We are so sorry for not posting last week that we will
provide the next 3 steps into this week’s installment. First we will discuss Blueprinting and how this action will benefit you in keeping
project costs down. Second is the Holistic, Enterprise-Wide Impact and
how it affects the entire value chain of the company. Third is Testing. This is a required step to determine any
problems prior to implementing the system company-wide.
5. Blueprinting
Without it: While the product was
selected for its close fit with the company’s goals, no ERP software is ready
to go out of the box.
With it: ERP system implementations are
all about business processes and the blueprint is all about how you design and
configure the systems to support the processes across all aspects of the
company. Lean and Six-Sigma tools and techniques will give you an opportunity
to find out where value is created and how to streamline your business
processes.
During your
blueprinting you need to think about innovative yet pragmatic ways to transform
your processes. Also consider how much
your business can practically tackle at one time. It is wiser to change in
phases than to take on too much too quickly. In the end, a well-defined blueprint
can help differentiate you from your competition through enhanced work flow efficiency and increased customer satisfaction. While customization is a natural part of
this process, keep it to a minimum. Limiting customization helps contain
implementation costs and keep the project timeline under control. This can also impact
ongoing maintenance and utilization costs long term.
6. Holistic, Enterprise-Wide Impact
What it Means: ERP systems have
influence across the entire value chain of the company. For the company to run
well as a whole enterprise, the individual pieces must work efficiently and
integrate seamlessly.
Why it Matters: These implementations
have wide-ranging impact and definitely affect everyone within the
organization, as well as your suppliers and external customers. It is important
to understand how the transactions upstream affect the transactions and results
downstream. As we mentioned earlier, getting all the stakeholders involved
early in the process is important. You need cross-functional buy-in to ensure
that everyone understands their role and commitment in the process. Their input
at the beginning will save time and money in the long run.
7. Testing
Why it matters: Testing of the system
before it goes live is a must. It allows you to address any problems and
evaluate the training required for a smooth company-wide transition.
Where to start:
- Prepare for the testing phase by identifying all business scenarios.
- Follow rigor of unit testing, integration testing, user-acceptance testing, and regression testing.
- Create test scripts.
- Maintain a master file to keep thorough records of what works and what does not.
- Set up a plan to manage the gaps.
- Use data in testing that will match closely with what data you will have in production.
- Don’t just test normal data scenarios but test bad data scenarios as well.
Testing
should be done first by the implementation team and then by the end users. For
the end users, testing should be done according to their roles and security
permissions. Once everyone signs-off on
the tests, then the system environment is ready for prime-time.
Next Week: #8 Data Accuracy
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