El papel de los consultores en la transformación digital
Sam Graham Es indiscutible que las empresas deben hacer, por sí mismas, la mayor parte posible del trabajo que requieren sus proyectos de ERP o de transformación digital (a partir de ahora llamada DT para la brevedad), por varias razones, entre ellas: mantiene los costos bajos, facilita la aceptación de los usuarios porque el sistema […]
Controlling ERP Project Costs
Sam Graham Every year, many ERP implementations fail or at least fail to deliver what was expected of them, but even the ones that are successful very often exceed their initial budget. To make matters worse, the modules of the new system that contribute most to ROI are often towards the end of the implementation […]
How to Decide on a Good Software Selection
Sam Graham Companies have differing software requirements; from CAD to payroll, and from project management to maintenance management. This article focuses on ERP because so many companies use it, but the ideas discussed can just as easily be applied to all those other systems. History and experience tell us that implementing an ERP system successfully […]
ERP and Football – The Importance of a Good Team
Sam Graham Recently, this website published an article that compared NFL teams to ERP systems. That led to a suggestion that an article looking at European football teams might be interesting but that turns out not to be as easy as first thought. First of all, just as not everybody agrees on what ERP is, […]
What is Needed for a Successful ERP Implementation?
Sam Graham A successful ERP project needs leadership, management, and drive but, although those are similar things, they are not the same, and they generally can’t all be delivered by the same person and so they need to be considered separately. Executive Alignment The primary, although by no means the only, function of leadership in […]
Minimizing Risk in ERP and Digital Transformation Projects
Sam Graham Too many ERP and digital transformation projects fail, and fail unnecessarily. Risk comes from different directions, including: consultant selection system selection a misalignment between software and business strategy the company’s own people post go-live requirement changes lack of previous experience Taking these in turn; it is perhaps ironic that, whilst companies hire consultants to […]
Implementing New ERP Software? Hurry, but Don’t Rush!
Blog By Sam Graham One of the hardest things to do during ERP implementation project planning is to establish realistic timescales. There is no formula for this because there are so many factors to consider, including the complexity of the system, the complexity of the organization implementing it, and the level of existing ERP knowledge […]
Digital Transformation: The Art of the Possible?
By Sam Graham Companies tend to fall into two extremes in their digital transformations: there are those who expect far too much from their transformations, and then there are those that expect far too little. There are also those that fall somewhere in between, but it helps to look at both extremes for illustrative purposes. […]
It’s the Final Countdown: Navigating the ERP Software Sales Process
By Sam Graham Here’s a hypothetical scenario. Your company has decided to implement a new ERP system, or perhaps even to target a digital transformation. You have formed a project team, which has clarified and documented requirements and has taken them to market via an ERP RFP (Request for Proposal). The ERP software short-list Having […]
ERP Request for Proposal (RFP): What Do You Want Your New Software to Achieve?
By Sam Graham Perhaps more frequently known as a Request for Proposal (RFP), an Invitation to Tender (ITT) or a Statement of User Requirements (SOUR), a written statement of what a new system is required to deliver is essential to achievement of a successful project but is one of the hardest things to do. The […]
The Importance of ERP Go-Live System Testing
By Sam Graham A standard piece of advice when implementing an ERP system is that it should never go live without exhaustive and comprehensive testing. Even small companies implementing Tier 3 systems, are urged to carry out ‘Conference room pilots’ to ensure that there are no nasty surprises come the big day. But the latest […]
ERP Implementation – Big Bang or Phased?
By Sam Graham If anything positive can be taken from recent ERP disasters (Lidl, National Grid, Waste Management, etc), it is that these failures happened before those systems went live. Compare that with, for example, the Hershey debacle (now frequently used as a case study in how not to implement ERP). It would appear that […]