ERP and fourteen hats

Once upon a time, someone bought a cloth and went to the tailor to make a hat. "Make a hat with this cloth," he said ." The tailor looked at cloth and said, "No problem ." The man listened to the tailor's answer and looked at BU again.
If there is more to be a hat, ask the tailor: "What if there are two hats ?" The tailor looked at the cloth and replied, "Yes ." The man heard the tailor answer this question and felt more and more cloth. Then he asked, "What about three things ?" Cutting
He replied, "Yes ."...... At last the man left the cloth and the tailor agreed to make fourteen hats. The day of delivery arrived, and the man came to get the hat. The tailor took out fourteen hats, but the size of the fourteen hats is average,
They can only be worn on your fingers. The man scolded the tailor and said, "the hat I want can be worn on my head. How can I wear it if you are so small ?" The tailor said with a bitter face: "This piece of cloth, To do fourteen hats, of course, can only be worn
The finger is on ." This is an old paragraph.

After another five hundred years ...... The tailor turned into an ERP implementation consultant. The man prepared a sum of money and asked the consultant to implement the ERP system in his company. The tailor looked at the money and said, "No problem ."

The man said: "Our company attaches great importance to ERP, but it is the first, second, and fourth in the company ...... These bosses are all on a daily basis, so you can decide the specific problem with the business staff. You can wait until the project progress meeting on a monthly basis to report the problem to total X ."

　
Comment: The second hat. According to a survey in North America, the primary factor for successful implementation of the ERP project is the support of the company's senior management. Note: The support here refers to the actual support. The appearance of ERP is a set of software,
However, this is just a representation. Its essence is the new business process of the enterprise. If you have forgotten the reason why you chose to implement ERP, you 'd better recall: is it a fast-growing business? It's an overstretched pipe.
Why? Is it an increasing cost and inventory? Is it the increasingly difficult coordination and communication between departments? Or is it because you are tired of the role of the fire brigade? Or in general, to improve the competitiveness of enterprises? If the cause and such circumstances
Now, it is completely worthwhile to give quick and specific high-level decisions in ERP implementation and make public announcements. Imagine if the enterprise's senior management is stingy with the future internal management process
What is worth noting? Throwing decisions in ERP implementation to your project team and tailor, or asking them to guess your intentions, or the company's senior executives hold a hold or wait-and-see attitude towards the project.
These are the second hats that are most harmful to ERP projects. In addition, even if you choose ERP for any other reason, if you want to make it successful, please do not throw it to your project team and the tailor ",
This will put them into isolated circumstances and unfair treatment, and enterprises will lose a leap.

The man said: "Our staff is very tight, and our business backbone is already under heavy responsibilities. Therefore, there are only a few key users, and we cannot engage in ERP full-time jobs. Or I can find some new graduates, let them learn business while learning ERP."

　
Comment: The third hat. The business backbone is the backbone because they understand the company's operations, have rich experience, and are willing to work hard. Who else is better suited for ERP key users (Key
User? Do not wait until the system goes online to find that the process is wrong, and you have to use them, and rework will always be more difficult. Is it really cheap to push the responsibilities of key users to the advisor side? Its
It's just the third hat. Once the project ends, you have not even established a team that manages the operation of the new platform.

The man said: "Our company has always had frequent job-hopping, so key project users and business backbone will change frequently ."

　
Comment: The fourth hat. The fourth hat makes no trouble. A lot of painstaking efforts are put to the fore, and the Implementation service providers are powerless. Although the loss of personnel turnover can be compensated by reasonable knowledge management. However
Is to find a way to keep your key user team stable, which can greatly save the repeated work of consultants. In addition to continuous training of new users, they still have a lot of more important things to do.

The man said: "We think ERP is very important to the future of the company, so the project must have good document management, for example, the current process, business blueprint, system configuration documents, system development documents, test scripts, training materials, meeting notes ...... All these documents should be completed by the implementation service provider ."

　
Comment: The fifth hat. Document management is really important, but not all documents are equally important. Do not identify yourself as a picky visitor. Some important documents should be completed with the consultant, because in the future
You are not the one who uses these documents. Some documents can be undertaken by key users and project secretaries. In some projects, you will find that the consultant's expertise seems to be office rather than ERP. Then
Check whether you are busy with the fifth hat.

The man said, "We found these in ERP, these ...... I still have this feature ...... Idea. You should all implement it ."

　
Comment: The sixth hat in the fundamental sense. Modern ERP software covers all aspects of enterprise operation, which is hard to imagine, and projects must have reasonable scope control. Find a free copy
The project management book tells you that the out-of-control scope is as terrible as a forest fire. A person who eats a meal has a big eye, and the company's digestion ability is usually smaller than the management's expectation.

The man said: "organizational structure changes are common in our company. If they happen in the project process, the project content must be adjusted accordingly, whether it is personnel or system settings or data preparation."

　
Comment: The seventh hat. A company that remains unchanged is a dead enterprise, but many enterprises are still suffering from endless changes. ERP itself is flexible and has a strong adaptability to changes in the enterprise structure, but this is not equal
In other words, enterprise changes should not be controlled in the project. We should look at this issue in two aspects. First, the ERP project should have a high degree of intent and be consistent with the company's organizational structure planning.
See. Second, just as people will experience a Failover period before they are able to adapt to social changes, they should reduce unnecessary shocks during ERP project implementation (ERP failover period, this allows the project to be completed and grown up quickly.

The man said: "Our company has 80000 kinds of materials and products, 5000 customers, 3000 suppliers, and 10000 fixed assets ...... There is no unified encoding and master record. However, each department has its own set of materials. We also want to use ERP to solve this problem ."

　
Comment: The eighth hat. If the ERP system is set as a skeleton, the primary data is flesh and blood. Originally, the coding and Management of main data such as materials in large enterprises can be implemented as a separate project. However
It provides good primary data management tools in ERP, and the primary data in ERP has a dedicated data structure and logical relationship, therefore, the main data sorting work is directly used as a part of the ERP project for Enterprises
It is very beneficial. However, for the Implementation service provider, the primary responsibility is to determine the classification, field selection of the primary data, provide the data collection format, and help import the data to the system. The specific collection and sorting work should undoubtedly be
When completed by the customer. Of course, the consultant should provide experience and help to organize and plan the work. However, the fact is often unexpected: in some projects, no one in the enterprise is responsible for data collection and quality,
You will see that the consultant has become the coordinator between different departments. The consultant is urging each department to provide information, and the consultant organizes data in the workbook. Have you ever thought about "Strange, how come he" when you are glad that you have made the tailor more?
Do you know that the finance department's 'guangxi sugar Co., Ltd. 'is the sales department's 'guangxi distribution department '?......"

The man said: "We have few key users, so the training of end users should be done by the implementation service provider. In addition, our company has many people, heavy jobs, and many business trips, so it is best to take a few more trips. Some people may need to take some minor care ."

　
Comment: The ninth hat. This problem is the inevitable result of the third hat. As mentioned above, the support of management leadership is the first element of ERP implementation, so training is the second influencing factor. But key user's
Training and end users (end
User) Training is different. Training end users by key users has at least the following benefits: <1> there are no language barriers. End users can access the same process or operation
According to key users' instructions, the consultant's language often contains too many ERP terms, and there are too few industrial terms for users. <2> easier organization. Since consultants belong to external personnel of the company, their deterrent
The ability to coordinate various departments of an enterprise is often in the form of insufficient power or face. <3> naturally, the internal support path of the enterprise is cultivated, and the end user is asking
Key users often spend more time thinking about it. <4> trained key users.

The man said, "The finance department has an old system, which is compiled by the Information Department. Currently, the Ministry of Information Technology is insufficient to organize the initial data into the format you need. You 'd better export the data directly from the old system ."

　
Comment: The tenth hat. This is ridiculous, but it does. Theoretically, the service provider does not have the skills of the customer's old system. Therefore, the customer should first organize the initial data into a certain format, and then
The project team imports data into the new system. However, the launch of the system is better than the general attack of a battle, and the days pass by, the Business creden accumulate more and more, the more difficult it is to catch up, then your friends and neighbors suddenly disappear, you must extend
The late general attack and scattered troops supported the choice of neighboring countries.

The man said: "We have asked the new and old systems to run in parallel for quite some time, but this is already a battle for all departments, especially the Finance Department. Therefore, the reconciliation of the two systems can only be done by you."

　
Comments: 11th hats. Originally, many enterprises have no experience in Parallel System reconciliation, especially parallel reconciliation with ERP systems. The consultant will design reconciliation schemes, train users and develop some tools and reports,
You can also directly organize the entire reconciliation work by the consultant, but if you see that the creden are full of Project rooms and all the consultants are checking the reconciliation, the situation is not normal-they are making 11th hats.

The man said: "You should do the report. We have a lot of report requirements, some of which have formats, but the logical relationship and source of the data are not clear. Some of the current formats are not available yet, and there are only some ideas."

　
Comments: 12th hats. Use standard reports of ERP as much as possible, because standard reports reflect the management philosophy in ERP. Custom reports are difficult and easy to use.
The logical relationship and source selection of data depend on what you want to do in the report. The ability to analyze these problems needs to be developed. From this point alone, the customer shall also participate in the preparation of the report
. Moreover, enterprise and report requirements will change in the future. At that time, learning is much more intense than learning now.

The man said, "We have a small number of people in the Information Department. Therefore, some users may ask you questions about network connection, viruses, and other such issues. They are related to computers. You can support them together. In addition, you still need to do the work of system backup and permission management. When you leave, we will try again ."

Comments: 13th hats. For example, a company's network is prone to a virus. When the customer is in a hurry, he calls a consultant to complain that the ERP login fails. The consultants had to bury their heads in making 13th hats.

The man said, "We suddenly got a strange disease. As long as you are there, we suddenly forgot our professional knowledge ."

Comments: 14th hats. Many people complain about the difficulty of ERP, but their problems are often irrelevant to ERP, and some are purely their own professional problems. However, when dependency becomes a habit, thinking becomes insignificant.

Conclusion

　
ERP implementation services can generally be priced in two ways: by man-day (Time & material) and fixed price (fixed)
Price ). Globally, most of them are the former. The reason is simple. The ERP implementation consultant is to help an enterprise integrate its operations into a computer platform. However, each company has thousands of different situations.
The difficulty of implementation cannot be estimated in advance. For example, in each case in this article, the project duration is affected. If a fixed price is adopted, the implementer clearly assumes the risks that cannot be controlled by itself.

However, in China, the fixed price is adopted for various reasons. The two pricing methods are not discussed in this article.

　
This article will explain that, in the context of fixed prices, some situations of the customer may cause damage to the quality of the service party and the project. Some are unconscious, while others are caused by the so-called buffet effect.
. However, in either case, we should remember that the ERP project is a tough process and there are only two types of results: "win-win" or "double-win ". Face up to these problems, and with the sincerity and determination of both parties,
Only in this way can we achieve our goals and complete the enterprise management revolution.

For example, the consultant role should be a wizard to explore new areas, rather than a sled dog.

Note: The above content comes from the Internet and I am not liable for any joint liability.

Article transferred from: http://moonsoft.itpub.net/post/15182/293124