The most successful implementation projects have at least a 100% dedicated internal project manager to ensure the project is kept on track, on budget and moving in the right direction.
The key members of the team need to take ownership for the project and to cascade this responsibility down through departments. The ownership is achieved through involvement and ensuring all areas of the business contribute to, and feel a part of the project.
The key members are critical. They have to adopt a positive attitude towards the ERP change, resistance is amplified further down the responsibility chain, and if the ERP "Champions" do not believe it will work, why should anyone else?
The key members must be influential, be able to win over resistance and promote the project within the business.
To enable this they must be respected or in areas of responsibility. Whilst having the knowledge to understand the daily issues and processes they must also be considered enough to make decisions that are based upon the overall good of the business now and in the future.
The key members and the peripheral members of the team form the departmental spearheads for the ERP project and will drive the success of the project. Without the commitment of this team the project has a much higher failure rate.
All staff involved in the ERP project are a resource the business has direct control over. Priorities can be set and goals and milestones achieved. However without the backing at management and board level the project will drift and the team will concentrate on the daily workload and general work responsibilities rather than the requirements of the project.
The software partner will also provide consultants to guide the business through the implementation. This is one of the largest costs of the project and these also should be considered resources and part of the team.
The consultants can be limited to a single project, but this is expensive, and if instead there are consultants planned to be part of the project it is likely that they are assigned to multiple projects, and it cannot be assumed that they will be available at short notice, these requirements must be planned and controlled.
The consultant is also the initial knowledge holder and making them a part of the team to deliver a successful implementation is critical. The consultants should not be treated as an external isolated resource, they should be considered part of the deliverable team and if the buy-in of the consultants to the success of the project can be established along with the buy-in of the staff then the success of the project as a whole is more likely.
Columbus are a Microsoft Dynamics AX partner. In our next article we'll explore the key to user adoption to ensure a successful ERP implementation.
With solid industry know-how, Columbus is a preferred business partner for ambitious companies within the retail, manufacturing and food sectors.
We know how to adapt and implement our proven Microsoft-based solution sets to maximise your efficiency and overall business performance - for immediate impact.
Our key deliverables include truly flexible and future-safe ERP, CRM, BI and related business applications that deliver competitive advantage.
Exceeding 20 years of experience and 6,000 successful business cases, Columbus currently employs over 1,000 dedicated staff working out of 41 offices in 21 countries.
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