Changing the way employees work when installing a new ERP system
can be the biggest obstacle IT managers face in projects, according
to attendees at the IFS software conference in Berlin this
week.
IT managers who successfully deployed ERP systems
advised others managing similar projects to allow plenty
oftime in project plans for selling the benefits of the
system to users and for training.
Torbjorn Nibelius is a logistics and supplier manager
responsible for training 4,500 users in ERP skills at aerospace
manufacturer Saab Aerostructures. He said getting buy-in from line
managers is the essential first step.
"Provide line managers with information well in advance, because
if you cannot convince them first, you will not be able to convince
the end-users they manage to buy in and this will stall the
implementation," said Nibelius.
Saab Aerostructures kept end-users informed on the progress of
ERP project on its corporate intranet site from procurement through
to implementation, to raise employee's confidence in the system.
The group ran more than 150 training sessions and introduced
web-based training for those employees that could not attend
classes.
David Redpath, Group head of IT at construction firm Hertel,
said that his challenge was to convice employees of the merits of
the ERP system up front.
"We took a road show of our new system to users and gave them
the opportunity to ask questions one on one. We also introduced a
phased roll out of our ERP system, so that once one group of
employees saw the benefits, their word of mouth would help promote
it to other departments," he said.
John Logie, a manager at First Engineering which designs
railways, said that communication between IT and employees is
vital, if projects are to be successful.
"If end users are not made aware of the decisions IT are taking
on systems that will impact on the way they work they will have had
no reason to buy into it and will increase the time it takes for
the system to actually start delivering benefits," he said.
Logie was in charge of training 1,000 users with a team of 18
four weeks before a new ERP system went live. He said that
challenge was to coordinate training with the deployment, rather
than run it two or three weeks in advance, when there was a danger
that staff would forget their new skills.
"In the two months leading up to the four weeks of training, we
ran a poster campaign in all five of its regional offices and at
its 70 regional depots, so that the scale and importance of the
project was understood by workers," he said
The company also used
web-based training. It monitored the process so managers knew
who was turning up for training, how long they stayed for and
whether or not they were just clicking through tutorials. Logie
also received management backing in handling employees who had been
avoiding training.
Derek Prior, a research director at AMR, said management support
is also vital when it comes to chosing the right ERP system.
"ERP is not just an IT project. IT and the business have to work
together to find where the pain points for end users are
operationally how they do their jobs, and functionally what
features they need to get the job done. By doing this, they can
select the right package."
Prior cited a study by the London School of Economics and
McKinsey. It found that companies which installed sophisticated IT
systems with weak management and organisational support only
achieved a 2% return on their investment, compared against those
with strong management support and sophisticated IT systems, which
achieved a 20% return on investment.
Garter analyst Chris Pang said that ERP deployments can usually
take a year for an organisation to prepare, given breadth of change
required. "Businesses also need to plan support users
post-implementation - at least two to three months into a system
going live. Training expert users to help others is one way of
doing this for lean IT departments."