In simple words, an ERP go-live is the process of your software ‘going live,’ moving on from the test environment to production. This is the duration when your software is ready for employees to use within the enterprise. A lot of time and money is invested in an ERP implementation, which is why the go-live must be successful.
A lot of planning and thought is required to ensure ERP go-live success. The efforts have to begin a long time before the actual deadline, but several actions need to be taken throughout the process in order to ensure a smooth implementation. As it is possible for the go-live to go wrong in several ways, proper planning, preparation, and practices must be undertaken to mitigate the risks.
In this article, we will talk about five ways you can ensure go-live success for your new ERP implementation. Let’s begin.
- Plan from the beginning and understand the risks.
Outlining a plan that includes all the steps, timelines, and responsibilities is a brilliant step to take for ensuring go-live success. Prior planning helps you prioritize the issues you wish to tackle first and take relevant actions. Identifying realistic expectations and fixing critical issues before going live can help gauge major impacts on your business.
As every project involves risks, it is always a smart choice to understand the risks before taking necessary actions. By planning from the very beginning and understanding the risks beforehand, you can determine the likelihood of a successful implementation. Additionally, practices like User Acceptance Testing (UAT) can help too. An exhaustive list of all the potential risks and possible scenarios of things that can go wrong can help create a comprehensive plan for mitigating them effectively.
- Invest in robust training with the best resources in place.
Not investing in proper staff training is one of the biggest mistakes you can make in ERP implementation. ERP employee training is a necessary step to ensure a successful go-live as it helps your employees understand the following:
- Better usage of the user interface
- The extent of their roles and responsibilities
- Optimal usage of the software
By lining up your best resources, you can streamline the process and be prepared for whatever is about to come. It can help you organize a better staff training program and mitigate risks effectively. People with the right skills and relevant competencies can help smoothen the process, ensuring a seamless transition into successful implementation.
- Migrate data carefully.
Data migration is a critical component of ERP implementation. If performed inefficiently, it can lead to a massive negative impact on your business and slow down the entire process of ERP implementation. Additionally, it can take a long time to fix, leading to further delays and bottlenecks.
Migrating data carefully can help streamline processes. So, making a clear plan for the same is a significant step to consider. Filter out all obsolete data and carefully assess the legacy data to remove old accounts, data inaccuracies, and unnecessary information. Transfer crucial information and rationalize the firm’s data to achieve efficiency and data integrity.
- Conduct testing and trial runs.
A testing stage is critical to include in ERP implementations. It helps to:
- Give clear insights about the software’s performance
- Ensure streamlined and smoothened transitions
- Find issues ahead of time
- Ensure accurate data migration
- Create room for adjustments and improvements
Going live without performing proper testing and trial runs is highly discouraged. By not performing this step, you miss out on the opportunity to identify loopholes and gaps based on actual data. Additionally, you might end up with fixing challenges that would be too costly and time-consuming to rectify otherwise.
Investing a significant amount of time in testing and trial runs can save you a lot of time and money in the long run. It is a crucial step to ensure successful go-live for your ERP implementation, primarily when performed with a detailed plan.
- Create a go-live checklist.
A checklist always helps with successful implementations, no matter how complicated a project is. When it comes to ERP go-live, the case is no different. A checklist must include all the actions that need to be performed in order to ensure success. Additionally, it helps keep teams organized and sure of going in the right direction.
Several crucial things must be a part of your go-live checklist, such as:
- Required training aids for staff training. These aids can include virtual documents, printed guides, simple rule books, and other helpful resources.
- A detailed schedule of all the important dates, such as new deadlines and old system eliminations.
- A detailed timeline of all tasks to establish end-to-end visibility and clarity.
- Clearly defined roles and responsibilities.
- Important documentation of various key processes.
- Legacy system assessments before migration.
- Effective communication systems and hierarchies.
Conclusion
ERP implementations are a tremendous undertaking for every company, especially as it demands a lot of time, money, effort, and energy from the employees. People have to leave the legacy systems and move on to interact with the latest technology, which has a learning curve of its own. Additionally, one wrong move can cost the company a lot of productivity and efficiency. All these reasons are enough to justify the importance of a smooth ERP implementation go-live.
Preparing for the go-live requires a lot of work, but you can ensure its success with the right practices. Although not limited to the ones mentioned in this article, several tips can help ensure a successful ERP implementation go-live. Ensuring that you undertake these practices effectively can help ensure smooth transitions.
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