Guidelines for an Effective ERP Implementation

Companies today face tougher competition in the market place in optimizing the resources availability, improving profitability and satisfying customers. Hence, many organizations have realized the importance of implementing an ERP Solution. ERP implementation reduces the complexity and implements new strategy which helps to support the overall growth of the company.
However, an ERP implementation has several aspects to be considered and if not executed properly, it may lead to a business disaster rather than an advantage. Hence choosing an ERP solution that meets your specific business requirements will enable you to have a smoother implementation. As you take on the task of choosing a right ERP, there are four guidelines to be considered.

1. Project Alignment & Changes Management
Most of the project problems arise because of the misalignments between the goals, expectation and reality. The executive team should have a perfect alignment, timeline, budget, overall scope of the project and commitment throughout the project,. The Team leaders and members should be well versed in the ERP technology to provide guidance and should know to prepare the change management to make the team more productive. A good change management relies on, effectively communicating the value of changes to everyone in the organization.

2. Understanding the Business Processes
Process followed in the organizations should be mapped to focus on, what you do, what can be easily done and what are the changes to improve the processes. Team members should analyze the business process, and during team discussions, the following queries to be considered. Are your procedures up to date? Are there processes that could be automated? Etc. With the more understanding of the current state, you can plan better to reach the desired state.

3. Vertical industry focus
There may be different verticals and strategies followed in an industry and there may be variations between the processes followed. All these verticals should be addressed and the vendors should provide the right solution meeting specific needs of the business processes. This may avoid deadlines and delayed implementation of the processes.

4. Vendor Partnership
Now it is a time to arrive a final decision for successful ERP implementation. It is very essential to establish a close relationship with ERP vendors who understand your business processes. ERP Vendor and the organization should work together and communicate well to make ERP implementation, a successful one.