3 Keys to a Successful ERP Project
Judging whether or not an ERP project is a success can be done in a number of ways, but we believe that includes achievement of business goals, staying within budget on project costs and meeting the “go live” dates. Unfortunately, poor performance leads to increased costs, deadlines past due and not achieving the ROI originally set out.
By taking the proper approach, your project plan can result in ERP project success. This plan should articulate the expected ROI, defined requirements, effort required and recommended solutions. However, research from the Gartner group tells us that only 35% of all Information Technology projects meet the original goals set by the company.
Where and How Do You Achieve Project Success
There are three main steps you need to take to make your ERP project a successful one:
- Have an executive planning meeting to understand the strategy and goals of the project.
- Develop a diagnostic review with the internal stakeholders to define and understand the business drivers for the project.
- Hold a review meeting with the executives and project team to discuss the findings of the diagnostic review.
BroadPoint Technologies has performed over 1,000 implementations. This experience has helped us develop a detailed methodology to make sure our clients do not fall into the 65% that meet project failure.
Executive Planning Meeting
This meeting is crucial to setting and managing expectations for the project. Participants in this meeting should include the CFO, CEO, CIO or CTO and other staff that will be working on the project.
The meeting usually lasts 3-4 hours and the goal is to determine the objectives for the ERP project. A key aspect of this planning session is to not talk about technology until the end of the meeting. The focus should be on discovering the business drivers which will, in turn, bring the business case into clearer view.
Diagnostic Review and Analysis
During this phase of the project, broad business requirements are fleshed out through meetings with internal staff and the person managing the ERP project.
Please note that this is not a discussion of software solutions (that will come later) but rather a thorough analysis of the business drivers and why things are done a certain way. Once these are defined, a further analysis can be done to see how a particular software solution will (or will not) handle the project requirements. Depending on how detailed the requirements are, these meetings can last anywhere from one to five days.
Review Meeting/Discussion of Findings
As the diagnostic review and analysis is finished, a document is created that describes the information gathered during the review process. This document also includes a recommended solution based on the specific issues uncovered during the evaluation process.
This findings document will act as a playbook by making sure the recommendations align with the business drivers and project goals established during the Executive Planning Meeting.
Tested and True Approach
Thoughtful, organized planning is a crucial element in implementing your technology solution successfully. By first engaging the executive team to understand their business drivers and goals, then doing a thorough evaluation of the business processes and requirements, the result is a comprehensive plan with analysis and recommendations. All of these steps play a critical role in ERP project success.
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