Mobilize the Workforce by Mobilizing ERP
Mobility isn’t about shiny new toys, it’s about empowering your workforce.
- Organizations who want to embrace the mobile trend usually begin with a customer-facing application. The biggest financial gains, however, can be realized by mobilizing internal business processes and therefore mobilizing ERP.
- IT often does not know where to start when deciding which business process should be mobilized first.
- Organizations must first decide whether mobile ERP is right for them, and then decide how to pursue mobile ERP before the IT project can begin.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Mobile ERP is not as simple as buying the latest mobile ERP add-on from your ERP vendor. Starting with a comprehensive business process assessment will save valuable time and resources.
- Exception handling by management will be a key source of value from mobilizing your ERP system.
- There are many different routes for pursuing mobile ERP; assessing your IT department’s ability to develop mobile applications will be the core activity to determine which route is best for your organization.
Impact and Result
- Increase usage of your ERP system by end users and make the management team in your organization more efficient by allowing them to handle exceptions on the fly.
- Turn the old ERP system everyone hates using into a lean and sleek software application that drives measurable improvements in productivity.
- Save over $45,000 when mobilizing your ERP system with Info-Tech’s Project Blueprint.
Workshop: Mobilize the Workforce by Mobilizing ERP
Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Assess the current state
The Purpose
- To determine if your organization should pursue mobile ERP
Key Benefits Achieved
- A go or no go decision regarding your organization’s need for mobile ERP
Activities
Outputs
Rank enterprise goals
- A go or no go decision
External trend analysis
- Business process mobility assessment
Business process assessment
- Potential value by business process identified
Opportunity Assessment
- Assessment of current mobile ERP inventory
Identification of current mobile capabilities
Module 2: Move forward with mobile ERP
The Purpose
- Assess your organization’s mobile development maturity level
Key Benefits Achieved
- A recommendation about how to pursue mobile ERP given your organization’s mobile development maturity level
Activities
Outputs
Assessment of design capabilities
- Mobile development maturity assessment
Assessment of development capabilities
- A recommended course of action to pursue mobile ERP
Assessment of testing capabilities
Assessment of maintenance capabilities
Module 3: Craft a business case
The Purpose
- Build the business case for mobile ERP and sell it to senior management
Key Benefits Achieved
- A heavily quantitative based business case
- Tip for securing a senior management champion
Activities
Outputs
Mobile ERP benefit assessment
- Business case deliverable completed
Mobile ERP cost assessment
Module 4: Determine ERP form and function
The Purpose
- To gather mobile ERP requirements with use cases and design solution using end user workshops
Key Benefits Achieved
- Provide a template to capture all mobile ERP use cases
- Best practice workshop activities to gain end user feedback with limited effort and time commitment
Activities
Outputs
Use case development
- Established use cases
Data assessment
- Analysis of the data requirements for mobile ERP
Form factor analysis
- Analysis of form factors to use when pursing mobile ERP
Platform analysis
- Analysis of the platforms that can be used when developing mobile ERP
Application type recommendation
- Analysis of what type of application should be build given certain process constraints
User interface design workshop activities
- Workshop activities to speed up the UX design process
Module 5: Implement the project
The Purpose
- Implement your mobile ERP project
Key Benefits Achieved
- Best practice analysis for implementing the mobile ERP project
- A populated project plan
Activities
Outputs
Understand how to manage an internal development process
- A populated mobile ERP project plan
Develop a vendor management strategy
- A thorough understanding of best practices for managing vendors
How to test your new mobile ERP application
- High level overview of best practices from the Software Development Life Cycle framework
Maintaining your mobile ERP application
Develop a monitoring program to gauge the success of the application
Module 6: Roll out the app
The Purpose
- Prepare for roll-out of your brand new mobile ERP application
Key Benefits Achieved
- Understand best practices for rolling out a mobile ERP application
Activities
Outputs
Corporate app store analysis
- A thorough understanding of best practices for app distribution, communication, and end user training
Communication best practices
- Describe how to use the Process Based Documentation template
End user training best practices
Document the business processes
About Info-Tech
Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.
We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.
What Is a Blueprint?
A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.
Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.
Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst
Get the help you need in this 1-phase advisory process. You'll receive 6 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.
- Call 1: Determine if you should pursue mobile ERP
Walk through Part 1 of the Mobile ERP Opportunity Assessment Tool and determine if your organization is ready for mobile ERP. Discuss the long-term implications when considering mobile ERP and how this may affect how you leverage the ERP product roadmap.
- Call 2: Determine a course of action – buy or build
Part 2 of the Mobile ERP Opportunity Assessment Tool will be discussed as well as the results of this section. One of our analysts will help explain what the results mean to your organization and the different options available to pursue mobile ERP.
- Call 3: Build the business case and sell it
The last part of the Mobile ERP Opportunity Assessment Tool provides a framework for determining the financial return from mobilizing your ERP system.
- Call 4: Complete the use case
Unique requirements exist for mobile ERP applications. This GI will discuss those unique requirements and provide an overview of the Mobile ERP Use Case and Requirements Gathering Template.
- Call 5: Build the project plan
While this step does not guide your IT department through the build or buy process, this step discusses specific issues that must be addressed when implementing mobile ERP.
- Call 6: Prepare to roll-out your brand new mobile ERP application
The final step is to prepare for the roll-out of the mobile ERP application. Documenting and preparing a change management plan will be essential for encouraging adoption of the mobile ERP application.
Contributors
- Chris Devault, Panorama Consulting
- Joe Topinka, Red Wing Shoes
- Ian van Haeringen, B&R Enclosures
- James Wisdom, City of Lawrence, Kansas
- Walter Kwiatek, Bioventus Global
- Sue Penick, Bennington Marine
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