Enterprise Resource Planning is the most desired application software across all the industries. Lots of business owners are planning to implement ERP applications in near future. This article briefs you the ERP implementation planning tips and guidelines to the customers.
The foremost thing you need to look at should be the selection of the right ERP application. ERP application evaluation and implementation demands right and suitable knowledge from the customer side.
1. Understanding the necessity of enterprise resource planning application for the business environment.
2. Selection of suitable enterprise resource planning application for the business environment keeping future business needs in mind.
3. Customization of enterprise resource planning application to some extent so that all the pain areas can be addressed
4. Perfect Implementation of the enterprise resource planning application
Above these four areas are very important in the process of implementation. If you are able to plan these areas perfectly, you will get the best ERP implemented in your business environment.
At the outset, try to understand the current business environment of your company. You need to analyze the strong, week and core pain areas in the business environment. Once you understand all these pain areas, you will be in a better position to evaluate the right vendor and probe more about the impending ERP implementation.
The second thing would be the evaluation of ERP application. As you already have the complete information about your business environment, you can just go ahead and speak to the relevant vendors in the market and explain them the pain areas of the live environment. Ensure you have completely elaborated all the issues in the initial meetings with vendors. It is your responsibility to make the vendor understand about your current business environments and your future plans. Call three to four vendors and evaluate all of them. Based on this you will come to a conclusion on the best application for your business environment. Ask for the Proof of Concept so that you will get an opportunity to test the application in your own live environment with your real time data. Then zero in on the best application among them.
Customization is another important step in the ERP implementation. Thoroughly read the GAP analysis document and recommend the vendor to include any other issues you think is not there in the document. Based on the changes you recommended, the application will go to the customization. Ensure the enterprise resource planning application original features are not destroyed in the process of customization. The customization is good to some extent.
Be active in the implementation process. Get the regular update from the functional consultants of the vendor side and core ERP team from your side. Ensure the vendor gets all necessary resources to complete the implementation process on time. Most of the implementations take so much time because of the improper coordination between the core teams of vendor and customer. Ensure there is a smooth flow of information among both the core teams. Once the implementation is done, make your team members trained on the application. Get all the necessary documents from the vendor before sign off.
