Change Management For ERP

Forrester Research projects that the global enterprise resource planning (ERP) market will grow to $50.3 billion in 2015.

Change is rarely ever simple.

An ERP transition will be a long, complicated, and often very difficult process.  It is becoming universally recognized that including a qualified Change Management Resource and workstream in the ERP project will enable the company to realize the maximum benefits of an ERP transition with minimal challenges.

The lack of employee buy-in is the biggest problem facing ERP project teams. Change management is the formal process of convincing stakeholders to embrace change via training, making adjustments to business processes and ultimately winning support. After all, ERP projects impact every aspect of a business, from sales and marketing to inventory and merchandising. Companies that neglect to prepare their employees and other stakeholders for these enterprise-wide transformations are likely to encounter resistance.

Effective Change Management

If a transformation strategy fails to include effective change management, this can lead to partial or catastrophic ERP project failure; can result in significant overruns in budget and schedule; and risk delivering poor ERP functionality.

Companies that adopt a formal change management strategy, on the other hand, are six times more likely to execute change initiatives that deliver the required business benefits and results.  Change management requires the proper integration of reengineered business processes and a newly skilled workforce with a new mind set. A focused plan for communication and must be included in the planning and implementation.  Because ERP touches most of an organization’s lines of business, it’s critical that employees receive proper training and the lines of communication must be kept open to identify signs of resistance and gather feedback to drive adoption and of course to measure the return on investment.

But, there’s a fine line between engaging employees across an enterprise and overwhelming them with details.  Trained Change management professionals are best able to strike the delicate balance between sharing knowledge & building consensus and an overload of information & meetings which could lead to increased conflict and problems.

- by Bronwyn Lottering, Business Development Executive