Realizing the benefits from your ERP Implementation

The process of realizing benefits from your ERP implementation starts right back at the start of the process - when you are preparing to select the correct ERP system for your organization's needs.

When you are deciding which ERP system to select, you need to understand as a first step what pain points you are attempting to address with the new system. This can be broken into two key areas;

Where is your current system failing to support the business? This can often be found where tools such as Excel are being used to handle functions that your existing system can't handle.
What new areas do you see where a new system will need to support the business? These could be acquisition of new divisions, introduction of new products, changes to how the business is structured

There are many examples of benefits coming from ERP, and thse requirements often include areas such as;

Reducing operating costs - through better management of procurement functionality.
Access to faster and better financial data. No waiting for reports to be run and provided by IT.
Higher user productivity, through easy to use interface, faster access to information, and reduced reliance on tools like Excel.
Better management of Inventory - through better functionality for transacting and counting stock
Better access and security of corporate data.

Once you have documented and prioritized these areas, these areas can then be incorporated into your overall requirements list to take forward into a review of the shortlisted ERP systems being considered.

During the system evaluation, you can determine which of the shortlisted ERP systems provides a solution for these requirements. You should be ensuring at this stage that all of the prioritized requirements are being handled by the proposed ERP solution.

Once you have a good view of what benefits you are trying to get out of the new system, you will then be in a position to monitor through the course of the implementation whether these requirements are being properly addressed. This is particularly pertinent during the User Acceptance Testing phase where you can run tests and simulations to check how these areas are being handled by the new system. You should in fact include specific tests in your overall test plans to check on these specific aspects of the system.

Once you have followed this overall approach, there should be no surprises at the end of the project in relation to whether the ERP system is meeting expectations and providing the benefits outlined at the start of the project.