Posted on 7th Nov 2022

Maximize your ERP efficiency with these 5 change management strategies.

Today’s organizations must transform their business more frequently to adapt to new ways of working to keep up with constant change and maintain a competitive edge in the marketplace. It would be best if you had the proper enterprise resource planning (ERP) solution to facilitate this transition. However, implementing an ERP system is always challenging, and small mistakes can lead to significant business disruptions and directly impact your bottom line.

Change management during an ERP implementation plays a vital role in the success of your project. A well-planned strategy can help companies avoid common mistakes and prepare their workforce to adopt new digital technologies through a proven organizational change management model.

What are the challenges of ERP implementation?

ERP implementation is not a stand-alone event. This process involves people, operations, and money. Poor ERP project management can lead to common mistakes that make a successful deployment difficult.

Lack of alignment between program objectives and business outcomes leads to investments in systems not aligned with organizational needs.
Underestimating the importance of establishing a solid internal and external communication strategy leaves critical people and organizations unprepared for change. The
ERP initiative focuses solely on technical functionality at the expense of changing business processes and organizational structures. These consequences can be unexpected benefits if your program is compromised or delayed.
Lack of Training Opportunities for New Systems leads to employee confusion and dysfunctional processes, then puts business operations at risk.

Checklist for a Successful ERP Transformation

Preparing for success is the first step to a successful ERP implementation. Willingness to embrace change requires careful planning and understanding. The ERP project team should:

Implement metrics and controls to ensure your ERP delivery project remains on track and achieves agreed-upon business outcomes as external and internal environments change.
Allocate resources early to define standard processes and monitor the organization’s readiness to adopt the new system.
Organize training by role and designate corporate users as change agents.
Design a cross-functional communication strategy to ensure employees and external partners (customers, suppliers, shareholders) are aware of and prepared for change.

What are the critical elements of an organization’s change management strategy?

ERP implementation is inevitable, and its success impacts business processes. To make this transition as smooth as possible, you must plan and implement a compelling and practical change management strategy. This strategy includes five imperatives:

Drive enterprise-wide business engagement
Measure an organization’s readiness for change
Monitor and measure change by defining metrics
Enhance readiness and rigour in training
Related Strategies Communication

Drive enterprise-wide business engagement.

Cross-Functional Business Engagement and Consensus on Software Priorities a critical foundations for a successful ERP deployment. Organizations must ensure that their ERP implementation program engages all organizational functions at all levels. The point here is to task the ERP project team with identifying key users who will walk through the system and test new software. Successfully applying the changes brought about by the ERP transformation is the responsibility of everyone involved in the organization.

Measure an organization’s readiness for change.

ERP software can redefine your current processes and reshape your organization to gain an edge. Set your goals with the existing organizational structure must be evaluated and, if necessary, modified to take advantage of the newly defined processes and systems.

Activities that can now perform separately by centralizing different departments. Automation and outsourcing have made collected information accessible and shared, eliminating manual processes. The standardization of processes made possible by ERP software offers companies the advantages of efficient use of resources, improved analysis, and potential automation.

The process change is recognized through training or improvements to new systems to conduct a functional assessment by ensuring timelines and business alignment when implementing the proposed organizational changes. But first, I need to create a unit plan.

As an ongoing approach – During the program phase, you should measure your organization’s readiness for each upcoming change and take appropriate steps to ensure your organization can absorb the changes brought about by new technologies.

Monitor and measure change by defining metrics.

In an evolving business environment, when your stand-alone system is not keeping up with your business goals, you should plan to customize your ERP program. An effective way to do this is by identifying key business KPIs through ERP transformation. Then, design a model that captures all the benefits: improved data insights, better management of business processes, and more.

1. Simplify your business

Implementing a proper ERP system simplifies your business. So please find the simplifications of your critical business function in line with the weak points.

2. Business Process Cycle Times

Process standardization is one of the main benefits of an ERP program.

When an ERP team spends too much time on one aspect of system implementation, other functions can be compromised. Empower your team to identify, define, and adjust cycle time requirements to avoid imbalances.

3. Employee Productivity

Advanced ERP solutions enable you to digitize your end-to-end processes.

Incorporates AI technology to automate and speed up routine tasks previously performed manually by employees. It increases productivity by making employees less involved in repetitive tasks and allowing them to focus on what’s more important to their business growth.

4. Operational Efficiency

ERP solutions impact and benefit all business functions. Facilitate digital collaboration with various departments to improve production and service quality quickly. Create standard processes in your ERP system to improve customer service and business performance.

A clearly defined training program that reinforces training readiness and rigour is critical to ensuring that the team understands its ERP deployment process and is ready to use the software after implementation. Therefore, ERP teams should start developing training plans early to ensure that every person or function is involved in digital transformation initiatives.

Training should focus on the system’s functionality and the people who use it. So we need to include new processes and roles to prepare people for change. Training requirements tend to escalate once an ERP system is in production, but ensure your program team continues to develop and measure training schedules long after it goes live. These sessions are interactive in nature, on-demand, and easily accessible to users when they need them.

Implied Communication Strategy

1. Internal communication

Responsible for communicating the message of change in the organization, especially its impact and benefits. Also, make sure your messaging is consistent across departments and teams.

A planned approach to information delivery is essential here. First, outline the impact of ERP on individual functions and the company as a whole. The more informed your employees are, the more prepared they are to embrace new technologies and a changing environment.

2. External communication

We must recognize communication with customers, suppliers, and shareholders. We need to keep them informed about the new process for smooth processes.

Ensure that your ERP team carefully develops a detailed communications plan to identify customers and suppliers, the message to communicate, timelines, and potential impact before distribution.

Customers and suppliers want to articulate business and productivity benefits to new processes or systems. Therefore, business KPI messaging, tracking, and reporting must be consistent.

Building an Organizational Transformation Strategy A Professional Approach to ERP Deployment

In times of intense competition, decision-making with accurate and precise data becomes even more critical for companies to ensure their investments grow.

An effective change management strategy can ease your transition if you consider Globe3 ERP implementation. But creating a change management plan takes much effort, and that’s where we come in. We offer the best ERP software in Singapore and have all the resources you need to help you have a hassle-free ERP implementation.