The three most important elements are project leadership through the department, continuous communication with all stakeholders and their accompaniment through their personal change process.
ERP systems use innovation potential
Just a few years ago, the introduction of an ERP system as a purely technical IT project was considered to be two-fold: the core of the new system consisted of the software solution, and it was the IT department that co-ordinated the system together with the Suppliers. After all, in many companies, it was the department that had the most knowledge of the workings in the company.
Higher value for people
This gave IT the legitimacy to decide equally for everyone to define the best for all and to act beyond the interest of individual departments for the good of the entire company. This self-perception of the IT was reinforced by the partial ignorance of the departments and their frequent skepticism against the information technology, but contributed in many cases to the failure of ERP implementation projects.
Role of specialist departments
The supposedly best solution was not accepted, the end users found themselves in their everyday life in the new system do not cope and felt not taken seriously or seriously. The IT got the blame and the system could "not work so well"
People and their expectations
The cost of the project was unrelated to the end-user benefits, end users were "completely served", and the companies were not afraid to tackle the issue of ERP implementation once again. They preferred the old system To reach its limits - and beyond - and not to think of a new installation.
Today, it has become clear that ERP projects do not have a small share of information technology, but that they are basically projects for the further development of the organization. Projects create innovations and are therefore synonymous with change.
Almost everything changes with the new ERP system. In many cases, the goal of increasing efficiency, which is to be achieved with the new ERP system, calls into question the working processes involved and goes hand in hand with massive efforts, the processes in the individual departments, between the departments and, not infrequently, suppliers and suppliers To optimize customers.
This is the realization that people are ascribed to a different value during the project than has hitherto been the case. Man becomes a crucial resource for successful projects. This is not meant to be his pure work force but his behavior in the project and for - or against the project results.
In essence, this is his ability to make changes in life and, if properly supported, to make these changes even more active.
What does this mean in modern ERP projects? Three aspects are of particular importance for the human factor in ERP projects and which have a major influence on the success of the ERP implementation.
Projects are carried out to implement the company's future visions. Projects turn ideas into innovations. As a result, each project has an incomparable and very specific benefit to the company and is to be formulated in writing right from the start.
One should clearly clarify which business processes (up to individual work steps) supports the ERPSystem or even makes it possible. The solution provider Würth Phoenix, for example, uses Microsoft's SureStep, Microsoft's methodology collection for project management, when implementing Microsoft Dynamics AX as a ERP system.
The benefits mentioned here are found in the business case as part of the Project Charter. The Project Charter is the customer's central document that documents and communicates its vision, the expected benefits, and the objectives that it brings with it.
Moderate the change
When one considers ERP projects as organizational projects, it follows that the project sponsor or client is a decisive decision-maker in the customer organization, preferably the managing director himself or a member of the management. This sponsor should be the direct contact person for the project team to designate one of its departments.
If, in addition, all the departmental managers involved in the project and a representative of the later users in the Steering Committee are concerned, the structural precautions are taken to ensure that the companies involved play an important role in the ERP implementation and not just the IT department. This increases the short-term outlook as well as the long-term benefits.
Conclusion
For this reason, Würth Phoenix places a special emphasis on communication with all stakeholders and stakeholders - the so-called stakeholders - in the project. This begins with the mandatory stakeholder analysis, where end-users and departments are important internal stakeholder groups.
In a diagram, stakeholders are identified and roughly classified (via smiley symbols), which emotional attitude they have towards the project (according to the subjective view of the analysts). The following analysis provides answers to the following important questions
This reflection leads to a number of possible stakeholder-specific measures aimed at securing the project objectives. Most of the measures are then found in the communication plan, which contains essential elements and channels of the target group-specific communication in the project.
The more experienced the ERP implementers are, the more effective are such communication plans, which go far beyond pure information distributors such as the project status report, as well as elements of modern workshop interventions as well as specific contact points of stakeholder communication.
Many people initially respond with negative emotions to change impulses and follow more or less a change cycle with several stages. Project managers need to know this and to use the right tools as well as to address people in detail. They take people on the path of change, accompany them as best they can in their process of change and take their fears, but also their expectations seriously.
From the many theoretical models of change, Würth Phoenix makes the best experience with a six-stage model: regardless of the kind of change, whether it be of a professional or private nature, people react in the first phase of the loss with a feeling of fear and behave as paralyzed Code>
As they enter the process of change, they pass through the phases of doubt and discomfort, discovery, and finally understanding and integration. Each phase requires emotional and rational patterns, which each trigger a specific focus.
The people involved in the project get a concrete meaning here: the project manager can support them depending on their state of change with their own behavior such as targeted measures and thus contribute to the project success.
If the above three central aspects are taken into account in the ERP project, the success opportunities for its sustainable implementation are significantly increased. Then it is possible to generate the benefits the company hopes for at the beginning of the project. And user acceptance has been created.
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