Because:
- Many of the things that ought to be done before most ERP acquisition efforts begin are deferred to the implementation phase, turned over to outside companies or never done at all.
- The goal of an ERP system acquisition (as opposed to an implementation) is often too narrowly perceived.
- The goal is seen as
- System selection
- Vendor selection
- Contract negotiation and signing
- Sometimes as implementation partner selection.
- Left out is the painstaking process of preparing for implementation success, which includes
- Defining what is to be eventually implemented in specific, concrete business terms that include
- Procedures
- Workflows
- Outputs (general as to format but specific as to minimum contact)
- Operating environment
- Transaction identification and definition
- Contractual responsibilities of
- The system vendor
- The implementation partner
- The company buying it all
- Anyone else
- Establishing continuity: capturing and preserving the
- Knowledge gained (by people who will continue on the project)
- Decisions made (and the reasons behind them)
- Promises made (and who made them) during the pre-sale activities, in a form that is not only available to the subsequent implementation phase but which is contractually incumbent on the parties involved in implementation.
A story that’s repeated far too often: a company diligently pursues an ERP acquisition. The selected vendor successfully acquires an understanding of the requirements and demonstrates, by means of a successful proof of concept event, its grasp of the requirements, its product’s fitness to fulfill them and its own abilities to configure the product. Contracts are signed and the implementation phase begins: but, somehow, the hard-earned agreements and knowledge acquired in the presale simply fade away. The implementation team fails to build upon the success of the presale proof of concept; often, indeed, it fails even to remember what was agreed or how that agreement was demonstrated. What went wrong was not what occurred in the presale phase: it’s what didn’t occur, which should have been a detailed, contractually enforceable plan of transition from acquisition to implementation. Continuity of purpose and understanding is not preserved by accident, nor by high hopes and good intentions; it is preserved by effective, contractually enforced mutual planning.
These are things that don’t happen unless managed in a coordinated way – which means, managed (1) as a project that (2) has the performance of these things as its predefined criteria for success.
