Six Tips for Creating an ERP Communications Plan
Suppose you’ve been tasked with creating a communications plan to educate and communicate a digital initiative to users across your organization. Who do you target, what do you say, where do you start? As the importance of an effective Organizational Change Management (OCM) strategy has finally become better understood, more and more companies are beginning […]
Is My Company’s ERP Data Safe in the Cloud?
I recently proposed this question to Daryl Crockett, well known for her role specializing in data cleansing and data security. As in much of consulting, the answer often “depends” on many variables. Let’s start the discussion by using the Equifax situation as a glaring and public example of a high-profile cybersecurity breach. Sure, they stored […]
Is Big ERP Dead?
The big, integrated, traditional, and monolithic ERP systems are good for some, but not all. ERP vendors will typically push the big integrated systems like SAP S/4HANA, Oracle ERP Cloud, Microsoft Dynamics, and other leading ERP systems. Best of breed providers, on the other hand, will push their more siloed technology model. Salesforce, Workday, and […]
Project Governance: The Guardrails for Your ERP or HCM Implementation
ERP failures and pitfalls are not due to chance. Like a car that runs off the roadway, common challenges result from not having the proper guardrails in place. Organizations and teams often think that hiring a strong project manager or one of the big ERP systems integrators will be enough to prevent some of the […]
To Change or Not to Change: The Decision to Stay on the Green Screen
For the younger folks reading, this is a serious question. The metrics range in estimation, but there is an estimated 100,000 companies still running iSeries or AS/400 platforms. We get calls nearly every day from executives and IT managers questioning if it’s time to move from their legacy systems to one of the top-ranked ERP […]
How to Estimate ERP and HCM Implementation Time
ERP and HCM implementations often take longer than expected. In fact, this happens more often than most in the industry would like to admit. The fact of the matter is that change is hard, and the difficulty of change involved in any ERP or HCM implementation takes time. Forget about cloud solutions, easy-to-use user interfaces, […]
Motivating your CORE ERP Project Team
We have previously discussed the importance of an ERP project CORE team in completing a successful ERP, HCM or other enterprise application implementation. This is the team of individuals at the project level that takes responsibility for ensuring the project plan is carried through, deals with consultants and vendors and funnels critical decisions to the […]
Problems with Organizational Change Management
Traditional change management strategies for ERP and HCM implementations fail more than often than not. Ineffective change strategies too often focus on training, communications, and activities that don’t enable real change. Worse yet, many organizations don’t have an organizational change strategy at all or don’t see the value of this critical activity. This led to […]
Motivating your CORE ERP Project Team
We have previously discussed the importance of a CORE team in completing a successful ERP, HCM or other enterprise application implementation. This is the team of individuals at the project level that takes responsibility for ensuring the project plan is carried through, deals with consultants and vendors and funnels critical decisions to the executive steering […]
Who Is Winning the ERP Implementation Battle: US vs. Europe?
Makes for a good soccer (sorry: futbol) discussion, as well, but today we’re talking about ERP implementations. Who’s leading the race? Where does an ERP implementation have a better chance of success: the US or Europe? To evaluate, we will consider the following factors: Availability of software, availability of resources, adoption of organizational change management […]
Best ERP Executive Steering Committee Ever?
As ERP consultants that help some of the world’s leading organizations through their digital transformations, we have seen the good, the bad, and the ugly among client team members. Some are well prepared and wired for a successful implementation. Others are misaligned and ill-suited to handle a transformation of this magnitude. Most are somewhere in […]
What Causes ERP Implementation Delays?
As Pink Floyd once said: “every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time.” This classic rock lyric is true for ERP implementations as well. ERP implementation delays are one of the most common problems with digital transformations. Your software vendor or systems integrator assures you that you can do it in that […]