It is very wrong but very common to view the goal of an ERP implementation in terms of implementing software, or a particular brand of software, or a particular configuration of a particular brand of software. This view is a recipe for disaster, because any ERP package worthy of the name can be implemented in countless ways that conflict with the interests, goals, processes and procedures of the company acquiring it. By contrast, there are only a very few ways it may be implemented such that it advances any actual company’s combined set of interests, goals, processes and procedures.
A company’s processes and procedures can be documented independently of its interests and goals; they can be, though they often aren’t. But it is hard to claim that a procedure is thoroughly understood unless we can also be sure we understand why we’re doing it. Policies and procedures exist to advance goals and interests, not (outside of a purely bureaucratic world) for their own sake. This becomes important in an ERP implementation when it is not entirely clear exactly how a particular current procedure is to be realized in the new software being implemented; it can be very difficult to choose between alternative methods when we’ve lost sight of the goals we’re trying to achieve.
A strategic plan is a statement of a company’s goals and interests that connects to the everyday world of policy and procedure. If we don’t have such a statement, or have one but don’t use it when we plan an ERP acquisition and implementation, we will not be supporting the company’s best understanding of its goals and interests. At best, we will be serving one or more lesser purposes that turn out to be surprising empty when you try to squeeze their meanings out of them. For example, at high levels of the project such stand-ins for genuine goals (sometimes called “bogies”) might include:
- Implement Orasap version 16.2
- Replace the current Accounts Payable process (probably while “upgrading Accounts Payable functionality”)
- Improve our access to our supply chain
- Leverage advances in technology
At the levels where most people are working, these high-minded aspirations are replaced by apparently more concrete targets that tie to no goal higher than themselves:
- Rewrite the AP492-D report for the new system.
- Map the current sales order maintenance procedures to the OE429F module.
Nobody is really in business to achieve such “goals”. They aren’t really goals at all, are they? But they’re all we have if we’ve lost sight of our own real goals and interests.
