Depending on the size, the complexity of business processes of a company, the degree of maturation with ERP system, an ERP project should have different objectives, and should be covering different functions, at different degrees.
Before starting with a project, it is therefore very important to identify the functional scope that the project should cover.
One the main error made during the implementation of an ERP solution is to under-estimate this scoping phase.
Before going on buying an ERP solution one should really ask, what scope should this system cover?
By looking deep at the scope of the future solution, we will be able to see what processes are eligible and enough enhanced and mature to be able to be supported by an ERP system. The ERP processes should be able to be implemented without big changes of the business processes as well as the human resources way of working. I will say that the changes needed to be done on the business processes should be based on a good BPR that will allow the processes to be more efficient and to match industry best practice, even before we implement the ERP.
It is also very important not to develop specific functionalities around the ERP. If we choose an ERP it is mainly because we made a “Buy against Make” choice, so better to stick as far as possible to this simple concept.
The first move should be then to identify what processes can be moved toward more efficiency by getting closer to or even matching best practices.
In that way, good ERP system, like SAP, can help an enterprise to compare their business processes with the best practices that are the basis of the standard functionalities of the ERP. Doing this work will enable an enterprise to evaluate what will be the effort needed to reach the level efficiency of a business process best practice. The effort must be seen taking into account all the factors that constitute a business process. So we should also look at the change management aspect of the process change.
So a step by step implementation is one of the key to move a company toward efficient business processes and therefore more efficient organization. It is important not to try to get the all package if the business processes and people are not ready to use it properly.
That is why a good scoping before going to an implementation is one of the key of the success of the implementation of an ERP system.
The scoping must be coupled with a good strategy based on how we can go from where we are to an organization completely based on best practices. Reaching the best will allow you to go beyond the best.
An ERP project is not only the implementation of an IT tool; this is part of a bigger strategy that should lead a company to the best of its market. Best because of its processes, tools, methods and people.
