Business Change Management: The key steps to driving growth with ERP

Implementing an ERP solution helps to streamline business operations and can be a powerful tool to help transform and manage your business. Solutions like SAP Business One, have the potential to modernise all aspects of a growing business.

ERP solutions are designed to drive growth. First, companies will have to put the building blocks in place to enable long-term growth, to help gain competitive advantage, improve productivity and to ultimately increase cost savings.

But how does a business, which may have worked in a certain way for a period of time, take the right steps to prepare for the change which will result from a new system?

Here are our top tips to get your team ready for business change and some key factors you’ll want to consider:

1. Assess the impact

Any company that is considering a new solution will have identified the pain points of their existing system – or the lack of one. But many companies often overlook the impact of change.

Consider how will this system impact employees within the company and their existing roles and responsibilities. The beauty of ERP is that the system processes tasks instantly that would be time-consuming for individuals to complete. Giving your teams more time to focus on the critical tasks and business driving activities.

With this in mind, it’s important to outline organisational targets and individual goals to get ‘buy-in’ from users. Systems that are deployed and under-utilised are often the result of an ill-considered implementation and the result of not taking your teams on the journey with you.

2. Develop a plan

When you’ve chosen your ERP solution and vendor, they will typically assign you a project manager who will help plan out the implementation. Prior to that, it's best to create a clear internal plan that communicates the reasons for change and how the business, and its employees, will benefit.

Many firms consider an ERP implementation in the same way as an IT project. Sure, there’s software and technology involved, but an ERP deployment is a business project and requires business teams to be part of the process to maximise the success and value.

Firstly, you’ll need the engagement and support of key stakeholders within a business. Then you’ll want to create a cross-functional steering committee with representatives from different teams and departments. With a solution such as SAP Business One easily managing every aspect of a small business, you’ll want to make sure everybody is on the same page so people aren’t pulling in different directions. As one of the world’s leading SAP Platinum partners, SEIDOR has teams of experienced consultants, project managers and support experts to help navigate you through planning and implementation stages. We’ll help to bring everybody along the way by carefully considering and planning all the steps involved.

3. Training and Support

Let’s face it, nobody likes change. But you can help manage and prepare for change by supporting your team in the best possible way. Towards the end of your implementation, your vendor will supply training to your team or an allocated ‘super-user’, who will typically pass on this knowledge on to other users.

Not only is training essential to maximise the potential of an ERP system, but there also needs to be a support team in place to assist users . It’s always advised to do as much User Acceptance Testing (UAT) as possible before your system goes live with real world data.

When you work with SEIDOR, we’ll be on-hand to provide responsive support and technical assistance after your system is live. But you’ll still want your project team in place 4-6 weeks after go-live to help with the transition.

Plan for business change with SEIDOR

Are you preparing your business for the implementation of a new ERP system? Here at SEIDOR we work with 100s of businesses each year to manage change and deploy new business management systems. Get in touch with one of our experienced team today on 01932 212 777.