What difficulties are there in ERP implementation? What problems exist? Enterprise ERP implementation is a huge systems engineering project. Over the past more than ten years in China, there have been many impressive success stories as well as quite a few typical failures. So what difficulties and problems exist in ERP implementation?
What difficulties are there in ERP implementation:
1. Overall planning, phased implementation, and priority to key points. Overall planning mainly means that IT planning should be combined with enterprise strategy, and IT strategy must align with enterprise competitive strategy. Phased implementation mainly means that when many enterprises apply ERP, they should proceed step by step, deepen application in stages, and gradually improve the ERP application level while improving the management foundation. Priority to key points means combining implementation with the key points of enterprise management, seizing the few critical points that can bring benefits to implementation, and first concentrating on solving users' key problems, which also conforms to the 80/20 principle of management. 2. Organizational guarantees and institutional guarantees. It is found that most enterprises adopting informatization are businesses that are already doing well and are very busy. They are already busy, have to work overtime, and still have to take time out to do informatization work, which many people cannot bear. So what should be done? Therefore, organizational guarantees are needed. In order to promote informatization, there must be a dedicated organization to complete these tasks. Even if no dedicated organization is established, relevant personnel must still be specified and required to complete these tasks within the prescribed time and with guaranteed quality. In addition, many people naturally have resistance. No matter how good a new thing is, it may be difficult to adapt to at first. The same is true for informatization work. It will involve adjustments to working methods, and many people may initially find it difficult to adapt or even oppose it, so institutional guarantees are needed. 3. Preparation of basic data. Basic data such as material numbers, BOM tables, accounting subjects, unclosed customer orders, purchase orders, production orders, accounting vouchers, and the setting of some basic parameters must all be accurately entered into the system within the prescribed time. Subsequent operations will run on the basis of these data, so controlling this link well is also crucial. 4. Training work. If training is not in place, business personnel will not be able to skillfully master the new tools or use the new methods, and the project risk will be very high. In addition, business personnel must clearly understand that if they do not master this knowledge, they will become disconnected from enterprise development.
5. Personnel coordination.
This mainly includes three groups of people. The first is senior leadership, who must attach great importance and participate appropriately. The second is business personnel, who must adapt to the new computer-based working model as soon as possible. The third is enterprise IT staff. They are not only system maintainers and programmers, but must also serve as bridges from different perspectives, because business personnel mostly speak in management language and use some terms that are popular only within the enterprise. Even if the ERP vendor has strong consulting capability, misunderstandings of business personnel's needs are still inevitable. This requires enterprise IT personnel to translate from different perspectives, which places higher demands on enterprise IT staff.
What problems exist in ERP implementation: 1. When enterprises implement ERP systems, they do not consider the enterprise's overall strategy, and many implementation practices become disconnected from the enterprise's development goals and direction.
2. ERP systems are regarded merely as the business of the IT department, as isolated and local projects, rather than treating ERP implementation as a strategic measure for enterprise development. 3. There is a lack of determination for change and an inability to bear risks. Especially for enterprises that already have an informatization foundation, old and new systems run in parallel for a long time, resulting in strong resistance within the enterprise. 4. Enterprises do not take the ERP opportunity to optimize and reengineer business processes, thereby driving the whole organization closer to a modern enterprise system. 5. The implementation party and the enterprise customer have inconsistent understandings of project success. The implementation party believes that everything is fine once the system goes live and rarely considers what value has actually been brought to the enterprise. Support from the implementation party after go-live is insufficient. 6. The project does not comprehensively examine the enterprise's capabilities in other aspects, such as strategic planning, organizational structure, and human resources, resulting in the new system 'fighting alone,' unable to form synergy, and instead becoming mutually constraining. The above is about
the difficulties and problems faced by ERP implementation.In short, before enterprises implement ERP systems, they must carry out multi-faceted investigation and consideration.
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