Article

The ERP Minefield, Part 1: 13 Tips to Lower Selection Risk

by David Ogilvie
ERP Consultant,

The ERP landscape is littered with horror stories of bad implementations costing companies many millions of dollars for absolutely no benefit (in some cases). Many of these failed implementations have ended up in court, or at least have involved an acrimonious split between customer and software vendor/partner. Studies have shown that selecting the wrong product in the first place is a main driver of the ERP implementation failure rate.

With the seriousness of the impact of a poor selection in mind, I have devised 13 key tips to a successful ERP selection.

Before I cover the keys to success in detail, let me quickly examine the historical landscape as it relates to off-the-shelf software selection:

  • Executives rarely run this type of project. Executives are hired to run the business. They have a particular skill set and experience that helps them to run a particular business in a particular industry. Selecting and implementing ERP systems is not their core skill set. As such, they are often working outside of their skill sweet spot, experience, industry knowledge and network. Therefore, the result is often less than successful.
  • The lessons from past failures don't seem to be learned. Looking in from the outside, it seems that companies and executives continue to make the same old mistakes over and over again. This is possibly due to the fact that executives don't do this ERP selection frequently, and therefore resort to using the same old methodology, even though past results are poor. Was it Einstein who said the definition of insanity is "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results"?
  • RF(X) represents the historical method ...

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About David Ogilvie

David Ogilvie is a Brisbane, Australia-based consultant whose mission is "Helping Executives Build Profitable Companies & Maximise ERP Investments. He aims to work with people motivated by the possibility of transforming their business operations," achieved through the use of Lean Manufacturing and other modern Supply Chain Management techniques; and through the productive use of technology such as ERP software systems and real time data collection systems. He may be reached at david@davidogilvie.com.au. 

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