ERP System Implementation Project Planning
ERP implementations fail – when they do – because implementation projects allow a few
well-known risks to go unmanaged. These risks go unmanaged because the control
of results slips from buyer to seller. It doesn’t have to work that way.
Successful ERP implementations are, by seemingly trite definition, simply those that don't
fail; but this isn't trite, because failure is so very common. Failure follows directly from
allowing a few well-known risks to go unmanaged. They go unmanaged because control
of results slips from buyer to seller. The buyers (the user company) are the only people in
the world capable of seeing the new system as a tool
for
running their
particular business. The sellers can’t and don’t think in terms of their client’s business; they
are hired because they think in the technical terms of their product. Control usually passes
from buyer to seller at the very outset, without anyone even noticing, simply because no
one sees a practical alternative. Buyers don't see how they can get and keep control of
results while still getting what they need from providers, and sellers don't see how they can
give up this control while protecting their contractual interests. The loss of control can be
avoided if some basic principles of project management are rigorously applied from the
inception of the acquisition and implementation process, and well before what the seller
calls the implementation project begins.
In the preceding topics we discussed two important themes:
In “ERP System Acquisition & Implementation Viewed as a Single Project” we
discussed how a properly functioning ERP system is a kind of highly selective mirror
of a company’s operations. We discussed what has to happen prior to
implementation if the mirror’s reflection of the company is to be accurate, complete
and apt.
In “ERP System Acquisition Project Planning” we discussed the immense complexity
of ERP software and the correspondingly difficult task implem