Let's Visit The ERP Orphan (Failure!)

“Success has many fathers, failure is an orphan,” is a well-known English proverb.
So let’s visit the orphan: ERP failure.

Not the 15% of ERP projects that are cancelled, but the vast majority who somehow Go Live and limp through a trying Post Go Live period.

Meridian has been there with more than one client, most typically engaged after the Post Go Live problems become overwhelming.

Note that a lot of the initial wailing around Go Live is nothing more than noise—simple, solvable problems like people forgetting passwords.

But the real problems, the bad problems, follow a pattern. 

The “usual suspects” that sink ERP implementations are largely in the area of preparation, or more specifically lack of preparation.  These pitfalls include poorly cleaned data, insufficient training, and insufficient field support (no job aids, even worse no one to turn to for support).

The “hidden killer” of ERP implementations is subtler, though more insidious than a lack of preparation: it’s the failure to manage expectations about the ERP program, or more to the point to make the program a sufficient priority.

Hard data support this point.  Consider the following chart prepared by Meridian Consulting showing a strong correlation between ERP Project Outcomes (column 1) and Expectations Management (column 2).  And note the data in this chart represent over 180 projects (outcomes) and input from over 8,200 people who have implemented ERP (expectations).

Let me be clear: there will be system issues—some things will not work.

But most of your Go Live issues will be related to people, or more specifically your preparation of people and especially their expectations about ERP.  And the solutions are simple.

Make efficient, effective ERP use a management priority.  By the time you’re Going Live it doesn’t matter whether you think ERP is a good idea or not, you’re living with it, so make the best of it.  Allow people time to transition into new, ERP-enabled roles.

Ensure you have a proven process for continually managing and improving the data entered into your ERP system.

Provide training and opportunities to practice, a means for requesting retraining (because some proportion of your people will not go to the right courses the first time), and view training as never-ending (there will be new hires who have to be trained).

Support end-users far longer than you would like, and make sure personnel supporting users have the bandwidth needed to provide effective support.  Make user support an acknowledged, rewarded part of your SuperUsers' or PowerUsers' job profile for nine months to a year Post Go Live.

There is nothing mysterious or particularly difficult in my advice.

The important thing to remember is Post Go Live success is really the result of doing a few things right on behalf of the people who will use the system.