Deploying an ERP is a complex project. At stake: ensure that the solution brings all the expected benefits and is easily handled by its users. This is why the deployment of an ERP requires full support from the integrator. This service offer is available in different services and ideally extends over the life cycle of the software. The company is thus supported to take full advantage of its ERP.
ERP is a transversal solution that covers all the
operations of the company. Also, the deployment of an ERP is a major project
that the company should not carry out alone to avoid pitfalls. In particular, a
poorly managed deployment risks ending up off budget, off schedule and
resulting in an unprofitable and inefficient solution. To avoid these pitfalls,
the integrator – sometimes the publisher himself – intervenes at each stage of
the project to prepare it down to the smallest detail, lead it to success and
then ensure the efficient operation of the solution.
Business ERP, an expert solution
If the services are fully part of a vertical ERP
offer, it is above all because it is an expert solution: the publisher who
develops and develops the solution and the integrator who deploys and
customizes the software for the company. At these two experts, the teams are
often industrially trained and in permanent contact with SMIs. They have field
experience of their issues, know their jobs, their constraints, their operating
methods and their needs.
On the editor side, this knowledge of the customer
makes it possible to report needs to the development teams to enrich the
functionalities. On the integrator side, industrial expertise strengthens
support with the ability to identify pitfalls and difficulties to anticipate
and to advise in a relevant and personalized way. Ultimately, these experts
ensure that the ERP project achieves its objectives with end-to-end support. To
do this, they offer a set of services provided by teams specialized in each
field — training, configuration, installation and development, maintenance and
technical service.
Services around an ERP deployment
- Define specific needs: the preparatory phase is strategic to put the project on the right track. The support of the integrator helps the company to define its precise needs and to write the specifications which clarifies and prioritizes them. This is an opportunity to lay out company processes, streamline them and complete them. This step is also used to set the framework for the project to keep control with cost, time and ROI objectives. These quantified objectives also make it possible to assess the proper conduct of the project. During this preparatory phase, the various functions of the company concerned by the ERP are consulted. However, they are not experts in ERP projects and the integrator helps to carry out an exhaustive reflection.
- Customize ERP: each company has its own processes and practices. The ERP must therefore be personalized and configured to measure. Similarly, the bouquet of activated modules must be adapted, because the company does not necessarily need everything offered by its ERP. Finally, the customization will also be done according to the users, especially in terms of interfaces. This customization cannot be done without the integrator: he helps the company to define the right settings and prepares a prototype of the solution to check that it is suitable in every way.
- Train users: the success of an ERP deployment depends largely on easy handling and adoption of the tool by its users. Indeed, an ERP poorly or little used jeopardizes the objectives of the project and the return on investment. This is why the publisher/integrator provides training services to users so that they become familiar with their new tool and to remove the inevitable resistance to change. Thus, the integrators have real training services with their own trainers who are experienced in industry professions, more than IT specialists.
- Ensure data recovery: after the preparatory phase comes the implementation of the ERP. Data recovery is a major and critical operation. The company must entrust it to its expert to ensure its proper conduct. Indeed, data recovery consists of recovering data from scattered databases in the company to host them on the central ERP database. A real project within the project, this migration must be complete and provide users with a reliable database. It requires knowing how to extract data from old systems, consolidate and clean them (removal of duplicates, cad data uques among others), then to integrate them into the ERP by distinguishing structural data, repositories and management data. Real expertise is required. Only a specialized integrator can ensure the smooth running of this key operation.
- Deploy: several milestones make up a deployment. From the prototype validated upstream, the ERP will go through the stage of testing and acceptance testing before being put into service. Testing makes it possible to take control of the tool before it goes into production and to carry out the planned tasks. This is an opportunity to identify the gaps to be filled, the final adjustments to be made, all entrusted to the integrator. His support remains essential here, because he guides the operation to ensure that nothing is omitted. The start of production then comes with support for getting started.
Services that last after the deployment of the ERP
Following the deployment, the integrator remains a
source of help and advice for the company. Its technical assistance allows
users to ask their questions and submit problematic scenarios. More generally,
it ensures the stabilization of the new tool with, for example, additional
training, the configuration of new states or indicators specific to certain functions.
This assistance is also necessary in the long term, because the activity
evolves and with it, new practices and new modules appear. Hence the interest
of maintaining a support hotline and a knowledge base to resolve problems
already encountered more quickly.
ERP maintenance is of course one of the essential
services throughout the life cycle of the solution. In particular, it provides
updates and version upgrades which can be tricky and require technical
expertise if the ERP has been deployed with specific developments. The company
must be able to count on its integrator to take care of it, or even transfer
knowledge to an internal project manager.
Finally, post-deployment services will allow the ERP
to evolve with the company to adapt it to the new needs identified.
ERP deployment deserves a long-term partnership
The services around the deployment of an ERP are
therefore diverse, require expertise and experience and support the entire life
cycle of the solution. This is why the company must consider its relationship
with its publisher/integrator as a true long-term partnership. In this
partnership, communication is a key to success. It must be done in both
directions, in particular it is important that the company informs its service
provider well in terms of long-term objectives, budget, internal issues. By
giving him all the cards in hand, the company gives him the means to make full
use of his expertise to adapt the ERP to his expectations.