Change Management as a Success Factor in ERP Selection: Are you
asking the
Right Questions?

The Success of an ERP Implementation depends on your Company

The fact that both companies and their customers benefit from an ERP system has now been accepted everywhere. However, whether the hoped-for success actually occurs depends largely on your company, because while one company suffers from a failed implementation, another gets along very well with the same system. And this may even be the case even though both companies are working with the same software version, which was implemented by the same vendor with the same team of consultants.

Decisive Factor: Proactive Support from Top Management

Proactive support and encouragement from top management proves to be a decisive success factor. Companies with management teams that turn their backs on the project as soon as they have completed the price negotiations always perform worse. However, change management in particular is of essential importance throughout the entire process, alongside the skills of the employees, e.g. the key users and the internal project management.

Request for Information - finding the Right Vendor

Does all this sound familiar to you? It certainly does to many other companies. And yet aspects relating to the quality of employees and their willingness to change hardly feature in most RFIs. The abbreviation “RFI” stands for “Request for Information” and refers to questionnaires and information requests with which companies request price and performance information from ERP vendors in order to gain an overview of the offers on the market. Based on the information gathered, the requesting company can then narrow down the selection of potential vendors and create a so-called shortlist.

Finding the right ERP Vendor 🤥 Lies (do not) have
long Noses

Willingness to Change: Courage is required

In many cases, issues such as management support are almost never considered in RFIs. And if it is, it is most likely only about the quality of the vendor’s employees - that is certainly important - but it is just as important to be critical of the implementation team! Many vendors still lack the courage to address this issue at an early stage. They often only bring it up when the project has already failed - when they are sitting across the table from disgruntled customers. But by then it’s already too late.

Minimize Project Risks with the Right Questions

We help you to identify the risk factors emanating from your employees who are implementing the project. We also develop solutions together to minimize these - for example by planning and implementing a professional kick-off meeting, permanent project controlling or the fundamental application of project methodologies that give your processes clear structures. To do this, however, you need to ask the right questions in your tender that make it easier for us to address difficult issues.

Without a doubt, these are slightly different questions than the ones you normally ask. But it’s definitely worth looking into them for the success of the next change project!