ERP Project Management | Project Management of ERP Implementation

ERP Implementation Project Management Consultants

October 15, 2024 | 1004 Comments | Michael Burns

The rubber hits the road when you implement an ERP system. You need to be ready for it, which requires you to define the roles and responsibilities for the project and assign people to each role. It is best to use your own people for all roles with the possible exception of the project manager. Many organizations don’t have the internal project management expertise, or their resources are not available. Therefore, it makes sense to bring in an expert who has been there and done it before to help you mitigate the risks and guide you to a successful implementation. […]

AI Project Management Hype

October 1, 2024 | 9 Comments | Michael Burns

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How Long Does ERP Implementation Really Take?

April 18, 2024 | 1303 Comments | Michael Burns

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Evaluating the Statement of Work – Project Management

December 21, 2021 | 1115 Comments | Michael Burns

The Statement of Work (SOW) provided by the vendor for an ERP implementation is a critical document. It is the vendor’s way of defining the terms of the engagement and it is understandably used by them to maximize their profitability and to protect themselves when things go wrong. The SOW is not like other contracts that have been vetted by the lawyers many times and very difficult to change. The vendors will negotiate the terms in the SOW, and you need to review it carefully especially with regard to scope and roles and responsibilities. We are going to write […]

Are ERP Implementations Doomed to Fail?

December 17, 2021 | 6 Comments | Michael Burns

You have probably read something like the following: “A recent (2021) survey found that more than half of organizations deploying ERP strategies to modernize their legacy technology experienced failure.” “Research has found out that globally from 55% up to 75% of all ERP projects fail.” But have you ever wondered whether? The authority is exaggerating the facts to attract new clients Whether the facts are accurate Whether the organizations included in the research are very large companies with more risk What was the basis for failure? Our experience is that ERP selection and implementation projects are not doomed to failure. […]

Hitchhiker’s Guide to Technology Solutions

May 18, 2021 | 11 Comments | Michael Burns

180 Systems is presenting a workshop for CPA Canada on June 16, 2021 from 1 pm to 4 pm EST with guidance and best practice for: Business Case System Optimization System Selection Contract Negotiation Implementation Transition Management Emerging Technology RPA Project Management Change Management You can register for this workshop by clicking here or contacting Michael at mburns@180systems.com if you have questions. […]

Beware of Roles and Responsibilities in an ERP Implementation

March 6, 2020 | 1050 Comments | 180systems

Let’s assume you did a thorough job in evaluating the ERP systems/vendors and are in contract negotiations with the preferred vendor. You will be asked to agree to many things including their assumptions on roles and responsibilities for activities such as testing, integration, documenting business process design… The problem is that you have no idea whether the allocation of activity between the vendor and your organization is reasonable. Unfortunately, you may learn the hard way when the vendor issues change requests (and higher costs) for work that was assumed to be your responsibility but for which you need a lot […]

Is Your Implementation On Track?

February 1, 2018 | 22 Comments | 180systems

February 2018 from CPA Magazine and written by Michael Burns – “Senior executives of any organization that is going through a major system implementation worry whether the implementation project will cause huge problems when it goes live or whether the costs and time estimates are accurate. The project manager might be telling them all is well but project managers have been wrong on occasion. How do you look under the covers of a project to see what is really happening?”… Read more […]

So the project has gone belly-up, what now?

December 15, 2015 | 15 Comments | 180systems

December 3, 2015 from LinkedIn – “Most SMEs and many larger companies are not experienced in running projects. It is just not something they need to do on a regular basis and certainly not with this much at stake. An investment in the services of a skilled internal Project Manager is rarely a waste of money. It will often cost you more to skimp in this area and then have to recover afterwards…” Read more 180 View – The author, a business development manager for Pronto Software, makes a number of really good comments on why implementation projects fail and […]

Demonstration Scripts

December 10, 2015 | 4 Comments | 180systems

A demonstration script is critical to the selection process but there are huge differences on how to do this. Rather than criticize the techniques we have read, I will share our methodology with you: Two demonstrations – You don’t want to go too deep on the first demonstration unless you are positive that the vendor will not waste your time (or their time) 1st demonstration – We base it on a small subset of the most important requirements in the RFP and limit the time to about 3 hours. We allocate a certain amount of time to each requirement and then […]