It is true that ERP implementation take years together to complete but there are reasons behind this long process. There are lots of activities involved in the implementation process. The timeframe of the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning application varies from company to company and the industry to industry.
Sometimes, it depends on the business process of the customer. The more complex the business process, the more time it will take. We just cannot put any time bound for the ERP Implementation. But it is good if the implementation gets completed within six months for medium scale companies and within one year for large scale companies.
The sales cycle of the Enterprise Resource Planning itself is so long. Business owners take much time in evaluating the vendors and hiring a consultant to evaluate the vendor credentials and all. If we see the step by step working process of the ERP implementation, you can come to a conclusion that six months would be sufficient to implement an ERP if everything goes perfect. ERP implementation is not so easy process when it comes to the real life experience. Everybody involved in the evaluation process and implementation process should be very careful because it will change the fate of the business. If anything goes wrong in the midway, it will affect entire business process and productivity of the company.
It is not an unknown or purpose less software installation which can be over just with in a period of time. It is a serious analysis of business flow and makes the application fit into the requirement. There would be no application available of some industries whose business process is so unique. This is where the ERP customization comes into picture. Customization is something where you alter the readymade application to fit into the actual requirements of the customer. The customization needs some time because there would be some coding work done by the technical consultants.
If you keep all these things in mind, it is pretty clear that six months can be the best timeframe to finish the Enterprise Resource Planning implementation. Most of the implementations go years together because of the improper coordination between the core teams from the both sides. There would be a lot of paper work involved in the implementation process. Functional consultants meticulously go through each and every process and note it down for the thorough analysis to solve the problems. If it is the major ERP implementation, it is heights of paper work and meticulous scrutiny of the process which makes the implementation time elapsed. In this type of large installation, vendors will keep a team of functional consultants to look after the implementation process.
So, we cannot keep any time frame to complete the ERP implementation process but ideally, around six months would be sufficient for smaller Enterprise Resource Planning implementation and one to one and a half year for large scale Implementations. There are many implementations failed because the top management was intended to complete the project very quickly.
