Apr 12, 2016 9:50:44 AM by Amit Wason

ERP implementations gone wrong, and how to avoid the same pitfalls

Business, Microsoft Dynamics NAV

Last week I visited two very different companies but they both shared a common sizeable problem – their new ERP systems just didn’t work how they expected. After listening to their problems and understanding how they worked as a business I realised what they wanted to achieve. It became apparent that their current suppliers had not implemented what the business needed.

After talking to the key people (Finance, Operations, Planning, Procurement, etc.) it was clear that they both just wanted a solid foundation of a system. No bells and whistles, just accurate information they could trust and understand.

Having invested their faith, time and cost into the new systems, they soon found that the data for their production plans, finance reports and VAT returns were not reliable. They completely lost trust in the new systems and reverted to spreadsheets to work out what was going on and to plan operations.

In an attempt to make the system do amazing things, both the suppliers involved had forgotten the four most important rules…

  1. Keep it real – don’t entertain or sell an impossible dream
  2. Keep it simple – don’t try to make a Ferrari when the customer needs a Ford.
  3. Keep it understandable – a system that is blindly trusted is not good when being audited. Management must know where the data comes from and how it is generated.
  4. Keep it manageable – while the business has a dream of software doing everything, this takes time for users to get used to. It is often less risky, more manageable and ultimately quicker to dissect the dream into smaller bite sized deliverables.

During the conversations it was easy to see that both companies had bought into the concept that the solution was going to make their business lives a lot simpler. Unfortunately, one company had been sold a solution which was much too large, complex and costly for them and didn’t match their business needs.  The other company were sold the perfect system; however, it was not set up to work the way they do.

The similarity between these stories is that both companies had been promised the earth by sales people without their real needs and how they operated as a business being understood and considered.  One company was sold a feature that didn’t actually exist for a real life manufacturing scenario. The implementation team clearly did not understand the business of the other company.

It was sad to see two great companies struggling so hard to achieve the basics. It was not their fault, but that of the suppliers.

It is a big decision for any company to make a change and invest in the future of their business. It is increasingly common to see customers that have a huge appetite for automating and streamlining their business and for them to believe the industry half-truth – that their software solves all problems out of the box. I say half –truth as many solutions out there do.

The other half, however, rely on finding a solution provider that actually cares enough to realise you are trying to go places and advise you if going for broke is really suitable or if a phased approach is a more suitable option.

As experienced providers in this industry, we must ensure that not only are we selling you software that meets your requirements but that we are engaging with your managers & teams to ensure that the journey you are about to embark on is one that is not only suitable for your business but also one you are able to take.

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