Select and Implement an ERP Solution | Info-Tech Research Group

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Organizations rarely have sufficient internal resources to power an ERP implementation project, forcing them to turn to external partnerships.
Inadequate requirements can stall the implementation and lead to unrealized ROI. Many ERP implementations fail due to a lack of clear description and specification of functional requirements.
The ERP technology market is so vast that it becomes nearly impossible to know where to start or how to differentiate between vendors and products.
Ad hoc procurement leads to untracked, unlicensed software purchases. A hasty and uninformed selection is doomed to result in the wrong solution.
Selecting a best-fit solution requires balancing needs, cost, and vendor capability. Scrutinize your technology needs in relation to internal capability for a stronger selection and implementation approach.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

ERP is a career killer.
- Upfront investment of time and resources into project planning will prevent post-implementation regret.
Partner selection is just as important as technology selection, if not more so.
- Ensure you understand what due diligence is required in partner selection. Choose a partner whose strategy and support structure align to those of your own organization.
Deployment models are not binary.
- Think beyond cloud vs. on-premises ERP. Understand alternatives and cloud-hybrid models to find the best fit for your organization’s unique requirements.

Impact and Result

Leverage Info-Tech’s comprehensive three-phased approach to ERP selection projects, starting with assessing your organization’s preparedness to go into the selection stage, moving through technology selection, and preparing for implementation.
Conduct an ERP project preparedness assessment as a means to ensure you maximize the value of your time, effort, and spend.
Determine what use case your organization fits into and review the relevant vendor landscape, common capability, and areas of product differentiation. Review SoftwareReview’s vendor reports to short-list vendors for your RFP process.
Take advantage of traceable and auditable selection tools to run an effective demonstration, evaluation, and selection process. Be prepared to explain your ERP choice with documentation of your selection process and outputs.
Use Info-Tech’s ERP implementation framework to kick-start the planning for your ERP implementation project.

Select and Implement an ERP Solution Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read this concise Executive Brief to understand where the ERP market is today, review best practices for ERP selection, and kick-start your ERP implementation planning.

Select and Implement an ERP Solution – Executive Brief

1. Launch the ERP project and collect requirements

Launch your ERP selection and implementation project and develop your organization's ERP requirements.

2. Select your ERP vendor

Short-list and evaluate vendors to select an ERP solution.

3. Plan your ERP implementation

Kick-start planning efforts for the ERP implementation and establish governance structures and metrics.

4. Appendix: ERP Vendor Landscape

Understand the products offered by the major vendors in the ERP marketplace.

Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.1/10

Overall Impact

$22,042

Average $ Saved

14

Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority

Guided Implementation

9/10

$10,000

5

Lisa has gone above and beyond to find relevant research and people that helps guide us forward. Very knowledgeable support.

Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$62,999

20

TransForm Shared Service Organization

Guided Implementation

10/10

$25,000

20

Taiga Building Products

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

Brockton Everlast Management Limited

Guided Implementation

10/10

$17,100

14

BWX TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

5

Long Beach Transit

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

32

Robert is extremely knowledgeable.

LGM Financial Services

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,000

5

This meeting really helped us realize we were headed down a wrong path working with a vendor-centric implementer to determine our ERP needs, and we have subsequently signed up for a full ITRG workshop on this topic. Thank you.

Trinidad / Benham Corporation

Guided Implementation

9/10

$29,139

20

Inline Plastics

Guided Implementation

10/10

$11,305

10

State of Hawaii

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

Ohio CAT

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,519

2

American Foods Group

Guided Implementation

9/10

$27,279

4

HEXO Operations Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$1M

20

Mark knows his stuff, I hope he was heard by the executives on the line!

Jamaica Broilers Group Ltd.

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

N/A

Sumitomo Corporation of Americas

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A

Knights of Columbus

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

We are just beginning out ERP journey and really needed to figure out where to start. Gleb was very helpful in pointing me to ways to begin the ERP journey and how that may intersect with our CRM initiative as well.

DCI Marketing Inc

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A

London Health Sciences Centre and St. Joseph?s Health Care, London

Guided Implementation

7/10

$9,000

4

Focus on where to find info. Not enough time to drill into areas.

Napoleon Products

Guided Implementation

10/10

$23,500

2

It was a quick call, and helped me galvanize my thoughts. Thank you.

McKeil Marine Limited

Guided Implementation

10/10

$25,000

10

Twin Disc

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

Best part was to have a conversation with a knowledgeable practitioner who understood the problem from a CIO perspective. Difficult to estimate time/cost savings at this point as I am in preliminary investigation of what is available in the market place.

El Dorado Irrigation District

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

N/A

We are early in planning for a major software application upgrade, and the advice avoided us from going down a non-optimal path.

UC Irvine, Division of Continuing Education

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

32

Give and Go Prepared Foods Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

$50,000

5

Good assessment of the product and the market - I've inherited a commitment to a software, so now the job is salvaging the best and avoiding pitfalls.

Lee County Clerk of Courts

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

N/A

This was an initial call and, therefore, we cannot estimate savings on time or money. However, this definitely gave us a place to start and a path to take. We look forward to future work on this project.

Twin Disc

Guided Implementation

10/10

$636K

32

Having a conversation with an extremely knowledgeable person who has the experience and ability to relate to our business problem, The hour flew by but we were able to cover all of my concerns in that time. Well done Mark!

Load More Testimonials

Workshop: Select and Implement an ERP Solution

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: Workshop Preparation

The Purpose

The facilitator will work with the team to verify organizational readiness for the ERP project and form the ERP project team.

Key Benefits Achieved

Level-set on organizational readiness for ERP.
Organizational project alignment.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Introduce the workshop and complete an overview of activities.

1.2

Complete organizational context assessment to level-set understanding.

1.3

Complete ERP organizational readiness assessment.

ERP readiness assessment

1.4

Form ERP project team.

Structured project team

Module 2: Scope ERP Selection Roadmap

The Purpose

Determine what the business needs to get out of the ERP solution.
Build the selection roadmap and project plan.

Key Benefits Achieved

Comprehensive ERP selection roadmap.
Business and ERP solution alignment.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Scope the ERP selection project.

2.2

Refine the ERP roadmap with selection work initiatives.

Selection roadmap

2.3

Determine selection project resourcing.

2.4

Begin high-level requirements gathering.

ERP requirements

Module 3: Gather ERP Requirements

The Purpose

Gather functional and non-functional requirements for the ERP solution.

Key Benefits Achieved

Business requirements document.
Business and ERP solution alignment.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

ERP requirements gathering.

ERP requirements

3.2

Identify non-functional requirements for ERP.

3.3

Document requirements in requirements package.

3.4

Review RFP considerations.

RFP considerations

Module 4: Analyze Vendor Profiles

The Purpose

Disambiguate the complex ERP market to short-list ERP vendors for your organization and business needs.

Key Benefits Achieved

Narrow your options for ERP selection to best-fit vendors.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Perform a use-case scenario assessment and identify use-case alignment.

4.2

Review ERP vendor landscape analysis.

4.3

Short-list vendors for RFP consideration.

ERP vendor shortlist

4.4

Investigate additional vendors for exploration in the marketplace.

Module 5: Workshop Debrief

The Purpose

Prepare the project team for next steps.

Key Benefits Achieved

Next steps determined.

Activities

Outputs

5.1

Meet with project manager to discuss results and action items.

5.2

Support project team in outlining RFP contents and evaluation framework.

RFP considerations
Evaluation framework considerations

5.3

Plan demo script scenarios.

Demo script considerations

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.

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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.

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Guided Implementation 1: Launch the ERP project and collect requirements

Call 1: Review ERP readiness requirements.
Call 2: Understand ERP selection and implementation work initiatives.
Call 3: Identify best-fit use-case scenario.
Call 4: Discuss ERP requirements.

Guided Implementation 2: Select your ERP vendor

Call 1: Review requirements gathering findings and/or RFP.
Call 2: Review the ERP marketplace.
Call 3: Determine your ERP selection strategy.
Call 4: Review vendor RFP responses.

Guided Implementation 3: Plan your ERP implementation

Call 1: Scope ERP phased implementation and resourcing considerations.
Call 2: Review ERP building blocks.
Call 3: Review common ERP governance structures and metrics.
Call 4: Review models for ongoing support.

Author

Samuel Leese

Contributors

Anonymous contributors

Search Code: 81224
Last Revised: April 30, 2019

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