Financial system or ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) implementations can bring with them substantial process and organisational changes. Preparing a Change Management plan for all business stake holders is necessary step to ensuring successful adoption of your new system, as the lack of effective change management is one of the main reasons why ERP rollouts fail. So, what is the true value of investing in change management to achieve a successful ERP implementation (or rollout)?

HELPS UNDERSTANDING THE IMPACT OF THE PROJECT

One of the first actions of a change management strategy is to perform an impact assessment. This can help you evaluate how disruptive the transition is going to be. According to Gartner, “Enterprise leaders get an opportunity to understand the potential organisational “growing pains,” business disruptions, costs, and other impacts, so they can determine whether the organisation is willing and able to make the changes. It also provides the project team with an opportunity to make adjustments to achieve a more acceptable level of business impact before starting development activities that would potentially need to be redone if the design is changed later in the project.”

EMPOWERS USERS TO BUY-IN

Typically ERP projects introduce substantial changes in organisations, but too often companies focus on the major tasks of implementing the system and don’t often fully consider the impact on employee’s tasks or even their job roles. As a result, sometimes these changes are met with some resistance. Adopting a change management strategy empowers employees to accept the changes by establishing proper communication channels to inform them about the goals of the transition, its benefits, and the way their day to day jobs would change and improve.

FACILITATES USER ADOPTION

When an ERP is implemented, employees are expected to learn and adopt to the new software features, or adopt new or modified business processes. A change management strategy helps minimising the learning curve by identifying training initiatives that help employees to adapt to the new work flows as soon as possible.

The good news is that you have many resources available to educate your staff. In addition to the Acclaim training materials, you can design customised training based on the process changes you document during the implementation process.

While Acclaim provides training materials (and in-product education) to use as a starting point, these become truly relevant to your employees when customised based on the specific roles and responsibilities unique to your business. This customised training should encompass all the processes and decisions that need to happen outside and within the ERP system.

MAKES THE MOST OF YOUR INVESTMENT ROI

Investing in an ERP System can be a transformational step for your organisation, but your company can only experience its benefits if employees are engaged and able to make the most out of it. Change management engages employees quicker and empowers them to take full advantage of the ERP’s features, helping them become more productive and improving performance.

THE KEY TO SUCCESS

Change management is often confused with project management or overlooked in ERP projects as people focus on the many data orientated tasks required, but companies need to understand it is vital to success. As part of any ERP implementation, its critical to invest resources and time to put a change management plan in place.