What you need to prepare before implementing an ERP

Adopting an ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) system in an organisation is a process that is challenging to carry out, complex, and demands readiness from both the ERP vendor and the organisation that wants to implement it.

For that reason, the preparation steps before implementing an ERP are extremely important.

To make the implementation succeed and meet the objectives the organisation wants, the following preparations should be made before proceeding with the ERP implementation.

1. Analysing the organisation’s needs

In the process of analysing the organisation’s needs, before starting the ERP implementation, the organisation must first survey itself to identify its internal problems, and then determine how it wants to use the ERP to solve them.

For example: problems with the security of staff access to various data, or problems of duplicated work within the organisation that wastes time and resources for no reason, and so on.

2. Setting up a project team

Establishing a team responsible for the ERP implementation is essential.

This team should be made up of members from the various departments that will use the ERP, such as:

Finance, Production, Sales, IT, HR

This gives a diverse range of perspectives from the user groups who will use the ERP, allowing the ERP to respond as fully as possible to how users work. It also helps the ERP implementation proceed smoothly and reduces user resistance to the implementation.

3. Setting the budget

Adopting an ERP requires a fairly large investment, with costs on many fronts such as licence fees, service contract fees, cloud fees, server set-up fees, and staff training fees.

A clear budget should therefore be set within a range the organisation can bear.

This helps the project proceed efficiently and avoids financial problems later on.

4. Choosing an ERP vendor

Choosing an ERP vendor that is trustworthy and a good fit for the organisation is essential, because whether the ERP implementation succeeds or not depends in part on the vendor’s experience as one of the key factors.

The organisation should therefore assess an ERP vendor on its implementation experience, the system’s features, flexibility, the after-sales service offered, and the organisation’s various certifications such as ISO certification, and so on.

This is to be confident that the chosen system can meet the organisation’s needs.

5. Training staff

Training staff to use the ERP is essential to helping them work efficiently.

The organisation should set up a group of Super Users who specialise in using the organisation’s ERP. The Super Users are the group who help fellow staff when they hit basic problems using the ERP.

In addition, the organisation should provide ongoing training so that staff understand the system and can use it to the full.

6. Testing the system

Before putting the ERP into actual use, the system should be tested thoroughly to verify that it works as expected and has no errors.

This testing should include real users so that accurate data is obtained.

Conclusion

Implementing an ERP is an investment that is important to the organisation’s development.

Preparing on the various fronts — needs analysis, setting up the team, setting the budget, and training staff —

these things will help the ERP implementation succeed and respond effectively to the organisation’s needs.