5 Essentials for Successful ERP Implementation

5 Essentials for Successful ERP Implementation

Sun Tzu's The Art of War is known as one of the most respected treatises on military strategy in history. But the Art of War deals with more than just military strategy; it also addresses issues of leadership, management skills, decision making and team building which is needed for a successful ERP implementation.

Upgrading your Accounting, Inventory and IT Software systems in your company can be compared with sending your army to war. Sun Tzu says 'In War, there is 5 essentials for achieving victory'. We will explore how this can help us in achieving successful ERP Implementation.

He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight

When implementing Accounting and Inventory Upgrade in your company, there will be of tasks vying the attention of the Project Manager. It is critical for the PM to be able to prioritize, and focus on what is important. Team members, vendors or staffs will bring to your attention issues which they think is urgent. But as Sun Tzu says, we need to know when to fight and when not to fight. Therefore, some issues would need to be knowingly delayed when they have lower impact to the project.

He will win who knows how to handle both superior and inferior forces.

We dream to implement a project with strong and capable team members. But this rarely happens, and in reality, most of the time you would need to deal with both great, and not so great. If your team comprise of inexperienced staff, then you will have a great challenge. However, with whatever resource available, you need to be able to handle and lead the team to victory.

Implementing a IT Upgrade Project with seniors would need different handling then if your team is made up of juniors. Seniors, even if experienced, may have their own views of the project plan, which you need to manage. Juniors on the other hand, would need more guidance and support. So, as Project Manager, one need to handle the resource you have to meet the project goals.

He will win whose army is animated by the same spirit throughout all its ranks

Team and company motivation to succeed is important for the success of the IT Implementation. The new system and process is a disruptive force to the company, therefore users need to be motivated to change to the new system, else they would find way to hold back to keep the status-quo of their current work. The Project Manager need to be able to keep the members and departments focused on the main objective of the IT implementation.

For the implementors, it will be a long process to change. With difficulties and challenges faced, the Project Manager must boost the team mentality to strive to do their best to achieve the goal they believe in. A cohesive team, under a strong Leader, can achieve more then what they can do individually, especially if they have team spirit.

He will win who, prepared himself, waits to take the enemy unprepared

Effective preparation is essential to the success of any project. As mentioned in the previous article, before starting the project, even at every stage of the implementation, you would need to ensure you have sufficient resources, understand the stage requirement well, and studied the potential problems and outcome. If you prepared well, the battle is half-won.

He will win who has military capacity and is not interfered with by the sovereign

The role of a Project Manager is to ensure the success of the Software Upgrade Project. When the person is assigned the role, he should be given sufficient decision authority to ensure Project Success. Nothing is more difficult then if the Management Project Sponsor, which is more often the Company Director or Owner, who wants to be 'hands-on' in the project. They may meant well, but in the end would really be just getting in the way.

If the Project Manager is capable, he should not only manage downstream, but upstream as well, giving assurance to the Boss of the project progress and plan. This should include getting sufficient information from the Project Owner on the expectations of the software. The Project Owner on the other hand, would need to provide clear and consistent objective to the Project Manager, allowing the project to have clear direction from the start.

Conclusion

Sun Tzu's Art of War has a lot of wisdom that can be applied to achieve successful Project Implementation. It contains much more advice on leadership and management advice, which we will cover in future articles. Eventhough these were written a long time ago, it surely can still be applied now!