Why should you spend time understanding the dynamics of a complex digital project? And why should you increase your readiness and flexibility as an organisation before choosing an ERP system? Find out in this blog post.
Either you've already read my first blog post, "Why nobody really cares about an ERP project" and have naturally come to this post, or you've clicked in via a post directly. If you are in the former category - thank you very much. You haven't given up after reading my subjective outpourings! If you've clicked in directly here, welcome and hold your horses: I'd recommend you start by reading my first post via the link above, as that is where I talk into why preparation is so important before launching larger and more complex ERP projects (and digital transformations for that matter). Should you already belong to the 'true faith' and very well know that good and proper preparation is important, go on from here.
This post is going to be relatively 'analysis nerdy' so if you don't want to bother reading all the intermediate calculations, have a look at the figures and skip to the last paragraph, where I reiterate why preparation is essential and how a target vision is an important catalyst for a successful ERP project.
The ERP target picture as the framework for the good start and implementation of an ERP project
As mentioned earlier, an ERP target picture is "a fundamentally structured and managed process that drives a collection of data, facilitates a series of key decisions, and provides a series of artifacts for the decision-making process required in an ERP project".
OK. Thanks for the management consulting definition, you might be thinking. So what does it really mean?
Basically, it means establishing a knowledge base within the company that makes you clear about what you want to achieve through the ERP project and a realistic assessment of how mature you actually are on a number of key parameters before you get started.
When should I use my ERP target picture?
As I have described earlier, I do not believe that the typical ERP software selection process can deliver the maturity of business readiness required to succeed with an ERP project (unless you incorporate the target picture process as a component of it).
Furthermore, I believe that the success of an ERP project depends more on how you manage assumptions and risks than on which system you choose (tough claim). Most modern ERP systems can do pretty much the same thing, so unless you are a very large and complex company, with very unique requirements, the 5-6 most widely used platforms will be able to do the job 90% of the time.
Above in figure 1 I show where I see the 'target picture' fitting into a typical ERP project process. It is thus in the middle between a recognized need and the actual practical selection process - and thus enriches both the choice of system vendor and system, but also the whole parallel mobilization and ongoing project management, as well as the benefit-expectation and realization the project should bring about.
Do I need all that hassle?
You can skip these steps and take them in a 'light-version' as part of a system selection process. Especially for smaller projects, this can make a lot of sense. However, for larger complex projects I would not recommend it. Most literature points to the same challenges with large and complex (digital) projects and can typically be summarized in some of the following challenges:
- Poor management buy-in
- Poor target management
- Poor risk management
- Poor requirements management
- Over-optimistic estimation
- Too long process
- Poor choice of supplier
- Poor management of change
- …
And so on, and so on.