With increase in business pace, the management needs a holistic view of business operations and

every employee would require the information to do their jobs more effectively. Every business, no
matter how big or small, requires an ERP system which gives 360 visibility into operations, so that
problems are more easily identified and thus provides better customer experience.

An ERP implementation involves installing the software, moving your data over to the new system,
configuring your users and processes, and training your users on the software. Before we look at the
implementation process in detail, we must understand that every company is unique and requires a
flexible, industry-specific software. The essential elements of a successful ERP implementation
depend on:

1. Strategic planning & Capture detailed requirements: Consists of processes that help define
the need, vision and scope of the project. For finding the best fit solution for the business we
need to probe deeper by conducting a series of group interviews with key stakeholders
across all departments in the organization to bring those detailed requirements to the
surface. Stepping through use cases and discussing what-if operation scenarios is another
technique to gather system requirements.

2. Choose the Right Solution: Depending on the business needs, ERP implementation can be
categorized into three types Express(Out-of-the-box), Standard (Minimal customization &
add-ons) and Advanced (Complex Customizations & Multiple Phases). Review the software
capabilities and how well it can be tailored as per business processes.

3. Budget & Resource Planning: A projects budget depends on levels of customization, user
trainings, product upgradation and number of resources involved.

4. Data Collection & Clean-up: Data drives the business, so it is very important that the data is
accurate. Data must be collected from all sources, further segmented into logical tables and
then it must be reviewed for accuracy and completeness.

5. Build and Deploy: Consists of a set of processes to ensure a solution meets the clients
requirements and is ready for full deployment to a live environment.

6. Training and Testing: Real life scenarios are run to test for data accuracy to ensure that all
necessary interfaces are designed, and integration issues are resolved so the software works
in concert with other systems. Project team member is assigned to conduct in-house training
for all the functional areas. Additional tools, such as cheat sheet and training documents are
provided to employees of all the departments.

7. Go-Live and Post Production Support: Complex projects can reap high rewards, but they can
also be susceptible to risk. It is important to develop a final Go-Live checklist which gives a
structured evaluation plan which ties back to the goals and objectives that were set in the
planning stage. In addition to this, it is often beneficial to invest additional time to post-
implementation Recap trainings for the users.