Dealing with Change Management and your ERP Implementation

Your team has done all the research and realized it is time for a new ERP solution. The business case is made, the right application has been selected and you’ve communicated the benefits to everyone in your organization. With all of this, buy in shouldn’t be an issue right?

Unfortunately, too many people think this way only to realize late in the game that the end-users, or even management, don’t readily accept the change in the way things are done. Without employee buy-in, your project stands a good chance of falling flat. So what can you do to get people to adopt change and champion the new ERP solution?

Don’t change things just because

When you are sitting in on a sales demo or you see the latest and greatest at a trade show it is easy to become enamored with what is new and shiny. Even if the application is loaded with new features and a streamlined dashboard if it doesn’t make people’s lives easier and if it doesn’t produce tangible benefits to the business there isn’t going to be much buy-in.

Make sure that the real reason why you are implementing change in your organization is because the business and the people will see real gains from it.

Train the right way

When it comes time to train people on the new ERP software, things often go one of two ways. Either training gets only a fraction of the money you should dedicate to it and people are undertrained or the training provided is a cookie cutter version that is the same for all of the customers. Neither will win over the end-users.

First off, you shouldn’t scrimp on your training budget. Dedicate the resources needed to make sure that people are comfortable with your new software. Secondly, make sure that the training provided is tailored to your organization and the individuals. People shouldn’t have to sit through hours of training for things that don’t apply to them and have no bearing on their job.

Make change fun

Understand that there is nothing easy about this but if you can get people to laugh and lighten up you should find that change is much easier. Try to implement games into the process and be generous with rewards and recognition. You can even harness the most die hard naysayers by getting them to point out any problems with the solution early on. This could go a long way towards fixing things before they become major problems.

If you take the time to effectively manage organizational change when it comes to your ERP solution you should find that it will go a long way in helping the overall success of your implementation project. With buy-in from every level in your organization you stand a better chance at bringing this project to completion on time, within budget and to the excitement of those who are using the software on a daily basis.