5 practical lessons from ERP implementations
Scope, data, owners, training and go-live: what real ERP projects get wrong, and what to do instead.
These are the lessons I now look for in the first weeks of an ERP project. None of them are technical, which is why they get skipped.
Scope is a decision
A wish list feels like progress. It is how you arrive at go-live with half the design unfinished. Decide what is in the first release and write down what is explicitly out. Revisiting that list is allowed. Pretending it was never a decision is how the date slips.
Data is a business responsibility
IT can load a file. They cannot tell you which customer record is the real one, or which item code the warehouse actually uses. Name a business owner for customers, items and open documents. Clean those three before you debate advanced features.
Owners exist before design
If nobody owns order-to-cash, every workshop will end with "we will confirm later". Later is where design freezes around a compromise nobody will operate. Appoint the owner before the first process session, and give them the authority to choose.
Training is a habit
A classroom week creates attendance, not skill. People learn on the third real transaction, when something goes wrong. Plan floor support for the first month, and keep the process owner as the first person their team calls.
Go-live starts the value
The project is not over when the invoice prints. It is over when the shadow files are gone and the numbers in the system are the numbers managers use. Plan the hypercare, the fixes, and the first improvement, or you will have launched a system and kept the old company.