Welcome to today’s installment of The 6 Stages of ERP Implementation. We discussed the 6 Stages briefly and we covered Stage 1 – Research and Selection – in-depth last week. Today we’re going to talk about the second stage.
Stage #2: Planning and Designing
You want your ERP system to be the absolute best that it can be for your business, which means a certain amount of customization, personalization, configuration, and “tweaking” to make it fit into your business’s distinct design.
To do this you must:
Gather and Review Records
The implementation team and the ERP consultant will work together to review the business data. Business data is, of course, the foundation of a business, and the records that will need to be reviewed include:
- account charts
- customer/vendor/partner data
- inventory numbers
This information, along with the information gathered when the business processes were mapped in the discovery and planning stage, will allow your implementation team to start configuring the new system for your company’s unique needs.
Define Configurations
You’ll need to answer these questions:
- Which of our current procedures do we want the ERP system to absorb/streamline/replace?
- Does any of our existing software integrate with the new system? If so, do we want to keep it and integrate it?
- Will we need to purchase add-ons or make customizations to make the ERP system fully effective for us?
When you know the answers, establishing the initial configuration settings of your new ERP system becomes easier. You have a goal to work towards – existing software program “A” needs to be incorporated into the new system, how do we get that done? Or, software program “B” no longer suits our needs, how do we get the information out of it and then do away with it in the new system?
This is also when you should choose a format for your data. Customer and vendor IDs along with inventory numbers or invoice labeling will work best if they are consistent. You have choices – numeric values, abbreviations, full names, a combination, etc. – but they should be the same throughout the entire system.
Consider Security and User Roles
Controlling security in ERP systems is done by defining user roles. For example, a warehouse employee will need access to the order and delivery modules but not the accounting module. The accountant will need access to the accounting module but probably not to the module that allows the ordering of inventory. Management will define these user roles and the implementation team will implement them.
Create New Procedures
Using the information gathered when you were designing your new configurations, your implementation team has an idea of how the system is supposed to work. They should now create procedures for each function to be integrated into the new system. For example, they will input the code that ensures all data is entered consistently – dates, customer numbers, etc. – and the procedures for how invoices will be submitted, how orders are approved, etc.
Putting these procedures in place will guarantee consistency and ease of use. It will also support further, more extensive, and easier-to-implement training for system users.
