Technology supports people to do the things they should be doing, but to be successful you need the people in an organisation to be doing their roles well, otherwise, the technology will still be there, but it won’t be working to its full potential – right? In this latest blog, our Principal Consultants, Caroline Friggens and William Dyer talk through their views on the benefits of considering business change front and centre, ahead of embarking on an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation.
When you think ERP programmes, what do you think of? Having a simple and streamlined holiday booking process? Having a system to support end to end recruitment and retention? To simplify the digitisation of supplier invoicing? In isolation seemingly simple task driven processes, but when put together as a part of a multi-million pound single ERP system deployment, simple is not always a word that first springs to mind.
Why not? Well, there’s no reason why your HR system can’t be the best it can be, or why your financial reporting can’t provide the best information possible, but it’s our view that it sometimes isn’t achieved because of the readiness of an organisation to change, and the ability for an organisation to change is often not considered at the outset of an ERP programme.
Business change is a vital part of an ERP programme, without it a programme is likely to overrun, cost more money, and not realise the anticipated benefits the system can deliver. With a considered approach to business change, a programme is likely to be implemented well, and most importantly, user adoption should be high.
So, what are the key business change elements for an organisation to nail before embarking on a programme?
Have a clear vision
Clearly articulating what it is you want to achieve is the best starting point for any change programme. Having a single, realistic vision and a group of objectives that stakeholders can see and get on-board with, and that all senior leadership are behind gives clarity and assurance, and it will speed up good decision making.
If your people understand what the vision is, they are more likely to help you achieve it. It is good practice to repeat the messages; they need to be shared throughout the project to keep people enthused, engaged and onboard with why the change is happening.
Engage your stakeholders early
Speaking to your staff early in the process and getting their feedback around several key programme areas can be some of the most impactful engagement sessions you’ll run. Getting their opinion can help staff feel empowered and invested in the process and will provide you with direction that you may be able to feed directly into your programme. As an example, engaging staff around the challenges they might have with your pre-existing solution can provide you with changes that you may then be able to bring to life as part of the design phase.
Our advice is to speak to your people at all levels, managerial and end users. Engage with them early, not mid-way or at the end of the programme. It is important to build relationships with teams that will be impacted, so that you are able to understand key areas such as their needs for adopting the change and ensuring that they are part of that change.
Adopt new ways of working
Many businesses are moving to a cloud-based ERP system, and by their nature you can’t shape those systems to match your processes, instead you should accept what the system does and then update your processes to adopt how the system works.
Any process change can have an outsized impact to the organisation. It could mean that you’re now shifting something to your managers to action instead of your back office team, or you could be asking your recruitment or purchasing teams to work in a completely different way.
It’s so important to understand what that change is and what that impact is on users and stakeholders, and then prepare them and make sure that they’ve got the mitigations in place, such as training and communications.
At Socitm Advisory we have tried and tested change management tools that we use to measure the degree to which each process change impacts end users and how best to manage that change.
We recommend reviewing your current processes as a first step. It makes it a lot easier to look at the ways that things can be improved if you know where you are starting from.
Invest in your people
Investing in ‘hearts and minds’ and making sure people are in the right mindset for change, that they understand what’s happening to them is crucial. Remember, your biggest investment alongside technology is people, so you want to make sure that the people can interact with that system so that you get actually out of the implementation everything that is possible and you reap the benefits of your sizeable investment.
Socitm Advisory’s Mindset Model is based on change theory and helps organisations to bring their people through the change curve. As everyone is individual and understands and accepts change at a different pace, everyone’s journey needn’t be the same.
Those organisations that embrace the change journey will have people who are enthusiastic about the change and that is really important. ERP implementations cost a lot of money and you will seek the benefits more successfully when you have that enthusiasm to adopt the change in your business.
And if you get things right, what does good look like for an ERP implementation?
In short, it’s a successfully adopted system that works for the organisation, with processes that are as streamlined and potentially as automated as possible, with enthusiastic staff who are running it.
Top tips for getting started with business change
- Consider how you want to operate in the future.
What do you want your HR service to look like? Or your finance, procurement or IT service? What do you want them to be doing in the next 5-10 years and how do you want the technology to enable you to do that? What kind of processes do you want to offer? What is the best thing that you can do to enable the best service for your citizens? - Think about how you are going to get there – plans and activities.
Are there legacy processes that could be streamlined and migrated into a new way of working with a new system? Thinking about how you want to operate in the future, how could you make decisions in a more streamlined way? How do you want your teams in those transactional spaces to think differently? Have you gathered insight from peers in similar organisations? - Don’t underestimate the amount of time & effort it can take.
Be prepared! Implementing an ERP solution properly will take time. Will you be able to fully second resource to the project or do you need to supplement your teams with additional resource? Consider too how you’re going to measure the impact of the change. Being successful means managing the change in terms of keeping the programme on track, measuring against your benefits and making sure you realise them.
Next steps
Some organisations now have in-house transformation teams who have the change knowledge needed to support for large change programmes. However, bringing a transformation partner on board to support an in-house team can yield benefits for an organisation; specifically to bring sector experience, to remove pain points and shortcut to proven solutions and ways of working.
Transformation partners will also be able to bring ERP expertise, transfer knowledge and use already developed tools, templates and documents that have been effective in similar organisations deploying similar solutions. You’ll also get an independent view of governance and compliance to give peace of mind to the executive team.
Socitm Advisory offers expert consultancy support that will take time to understand your organisation and embed themselves in your team. We focus on delivering capacity, building capability and giving assurance that your programme will be delivered to plan and be effective. As we have worked with over a hundred organisations over the last seven years, we can share our view on your processes and offer insight into how other organisations have overcome some of the challenges you might be facing.
Find out more
You can read about our ERP work at Swansea Council, Sandwell Council, South Ayrshire Council and Norfolk County Council, and to find out more about the ERP services we offer.