If you are a small-to-medium business owner, making a software purchase that will permeate all aspects of your business is daunting, and often terrifying. Getting an Enterprise Resource Planner may be your first major software purchase. You probably have many questions about implementation time, cost, hosting, effect on business processes, impact on employees and customization needs. These are all important decision factors that can be addressed through teamwork within your company and by working with implementers you trust.
While the desire for a silver bullet - especially for fast-growing organizations - is a wish that might never come true, a flexible Enterprise Resource Planning software can provide a dependable advantage to your operations and development. When considering implementing this type of solution, you are likely to find contradictory, and sometimes anxiety-provoking, facts or advice.
We're here to:
1. Address the questions and concerns new ERP clients face.
2. Explain the resulting impacts.
3. Provide our approach for great implementations.
Here's what you can expect on the change management front:
You, your employees and the organization as a whole will be affected by this change.
Depending on the preparation, your changes will move forward more or less successfully. You will inevitably face some new workflows or processes that everyone will have to get used to. You may also be using this opportunity to shift gears strategically. There are many levels of change, and many changes that will be occurring at once.
Keys To Success
We suggest that in order to build the most successful circumstance for change, please:
1. Emphasize communicating early, openly and frequently. People being affected will likely have some concerns or comments. Considering their input will not only help you manage risk, but will increase trust and buy-in for the change.
2. Work with your implementer and your employees to make sure that all questions are answered during training. List some questions ahead of training time, both from you and from employees, in order to keep things structured and to start people thinking ahead. When you begin to use the ERP demo, like our Odoo demo, that is a great time to start listing details that your staff might be interested in when it's their turn to learn how to use it.
3. Most importantly, provide skill building opportunities and support through training. When we implement Odoo for our clients we provide customized virtual and on-site training for them. We also provide links to videos and documentation for independent study. The transition will be smoother and people will favour the change more when they have the required knowledge.
There you have it - some concrete advice on how to ease the implementation process, and how to get the most out of your investment. Feel free to contact us about this post.
Please continue to follow us as we release our other tips for a successful implementation!
ERP Implementation Tips