Common ERP Mistakes and How to Avoid Making Them

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are huge investments of money, resources and time. And while a successful ERP implementation can help your organisation streamline workflow and cut costs, a poorly planned and implemented ERP can severely cost organizations, in terms of lost productivity and delays. To help ensure your ERP implementation is a success, productivity and delays.

productivity and delays. To help ensure your ERP implementation is a success, or at least to minimize potential problems we have come up with some commonly cited ERP mistakes and their fixes.

Inadequate planning – Planning is absolutely necessary if you want your ERP project to succeed. Many organizations do not do enough forthright planning before they begin an ERP software evaluation which often leads to confusion because they might not fully understand their current processes and how to develop them to maximize business benefits and efficiencies. To solve this problem, organizations should conduct an internal assessment of all of their processes and policies before choosing an ERP system.

Not understanding or using key features. Without knowing features, companies miss opportunities to automate business processes, complete functions faster, and meet business objectives. To solve this problem, create a ist with all features, tracking usage, and occasionally reviewing the list to determine which features are being used and which are the most helpful. This knowledge catalog can be used to train new employees, write test scripts, and help with review, compliance, and reporting requirements.

Underestimating the time and resources required. All companies underestimate the time and resources required to implement a new ERP system. So how can you calculate the necessary time involved? The time involved can be estimated by dividing the cost of the software by 100. Double that number if you plan to self-implement with minimal professional assistance. It is important to assign a dedicated project manager.

Not having the right people on the team from the start. Sometimes, organizations do not bring the right people together from the very start of an ERP implementation. ERP implementation is one of the biggest projects an organization can undertake, and consequently, mistakes can be made and plans might get out tracked if the right stakeholders are not involved in every part of the decision-making process. For example, many organizations focus on getting executive approval, instead of gathering key participants from across the organization, from finance, operations, manufacturing, purchasing, and the warehouse, in addition to IT. The benefit: employees who are actively engaged with the ERP implementation, who have an investment in getting it right, right from the start.

Contributor - Vineet