblor956 7y ago
      ??? I don't think you've worked with ERPs or auditors. This is how Netsuite and Oracle actually work, and the two combined own more than half of the ERP market. The time for editing a transaction is before it gets committed to the ledger. In Netsuite, this is accomplished by requiring (or allowing businesses to set a requirement) for entries to be reviewed and approved before posting. Having the transaction log lets auditors audit the process by which the company generates its financials, and to identify where mistakes were made (if any). It's invaluable to both auditors and their clients, and its saves thousands of man-hours to be able to do this.
      - 7y ago
cafard 7y ago
Years ago I sat through presentations by three or so consulting companies proposing to manage an implementation of Peoplesoft. At the end, I reviewed the notes, and found that all of them essentially said, "We're going to fit your processes in Peoplesoft's way of doing things." The implementation was painful enough even so.

kjs3 7y ago

You want to make an ERP vendor (better: the ERP implementation consultants) sales rep nearly slip into a coma thinking about the giant boat they're going to buy with the commission check? Tell them "we're a special snowflake company with our own magical business processes, and we need you to adapt your software to our business. Because we know more about business than you." You probably don't. And even if you do, adapting your business processes to how the ERP does it will probably make things like inter-operating with other vendors and managing compliance much easier.

danpalmer 7y ago

Thanks for the detailed response, much appreciated, I'll be taking this on to upcoming meetings. > Go standard, don't customise, work the way the ERP wants I've heard this quite a few times now and I think it's going to be critical. I'm keen to push for this as much as I can from our integration side.