ERP Implementation Process Steps

ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning. It is integrated software for all business processes of the organization. It has two major parts - software and its implementation. Enterprise Resource Planning software can be purchased by ERP companies and implementation can be done by either Company or vendor; ERP vendor provides services and consultancy to the organizations. Before implementation of an ERP system organization needs to take consultancy by industry experts. ERP implementation is quite important for the organization, but implementing successfully is a major challenge and organization must have proper road map for the implementation. If one has failed to make proper blueprint for the implementation, the chances of failure implementation will be high.

ERP implementation process should be divided in steps. Major focus should be on pre-implementation readiness work, implementation project management and continuous improvement of business systems. At the time of making plan for implementation organization has to think about the future growth and technology changes.

Here implementation steps are divided in 8 phase month wise to organize project data and manage change. It supports complex implementation. Some organization may have very simple process or typical processes. For all type of organization these pre-implementation, implementation, and improvement plan are very important.

In the beginning of the project i.e. first month, you should establish and prepare project resources and control structure. Along with this top level visioning planning and review of best practices should be done by top management. In the next phase which starts from second or third month, you should conduct detailed business process mapping to identify the GAP. It can take two to three months depending on your business processes. During this phase you can develop selected business process objectives and specifications for ERP implementation.

After the detailed process mapping and SRS (system requirement study) study, align the specification for implementation with the business software being implemented with selected vendor. In the next phase you can make plan along with vendor for implementation. Give implementation charge to project manager; one project manager should from vendor side and one form your company. These two managers will be responsible for whole ERP project. In the next phase project will be implemented and in the final phase migrate remaining processes to be supported by ERP software. It will take 3-4 months time.

These implementation steps will help you to implement ERP in your organization successfully without any major problems.

Copyright © Nick Mutt, All Rights Reserved. If you want to use this article on your website or in your ezine, make all the urls (links) active.
Read information on Comparison of Small Business ERP Software and how to select the right ERP. Know about ERP Software Companies in India in SME Segment.