Pemeco Inc.

Serving Business Since 1978

Rapid ERP Deployments

Pre-requisites and Pitfalls

A Case Study by Peter Gross

A while ago, Pemeco Inc. was contacted to perform a minor miracle – to implement a fully-
functioning Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system for a manufacturer of advanced
products for the worldwide nuclear power market in a mind-boggling short three and a half
months!

Since Pemeco has been implementing ERP and other systems for more than 26 years, we’ve
never had a single failure. And, we weren’t about to spoil our spotless record by
undertaking this challenge without laying down several ground rules to ensure the project’s
every chance at success.

And, once these policies were in place, it was a foregone conclusion that the project team
would be using Pemeco’s “Milestone Deliverables” methodology since 47 other
implementations have followed this structured approach WITHOUT A SINGLE FAILURE.

The Initial Executive Briefing

First and foremost, on September 15th we met with senior management to align the project
objectives with the corporate goals, to set their expectations for a successful outcome, to
reinforce their commitment to the project, and to outline the pre-requisites for a rapid ERP
implementation endeavour.

The target “go live” date was January 1, of the following year.

In any complex project, scope control, budgetary decisions, and problems and issues
needing escalation must be addressed immediately and resolved with great alacrity. In rapid
implementations, it is even more imperative that the channels of communication between
the senior executives, the project steering committee, and the rest of the organization be
kept wide open and available.

Once those key elements were in place, we presented the “Milestone Deliverables”i
methodology Phase by Phase and Deliverable by Deliverable, cementing in their minds that
this was not a mere technology upgrade but a project of significant organizational change.

Now they were ready to hear how we could streamline the methodology’s tasks to shrink
the implementation timetable from the ideal plan.

But we also underscored phases which could never be short-circuited.

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Never shorten these phases during rapid deployments

Without delving into the nitty-gritty details of the methodology’s phases, tasks, and
deliverables, suffice it to say that you should never compromise the quality of the end-user
documentation or training sessions. In the same vein, processes related to data migration
and data entry can never be unduly shortened – the age-old maxim of “garbage-in,
garbage-out” still holds true.

This is all common sense. Inadequately trained users, poor documentation, and bad data
can never be worked around, and a deficiency in any of these areas will ensure a project’s
failure.

A pre-requisite to a rapid ERP deployment

An important pre-requisite to the compression techniques described below is the correct

choice of key users for the core team of implementers.

On a rapid ERP deployment, key users on the core team must be extremely computer-
literate, ERP-knowledgeable, cross-functional, business-process savvy individuals who also
possess an ability to think outside the box.

This is quite a “mouthful”. Accordingly, these types tend to be completely indispensable to

running the business, so it’s a challenge to free up their time for the project in the first
place. That’s the bad news for senior management. The good news is that the project that
the company needs so badly will be up and running that much faster.

Phases that can be compressed

Here, project phases are referred to by name. They are described in detail in the book,
“Milestone Deliverables – The Hands-on Approach to Implementing ERP Projects”.i

Less emphasis on core team introductory training

Since the core team is made up of ERP-knowledgeable, computer savvy individuals,

the overview and navigation training modules in the Core Team Training Phase can be
shortened or even eliminated.

Reduce “As is” process mapping time

The “As is” Mapping Phase serves several purposes: 1) to document existing
processes as a reference point for the “to be” maps; 2) to familiarize core team
members with details of departments outside their day-to-day operating scope; and 3)
to provide outside consultants with an understanding of the current business
environment.

The key users are knowledgeable about cross-functional business processes. Rough

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 “as is” flows will suffice. Also, their scenario lists will be sufficiently well-prepared leaving
no business processes uncovered.

Streamline the Walkthrough process

Walkthroughs are the forum during which conceptualized business processes are
presented for the core team’s review. With cross-functional key users, points of
contention and inter-departmental integration disconnects are reduced significantly. The
resulting presentation time for the walkthroughs is shortened.

Shorten the Departmental Pilots

The core team tests the Business Scenarios and Scenario Scripts (the user
instructions) for accuracy and compliance with policy during the Departmental Pilot
Phase. As the core team members possess a sufficiently detailed understanding of their
business processes, testing of these scripts proceeds quickly.

Work-arounds

When managing to highly stretched goals, the project can afford no slippage along
the critical path. In rapid ERP deployments, many gaps and issues are resolved with
“work-arounds,” some incurring a higher business-processing overhead than costly and
time consuming, long-term fixes. These fixes are delayed until after cutover.

Micro-manage to maintain focus

With an emphasis on meeting aggressive dates and targets, almost all tasks lie along
the critical path and can afford no slippage. It falls to project management to maintain
the team’s focus on the dates and deliverables. Since the key users are too deep in the
forest to see the trees, their over-attention to detail forces the project manager to
micro-manage more of the tasks than normal.

Extend the Optimization Phase

Be prepared to spend time fine-tuning the ERP system after cutover! The work-
arounds must be replaced with proper functionality and correct business processes. The
functionality improvements and reports previously placed on the back burner now need
to be developed.

The Implementation Process

By the beginning of second week, senior executives had selected the project team members
according to the criteria set out above. These team members were forewarned to the
challenges that lay ahead. Each was told that a significant effort would be necessary to
meet both the project and continuing business demands, but that approximately 75% of
daytime hours were to be committed to the ERP project.

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The math was simple – during the coming 3½ months, there were 24 hours in a day and,
realistically, a minimum of 12 of them would be needed to accomplish all the tasks at hand.

The team charted out an implementation roadmap following the “Milestone Deliverables”
methodology targeting a cutover date of Jan. 1st. Several “go – no-go” interim dates were
established, the last on Dec. 15th.

And the race was on.

Some Pitfalls

Manage stress pro-actively – or else

People dynamics, important technical challenges, and the changing business climate are just
a few of the variables that make each ERP project unique. However, experience shows there
is an underlying commonality called the project’s “Emotional Curve.” The project’s
managers and users must be made aware of this phenomenon early and often, as it affects
the group’s outlook and attitude during the entire project’s life-cycle.

It’s human nature to resist change. This tendency, plus the emotional highs and lows
experienced during the project’s phases, indicate that the emotional roller coaster can’t be
avoided. Fortunately, it can be anticipated, and this knowledge must be used to sensitize
the entire organization at the outset. During the peaks and valleys, these feelings must be
levelled out onto an even emotional keel to keep the team focused and productive.

At every opportunity, the team must be made aware of their current psychological state, as
well as the upcoming ones. These states are: resistance, euphoria, desperation, and
recovery discussed at length in the reference worki.

Although the entire organization was made aware of these group emotions, one of the team
members was unable to juggle the project demands, business needs, and the personal
commitments of home life. The project manager never saw the tell-tale warning signs and
this key individual resigned from the project team to take time off to recover from the long
period of high stress.

Communicate, communicate, and communicate

Project management must be forthcoming with any news good or bad. Line workers
don't want to be the bearers of bad news, and senior managers contrive to not hear bad
news if it’s ever delivered. As a result, nobody sounds the alarm on projects that have
"disaster" written all over them until it's too late.

Dec 15th was the final “Go – no-go” decision point. At that time, the data entry task was
behind schedule and no amount of extra effort could bring it back into line. As data
migration is one phase that can never be compromised, the decision was made to postpone
the cutover date by one month.

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Although the possibility of a delay was made abundantly clear to senior management earlier
on Dec. 1st, its confirmation was not well received. In fact, the response was downright
discouraging. The project manager was instructed, in no uncertain terms, to make sure his
team “rolled up its sleeves and did what had to be done” to get back on track and cut over
as planned on Jan. 1st.

At this point, the project manager had to remind the senior executives that he was the
expert overseer of the project; that his experience and knowledge led him to conclude that
Jan. 1st was unachievable; that to ignore his advice would lead to unnecessary risks to
company operations and unreasonable stress on the organization.

Despite potentially adverse career consequences of the project manager’s decision to stand
firm, senior management finally acceded to his request and the project deadline was
extended to Feb. 1st.

The Outcome

The system went live on Feb. 1, a short four and one half months from start to finish.
Needless to say, the effort of deploying a complex ERP system in so short a time took its toll
on each and every member of the project team.

Over the months following cutover, improvements were made to procedures and
enhancement made to the system during the project Optimization Phase.

And one year later, the team looks back on the project nostalgically through rose-colored
glasses. The camaraderie and close friendships that were developed while striving to
achieve the unachievable are not soon forgotten. Even the tension between the project
manager and senior executives has dissipated and the lasting impression is one of a
significant challenge met and conquered.

During Pemeco’s two-day seminar, Managing a Successful ERP Implementation,

participants can learn the complete Milestone Deliverables process – and how to
customize it to any organization’s needs. Full details about this event can be
found at www.pemeco.com/seminar or by calling Pemeco, toll-free, at 1-866-
931-0046.

i
Milestone Deliverables – The Hands-on Approach to Implementing ERP Projects,
Peter Gross, 2005. Available for purchase at www.pemeco.com/book.

This case study is provided compliments of:

Peter Gross, President
Pemeco, Inc.
416 Wood Ave.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H3Y 3J2
1-866-931-0046

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