A ERP/ SAP implementation program is an assortment of many projects within and each of these projects hold the key for a successful ERP/SAP transformation program. Let us see how we handle them.

1. Business Process Improvements

As we make progress in the capability of men and machine, we always find there is a better way of doing a process. We look upto industry peers or get to know how a software like SAP or Oracle suggests better or best practices. It is the responsibility of business process owner to decide if a new or modified process is best suited to the needs of the business. There are many process owners in an organisation and the process improvement areas are identified, business function wise. They are then mapped into the software for fitment. They may have business fits directly or some workarounds are conceived for custom code developments. This is a huge exercise without which a SAP or ERP program is never called a transformation program. This is run as a project with an owner taking the responsibility and working with the consulting team. The gains are enormous for the organisation when they are collectively implemented.

2. Change Management drive

This is the most critical aspect of a business transformation program. The introduction of an ERP across all the business functions of the organisation makes the people to think they would be made redundant and would lose their jobs. Here where the role of a Change Management Champion becomes important. This role works with the business and alleys the fears about their jobs and assures them that they need to align with the software processes that would involve not only changes to how the end users have been doing their jobs but also what process steps they would let go and what they would add to their daily routine, including the possible role changes. The resistance to introduce ERP is slowly removed through constant communication about the larger benefits of the program. A detailed schedule of training is prepared for each process owner and business owner so that they become equipped on how to work on the system and get the best out of it.

3. Data management and migration

In a running business there are many masters such as raw materials, semifinished materials, finished materials, customers, vendors, employees, finance masters, Fixed assets, payment terms are kept as master records. The end users own these masters for their respective business function. The organisation has different names and part nos for the same part as per the user department. Data management exercise removes this duplicity of master records, arranges them with a common name & one part no. Single source of truth for masters helps in reporting and decision making. Data profiling is done to identify the data types, structures as well the quality of data. The rearranged and cleansed master records are then migrated from the existing legacy system to the new ERP system. The bottom line is, only the quality and enriched data that will help the users are migrated to the new system. Data migration is a big exercise in a large organisation as it involves voluminous records that have to be mapped onto the new system with transformation rules. The data migration is done using the right tools that provide accurate results, requiring minimum manual efforts and through automation. Data migration strategy and execution is done under the close supervision of a specialist in the organisation and he works closely with the consulting team.

The above 3 projects – Business Process Improvements, Change Management and Master data Preparation are important from the perspective of pre program preparation and these projects get started even before the actual kick-off of the ERP transformation program. The three champions driving these individual projects need to be a part of the program steering committee. Most of the transformation programs fail when these projects fail.

There are other individual tracks / events like User Testing, Roles & Authorisation, Custom Code Developments, Data Migration, Open Transactions migration, Go Live event preparedness, Go – Live and Go – Live Support, during the ERP implementation project.

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