REPORT
The 2024 Top 10 ERP Systems Report
Our experts have highlighted ten vendors that can help your organization make data-driven decisions.
Learn more
Is Your ERP Implementation Suffering From a Vitamin C Deficiency?
We often write and present about the challenges and pitfalls of ERP implementations as well as some of the best practices associated with making an ERP system work for organizations. Our clients look to us to provide the expertise, methodology, and toolset to make...Five Tips to Address the Challenges of a Successful ERP Implementation
Two months in and I’m convinced this is going to be a great year, as the economy is steadily bouncing back. With this promising news, VAI is already starting to see more enterprises regaining confidence in making more significant technology investments. However, even...
How to Sell an ERP Implementation or Upgrade to Your Boss
Managers are often the first people who see the need for a new ERP system. They field inquiries from customers, complaints from staff members and demands from the executive level. But selling change (especially change as expensive as ERP), takes both finesse and hard...Pinch Hitters’ Guide to Six Sigma and ERP
Six Sigma is a term companies equate to resource overload, too much money, and time consumption, which can certainly act as a deterrent for companies focused on the bottom line. However, because ERP software is often used to improve business processes, it can be of...Back in the Saddle Again: Getting Your ERP Implementation Back on Track
Unfortunately, ERP implementations still aren’t any easier than they were 15 years ago when I started in the ERP world. Despite the enterprise software industry’s best intentions to mitigate risk with cloud ERP systems, implementation accelerators, and other tools,...The Executive’s Role in an ERP Implementation
There is no such thing as ERP success without leadership and governance from the executive level. As much as some C-suiters would like to defer involvement in and responsibility for an ERP implementation to their IT department or some other functional area, it is...The Perils of a Micromanaged ERP System Implementation
As anyone who has ever been micromanaged by a supervisor can tell you, its effects can be disastrous. But when it’s undertaken by a leader in a project as important as an ERP implementation, the results can be absolutely fatal . . . at least to the health of the...What’s Your Organization’s Internal Reputation?
When Joan Jett sang, “I don’t give a damn ’bout my reputation,” she probably wasn’t speaking as part of the C-suite. Truth is, executives put a lot of time and effort into what their clients, potential clients and the public at large...Post-Mortem Analysis of ERP Lawsuits and Failure Points
As recently outlined in the press, two high-profile organizations have fallen victim to yet two more ERP implementation failures. SuperDry and Tesco Bank, both based in the UK, blamed their recent financial woes on disastrous ERP failures. SuperDry, a fashion...Ten Questions to Ask Before Beginning a Global ERP Implementation
ERP systems can be a bear to implement regardless of whether the organization is a private, domestic corporation with a few offices or a public, multi-national spread across dozens of countries. But, for obvious reasons, the latter of the two has some very real and...Remember the Little – But Important – Things When Creating Your ERP Implementation Playbook
I’m a big fan of American football and I get excited with the start of each new season. One of the things I like most about the sport is that each moment of the game is carefully scripted and executed, with a tremendous amount of detail going into each play....ERP Training Tips
You’ve heard us say time and time again that no ERP implementation is successful without focused, comprehensive end-user training. No matter how bright you think your people are, no matter how adaptive everyone is to changes and new technologies, there just is...Special Challenges of Public-Sector ERP Implementations
As we’ve covered in great detail in this blog over the last several years, ERP implementations can be a grind. It’s tough to finish on time and on budget while at the same time delivering expected business benefits. Whether you are working for a commercial...The Four Macro-Ingredients of a Successful ERP Implementation
Years ago, as a new sales associate, I watched Olie Wight’s MRP videotapes sitting in the library of IBM’s Harrisburg office. Little did I realize that I was viewing the recorded birth of an approach that soon would generate billions of dollars of revenue for my...Managing and Exploiting Risk in ERP Implementations
Lets take a look at how risk can make or break an ERP implementation. To begin with, the term “risk” has a negative connotation. Whenever we talk about risk factor/s, we think we need to focus on mitigating the risk to ensure success. In reality, risk can also be...Must-Know Tips Before ERP Implementation
In our recently released 2011 Guide to ERP Systems and Vendors, I wrote a list of the top 20 tips I have collected over years of both participating in and observing ERP system implementations and other large IT projects. While I won’t go into the whole list...Preserving the Manufacturing Brain Trust
There’s an awful lot of accumulated manufacturing knowledge on the typical shop floor. Losing a skilled shop floor worker is a significant loss for the enterprise in terms of process knowledge. Manufacturers can only hope that there is sufficient documentation...
How to Choose an ERP Rollout Strategy
Successful ERP implementations are launched from successful ERP rollout strategies. Defining an ERP rollout strategy at the beginning of your implementation is crucial. ERP rollout strategies include: Big bang approach Phased rollout Parallel rollout Hybrid approach...King of Pain: Are ERP Systems as Hard as They Seem?
Our consulting teams are in the process of helping several companies across the country with their ERP selection and vendor contract negotiations. This is the point in an ERP software project where optimism runs high and the possibilities are endless: a new system to...
