Supply Chain Management Software Implementation: Avoid the Roadblocks

As with any system implementation there will be red tape and roadblocks as you work on implementing your supply chain management software. The best way to get around these roadblocks is to see them coming. By knowing certain things could slow down or derail your project, you can proactively stop them before they stop you.

6 potential supply chain management software implementation roadblocks and how to get around them

1. Suppliers and partners will not cooperate - Unless you are a huge corporation, you can’t exactly demand that your suppliers and partners support you in your supply chain management decisions and go along with anything and everything you say- wouldn’t that be nice though? – You need to sell them on the idea before you get your project rolling. How? Make sure they see the benefit for their company, it is important that you collaborate and be willing to compromise to not only meet your goals but to also help your partners and suppliers to meet theirs and how this can benefit them.
2. Internal resistance - Once you have sold suppliers and partners on the idea, you will have to sell your internal employees on it.  People tend to get their feathers ruffled when you tell them you will be changing the way they do their daily work. Your employees won’t care that it will do good things for the company as a whole, they probably do on some level, but what they really care about is how it will affect them personally. So make sure you tell them how supply chain management software will make their daily lives easier and any benefits that they may see from the changes you are asking them to make.
3. Inadequate training - Before the project begins and as it moves forward, identify what will change and how it will affect certain people in the process up and down the supply chain; then plan training accordingly. The goal of the training will be to prepare employees for the changes so they can handle the switch when it comes, don’t wait until the change has already happened to train because people will be all fired up and frustrated. During these trainings encourage employees to ask “why are we doing X?” and “why does X matter?” If they are asking questions they are engaged, if they are engaged, they are interested, and if they are interested they are likely to accept this new system as long as you answer their questions fully and make the benefits clear. 
4. Lack of communication - I don’t want to kick a dead horse here, but it is important enough to make it one of the six even though I have touched on it a bit already. If you have read number 2&3 you understand now how important communication is with both internal and external parties.  
5. Customer dissatisfaction - Although you are implementing supply chain management software for the benefit of your company, this will affect your customers. It is important to look at your supply chain management software and implementation choices from the viewpoint of the customer as well. If something in this new system is going to drastically change the customer experience, be sure to warn them. You could also run customer satisfaction surveys before you choose the software to see if there is a fix in the software to a common customer complaint and run a survey after you have been running the new system for a while to see if there are any customer complaints that have been solved. Keeping your customers involved and up to speed on any changes in the organization that will affect their lives will keep them happy and more understanding of any problems that may occur while you are working the bugs out in the beginning.
6. Missed steps  - There are quite a few steps and important details in supply chain management software selection and implementation. That will be the topic of a future blog. But many times missing a step can hurt your implementation, so I didn’t want to totally ignore them. Here is a very brief list of important steps to think about.

1. Assess supply chain opportunities
2. Develop a vision and goals
3. Develop a strategy to meet that vision
4. Translate that strategy into action
5. Measure success

About e2b teknologies:

e2b teknologies operates three business units – e2b anytime apps , e2b enterprise, and e2b calibration. e2b enterprise develops custom cloud-based business applications and resells leading ERP accounting software, CRM, HRMS, and other enterprise business software applications from Sage Software, Epicor, Intacct, Sugar CRM, and other publishers. e2b anytime is the publisher of Anytime Collect, Anytime Assets, Anytime 500, Anytime Commerce, and related Anytime brand products. e2b calibration is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited calibration and repair laboratory providing a full scope of services (traceable to NIST) for most popular calibration, test, and measurement instruments.

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