Dulling (not eliminating) your ERP Upgrade Headache

Upgrades don’t happen every day, every year, or even every other year, but when they do happen, they have a huge impact on your organization. Which is why it is important to make sure you do it right, spend as little money as possible, and maximize the benefits, right? First, let’s get a few things into the open… ERP upgrades are a headache. This article won’t be about how to make your upgrade perfect, painless, or even inexpensive; Upgrades are stressful and take an investment of not only money, but time too. With all of that being said, there are a number of things you can do that won’t necessarily make the headache go away, but will help dull it down significantly by keeping the upgrade within your budget, within your time frame, and cause as little disruption as possible.

1. Know what will change and communicate it. Change management is extremely important during an upgrade to help employees embrace the changes and take them in stride. Make sure your employees know what type of changes this upgrade will bring and how it will impact their jobs. I cannot stress enough the importance of change management and communication during this process.
2. Be Proactive with your Upgrades. Your ERP vendor will likely have laid out for you an upgrade path and it is important to adhere to that plan as closely as possible. Many companies wait until their vendor is going to stop support and then scramble to get it done at the last minute. This is one of the places where your budget and your time frame suffer, as emergency situations like this tend to be pricey and complicated. Additionally, for every upgrade you skip, you are missing out on new features and functions that could really help you improve your company. Don’t wait to react, stick to the upgrade path and be proactive.
3. Keep your focus. In the very beginning, get your upgrade team together and come up with a plan, define your scope, and set your goals. Now do everything you can to resist making any changes to the plan because each change will affect your timeline, budget, and overall project goals. Of course some changes may be necessary, just be sure you thoroughly evaluate the need for that change and its affect on the rest of the project before it is set in motion.
4. “Like a band-aid” does not apply here. If you do not take your ERP upgrade slowly and deliberately, the pain will not go away. When possible, gradually add in new features and changes to help users adapt, understand, and learn the new system.
5. Training is important after upgrades. Be sure to train everyone, not just major users or managers. For example, many companies do not train their shop-floor employees but any errors those untrained employees make will affect other parts of the organization such as invoice accuracy, delivery dates, costs, etc. Training will help you make sure your company is benefiting from proper use of the system and the investment made in it.
6. Be realistic about results. Just like with your initial ERP implementation, you will not see the benefits of this upgrade over night. ERP upgrades take an investment of time, money, and other resources, but with a solid and well executed plan, you will reap the benefits in the long run.
7. Take your testing and mock Go Live seriously. This is an opportunity to catch any issues you did not foresee being a problem during your original planning. Make sure your mock Go Live is as close to the real thing as possible. For example, if Go Live is on a weekend, make sure you do your mock Go Live on a weekend too. You have already made a huge investment of time, money, and resources into this project, while you may be ready to really start speeding things up toward the end, taking the time to test the system is extremely important. You don’t want Go Live to be disastrous because of small issues that could have been avoided.

Upgrades do not happen often, but when they do, they stand to significantly impact your company. It is up to you and your ERP vendor to help make sure that impact is a positive one. By considering the above points, we think you will be well on your way to success.
The above points only represent a handful of the most common success factors in an ERP upgrade, there are many more. What other factors are important to consider? What are some common mistakes to avoid? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments below!

e2b teknologies provides ERP, accounting applications, custom cloud-based software development services, accounts receivable management software, and calibration services through its three business units – e2b anytime apps is the publisher of Anytime Collect accounts receivable management software, Anytime Assets, Anytime 500, and related Anytime brand products. e2b enterprise develops custom cloud-based business applications and resells leading ERP accounting software and other enterprise business software applications from Sage Software, Epicor, Sugar CRM, and other publishers. e2b calibration is an ISO/IEC 17025 accredited calibration laboratory.

Follow us on twitter @e2bteknologies we are also on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google+

By Jeanne Lee

Image credit