Have you been involved in an ERP implementation? Was it successful? Our fellow blogger, Houston Neal from , wants to hear from you! He is hosting a survey to find out which implementation strategies are the most popular and most successful. He will collect results over the next two weeks and we will present his findings towards the end of the month. Your ERP Implementation choices are:
- Big bang - Implementation happens in a single instance. All users move to the new system on a given date.
- Phased rollout - Changeover occurs in phases over an extended period of time. Users move onto new system in a series of steps.
- Parallel adoption - Both the legacy and new ERP system run at the same time. Users learn the new system while working on the old.
Update:
A few highlights of the results:
Eighty-nice percent of respondents followed “big bang,” “phased rollout” or a combination of the two strategies. Eighty-eight percent of implementations – or 40 out of 45 – were successful.
By CAL Business Solutions,
what do you mean by that?
Though, there are lot of factors that influence the decision on what should be the approach for ERP implmentation but one thing I am sure of, and that is "DO NOT ever run parallel systems" - running parallel systems will ensure that users are never accustommed with the new system and the expected benefits from implemented ERP can not be achieved completely.
Regarding, big bang and phased approach - there are multiple factors that influence this decision, like number of countries, modules, and customizations involved, Change Management issues etc. A blend of pure phased or pure big bang is mostly more suitable for large projects.
Anywhere I've worked it has been parallel adoption. Maybe they were conservative maybe they were clever but it took time and cost money.
Then again I wouldn't like to work on a big bang install!
Ralph