If your business is looking for the best team to assess a faulty Business Process Implementation, look no further.
Quite often, we at EstesGroup get called upon to assess (read: consult upon) a deficient ERP system. The scenario goes something like this:
A client comes to us knowing that something is amiss. Their ERP solution doesn’t function the way its implementers promised it would. Perhaps reporting features have stopped working, or information isn’t available in real time. Perhaps processes that the system should track aren’t falling into the workflow. Maybe information that should be available throughout the entire organization only filters down to a few departments.
While the specifics differ on a case-by-case basis, the core situation stays constant:
Clients contact us because their ERP system fails to meet expectations, and inefficiencies should not be the product of Business Process Reengineering.
Always remember: The ERP solution that’s the right fit right for your business should solve problems, not create them.
Having troubleshot many such cases, EstesGroup knows there are three general culprits for malfunction:
The chosen software may not have been a good fit for the business in the first place.
The implementation partner may not have had the capabilities or the understanding of your business to deliver the system with proper due diligence.
The problems might be produced internally. Meaning that the enterprise’s workflows doesn’t correlate to streamlined expressions in their ERP solution.
Each times EstesGroup consultants on a standing Business Process Implementation, we begin by examining the project’s four Project Roles. These include:
Executive Sponsorship
Does the project have an informed patron or patrons at the executive level who understand the importance of an ERP system? Are these individuals willing and able to marshal and commit the resources required to make the proper implementation viable? Without an engaged and motivated executive sponsor – someone who can marry the organization’s vision to its expression in Enterprise Resource Planning software – most ERP implementations can and will fall flat on their faces.
Project Organization
The structure of a project is critical to its success. EstesGroup examines the implementation team’s reporting and documentation protocols to see if these workflows allowed errors to occur and breed during business process construction. In essence, we’re looking to see if the organization was set up to support a proper implementation in the first place. If it wasn’t, we’ve found a likely place to begin making recommendations.
North Star Principles
Structure is dictated by vision. Does anyone jump in their car and try to get someplace specific without having directions? Of course not. That sort of thinking defies logic. ERP implementations are no different. You have to have a clear idea of where you want to go before you can get there. Clear ideas of what constitutes success are what we at EstesGroup define as your organization’s North Star principles. Please note that North Star principles extend far beyond ordinary project metrics like accomplishing the implementation on time and at or under budget. Rather, they encompass the expected outcomes that made you want to undergo Business Process Reeingeering in the first place: the expected outcomes by which (and only with which) your organization will consider its ERP implementation a success.
Proper Resources
A lack of proper resources is the number one reason we at EstesGroup see most ERP implementations fail. Did the client organization allocate the proper personnel to the implementation? Did they give them enough bandwidth to function properly (time, budget, and oversight)? Did they build in phases to model each workflow properly before setting it in stone?
This blog series will examine each of these Project Roles in turn, and other factors that equate to a successful ERP implementation.
Click here to read TROUBLESHOOTING PROBLEMATIC ERP IMPLEMENTATIONS PART TWO: THE UNDERLYING ASSUMPTION FOR SUCCESS
Matt Thompson will address the inaugural meeting of the Florida Epicor Users Group (EUG) on Thursday 1/21/16.
Mr. Thompson serves as Vice President of Enterprise Architecture for EstesGroup, the world’s leading consultancy in Enterprise Resource Planning, and is considered an expert in the fields of Business Process Review and Business Process Reengineering.
His presentation to the EUG will focus on the new feature set for Epicor ERP 10.1, as well as the many factors and strategies that companies should review when considering an upgrade to this solution.
The slogan for Florida EUG is “Users Helping Users.” The association is completely independent, with a primary mission to assist its community members in the study and practice of Epicor products, including Epicor ERP (9, 10, and 10.1); Vantage; Vista; Avante; DataFlo; Manage 2000; ManFact; Clientele; iScala; Enterprise; E4SE; Epicor Retail; Epicor HCM; Epicor CMS/VP (SolarSoft); AVP; BVP; HrMS (Packaging); Informance; BisTrack; Tropos; SLS; and Mattec.
The Florida EUG boasts an all volunteer leadership, a staffed office, monthly board meetings, a close and positive working relationship with Epicor management, and support for Regional User Groups. Membership dues are $360 a year, a worthwhile investment for industry members looking to secure the best possible Epicor product support at a reasonable cost.
Matt Thompson leads EstesGroup’s experienced, world-class ERP consulting team. His more than fifteen years’ experience with Epicor products include five years working as an Epicor employee, five years working for an Epicor customer, and more than five years at EstesGroup as Vice President of Services. He is a certified expert on Epicor technologies and leverages a deep background in technical and functional matters as they apply to the multi-faceted world of Project Management.
In particular, Mr. Thompson has considerable expertise in marrying Enterprise Resource Planning solutions to the manufacturing, distribution, and professional services industries. He has led hundreds of successful implementations of Epicor products for businesses ranging from small job shops to large-scale distribution and manufacturing operations across a variety of sectors.
Mr. Thompson helped to pioneer the industry-renowned EstesGroup Business Process Review. As a spokesman for EstesGroup, he is considered a foremost expert in and the voice of company’s Five Stage ERP Implementation Methodology.
The agenda for Thursday’s inaugural meeting includes:
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – Registration and Networking
9:00 a.m. – 9:30 a.m. – Introductions and purpose
9:30 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. – Upgrading to E10.1: Technical Tips – Ben Nixon
Your password must be complex, 7 or more characters with UPPER, lower, #’s and Symbols
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You (and your users) can change your own mail password via webmail at mail.estesgrp.com.
If you are the domain administrator, login to the Web Hosting Control Panel to manage your mail accounts.
Mail Protocols
You’ll probably use IMAP4 instead of POP3, as it keeps your mail on the server, ready to be consumed by more than one device. If you have only one computer that you are checking email with, then POP3 is OK, as long as you don’t mind all your email being on your one device and NOT on the server! If you remove mail from the server, then it’s your responsibility to back it up.
Many folks are installing intended software on their PC’s, but what they might not realize is that often adware is bundled in with it! So, along with a good Adobe Flash player, you end up with a new homepage, another toolbar and maybe even a PUP! (Potentially unwanted program)
Here’s some popular applications and the place to get the program, and just the program.
FileZilla FTP client. The problem is that if you google it, SourceForge is bundling a bunch of adware and causing Managed AntiVirus to quarantine it! Use this link to get an adware free version – https://filezilla-project.org/download.php?show_all=1
In Parts One and Two of this blog, we offered ERP implementation tips and outlined the roles played by the various actors in your company’s implantation team and that of the EstesGroup to ensure successful implementation of your chosen ERP solution.
As you might imagine, it takes a high degree of ERP collaboration to keep all the moving parts of a project humming synchronously.
So how do we do it?
Foremost among our tools of the trade for keeping a project on track is the PID, or Project Initiation Document. Think of our PID as the all-encompassing business plan for your successful ERP implementation.
An EstesGroup PID lists:
Your company’s critical success factors
The overall scope of the implantation project
Assumptions and risks
The project’s timeline
Roles and responsibilities of each participant from each implementation team
A Communication Plan which establishes basic protocols while spelling out Stage Reviews and Audits
Project milestones
Another key driver of successful implementation team coordination is our Totally Transparent Project Planning and Metrics. EstesGroup uses online based project management software. At any time from anywhere, your team members can log on and check the up-to-the-second status of your implementation effort. Our project management software features simple, informative dashboards that provide total clarity into project categories such as Time, Cost, Resource, Risks, Issues, and Changes.
Finally, we employ Gantt Charts to their maximum effectiveness. Our charts clearly and meticulously break down each task that needs to be done on open activity lists. This way, the resources assigned to handle each task can finish them properly and in a timely fashion to facilitate overall project success.
By properly using the three tools outlined above, your team and ours will communicate effectively and proceed swiftly over the oft-times complicated landscape of your ERP.
Give us an hour of your time and we WILL make your business run better.
