Common issues in implementing ERP systems:
1. Resistance / Subtle resistance.
Subtle resistance means that someone will claim he or she is interesting in the project and willing to do his best on it, while behind the sense trying to ruin it, in his mind he will lose power and even his job if this system works.
You can recognize subtle resistance when you ask this person for any commitment like a meeting, or data to be provided .. etc.
You will find him very busy when you ask him for anything related to the project.
2 . Lack of reward systems and KPIs.
One of the powerful tools in implementing ERP systems is KPIs. it will put both organization and employees in a win win situation. once the achievement is linked to promotion and grades it will be a great motivation for everyone to but enough effort on the project.missing of KPIs and reward system will set employees on inactive mode, they will have to double their efforts and working additional hours with no returns back.
3 – Not involving stockholders on choosing new system.
While choosing your ERP system, it is very important to make it a business decision, department managers should be a part of the process. in all they are the end users and they will compare their requirements and daily operations with what demonstrated in demos.Otherwise you will find them claim the new system is not fit with their operations when it is too late.
4 – Short time project plan.
Usually the average time for most of the ERP systems is 12 months, when you try to force your partner to speed up the process, you will put your project on height risk.
employees will find themselves in a situation when they have a deadlines for some operational tasks and a project commitment deadline.
Example: A An accountant who works on financial statements, closing month and a very important meeting for ERP implantation at the same time will find himself discarding or even asked to drop the implementation meeting.Example B: HR working on salaries, they should close the task on hand ASAP, while being asked to test the new configuration on ERP system. what you think they will do.Yes, stuff salary is more important for him.
5 – Lack of experience for ERP consultants.
ERP consultant mistake can be a height risk, when this happens, you will lose time and cost or maybe having issues on your system for its lifetime. To avoid this, be sure that consultants have implemented the same application many times before assigning him on your project.Be sure that you will be able to change him if you feal he is not the correct recourse for the task.
6 – CFO not interesting in the Project.
If your CFO is not interesting in implementation and has doubts, this will be a height indication that your project is going to fail. the reason behind that is finance department is the cornerstone for implementation, they supposed to put enough effort and manage their time to commit for tasks, When CFO is not setting a height priority, your project most likely to be stuck, and your will not be able to move forward.
7 – Not enough testing .
Errors and incorrect configurations is expected to occurs, because of that, users should test their workflows and process in order to be sure it is matched with their requirements and operations, otherwise they will get it on the production and losing vital time on fixing it.
8 – Working parallel for too long.
Working parallel for too long can make employees exhausted and confused, by time they will not be able to define which system is the master, in addition they will need to spend more time on the task on hand.
9 – Giving up when facing new errors.
It is important to understand that errors and system issues are normal at the earlier phases of going live,
under pressure of deadlines, user may give up and going back to old application or even work manual in order to complete the task on hand ,
When this happens, simply they will blame the new system, pushing management to drop it.
it is very important to work on fixing new system issues and get everybody to understand that solving it may take some time.
10 – Data migration corruption.
if you have incorrect balances in your records while going live, most likely it will be accumulated incorrect by the time. In most cases you will not be able to correct it, if you don’t figure it out earlier before running your operations.
So don’t neglect reviewing all historical data and opening balance by the first day, otherwise you will need to repeat all configurations and implementation again.
11 – Lack of trainings.
When user is not trained enough on system, mistakes will expected to happen, and the new ERP system will be blamed.
To avoid interruption on operations be sure that user is attending trainings sessions, and try all his process on test environments before going live.
Read More:
https://www.youtube.com/@ERPScope/featured
https://erpscope365.blogspot.com/
