Selecting the right ERP solution, as well as the best hosting environment (cloud or on premise) for your business or organization is not a trivial task. However, once a solution and environment have been selected, there is another critical process that needs to be completed to ensure the roll out of your ERP solution is a success. This is the development and execution of an implementation plan.

Deploying an ERP system represents a significant investment in terms of time, resources and money and by design it will touch on many if not all areas of your business or organization. While there is a significant amount of information available from vendors about the software itself to help you in the selection of the best ERP solution, it can be more of a challenge finding the information and expertise necessary to help you to develop a plan for its deployment.

To help decrease the potential risk and increase the probability of a smooth and successful ERP deployment, we have identified 5 essential elements that must be considered when developing your ERP implementation plan.

These five elements are:

• Setting realistic expectations
• Project team
• Training, product knowledge
• Data Migration
• Testing

While there may be a multitude of other factors that may need to be considered when planning your ERP implementation depending on the size and nature of your business or organization, addressing these five elements prior to execution have consistently proven to have a significant effect on successful outcomes.  We will look at each of these elements in greater detail in upcoming articles.