As business executives, investing in enterprise software is crucial for optimising your organisation’s operations. However, there are several ways you can unknowingly hinder the success of the investment. You may have potentially screwed up ERP/CRM investment from the start due to one or more of the following reasons:
- You may not have a clear understanding of the problem. So, it could have resulted in you investing in software that did not address your needs or even exacerbated existing problems.
- Without architecture work, you may have lacked a clear plan for how the new software would integrate with your existing systems and processes.
- Inviting software vendors to present solutions without a clear understanding of your needs may lead to purchasing software that isn’t the best fit for your business.
- Assuming that you had the required skills to undertake the necessary tasks such as Business Analysis, Change Management, Project Management, Reports writing, Training, Testing, and Architecture may have resulted in a poorly executed implementation.
- You may have assumed vendors would do all the work without realising the majority of the work needed to be done by your team. You may have ended up with an incomplete or poorly executed implementation.
- A lack of a good Business case could have resulted in an unnecessary or ineffective investment.
- Without clear project objectives, Project charter, and scope documentation, the project may have lacked direction and become disorganised.
- Replicating current ways of working in the new system could have resulted in complicated processes and over-customisation of the new solution
- Implementing the software product simply because your competitors or other executives used it in the past may not have been the best fit for your business.
- Dictating a Go-Live date without considering the necessary time and resources for a successful implementation may have led to a rushed and incomplete project.
- Trusting vendors and internal project teams to manage the initiative without proper oversight may have resulted in a poorly executed implementation.
- Assuming that end users would love the new solution without proper training or considering their needs and concerns may have resulted in low user adoption rates.
- Assuming the new solution would solve all current problems may have resulted in a suboptimal implementation.
- Assuming zero internal cost to implement the new enterprise software may have resulted in unexpected expenses and budget overruns.
- Documenting detailed business processes based on random best practice advice may have resulted in waste and confusion.
- Minimal involvement from executives from different departments may have resulted in a lack of business engagement and ownership.
