ERP:
The Never-
By Karen Hollinger
P
icture a table filled with soda,
chips and maybe a cake, gag gifts
for the staff members who most
often pulled all-nighters, rousing
speeches by executives, and many staff
members with blood-shot eyes but
relieved smiles on their faces.
Youre at a go-live party for an
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
system and youre the project manager.
Congratulations for meeting this impor-
tant milestone! Although you can
wholeheartedly join in the celebration,
youre aware that this milestone marks
the beginning of a new set of projects.
Youre concerned about gaining the
same level of commitment from staff
and management. A hard sell, indeed.
This article discusses important, yet
often overlooked close-out and post-
implementation tasks that will help ensure
the success of your next set of projects as
well as the entire ERP implementation.
Final Project Documentation
When the archaeologists uncover
your project files 1,000 years from now,
will they have a complete history of
your vendor contracts, issues log, and
planned vs. actual dates on key mile-
stones? More relevant perhaps is:
Have you documented the project in
enough detail to spur recollections
months or years from now, and pre-
vent repeat work?
Have you provided thorough docu-
mentation, explaining why decisions
were made and actions taken in case
of legal or internal political dispute?
Will the next guy or gal in your shoes
have enough real-life information
62
Ending
Journey
and documentation to avoid re-trac-
ing your steps when making changes
to the system?
Can the organization gain knowledge
on lessons learned from your pro-
ject? If so, have you disseminated it?
Closing out final project documenta-
tion is a key step in wrapping up the pro-
ject and the one most often neglected.
Help Desk and On-Site
Support
Understanding key factors about the
users, their culture, and what their knowl-
edge and comfort level are with the new
system will help you determine what type
of support you need to provide. Each
implementation will be slightly different
and you need to be sensitive and respon-
sive to users needs. Consider the case of a
system developed for an organization
where many users had never seen a PC,
much less used one for the job. After
implementing the system and providing an
extensive amount of training, the organiza-
tion staffed up the help desk, flipped the
switch, and waited for the calls to flood in.
But there was barely a trickle. It turned out
that many employees were afraid that call-
ing the help desk was an indication of poor
performance. The company literally had to
walk the floors and individually take users
through the transaction process until they
felt comfortable. Only then did the help
desk calls flood in. But, by then, the com-
pany had released its extra project staff.
What lessons can we learn from this
real-world experience? First, we cannot
ignore the cultural and change manage-
ment implications that need to be con-
sidered with a major system implemen-
tation. The lessons most relevant to this
discussion include:
Provide initial support at the side of
the users when necessary. Document
these interactions just as you would a
help desk call. Repeated hurdles or
areas of confusion indicate where
additional training may be needed.
The peak of help desk requirements
isnt necessarily in the first month.
The project manager will need to
watch call volumes and types of
questions closely. Expect the peak
requirements to hit in months two
through seven. Once the call volume
begins to ebb, then consider releasing
extra staff. However, its important
to set expectations for help desk staff
that special events, such as year-end
close, might require their assistance.
Additional Training
No matter how good your team is, and
how successful the project was, its
inevitable that some team members will
leave you. Prepare for it by developing a
strategy that ensures the long-term suc-
cess of a project. Cross-training is key.
While the implementation is underway,
chances are you wont have the luxury of
cross-training the technical folks. When
its over, you can consider it, assuming
you can siphon the training budget from a
nearly dry well.
Consider, also, the user population and
what you would do if the handful of indi-
viduals trained on a specific module were
to leave simultaneously. You should try to
get users quickly up the initial learning
curve, then consider cross-training them
as well. Also consider the training impli-
eAI Journal July 2001
cations when adding new individuals to a
user department. Will senior users in that
department train the newcomers? How
will you ensure consistency in training on
the system and related policies and proce-
dures? Beware the pitfalls of informal
training. After the third and fourth gener-
ation of hearsay training, things tend to get
a bit jumbled.
Prove Your Case
Increasingly, large budgets require
major-league proof that the investment
will pay off. Before starting the project,
you probably spent time building a busi-
ness case, including an expected return
on investment. After the budget is
approved, its tempting to leave that
business case on a shelf dont. What
if youre asked in one or two years to
track against the previous analysis and
prove your case? It might be difficult to
track down actual costs incurred, so
nows the time to update the business
case with actual costs and determine a
mechanism that captures benefits over
time. Your effort now will pay off later!
Avoiding Staff Letdown
You can increase staff retention by
understanding your employees and their
career goals. For some people, adrenaline
and stress are like caffeine addictive
and required in the daily job. These peo-
ple need the excitement of large-scale
implementations. Others seek the pre-
dictability of going home for dinner after
a normal days work. Both types of indi-
viduals are required. After the implemen-
tation fervor ends, but before things
become routine, spend a few days holding
performance evaluations and career
counseling. Discuss the types of projects
available for your employees and outline
possible career steps available to them.
While some staff will seek opportunities
at another organization, many will appre-
ciate their employers willingness to
invest in their success. Theyll stay
because they have a vision of where they
can apply their skills in the future.
The Monster Lives!
While it may not be fair to compare
Frankenstein with an ERP system, they
do have a few similarities: a switch is
flipped, the head guy is perhaps a bit
crazed by the time the project is com-
pleted, and both need care and tending
to remain operational. Immediately
after a go-live, take the steps listed
eAI Journal July 2001
below to ensure the ongoing success of
your ERP system.
Upgrades
Its already time, whether you want to
hear it or not, to begin planning your
ERP upgrade. It used to be that new
releases were like the seasons pre-
dictable and periodic. No longer. Instead,
there are major releases, minor releases,
and patches that need to be quickly eval-
uated for possible use. Usually, youll
realize that the added functionality in the
latest version could be useful.
Continued Improvements
Remember all those times during the
requirements analysis or system design
phases when the answer to a request was
to be included in the next phase,
desirable, but not mandatory, or not
part of scope. You documented these in
sufficient detail, right? Because tomor-
row is nearly here, and your credibility
on the next project depends on whether
or not you start to prioritize and tackle
those requests for additional functionali-
ty. Spend a few weeks analyzing how the
requests fit together and what new func-
tionality is available or emerging from
related vendors. Based on your conclu-
sions, form a strategy that clearly defines
how and when your organization will add
new functionality.
When you were discussing the need for
this system, the most compelling argu-
ment for you, your team, and your higher-
ups was probably this: ERP would serve
as a base or infrastructure to which other
systems could be appended. Depending
on your company and priorities, those
additional systems could include Supply
Chain Management (SCM), Customer
Relationship Management (CRM), busi-
ness-to-business (B2B) systems, and
more. Smaller, departmental add-on pro-
jects could be just as important. Those
add-ons are the real reason you endured
the late nights, cold pizzas, and even cold-
er glares from spouses.
Consider the case of a company that
just completed the implementation of a
world-class human resources and payroll
system, in addition to other ERP mod-
ules. This large-scale project is simply the
first phase, and everyone knew it from the
start. The next phase adds a third-party,
time-and-attendance solution to the mix.
After that, theyll add employee and man-
agerial self-service functionality across
the enterprise. Finally, theyll add a role-
based portal to the mix. Theyve definite-
ly got their hands full, but no one is com-
plaining. The IT staff, users, and senior
executives see a path thats controlled and
well-planned, with defined, realistic mile-
stones. The plan includes major and
minor projects. IT staff turnover is non-
existent. No one wants to leave when
there are so many exciting projects, using
the latest technologies, on the horizon.
Conclusion
What ultimately makes late nights
worthwhile for staff and managers alike
is a well-planned project with few sur-
prises. A successful ERP implementa-
tion requires careful planning before and
after implementation. If you follow the
steps outlined above, youll be on the
road to ensuring the success of your ERP
implementation and keeping your most
talented, ambitious employees. eAI
About the Author
Karen Hollinger
is a principal con-
sultant with Cedar, a
global consulting
and technology com-
pany. Cedar offers
industry-leading so-
lutions to help organ-
izations maximize the return on their enter-
prise system investments and drive improved
organizational performance. Voice: 410-576-
1515; e-Mail: Karen.Hollinger@cedar.com;
Website: www.cedar.com.
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