Syllabus: UNIT III ERP IMPLEMENTATION 10

Planning Evaluation and selection of ERP systems - Implementation life cycle - ERP implementation,
Methodology and Frame work- Training – Data Migration. People Organization in
implementationConsultants, Vendors and Employees

3.1 PLANNING EVALUATION AND SELECTION OF ERP SYSTEMS

PLANNING:

Planning is defined as setting an objective for a given time period, developing various strategies or
methods to attain them, and then selecting the best

Most enterprises often jump into looking at ERP functions and features rather than examining the strategy and
business processes. It is important for management to know the current strategy, processes and supporting
systems compared to what they could be with the new systems

Stages / Steps involved in planning ERP System

• Planning
• RFP
• Solution Evaluation
• Negotiation
• Selection and Agreement
Stage 1 :Planning

• Plan Requirement Business need is defined, along with areas in business that required
technical approach.

• Develop a specific business case with business value for a solution.

• Ensure that the project sponsor is willing to articulate the business case for change.
• Indentify vendors that operate in the line of products you are looking for. Get familiar with
the software and hardware infrastructure presence for the solution seeking.
• Get general view of investment needed, considering software, hardware, other related
infrastructure and ongoing support.
• Based on the survey, evaluate the organization readiness for the investment and decide
whether to continue or not. Now define priorities under "must-have" and "nice-to-have"
accordingly.

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Stage 2 :RFS

• Request for Proposals (RFP) Shortlist interesting vendor based on the outcome of market
survey for products.
• Invite interesting vendors for interaction/demonstration of their products. Collects
facts/functionalities in line with the business need from various products demonstrations
for the developments of unbiased RFP for vendors.
• Set-up a neutral body to develop RFP using all facts gathered during products
demonstration aligned to the business requirements.
• Distribute out RFP that addresses the vendor as a company and the products they offer.
• Generate basic expectations from an ideal proposal in line with the business need for
onward selection of the ideal software vendor.

Stage 3 Solution Evaluation

• Solution Evaluation Identify and priorities remaining gaps between software capabilities
as demonstrated and business requirements.
• Identify how the gaps will be bridge in terms of configuration, configuration, process
change or combination of all these.

• If the gaps can be bridge consider reengineering of those affected business processes
affected and continue with the evaluation.
Stage 4Negotiation
• Contract Negotiation Negotiate with each vendor.
• Establish software, hardware and other infrastructure agreement requirements, which
include version, components, maintenance and support.
• Also negotiate participation in user groups, license costs, maintenance fees and many
others.
• Establish service provider agreement which also include deliverables, timelines, resources,
costs and payment schedules. Establish other legal requirements.
Stage 5 :Selection & Agreement
• Selection and Agreement Upon successful negotiation with the right vendor; Review all
legal terms on privacy protection, operation guidance and data manipulation etc.

• Approve agreements with the selected vendors.

• Agree on implementation plan.

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EVALUATION AND SELECTION (ERP SOFTWARE & HARDWARE SOLUTION)
• Define Requirement
• Shop Round for Product

• Clarify Requirements
• Evaluation Vendor Inquiry
• Interact with Vendors

• Negotiate Agreement
• Action Agreement
• Define business case/need and spell-out required values. Be specific. Ensure the business
sponsor is willing to push through business case for change. Look round the market for
what product is available.

• Identify vendors that operates and their general approaches to technologies the take.
Discuss with others in the same industry as you are etc.
• Clarify your requirements and be sure of what you are looking for in line with you business
case.
• Refine requirements if possible and be specific too. Find out what product is looking
promising in line with the business need and from which vendor.
• Identify which vendor and their products and invite interesting ones for demo etc.

• Request for proposal (RFP). Invite each shortlisted vendor over for a chat and find out
more about the product. List out expectations based heavily on business requirements. At
this point evaluate this approach. Can you afford to change your current process? Can you
afford the change the new product will bring and many more?
• Initiate Negotiation for the selected product with the selected vendor. Agree on who does
what, when are they to be done. Negotiate deliverables, timelines, cost & payments
schedules and terms, support inclusive.
• Review all legal terms, finalise the contract and select product for onward implementation.
Alignment of business requirement to what the software/hardware can provide.
This is the core of the whole exercise else stop the evaluation. Evaluate the product capabilities
in line with the business requirement.

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 3.2 ERP IMPLEMENTATION LIFE CYCLE

. Implementation of ERP system is an organization is not equivalent to implementing any other IT

projects; rather ERP implementation is a business transformation project; and thus, needsa special
attention. Technological, Operational, and Business Reasons for Implementing ERP Thereason for
going in for ERP systems can be grouped into four different sets of categories: technology,
business process, strategic and competitive. Each of these rationales has different strengths and
limitations. The choice of these rationales is important for at least three reasons.
1. Critical analysis is necessary to ensure that the firm makes the correct decision regarding ERP.
Ultimately, that analysis can generate a number of different rationales or arguments used to
substantiate ERP adaption.
2. In some cases, the basis of choice can facilitate ERP design, providing design specificity. For
example, if the goal is to improve a specific process then the extent of that improvement can be
measured.
3. The basis of choice can facilitate evaluation of the success of the implementation, based on
whether the business case rationale was successfully met. Different measurement approaches can
provide a basis for determining success.

1. During the pre-evaluation phase, ERP vendors available in the market are screened based on business
requirements. ERP packages that don’t suit the business requirements are eliminated.
2. During the package evaluation phase, selected package is evaluated against requirements across
departments.
3. A detailed requirement analysis is done, involving different managers from across the departments.
Requirement analysis helps list down all the functionalities required to ensure efficient processes across
the organization.
4. Based on the analysis of requirements and functionalities, a detailed project plan is laid out. This involves
senior management team and ERP experts. Designs are finalized; key resources to be involved in the
project are identified in various departments; special arrangement is also made to tackle contingencies.
5. Once the planning is done, business process re-engineering takes place. Implementing ERP will impact
the job responsibilities of lot of employees. So, new roles and responsibilities are to be assigned to
employees. Processes are to be re-structured and integrated with ERP tools.
6. Post implementation and integration, staff and managers are to be trained properly so that they get good
practice. Consultants will help employees to get hands on experience of the ERP tools.
7. At last, the tools that are implemented are tested rigorously. Issues arising during the testing phase are
fixed and required changes are made.

ERP Implementation Lifecycle

ERP implementation lifecycle focus on the ERP project which is carried out to make ERPup and
running.ERP project is likely to go through different phases like any other project.Most often these phases
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 do not necessarily depend on one another in a sequence, i.e. onephase might start before previous phase
has finished.Also all phases that will be discussed may not be applicable in all cases.

Pre-evaluation / Screening
• Package Evaluation
• Project Planning Phase
• Gap-Analysis
• Reengineering
• Configuration

ERP implementation

▪ Implementation Team Training

▪ Testing
▪ Going Live
▪ End-user training
Post – implementation

Pre-evaluation screening: Once the company decided to go in for the ERP system, the search forthe
perfect package starts. But there are hundreds of ERP vendors-of all sizes and shapes - all claiming to
have the solution that is ideal for you. Analyzing all the packages before reaching a decision is not a
viable solution. So, it is better to limit the number of packages that are evaluated to less than 5.
Package Evaluation: The evaluation/selection process is one of the most important phases of the
ERP implementation, because the package that you select will decide the success or failure of the
project. Some important points to be kept in mind while evaluating ERP system.
• Functional fit with the company’s business process

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 • Degree of integration between the various components of the ERP system

• Flexibility and scalability

• Complexity
• User friendliness
• Quick implementation
• Ability to support multi-site planning and control

• Technology-client/server capabilities, database independence, security

• Availability of regular upgrades
• Amount of customization required
• Local support infrastructure
• Availability of reference sites
• Total cost, including cost of license, training, implementation, maintenance,
Customization and hardware components.
Selection of packages: This is the first step of the life cycle where the perfect ERP package has
to be selected in agreement that fits your business environment. In the selection process, ERP
packages that are not suitable they are eliminated. The package has to be carefully selected and
testified. The right choice will determine the success of the ERP implementation. A proper study
and research should be done before the selection.
Project Planning Phase: Proper planning of the implementation process of the project shall be
made and designed. Resources should be allocated and the team members have to be selected.

GAP Analysis: GAP analysis is an important step in the life cycle of ERP implementation step.
GAP analysis is performed to analyze the current situation of the organization and itsfuture
position as needed.
Re-engineering is needed to make the implementation process involves many changes and
alterations. The job responsibilities of employees and the number of employees can be altered as
well. This step is done to make the business process more efficient.

Configuration

It is important for the success of ERP implementation that those configuring the systemare
able to explain what won’t fit into the package where the gaps in functionality occur. ERP
vendors are constantly make efforts to lower configuration costs. Strategies that arecurrently
being done include automation and pre – configuration.

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 ERP Implementation

Implementation of Team Training: Training of employees starts with the implementation

process in the life cycle of the ERP implementation. Employees of getting used to the new system
in order to run the system smoothly later. Get the time at this stage to learn the software and its
features and become self-sufficient in order to be able to operate later, when consultants and
suppliers to end and go.

Testing: This is the point where you are testing real case scenarios.
The test cases must be designed to specifically to find the weak links in the system andthese bugs
should be fixed before going live.Testing is an important step and is carried out so that the errors can
be found and resolvedbefore the actual application process.
Going Live: This is the phase where all technicalities are over, and the system is officially
declaredoperational.
In this phase all data conversion must have been done, and databases are up and running;and the
prototype is fully configured and tested.

End-user Training: This is the phase where the actual users of the system will be given training
on how to use the system.

Post-implementation (Operations and Maintenance): One important factor that should be kept
in mind is that the post-implementation phase is very critical. Once the implementation is over the
vendors and hired consultants will go. To reap the full benefits of the ERP system, the system
should get enterprise-wide acceptance. There should be enough employees who are trained and
handle the problems that might crop up. Maintenance is carried out in the post implementation life
cycle of ERP implementation phase. The problems are identified and employees learn how to deal
with it. Maintenance is also an important stage in the life cycle.

3.3 ERP IMPLEMENTATION METHOLODY & FRAMEWORK

ERP Implementation Choices
For ERP implementation, an organization has to take a conscious decision about the choice of
implementation. There are various implementation plan choices, which include:

• Vanilla implementation
• Comprehensive
• Middle-of-the-Road
• Vanilla implementation: In vanilla implementation, an organization wants to get the best
advantage of the best practices built into the ERP software. In this implementation, an
organization will align its business process to the ERP system; rather than modify the

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 software.

• Comprehensive: This implementation plan involves the implementation of the full

functionality of the ERP software in addition to industry specific modules. Thus,
comprehensive implementation requires a high level of business reengineering as well as
customization of legacy systems. This approach is most expensive and time consuming
approach.

• Middle-of-the-Road: This implementation plan, as the name implies, involves some

changes in the ERP software and a major business reengineering. Since this approach is
not very expensive as the comprehensive approach; or the straight-forward as the vanilla
approach, is called as the middle-of-road approach.
ERP Conversion Strategies

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For the implementation of ERP system, there are various strategies, which are:
a) Big-bang strategy

b) Parallel strategy
c) Phased strategy
d) Pilot run strategy
e) Hybrid strategy
These strategies are discussed below in brief.
Big-bang strategy: In a full big-bang implementation, an entire suite of ERP application
is implemented at all locations, at the same time. Using big bang, the system goes from
being a test version to being the actual system used to capture transactions. This
transformation takes place in the shortest possible time and hence, the name “big bang”. In
big bang approach usually employs a three-step process.

• In the first step, virtually all relevant processes and artifacts are chosen and
implemented in the software.
• In the second step, all modules are tested individually and for their interfaces with
other modules; and
• in the final step, all the modules are implemented. Big bang approach produces a
time gap when no system is working. Thus, this approach is meaningful when:

I. The system is not replacing any other system;

II. The old system is judged absolutely worthless;
III. The new system is either very small or simple; and
IV. The design of the new system is drastically different from that of the old system and

Parallel Implementation: In parallel strategy, both the systems i.e., legacy systems and
ERP systems are run in parallel for some time until it has been tested thoroughly. Once the
organization is sure that the new ERP system is working as desired, the legacy systems are
discontinued. This strategy is the opposite of the big bang implementation approach.
Phased Implementation: A phased approach is one, in which, ERP modules are
implemented one at a time or in a group of modules, often a single location at a time.
Phased implementations are sequential implementations that consist of designing, testing
and installing different modules. This method is also referred to as ‘implementation by
segments approach, which is similar to the pilot run approach.

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 Hybrid Implementation: The hybrid strategy, as the name implies, is a
combination of two or more strategies. An organization may decide to
combine two or more strategies for the changeover of existing system. For
example organization may follow direct approach for marketing module;
whereas it may follow parallel approach; still for distribution system, the
Organization may follow a pilot run approach.

IMPLEMENTATION METHODOLOGY OF ERP:

1. The Traditional Method
2. The Turnkey Method

1.The Traditional Method The first methodology, since it has been around since the early
1980’s.This methodology uses the following phases:

Planning: The project managers (customer and vendor) work together to form the ERP
implementation team, and plan the project based on the right ERP implementation methodology
for the project scope and available resources. A kickoff meeting involves the entire team to review
the project plan and communicate the company objectives for the project.
Education: The vendor consultants educate the implementation team. In this methodology,this is
a very important step. Most advocates of this methodology believe the education of the core team
is the key to the customer’s self-sufficiency and a successful project. Enterprise Resource Planning
Design/Configuration: The consultants assist the implementation team in designing, configuring
and setting up the new system and business processes. The vendor consultants support the
implementation team, and the team does the work.
Conference Room Pilot: The implementation team tests the system in multiple Conference Room
Pilots (CRP). The final CRP becomes a simulated “go-live.” At the end of the phase, the system
is accepted by the team as ready to go live. The vendor consultants support the team’s effort. By
the end of this phase, the customer team has established a complete understanding of the new
system.

Cutover Activities: The implementation team plans the cutover process and trains the rest of the
end-users on the new system. The implementation team performs the training, and the vendor
consultants support the team. Go-Live Support: The implementation team supports the end-user in
the use of the new system. The implementation team provides real-time support. The vendor
consultants are also on-site during the first month to support the quick resolution of new problems
as they arise.

2. The Turnkey Method The second methodology is the Turnkey methodology because it is
clearly a vendor-led method. This methodology uses the following phases: Planning: The
activities are the same in this phase as the traditional methodology, with the vendor consultant
taking a bigger role in the construction of the plan. Also,the vendor project manager is planning the
vendor consultants’ time since they are involved full- time in the next four phases of the project.
Discovery/Setup/Configuration: Here we see the major difference between the two
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 methodologies. In this phase, the vendor consultants review the current process,
design/configure/setup new processes, and perform an initial test with minimal involvement of the
customer team. The customer implementation team is only involved in discovery by providing
input on current processes. In essence, the vendor team is providing a “turnkey” approach to
system design and the setup of the new system.
Prototype Review/Education: In this phase, the vendor team delivers the new system to the
customer implementation team and begins to educate the customer team through prototype
demonstration workshops. In these reviews, the customer team is getting educated on the new
system and the capabilities of the product. The vendor team identifies issues and adjusts the new
system as needed. At the end of this phase, the customer team accepts the design of the new system.
Conference Room Pilot: In this phase, the vendor team leads the customer team through several
phases of a conference room pilot (CRP). The last CRP becomes a simulated “go-live”. When this
CRP is completed, the customer team accepts the new system and is ready to go live.

Cutover Activities: The implementation team plans the cutover process, and trains the rest of the
end-users on the new system. The implementation team performs the training and the vendor
consultants support the team.
Go-Live Support: The implementation team supports the end-user in the use of the new system. The
implementation team provides real-time support. The vendor consultants are also on-site during the first
month to support the quick resolution of new problems as they arise

IMPLEMENTATION CHALLENGES
There are few information systems whose design and implementation challenge a company like
enterprise resource planning. Done right, a new ERP implementation can dramatically improve
business process; but when an implementation fails – or takes a prolonged and arduous course –
huge amount of money and effort could be misspent. The following are the major implementation
challenges:

1. Inadequate Requirements Definition

2. Resistance to Change
3. Inadequate Resources

4. Inadequate Training and Education

5. Lack of Top Management Support
6. Unrealistic Expectations of Benefits and ROI
7. Miscalculation of Time and Effort
8. Poor Communications
9. Software-Business Process Incompatibility
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10. Poor Project Design and Management
11. Poor ERP Package Selection
12. Others
Inadequate Requirements Definition: Inadequate requirements definition is one of the
major challenges faced by the implementation team. The requirements definition should
clearly specify the issues and problems that the ERP system is supposed to solve, the
additional capabilities expected out of the system and so on.

Resistance to Change: Implementing an ERP system is a change and it is human nature to

resistchange. So, any ERP implementation will face some amount of resistance. Users will
be skeptical about the new system. But for an ERP implementation to succeed, the co-
operation of everyone involved is an absolute necessity.
Inability to Achieve Organizational Understanding: The biggest ERP challenge faced by
organization is recognizing that the integration of previously un-integrated job functions
requiresthat knowledge workers supporting different organizational functions will now be
using the samesoftware and they will each be entering information that affects the other.
Inadequate Resources: ERP implementation is a very costly affair that requires a variety
of resources – money, people, software, hardware and so on. It is unlikely that the
company management would support the idea of unlimited funding for the ERP
implementation project.
Instead, from a control stance, a budget needs to-be established. This will be based upon an
estimate of the likely costs.
Lack of Top Management Support: The commitment of top management to the diffusion
of innovations throughout an organization has been well documented. In particular, early in
a project’s life no single factor is as predictive of its success as the support of top
management.
Lack of Organizational Readiness: The main challenge in the successful implementation
of an ERP system is the preparedness of the organization for a new system of functioning.
The management should make sure that the organization, the work process and the staff are
amenableto adapt to the ERP system.

Inadequate Training and Education: The role of training to facilitate software

implementation is well documented in the MIS literature. Lack of user training and failure
to completely understand how enterprise applications change business process frequently
appear to-be responsible for problem ERP implementations and failures.
Inaccurate Expectations: Information system failure has been defined as the inability of an
IS to met a specific stakeholder group’s expectations, and successfully managing user
expectations hasbeen found to-be related to successful systems implementation.

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Poor Package Selection: Selecting a good ERP solution provider is another challenge. It is
important to analyze the capabilities of the ERP service provider and make sure the provider
has the capabilities and the expertise to provide you with a good solution.

Poor Project Management: The contingency approach to project management suggests

that project planning and control is a function of the project’s characteristics such as project
size, experiences with the technology and project structure.
Customization Issues: Since ERP systems attempt to permit organizations to capitalize on
planned information sharing cost avoidance, they make sense when existing organization
procedures and data structures can be successfully adopted to match those implemented by
the ERP.
Poor Communication and Co-operation: Communication is the oil that keeps everything
working properly. Communication is essential within the project team, between the team
and the rest of the organization and with the client. Poor communication between
implementation team members and other organizational members was found to-be a problem
that caused many implantations to fail.

3.4 TRAINING

ERP implementation is a process that requires constant support and coordination of different
groups including the vendor, investor, and employees. There is a misconception that ERP will
work smoothly just by the implementation of the ERP tool. But the fact is that ERP implementation
can ensure success only if the employees are able to use the ERP tool the proper way.

Meaning: ERP training is something that aims at training the employees of corporate firms using ERP
solutions

Types of ERP training

-Functional Training
- Technical Training
- Corporate training
Now we can go deep into what functional training means.
Functional Training
It is a training program or course that is intended for the clients. This training can be used by
different groups including

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- Clients
- End users
- Infrastructure providers
The functional training support offered by an ERP provider helps the clients, end-users, and
infrastructure providers to get proper knowledge of the ERP. Suppose a firm is implementing Odoo
ERP, then the employees of the firm should be well aware of Odoo ERP. A functional training
course will help to achieve this task.
Technical Training
The second type of training program is technical training. As the name indicates, technical training
is something that is intended to the technical team of a firm. This training can be of benefit to IT
professionals. This support can be made use of by young professionals who are interested to learn
the basics of ERP integration and customization.
Let us now discuss the key benefits of Technical Training
- It will help the user to understand the ERP framework
- Programming languages used for the ERP development
- Best practices to be followed for ERP development
Corporate Training
Corporate training is something that aims at training the employees of corporate firms using ERP
solutions. This will also help business groups who are planning to migrate to ERP or shift from
one ERP to another.
- The key benefits of Corporate ERP training are:
- It will help the users to get training on different ERP modules that can be of use for their business
- The training team will be organizing live demonstrations and interactive sessions to help the
users

Reason for ERP training:

1. Successful Implementation:

During ERP implementation, the primary focus is on the tool itself, the changes required in
hardware and existing infrastructure, and the manpower that would be required to implement it.
However, the important factor often overlooked is training the end-users.

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2. Increased Productivity of Employees:

It is quite obvious, isn’t it? In the scenario where training is not provided, employees are not
equipped to deal with problems, if and when they arise. They either give up or wait for someone
else to solve it for them.

3. Time Effective –

However, this is what most companies with proper ERP training and most vendors providing that
training have realized.

Once the ERP is implemented in your company, it is deployed for the end-users for daily processes.
A properly-trained staff is better equipped to use ERP for business tasks. They realize the full
potential of the tool and are able to make the most of it. A lot of time that would have been spent
otherwise in troubleshooting or understanding anything new that occurred, is saved.

4. Cost-Effective –

As you might be aware, time equals money in business. With all the time saved by training
employees in ERP, you have a workforce that is spending optimal time in performing tasks. Instead
of paying them for the time they spent troubleshooting new issues or placing the request for
someone else to solve it for them, you now pay them for the work they did.

Employee training during ERP implementation might seem like an extra overhead, but it is more
than worth it in the long run.

5. Lower Risks –

The core objective of the ERP tool is to streamline the processes throughout your organization and
ensure that everyone is on the same page. However, lack of training among employees means that
most employees would not understand this core objective and continues with dealing with separate
data repositories, giving rise to the errors like redundancy and inconsistency.

6. Better Results –

So, with proper ERP training of employees, you:

• Save money
• Save time
• Make employees more productive
• Lower chances of errors
• Implement ERP faster

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It goes without saying that all these factors work together to provide better results for your
company.

7. Retaining Existing Employees –

It has been observed that most companies needed to hire new employees after implementing the
ERP system, the reason being that organizations realized that the existing employees were simply
not able to adapt to the new system, leading to poorer results. Thus, new hiring had to be made in
order to keep up with the new system.

35.DATA MIGRATION
Meaning :An ERP data migration is a complex process of relocating data from its primary
sources into a database of a newly adopted ERP system. When your company implements
a new enterprise resource planning solution, the preliminary methodical data transfer is
practically inevitable.

The company usually stores client, product, partner, and supplier data in various formats
and storage locations. ERP migration often implies moving data into a single intertwined
system to ensure a more straightforward and quicker search and extraction of needed
information.

Data Migration:

Data migration is the process of moving required volume of data from existing systems to
new systems. Existing systems can be anything from custom-built IT infrastructures to
spreadsheets and standalone databases. Data migration encompasses all the necessary steps
to cleanse, correct and move data into a new system. Technological changes, change in
providers, software updates or data warehousing/data mining projects make such delicate
and critical operations necessary.

Data migration Steps

Step 1. Development, preparation, and team assembly

Put together a team representing each department in charge of going through the data and
cleaning it. Don’t expect that the data in your new ERP system will be optimized by itself with

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 loads of messy input. The development stage includes deciding the future design, data
management, and new process documentation.

Step 2. Data analysis and migration

In-depth structural data analysis will help prevent excessive information from making through
into the final database. Any old unnecessary bits or departmental duplicates (for example, the
same data, but from a different standpoint) will be edited or removed altogether.

Step 3. Training, testing, and deployment

Testing the data in the final structure will provide the clarity of a correct outcome for every
group and department and confirm you’re on the right path. Then, train your employees and, if
needed, your customers, how to utilize the new system.

Step 4. Evaluation

Evaluate the efficiency of your new ERP system by examining:

• change in productivity
• customer satisfaction
• retention rates
• inventory process
• new workflow
Remember to consider the adjustment period before evaluation and avoid diving into it straight
after launching a new system. You can wail up until a year to see more precise results.

Step 5. Support

After the launch, support is most important. Any accidents or unexpected circumstances – and
there’s a chance for the support team to prove themselves.

ERP data migration checklist

To ensure a diligent data migration, the ERP migration project plan should also contain these
arrangements:

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• study and follow the data compliance and industry regulations
• provide your employees with the necessary ERP training
• choose key performance measurements
• check the information flow to see which data needs updating
• convert data into formats more appropriate for a new system

Data migration best practices

Sticking to the best practices will double the chances of a positive outcome:
• Choose your priorities during migration and communicate them to all parties
• Try to analyze all existing data you have and define how it should be aligned with the new ERP
database
• Be more selective and don’t migrate everything you have – you’ll end up with the same chaos, but
on a larger scale
• Don’t postpone data migration until the last week of your ERP project – kick it off as early as
possible

Data migration benefits:

Reduce risk: Data being an organization's most critical business asset, it is essential that
any manipulation be carried out without any disruption.

Lower operational expenses: Data migration is a one-off activity triggered by certain

circumstances. The data migration tool or solution reinforces the organization's resources
which can remain focused on its ongoing continuous core activities.

Improve data quality: The cleansing and correction solutions ensure perfect data integrity
after it has been migrated. From a user and development perspective, the migrated data
results are completely optimized.

From a user perspective, the data migration solutions should make sure that a strategy is put
in place to achieve maximum flexibility and quality.

36. PEOPLE ORGANISATION IN ERP IMPLEMENTATION (CONSULTANS,VENDORS&

EMPLOYEE)

ERP CONSULTANTS:

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 During 1990, ERP market was dominated by few vendors namely SAP, BaaN, Oracle,
People Soft and JD Edwards, who were also known as big five of ERP market. The market
was, then, was growing at compound rate of approximately 35%. Fortune 500 companies
were the major customers. Key focus of ERP vendors, during that period, was to expand
functional scope oftheir product and provide sharper vertical focus. Manufacturing made
up for the largest segment of ERP spending.
ERP market went into an upheaval and following trend emerges:

Increased acquisition and merger activities: Financially stronger ERP vendors started to
swallow their weaker brethren. Private Equity firms also started to play a big role. BaaN was
taken over by Invensys and subsequently by SSA Global. SSA Global was later merged with
Infor, which was supported by a large private equity company. J. D. Edwards was merged
PeopleSoft which in tern was taken over by Oracle through a hostile takeover.

Segmenting / diversifying of ERP Market: Due to saturation at top end, ERP vendors were
trying to penetrate medium and small market segments. The market thus got segmented into
tier 1(large organization), Tier 2(medium organizations) and tier 3 (small organization).
Major ERP vendors started offering products for lower end of the market either through
extension/rationalization of their products or through acquisition. ERP vendors were also
diversifying their product to different verticals. Whereas, manufacturing provided the major
chunk of their revenue, the focus area turned to retail, public sector, utility, financial sector,
and telecom.

Web enablement: Rising opportunity of ERP vendors was to leverage their existing
products with niece acquisition, to extend beyond their earlier solutions, limited to four walls
of an organization. The explosive development of internet made possible seamless web
based collaboration by organizations with their vendors and customers, such as
“mySap.com” solution from SAP and e-business suite from Oracle.

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Consultant

An Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Consultant is either a contract employee or an

employee who is part of a company that is hired to do any of the following: implement,
upgrade, or support an ERP system. The main function of the ERP consultant is to help
organizations move to ERP software.

Role of ERP consultant

1. Offering Experience, Independence: Drawing on decades of experience in enterprise
technology, the role of an ERP consultant is to view the project from an outside perspective
based on industry best practices. Independent consultants are not software resellers and do

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 not receive compensation from software companies. They keep up-to-date on the vendor
landscape, technology platforms and offerings of modern ERP and can provide unbiased
and vendor-neutral guidance.
2. Sharing Industry Knowledge: The role of an ERP consultant is to offer experience
implementing ERP software in a specific industry or with other similar businesses. A good
consultant will also suggest best practices from outside of the industry that could be of help
to the business if incorporated.
3. Providing Specialized Skill Set: The role of an ERP consultant also involves project
management, functional expertise, risk mitigation and scores of other specific skills.
4. Leading Business Process Transformation: There’s value in obtaining unbiased
opinions about what’s working or not working regarding business processes. This expert
outsider’s perspective can be invaluable throughout the project to counter the team’s
personal biases, based on their job roles and how things have been done in the past.
5. Driving Change Management: Selecting and implementing an ERP system results in
big changes for the entire business business. These changes can be overwhelming for your
team and the rest of your workforce. An ERP consultant draws on organizational change
management skills to help in user adoption and acceptance of the project.
6. Managing Implementation: When the role of an ERP consultant is involved in
implementation, the project has a higher likelihood of success when led by resources with
experience in setting the plan, project management, ERP data conversion, and all aspects
of ERP implementation. Once again, the involvement of an independent resource helps
keep the project on time, within scope and on budget – and helps mitigate any conflicts
with the vendor.
7. Providing Training: In many projects, the role of an ERP consultant is to help develop
and deliver user training, ERP education and support during the entire project – from
selection to go-live.
TYPES OF ERP CONSULTANTS

An ERP functional consultant helps you to identify the existing business process that needs to be
addressed through the ERP and whether they need to be changed or improved in any way. The
functional consultant will use the information you provide along with his own industry and
specialisation to judge the best solution for you. Of course, it is not always possible for the software
to effectively and accurately solve your problems straight out of the box.
An ERP implementation consultant is responsible for providing a consultative approach to the
successful and timely implementation of the ERP software at the clients’ site. The consultant’s
core responsibility, in this case, is to make sure the integration/implementation process goes
smoothly from start to finish. Regardless of whether you were responsible for need identification
and capacity assessment, the ERP implementation consultant’s goal is to ensure all the factors
identified are considered during implementation.

An ERP software consultant is responsible for the maintenance and customisation of the software
itself to meet the customer’s needs. This differs from the technical consultant’s job in the sense
that the professional consultant focuses on troubleshooting and the ERP software consultant
focuses on adapting the software itself to solve the problem.

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As discussed earlier, an ERP Technical Professional provides technical support, performs
troubleshooting functions and resolves customer issues. The consultant is not only an expert in the
ERP being used but will also have a good understanding of your industry and the unique
requirements that go with it.

the ERP finance consultant will still play the role of an ERP consultant but will focus on
the finance and accounting modules. The consultant will be an expert in the field of finance and
accounting, thereby allowing a more comprehensive assessment of issues and hiccups faced in the
implementing of finance and accounting modules.

ERP VENDORS :

ERP vendors are business software developers and providers that create, sell and
implement enterprise resource planning systems. Vendors are also responsible for
developing updates and additional releases to keep up with changes in their clients'
industries. Examples include Oracle, Infor, SAP and Microsoft Dynamics.

Types of ERP Vendors

1.Niche based ERP Vendors

2.Mass Market ERP Vendors
3. Add-on type ERP Vendors

The first type are those vendors who focus solely on the unique market, such as lumber, injection
molding, food processing, and a slew of other specialty markets.

The second type of vendors are the ones who can do all for everyone. The vendors serve the mass
market of companies well, but sometimes do not meet the most detail of industry specific
requirements. The vendors include SAP, Oracle, and Microsoft.

The last type are those vendors who do some of an ERP’s functionality, but not all. They may only
do accounting, or just manufacturing, or even just an inventory management solution. They have
pre-defined partners who together form a complete enterprise solution

Essential factors in the ERP vendor selection

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Structured approach. A key step in the selection of a new ERP vendor is to adopt a structured
approach to the process. The set of practices shall be presented to the stakeholders within the
enterprise before the selection process begins
The total cost of ownership. Not all of the costs may be apparent in the vendor proposal, there
may be hidden costs with the purchase of software.
Involvement by top management. The decision on the selection of the ERP vendor must be
made by top management and stakeholders of the enterprise.
Focused demonstrations. Demonstrations by potential ERP vendors shall be simple and
relevant to your business. However, it is important to understand that there is a considerable
amount of preparation required by vendors to perform demonstrations that are specific to your
business.

Some Key Vendors

▪ SAP: They are the largest ERP solution provider with more than 75.000 customers and 12
million users and holding around 30% of market share. The flagship Solution, R/3 is unmatched
for its sophistication and robustness. R/3 software gives an option of around 1000 pre-
configured business processes. This solution is available in all major currencies and languages
and can be hosted on several Operating Systems and Databases. As mid market option, SAP
has brought out, Business All in One, a solution with industrytailored configurations. SAP
offering for smaller organization is SAP Business One. SAP offers a hosted solution, namely
SAP Business by Design, for organizations lacking IT resources.
▪ Oracle: Oracle is next to SAP in ERP market breadth, depth and share. It offers a
comprehensive, multilingual and multi currency solution, mostly through its channel partners..
It is the first to implement internet computing model for developing anddeploying its product.
Oracle also took over various ERP solution providers during 2000 such as People Soft, JD
Edwards, Retek (retail industry solution), and Siebel (customer relationship management
software). It has taken up project Fusion (based on Service Oriented Architecture) to integrate
various products, outcome of which is keenly awaited.
▪ Infor: Infor is of recent origin and expanded through a number of acquisitions. Itsacquisition
of SSA global during 2006 made it a forerunner as ERP solution provider. SSA global had two
strong product lines, BPCS and BaaN. SSA also made a number of other acquisitions, such as
MAPICS, Lily Software Associate and GEAC. SSA is focused on building, buying and
integrating best of breed solutions.
▪ Microsoft Dynamics: Microsoft, which did not have an ERP portfolio, started by acquiring a
host of ERP products like Navision, Solomon, Great Plain and Axapta. Excepting Axapta,
which is strong in manufacturing and suitable for mid market, other products are meant for
smaller organizations. Microsoft is much dependent on channel partners, not only for sales and
consulting but also for add on development. Theirsolutions are closely integrated with their
office suit.

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