ERP Implementation Lifecycle

• The major ERP vendors have all developed a recommended implementation process basedon years of experience with hundreds of customers. Each vendor’s process typicallydivides the effort up into well-defined stages with associated tasks

• There are several common factors associated with failed ERP implementation projectsincluding failure to gain senior management commitment and involvement, choosing thewrong business partners to help, not adequately assessing the level of ERP customizationthat may be needed, failure to contain project scope, and lack of planning for effectiveknowledge transfer. The following section will address how to avoid these problems

• Initiation

• Requirement analysis

• Erp software selection

• Design

• Implementation

• Maintenance and continuous improvement

1

• Initiation Perform stage initiation tasks (at the start of each phase):

• ● Identify, recruit, and prepare appropriate team members for this stage

• ● Develop detailed schedule and cost estimate for this stage

• Identify desired business needs to be met through this project

• Develop business justification for project

• Determine if system integrator will be used and select one

• Perform stage closing tasks (at end of each stage):

• ● Release team members not needed for next stage

• ● Develop high level schedule and cost estimate for remainder of project

• ●Review project benefits compared to costs

• 2

• Requirements Analysis Perform stage initiation tasks

• Analyze current business processes for strengths and weaknesses

• Determine business processes to be supported by ERP system

• Define mandatory business requirements

• 3

• ERP Software Selection Perform stage initiation tasks

• Identify 2 to 4 candidate ERP software packages for in-depth evaluation

• Develop set of software package selection criteria

• Evaluate candidate ERP software packages against selection criteria

• Perform gap analysis to identify if packages fail to meet significant businessrequirements or are unable to support desired business processes adequately

• 4

• Design Perform stage initiation tasks

• Define inputs needed and sources of inputs

• Define required reports

• Define necessary ERP system interfaces

• Define other system outputs

• Perform business process re-engineering

• Define any mandatory software customization

• 5• Implementation Perform stage initiation

tasks• Set ERP system configuration parameters• Clean up and migrate data from old sources to

ERP system• Develop required interfaces• Perform necessary customizations• Implement controls and security• Train the trainers

6.

• Maintenance and

• continuous improvement

• Provide on-going technical support

• Deliver on-going training for new end users and to cover system

• upgrades

• Plan and implement necessary software upgrades

Gap anlysis

• A technique that businesses use to determine what steps need to be taken in order to move from its current state to its desired, future state. Also called need-gap analysis, needs analysis, and needs assessment

bpr• Business process re-engineering is a

business management strategy, originally pioneered in the early 1990s, focusing on the analysis and design of workflows and business processes within an organization. BPR aimed to help organizations fundamentally rethink how they do their work in order to dramatically improve customer service, cut operational costs, and become world-class competitors